“Atlas, with a counter” | Undefeated, SOS 2023

Runner deck here.

I’ve been playing decks built around scoring Atlas with a counter all season. It started with the Big Deal Outfit I took to Cascadia, going 4-1. After being very impressed with Jeff’s BathtOb Water build, I tried every version of Tucana Ob, and found that my favorite way to play it was fundamentally not that different from why Big Deal Outfit worked so well. Weyland’s ice is currently very powerful early game (Border Control in Ob, Envelopment, any bad pub ice), and so you can build your deck around winning the early game, securing an Atlas counter, and using the counter to pivot into the late-game victory when your numbers no long match up well against the Anarch/Shaper doomrig you’re sitting across from.

That’s why the Seamless Launches are in here, despite the nonbo with Oaktown. I was on all Hostiles, 3/2s, and Oaktown through much of my testing, but I ended up really liking the single SDS. There are times (usually against Criminal) when it’s worth paying the tempo to score it, but more importantly it reduces the agenda density while functioning a bit like a trap. Since it’s usually possible to secure the remote for the first few turns, it’s okay to lose SDS off centrals since it just gives many runners a tempo hit that they struggle to recover from (as long as you’re not bleeding points from the remote). That’s a window to get an Atlas counter, and then you can just outpace the runner.

The deck did pretty much what it was supposed to do, but the clicking-for-credits that was seen on stream isn’t uncommon. I’ve tested versions with more econ that flowed more smoothly, but I think the slots matter enough that just clicking for credits might be right.

Game 1 vs Swift Lat: I don’t remember this game super well, but sticking a turn 1 Tucana really got me the win. My opponent didn’t challenge it, and it let me get just enough ice on centrals to prevent Deep Dive while I scored out. I ended up winning on time unfortunately, and I’m not sure whether or not I would have won this one if we had played it out.

Game 2 vs Hoshiko: Maw came down turn 1, and was a serious problem here. I had lost 6 points off R&D by turn 4 or something, and so this had to be a very careful game. I focused on securing the remote and trusted R&D to hold on some turns. That let me score an Atlas with a counter, which let me clutch out the win.

Game 3 vs Swift Lat: Rezzing Stavka, trashing Magnet to put Thimblerig on archives was critical defense here, allowing me to threaten to swap in the Border Control to stop Deep Dive if needed. Hafrún was in the bin with no Spin Doctor on the table, but the Stavka bankrupted the runner anyway, giving me the final window to score. Even with Echelon and Engolo installed, 7-strength Stavka is monstrous.

Game 4 vs Sanjay, on Steve: This felt like a standard Ob win-on-tempo. Turn one Border Control on HQ kept me safe from Diversion. I used Seamless to get an Atlas with a counter, and survived the Cezve-powered centrals onslaught mostly through having 2 copies of Mavirus in the top half of my deck. I’m a big fan of Aumakua, but against a 3-Mavirus deck, it has a sad time. Sanjay also had to give up the Leech to steal SDS, which also really slowed down the Aumakua. Once again, the Atlas counter secured the win.

Game 5 vs Sokka, on Hoshiko: My crowning achievement as a Netrunner player (so far). This game was on stream, and it was a very interesting one. Sokka Moshinged away Buzzsaw and Audrey v2 turn one, and I focused on capitalizing on the code gates I drew. I even discarded the Hortum Sokka saw off R&D since my gearchecks were in place. There were two pivotal decisions in the game. One was Sokka's brilliant Steve trigger: Buzzsaw or Moshing. Choosing to give him Moshing won me the game, but I still have no clue whether it was right. The other was when I used Audacity to score out the Atlas to get to 6. My thinking was: I have 2 Audacities in hand, so it’s now or never with Audacity. Given the Poemu and the Patchwork, I figured Sokka was on pile-of-value Anarch. To beat that kind of deck, I kind of have to Audacity, since my ice is rarely impactful when they’re set up. So, I figured I should just Audacity, throwing out mostly ice, and a Seamless Launch that didn’t really matter much after I was at 6 points. I figured the game plan was to slowly recover and tempo out, since now Sokka has to devote resources to locking R&D. On the second-last turn, I got pretty lucky. Sokka missed both 50% accesses, which allowed me to jam the Oaktown. The Hostile Takeover looked like a game-winning draw, but with an Atlas in hand and Sokka on 0 credits, I think jamming it on the final turn would have also won.

I started playing a year and a half ago, and it feels pretty great to play against, and even win a game against the greatest warrior in the Southern Water Tribe.

Shoutout to my SOS team, @Booshy and @NotAgain, for being great to play with, and for keeping us on table 1 all tournament. 🐝🐝🐝

Shoutout to @Kysra for putting together an excellent tournament (and for making the dopest art in Netrunner), and to everyone else who helped organize.

Huge shoutout to the wonderful people who taught me how to actually play Netrunner: @tzeentchling, @enkoder, and @ctz.

And shoutout to my San Francisco Bay Area meta-mates @Tak and @millenomi for being awesome to test decks and hang out with!