Free at last (1st Fresno regional)

I went back & forth between a lot of Freedom builds, really favoring @beyoken's Laamb-based shell because Laamb was so versatile and playing just five fracters is funny. But it was too slow without Inject, which has become the best Anarch card. I tried playing a Clone Chip build, but then you lose the matchups where you need Strike (CtM). Reclaim was the missing piece; it allows you to play Inject and Strike together while Zer0 similarly contributes immense draw power.

So this was where I landed. A lot of the card choices can be explained with "because it's good against CtM." PAD Tap is great, Laundry is great, Strike is great, Yusuf is great, Freedom is great. Turntable is too good in this meta, turning Standoff into points against Weyland and letting you win through Exchange after going tag me. You can't play Knobkierie in Freedom apparently even though it works in Smoke, who knew? When I tried it I could never afford the install.

If I had one wish it would be for a second Stimhack. The rest of the deck feels perfect. At the regionals, I beat CI Moons, the same CtM twice, Scarcity Mti, and Skorpios. I lost to the CtM once when I foolishly let a SEA Source -> Exchange -> ASI combo land because I didn't consider the possible Rashida econ burst at start of turn. I didn't deserve to beat Skorpios but lucked into two three pointers early by going tag me running through Mausolus.

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This will probably be my penultimate major Netrunner tournament because I can’t make nationals or gen con. I’ve played for three years and hadn’t even won an SC before this year. It feels incredible to go out on such a high note, winning a regional playing new IDs in my favorite factions.

Thanks to Paul for Tylenol to cure my hangover, Wes & Aki for last minute decklist input, John for being the best tester & talking me out of bad choices, Kodie for being the most annoyingly good opponent, Pete for the constant card discussions, Brian for putting up with my chatter in an amazing finals, Gerry for playing a cool Mti build similar to mine, Ben Ni & Greg Tongue for inspiring Freedom lists, Boggs & Lukas & Damon for working on this great game. Shout out to the NorCal meta for being great. We’re not just SF, the East Bay players are better :)