tempo gagarin (6-2 worlds 2018, 46th)

Pretty normal tempo gagarin. Rashida is so good that it makes Executive Search Firm good. Grabbing Amani and Arella is great too. Go fast, make the runner choose between eating the news and letting you assemble an unstoppable board. Ideally, you spend all of your clicks installing cards and scoring agendas.

Bootcamp is in the deck to stop Indexing and find assets you need. I usually used it for Corp Town. Blocking Indexing saved me twice on the day.

New Construction was really useful. You can install it, Search Firm for Amani, advance New Construction installing Amani. You can use Bootcamp to grab Corp Town and install it while advancing your agenda.

Standoff is a bit risky because of Turntable, but it enables so many good cards that it's worth it.

Launch Campaign is in because i was having trouble with money in a lot of test games. It's ok.

I'm pretty happy with the ice mix, but Surveyor is not worth the restricted slot. Several games at worlds I was staring at single Surveyor for my only ice. Archer does a better job of being a big scary sentry.

Changes I'd make going forwards: New Construction is amazing. Graft sucks. I want to try -Graft +2 New Construction. Change the restricted card. -3 Surveyor -3 Launch +3 Mumba +2 barrier gearchecks +1 mausolus maybe. Or maybe NGOs.

Now that's out of the way, here's a writeup of my games.

Game 1 vs Matt: He's on Adam and Mushin PE. Adam has a pretty rough time against asset decks. He was very careful and patient for most of the game, but eventually he checked an unrezzed remote and was forced to trash a Corp Town, putting him in HHN/HPT range. 2-0

Game 2 vs Keith: Another Adam player, with a more aggressive Adam build. I don't remember too much about this game, but I think I had a pretty strong draw. Lost to his Azmari, though. 3-1

Game 3 vs Caleb??: I don't remember this one very well, sorry. I think it was Maxx and Azmari? Maybe it was Val. 5-1

Game 4 vs ???: I straight up don't remember this game at all. I know his corp was SSO and that I got punitived. 6-2

Game 5 vs Jens Erickson: Glaciery Sportsmetal and Patchwork Maxx with CBI Raid. What a hero. The game against his Maxx was the most fun game of the tournament for me, and it was even better because he was just so into it. There were so many crazy twists and ballsy plays. I discarded a SSL super early and it just sat in archives for 10 turns. It was the winning agenda for either of us. I scored a Standoff to bring it back into the remote, the turn before he Divide and Conquered me. I double advanced it and took a credit. He stimhacked the remote (revealing to me after the game that the last card in his hand was his last Levy - this was completely all-in for him too). I rezzed Archer, he broke it, and I was one credit short from rezzing Tour Guide. He got into the remote and stole it for the game with one credit to spare. Netrunner is such a good game you guys! 6-4

Game 6 vs Sam Suied: We're on the bubble, agree to 2-for-1, and I roll corp. He's on Nexus 419, and my plan is to go fast and get Corp Town down. That's pretty much what happens - he trashes an unrezzed corp town, but I score an agenda a few turns later and bring it back, then rez it to start trashing his money. He trashes it again, and I HHN him. I think it didn't kill him but it slowed him down enough that I could score out? It was another really close one. We played out the other side for fun and his taggy Azmari got flooded. 8-4

Game 7 vs Miek: We 2-for-1 again, and I roll corp again. He's on Maxx, and I didn't get to see much of his deck because my opening hand had 2 HHNs and HPT. He was aggressively trashing my stuff, but clearing tags from the first HHN put him in range of the second. He was one credit short of clearing a third tag, and one card short of surviving. He wins the corp game with his MTI glacier, though. 10-4 officially, 9-5 actually.

I made day 2!

Game 8 vs Matthew Kumar: He's on Apoc Val and Batty/Trojan Horse Skorp, and so adrenalined that his hands are shaking, and he cuts himself on his card sleeve while shuffling. He doesn't even notice, either. Thank goodness for card sleeves. The game is delayed 5 mins while the judge gets a bandaid. He agrees to 2-for-1 me, but only if I corp. I'm more than happy, because my runner hasn't been doing well. Turns out, his Val has apoc, and he knows the tempo Gagarin matchup well. I mull into a weak start (only asset: bootcamp) and the game isn't even close. He plays it super careful, resets my board with a well timed apoc, wantons me a few times, and eventually collects the win from Archives. (It had been sitting there since the apoc - the wantons only hit ice and my kill package, which was dead anyways because he was so rich.) We play out the other side and I manage to beat his corp in a difficult game of dodging Batties. 10-6

I drop out before playing game 9, cos i'm feeling pretty wiped and Isaiah and I are ready to get home. This was my first time at worlds, and it was really fun but also really exhausting. I'm glad I came out for it, and thanks for all the games!

Shoutouts to Des Moines for hosting the first Netrunner tournament I went to, and generally being a great crowd. Thanks Chris, Jake, Adam @tundinator, Josh (rip), Alex (rip). Double shoutouts to Adam for still playing after all those other losers ditched us for Destiny. It was great to see everyone come back for the last several tournaments.

Shoutouts to Iowa City, Omaha, Kansas City, and Minneapolis for having tournaments that are only a 3 hour drive away. The Omaha and KC crowds handed me some of my first truly crushing defeats. Special thanks to @eldermason for being one of the best players I got to play against semi-frequently.

And most of all, shoutouts to Isaiah, the other half of the Ames meta. Thanks for getting me started on Netrunner, thanks for convincing me to go to that first store champ in Des Moines, thanks for introducing me to Stimhack, Meteor, NRDB, and Jnet, thanks for playtesting stuff with me, thanks for keeping track of all the events and netrunner news, thanks for driving to all these events, and thanks for being so bad at psi games.