7th at the 2023 UK Nationals

Wins against @Mezzie (Big Deal PD), @SamB (Moon Pool Asa), @Nicky3.0(Punitive Outfit), and @Haway (Big Deal Outfit).

The 3 x losses were against @mjp (R+), @sixtyten (R+) and @nemamiah (R+).

Theoretically, I still think we are supposed to be favoured in the R+ matchup, but only as long as we don't make any mistakes (and I do mean not a single one). This is quite hard to achieve in a tournament setting.

If there were another tournament tomorrow then I would take this list again, but with 2 minor changes.

However, If you are going to a tournament tomorrow, then I would suggest that you play the EA Sports approved Pantograph Lat instead (because I am pretty sure that it's better overall).

With thanks and love to @paulyg and all of the tournament organisers. After 3 consecutive, and wonderful, UK nationals, Sheffield has probably become my favourite UK city to visit. I look forward to the first excuse to travel up again next year.

Some great results from EA Sports 🏅, with 3 making the top cut, and another 3 in contention. Not a bad showing for our first tournament outing!

Special thanks to all of Unband 🍌 for helping me steelskin this list against Haas-Bioroid: Precision Design, and for being just a great group of people to hang out and play netrunner with 💙. Special shoutout to @bridgeman for some perfect slot suggestions in the form of Conduit, Nuka and 2nd Propeller.

Tournament Afterthoughts

2023 UK Nationals was the toughest netrunner tournament that I can remember. The quality of netrunner I saw being played, by new and veteran players alike, was unbelievably high. I had to fight tooth and nail for each and every win, and no mistake that I made ever went unpunished. By the end of round 3 I was exhausted.

The tournament results seem to make it pretty clear that we are in a "Corp Meta". What that actually felt like on the day was that it was much easier to force mistakes out of the Runner (as Corp) than it was to force mistakes out of the Corp (as Runner). That doesn't mean that we got any free wins as Corp--we didn't--but it does mean that we were able to play through our bad draws.

All in all, and although it was exhausting, I think this makes for the best kind of netrunner.

Premise

This was a meta pick, rather than a comfort pick. I am not an experienced (or particularly good) shaper player.

Post worlds, when I asked the question of "what's favoured into Reaper Function NEH?" the answer was not a specific faction or ID, but rather specific tech cards. So don't think of this as a Lat deck, think of it as a Hannah "Wheels" Pilintra deck.

Testing

Both Unband and EA Sports (independently of each other) picked up on the fact that Lat had overperformed at Worlds (despite not making the cut). What was particularly appealing was the idea that we could play Stoneship Chart Room to practically auto-win against Punitive Counterstrike and Reaper Function based decks.

I started by taking the Deepest Dive list, swapped out the Diesel for Stoneship Chart Room, and worked from there. Deep Dive itself was underwhelming, but the list overall did very well against the field, right up until we tested it against Haas-Bioroid: Precision Design which was just terrible for a multitude of reasons.

There was still a couple of weeks before the tournament at this point, so, rather than giving up, I started tinkering with the list in an effort to slot Hermes without creating a massive economic hole. The theory here is that Hermes buys us more time to set up a big Deep Dive, and, when we land the big Deep Dive (usually when the Corp is threating to close), we can bounce the agenda and buy ourselves even more time.

Over the course of this testing, and in an effort to fix the economy, the breaker suite naturally drifted away from Engolo/Ika and towards Buzzsaw/Turbine. The rest of EA sports stuck with Pantograph (but with the normal Cleaver/Buzzsaw/Turbine rig), and at the very end of testing, I realised that it was the Turbine rig that was making the PD matchup playable, rather than the Hermes. But the Hermes list is what I had practiced, and I wasn't comfortable enough with shaper to pivot at the last minute, so this is what I played.

Card Choices

Deep Dive -- I said this both before and during the tournament, Deep Dive is a bad card. It's not an auto-win, it's a slot machine, and unless we are prepared to play at least two of them in the same turn, the odds of hitting the jackpot might be 50/50 at best. However, it is a threat that the Corp has to respect, which can open up possibilities for us to win elsewhere.

Conduit is another threat that the Corp has to respect, which opens up possibilities for us to win elsewhere. A common play pattern is to let the Corp score, bounce R&D ICE, install conduit, run 3 times. The Corp will respond by double ICEin'g R&D and purging. At which point we are free to trash Conduit to Simulchip. Think of it like a surgical strike that provokes an immediate response, rather than a win con.

Propeller is much better than Gauss in a deep dive list, and, in a meta where all barriers are either strength 1 or strength 6, is just as good as Cleaver. It's worth playing 2 of them for a number of reasons, including: increasing the strength of Echelon and reducing the strength of Hagen, and easing some of the pressure on SMC.

Without Fermenter, our economy options are a little awkward. Telework Contract is p. good in Lat, but we don't ever want to see more than 1x. Environmental Testing was untested, but actually quite good on the day. Against an asset meta, I would swap the third Overclock for the third Dirty Laundry, but that's really a meta call. I would not play 3x of each.

Notable Exclusions

Pichação was in the list, right up until the very end of testing. I found that I never played it, and I wanted another economy card.

Alternatives

I would cut Bahia Bands for Hush. Without Pantograph, Bahia Bands is the only way for us to double install Hannah "Wheels" Pilintra on the Deep Dive turn, but Hush is the only way for us to get through Starlit Knight if we go tag-me. Plus, it has other uses.

Piloting

Try not to get annoyed at yourself for constantly asking "cards in hand?", and aim to get a Lat trigger every turn. But also, we shouldn't forget that the Corp is also doing things on their side of the board, and occasionally we should interact to keep them honest. For example, running naked remotes that are probably cryptocrash.

Matchups

Despite my lacklustre results, I honestly think that Hannah is the best runner ID atm. We have some free wins, and only one bad matchup, and even that is (sometimes) winnable.

vs Reaper Function NEH (90%)

Spend 2 turns setting up economy. Find Hannah + SMC for Paricia, then start running the board. By about turn 5 the Corp will be ready to concede.

DJ Fenris for René "Loup" Arcemont: Party Animal if you are feeling particularly cruel.

vs Punitive RH (75%)

We have Stoneship, and we have a Turbine / Buzzsaw. There is a window of about 5 or 6 turns where the Corp can do whatever they want, but, once this window is closed, RH has absolutely no outs.

DJ for Steve.

vs Punitive Outfit / Big Deal Outfit (75%)

We have Stonehsip and we have Clot. As long as we know our lines, this should be a comfortable matchup.

DJ for Steve.

vs KANEHL+ (65%?)

In theory, Hannah and Paricia means that we are favoured in this matchup. In reality, there is zero room for error.

DJ for Loup.

vs BtL (50%)

Bio-vault makes deep dive difficult, but we have a turbine rig, and we can bounce Pharos with Hermes, so clearing out the remote that way (after a score) is feasible. Hush would improve this matchup significantly.

DJ for Quetzal.

vs Rush Ob (~50%)

Draw hard for SMC (or DJ Fenris), and contest the remote ASAP. Use Hermes to buy more time in the early game, and Clot to buy more time in the late game. The Corp wants to score so fast that, often, they will leave R&D open. Punish them with Conduit.

DJ for Quetzal (early), or Steve (late) if we need the simulchips, or Sable (late) if it looks like we can deep dive.

vs PD (<50%)

If Offworld Office, Ikawah Project and Seamless Launch are all in the top 15-20 cards, then I'm not sure there is anything we can do to win this matchup. Otherwise, it's actually okay.

DJ for Sable.