Results

R1: Draw vs Tao

R2: Win vs Sable

R3: (timed) Win vs Padma

R4: Loss vs Lat

Tournament Afterthoughts

If you think playing Corp is tough in Standard, you should try playing Corp in Startup!

If you don't want to play ambushes, then I think this list is about as good as it gets. The runner has easy answers to all of the problems we can pose, but we have access to some broken agendas, and some decent (enough) ICE. By making dilligent (but aggressive) plays, and by taking calculated risks, we can squeeze out some wins.

Premise

Because there is no banlist in Startup, we can play the good old PD agenda suite of Cyberdex Sandbox and Offworld Office. We also have access to the best agenda in the game: Luminal Transubstantiation. This means that 75% of our agendas are tempo positive.

Being HB, we have easy access to NEXT Activation Command and Magnet (both of which are quite important in Startup, just as they are in Standard).

Being PD (and having a handsize of 6) means that we can play around the Lat identity (a popular ID in Startup, just as it is in Standard).

Matchups

Play patterns are broadly similar across all runner matchups.

NEXT Activation Command is not as useful as against Criminal as it is against Shaper and Anarch, and we should not rely upon it.

Piloting

Mulligan for economy. A tranq grid, a piece of ICE and a 4/2 agenda is perfect.

We should make the most of our Identity, and keep as many cards in hand as we can. A hand size of 6 means we can keep one agenda safe (enough) in HQ without having to ICE it.

A normal turn will be: mandatory draw, click 1 draw, click 2 install in the tranq remote, click 3 install a piece of ICE.

Having a vacheron stolen in the early game is how we lose. But, also, we don't really want to be scoring Vacheron until it wins us the game (although sometimes we don't have a choice). Our ideal scoring pattern is Sandbox/Offworld -> Luminal -> Vacheron.

Card Choices

Triple Anoetic Void

Building a Skunk / Void remote is plan A. We can install multiple copies of both in the remote, to defend against Pinhole Threading (gaining money from Tranquility Home Grid as we go).

NEXT Activation Order

We can either use this to rush our first agenda, or to close out games where the runner is overreliant on Endurance. We can recur it using the PD ability to keep servers on lockdown over multiple turns.

Some games (where the runner finds Endurance early) we will wish that we had a third copy, but the only obvious cut would be Red Level Clearance or Nico Campaign and I think both are wrong.

Tranquility Home Grid

This is our main economy card. With all the upgrades in the deck, and seamless launch to chain agendas, it's pretty easy to get 2 credits every turn.

Alternatives

Bran

I can see playing 1 x Bran and dropping to 2 x Ansel. In this case, we would probably drop a Hagen for a third Drafter. Ansel usually does the job though. Very rarely do we find ourselves wishing that Ansel ended the run.

Notable Exclusions

Regolith

Regolith would give us more control over our economy than Nico, but it's much slower (and this is a rush deck at heart). We want to spend the turns where Nico is ticking down drawing cards, and installing ICE and upgrades (which we can't do with Regolith). If we find ourselves clicking for credits while Nico ticks down then Regolith is better, but clicking for credits is bad, and as long as we are careful not to rez ICE on centrals that we can't afford, I think we can avoid that situation.

Gold Farmer

Gold Farmer is a fantastic piece of taxing ICE, but we're not trying to tax the runner - we're trying to rush / cheat out agendas with skunkworks, void and NEXT Activation Command. IMHO, fighting an economy war with the runner is a losing battle.

Engram Flush

Great numbers on this ICE, but it doesn't help us to win.