[WORLDS-23] R+ - 5-1 on Day 1 (No Day 2: too many viruses!)

This is the corp deck I took to my first main Netrunner event: Worlds 23 in Barcelona. I prepared Worlds mostly for Startup (for SoC and Sunday) as my expectations for Saturday was quite low (in terms of results) and I thought I'd drop from the main event to try my luck at Startup from the early Sunday morning. So this deck is very similar to my startup one. Obviously without Drago, but with Bellona. So, in the end, the decks are quite different to play. But they both have the same potential of always giving you a line, always having a chance to win. And, on the day, the deck really delivered. It won 5 games out of 6; and I would argue that my loss on round 6 was really more due to me piloting it very badly (and making mistakes after mistakes, which required successive calls to judges who were as nice and helpful as my opponent was patient!) than by any fault of the deck itself. And even with all the mistakes I made, I still had lines and felt it was a close one.

Ideally, I would usually jam a Bellona very early on. If I score, perfect: I activate threat 3 and am ahead on points. If it get stolen, it still activates threat 3 and usually puts my opponent on the back foot quite significantly (with Oppo usually in the following turn). the tag punishment really looks like I didn't know where I wanted to go. But it's not the case: it was a conscious decision to give myself as much flexibility as possible; and the 2 Pivot really help to get what you need when you need it. The only thing I wish I could add is a bit more money and maybe a Gaslight... I'm sure there's a deck there which is really, really good. I mean, this one carried me to 33rd on Day one (with a runner side not as good), so it must be doing something right!

So I ended up 33rd on Day 1, which was higher than my initial expectations! Unfortunately, I had to drop (having tested Covid positive on Saturday night - after a negative result in the morning). Which ended a fabulous event on a less than ideal note (I can only hope I didn't share the virus with anyone...). Nevertheless, this was a fantastic event. The Friday CoS and the Saturday were absolutely brilliant: thanks to NSG and every judge and volunteer who made it possible; and thanks to my opponents and friends (both old and new). Looking forward to the next one!!