Results

2-3 (3rd) at Stevenage Circuit Opener

Carried by the Award Winning Rudest CtM

Thanks to @SwearyPrincess for running yet another awesome tournament! It's so good to be playing real f2f netrunner again. I was worried about missing triggers without the j.net prompts, but it's weird how it all comes back to you.

Tournament Afterthoughts

A fundamentally good and very fun deck, with a couple of tricky matchups (Seamless PD and Palana).

Individual match reports from are at the end of the write-up

Premise

The Midnight Sun booster gave us Azef Protocol, so we want to play a deck with Clot in it. Hivemind MaxX was the best deck with Clot in it last season, seems like a reasonable place to start this season!

Matchups

With cards like Magnet, Cyberdex Sandbox and Macrophage, the Haas-Bioroid: Precision Design matchup can be tough. An early Botulus to challenge the remote is a good opening.

The worst matchup, though, is any sort of grindy Pālanā Foods: Sustainable Growth. We want to empty our deck into the heap as quickly as possible, so cards like Kakugo and Obokata Protocol and Snare! make this matchup incredibly tough.

Card Choices

I tried playing 3 x PAD Tap instead of Tranquilizer, which was good, but Tranquilizer is much better. The economic impact of Tranquilizer is just as good as PAD Tap, and it gets you out of some tough spots by saving you having to hard break Anansi, Ansel 1.0, etc.

I replaced the Dirty Laundry with Moshing, because

a) there are a few cards that we want in the heap (conspiracy breakers, tranquilizer, chisel, botulus less so)

b) there are a bunch of redundant cards for consistency (cookbook, paladin, knobkiere, progenitor, hivemind) and sometimes we draw duplicates

c) some cards you don't want to see early game, and otherwise they just clog up your hand (labor rights, knobkiere, rebirth)

I think 1 of each (Dirty Laundry and Moshing) might be the way to go, but we're into super fine tuning territory.

Notable Exclusions

I tested DJ Fenris, but I didn't find it that impactful.

I also tested Buffer Drive, which was interesting, but dead draw in most matchups.

Alternatives

I would 100% swap PAD Tap for Aumakua. Aumakua sort of does the same thing as Chisel (deals with low str ICE), but where Chisel is great for focusing on just one server, Aumakua lets us pressure multiple servers. Also Magnet is a card.

Other than maybe swapping 1x moshing for 1 x dirty laundry, aumakua is the only thing that I would change about this list. It's possible that, if we are playing aumakua, we can actually cut Black Orchestra...

Piloting

If you haven't played Hivemind MaxX yet you really should because it's super fun.

Most of your early turns will be "draw once, install three things" or "draw twice install two things".

In the mid game you will make some wild simulchip plays to apply pressure to the Corp, and build your economy with hivemind and fermenter.

By the late game you will be conduit running to deep dig R&D, simulchipping to derez and effectively bypass massive ICE with Tranquilizer, and then labor rights simulchips and fermenters back to do it all again.

It's super fun.

Match Report

R1: LOSS vs CobraBubbles on Seamless PD I didn't have the botulus to challenge the T1 Rashida, and PD quickly outpaced me. I rebirth too early (with black orchestra still in the stack), and my attempt to snatch a win from the jaws of defeat with a conduit dig is blocked by magnet.

R2: LOSS vs @SwearyPrincess on Neurospike Azmari Despite tranquilizing 24 credits worth of ICE (1 x Hydra, 2 x Data Loop), being on six points, and having a million counters on Conduit, I tilt hard and run an Urtica Cipher in the remote and die. SMH.

R3: WIN vs Feathermark on Aryabhata Tech CtM I simulchip Fermenter over and over until I have approximately a million credits, and use Imp to trash 2 x Jeeves. Feathermark sneaks out a Cyberdex Sandbox and an AR-Enhanced Security while I do this, but it's enough to get me into the late game, where I can conduit dig. After I reach 4 points, I (correctly) deduce that the facedown card that's been on the board since Turn 1 has to be a Bellona that Feathermark has been trying to score with MCA Austerity Policy.

R4: WIN vs Countzer0 on Polite CtM The inevitable Cambridge matchup!

I ignore the board to set up my rig while Countzer0 pushes out 2 x ARES. My first Conduit dig finds me 2 x Beale. My second finds me Bellona.

Cut R1: LOSS vs @MotionBlur on Hivemind-Hate-Palana I don't want to be salty. MotionBlur is a great player, and they obviously put a lot of time and attention into this deck, but god damn is it full of cards that you don't want to see as Hivemind MaxX. Cyberdex Sandbox, Macrophage, Cyberdex Virus Suite, Kakugo, Obokata Protocol, Anemone.

The first Cyberdex Sandbox is never advanced on a La Costa Grid. Then a Nisei MK II is slow rolled over 3 or 4 turns. I manage to snatch the 2nd Sandbox from R&D, but the 3rd gets scored and then MotionBlur can purge for 8 and clearing my boardstate at the same time (closing down the econ denial line that I was leaning into).

I knew going in that I was unfavored. I gave it my best but my lines were super slim. In hindsight, I should have contested the remote at some point (rather than purely building up to conduit R&D), but early game my hand was full of cards that I didn't want to lose to net damage (like labor rights) for fear of losing the long game.