My runner deck for Hack O' Lantern V. The Austin, TX meta has an annual "Costume Party" event: take any ID from the game's history and put it in another faction (this year with the Standard card pool). My corp deck came to me immediately, but this guy was thrown together the night before when I saw my shirt that just says "TRASH". Easy costume foundation.

Shaper Geist. 50 cards because that's how many Inside Job sleeves I have (max deck size) and I didn't want to cut breakers or the Gbahalis and Kongamatos. If they draw a card to replace themselves, they must be worth the slots, right [citation needed]?

Influence:

• Bahia Bands: Nice single point run event that has draw and installs. If you use it to install Aniccam, you get the draw!
• 2x Boomerang: They break ice, they draw you a card, they repeat. That repeating part in a 50 card deck is suspect. Especially when we had the Poison Vial and in-faction virtual resource "breakers". Should probably be Hannah and another Poison Vial.
• 2x Poison Vial: A beautiful brew when you're running fake breakers and tight econ. Too bad I'm not sharp enough to use it when it counts.
• DJ Fenris: Only saw him once. Picked Sable for Deep Dives. Didn't get to dive that game.
• 3x No Free Lunch: It's a good card. Geist juices it.
• Fermenter: It's trash ability econ, reason to use simulchips, and makes the corp see virus tokens.

Other Deck Thoughts:

• The only real Ice Breaker I ever used was Propeller. K2CP Turbine was worth having around for that. Twice drew Pressure Spike before Propeller and always tossed it to the bin.
• Simulchips were nice to have on standby for Propeller, but only returned SMCs or Fermenter.
• Gbahali and Kongamato are like Boomerang or Inside Job at home, especially with Poison Vial. Geist makes them more fun.
• In theory with Geist and SMC, you have the risk of drawing what you wanted to install. This never happened to me, and the only time it really would have mattered, my redundancy in the Fracter department meant I didn't have to care.
• Stoneship Geist gets 3 extra Diesels. They don't taste the same.
• Econ was on a knife's edge. But I'm not very good and the deck is too big :P

The Games

TL;DR: 0-3. I got slammed by a busted corp. Then threw away what should have been a safe win. Finally, forgot to use Poison Vial at a pivotal moment in a game where I got unlucky and my opponent played his deck's combos perfectly (and got lucky).

• Round 1 v. Austin's NBN Argus. Rude, nasty deck (complimentary). I foolishly ran an open R&D for no good reason early on, hitting a Snare! Survived, but lost a lot of momentum from 3 good cards and clearing the tag. Was able to steal some agendas getting up 4-2, but every time I went anywhere there was a Forced Connections or AMAZE Amusements. That plus Argus means I have no hope other than accept tagme and pray. He got a Freedom of Information off in one click. 4-4, I Trick Shot R&D and steal two agendas! Oh they're both Oracle Thinktank. And there's another AMAZE + Argus. I'm at 15+ tags and game point. He immediately shuffles the Thinktanks away from me. 4-4 again. I was able to cheat past his Pings before, but now I have no econ, a small and unusable hand, and there's just no way I can compete in the race for the FoIs. He mercifully Spin Doctors into them. Loss.
• Round 4 v. Jeff B.'s NBN Thule. I learned from my last game. I take it slow. I control the remotes. I've got plenty of tools to handle his Ping. No AMAZE or Forced Connections. Seems like just an honest game where he puts 3 Pop-Up Windows and what is surely a Mwanza City Grid on R&D, trying to Thule tax/prep me for End of the Line with core damage. I'm up 5-0. There's a double advanced card behind unrezzed ice in a new remote. I run it with a Boomerang second click. He rezzes Endless EULA. I can break it with 1 credit to spare. I hesitate. It could be a 2 point agenda that wins the game for me, it could be any number of traps that put me in a bad spot, or it could be a one point agenda that I have to take a core from. I'm 5-0, so I play it safe and let it end the run. Jeff lets it sit so I think I make the right call. I later could've run it with the Boomerang and Poison Vial, but I leave it be. A couple poking centrals turns later, I end with three cards in hand (my only installed trashables break subroutines). He advances the card, it's Tomorrow's Headline into End of the Line. Well played. After I flatline, I think about how I'd already seen End of the Line, Hypoxia, and that almost definite Mwanza. There was no room in his deck for an Urtica or Cerebral Overwriter. Should've done the influence math. Loss.
• Round 6 v. Shane's Weyland Tennin Institute. We just played our other decks against each other last round. Now he's rocking a Weyland advanceable ice deck that uses Biotic Labor + Red Planet Courier to fast advance a huge Atlas, with Slash and Burn, Audacity, and Basalt Spire. As a glacier Weyland lover, always happy to see Oduduwa. It's a back and forth game. Then I spend my turn on a credit perfect Deep Dive (I have 3 in hand), except I mess up and used an extra credit instead of a Poison Vial counter to fully break an Ahket on HQ click 1 (can't let him get the money to rez likely Tree Lines on R&D). I take my Geist draw from using SMC after the last R&D ice (all unrezzed) during a Trick Shot when I realize I have one credit in my pool. Before I started the turn I knew I had to use Poison Vial, but I auto-piloted to using credits. At this point I can't remember why I'm a credit short. Shane graciously offers to let me undo the Trick Shot (I haven't breached R&D), but between the Geist draw and seeing he didn't rez ice, I play on. I click for credits twice and pass turn. He mandatory draws as I look at my board to see the full Poison Vial. Son of a gun. He gets his massive Atlas, but ice is reset. I get a Slash and Burn off a Deep Dive. He uses Atlas tokens to Biotic Labor, install Basalt Spire, Slash and Burn, Audacity, score. I'm down 4-5. I can MAYBE Deep Dive here. I run Archives for the Slash and Burn and hope something's in the facedowns. He spends a Basalt token for a facedown, giving me the Slash and Burn (6-5). I run HQ (1 card there). He uses the last Atlas token to pull a Too Big to Fail, so it's a 50/50. I access the Too Big to Fail (other card was a Basalt Spire apparently). Sad trumpets. Running R&D (knowing it's futile), he rezzes a triple advanced Tree Line and I can't get in. Time is finally called (it's the last round and we're the only table still playing). I'm up on points, so there's a slim chance. He top decks another Atlas, Basalt token for Audacity, fast advances to 7. Loss.

General Tournament Thoughts

• Austin, TX Meta is great! Been down a couple times before from Dallas, and it's always been worth the trip. Thank you branimated for putting on the event! Everyone there was a true joy to spend the afternoon with!
• I just moved from Dallas to San Antonio and haven't gotten to play Netrunner in over a month. A low stakes tournament in an oddball format for funzies was just what I needed. Most fun I've had for a while! Also really glad to see my Dallas pals blurbie, platypus2600 (is this you, Will?), and spookydana (even if you had other things to do in town)!
• In deck building, corps feel like there are a lot of interesting and rude options available. There are a couple mean runner options you can theorycraft, but it mostly felt like "take a good deck and swap the value ID" because as runner you've gotta be ready to face some spooky stuff.
• In play, the busted corps dominated the field. And for a fun little tournament where everyone gets to take turns hopefully being that busted corp, I had fun from both sides. And I heard about some evil runner decks, too.token for a facedown, giving me the Slash and Burn (6-5). I run HQ (1 card there). He uses the last Atlas token to pull a Too Big to Fail, so it's a 50/50. I access the Too Big to Fail (other card was a Basalt Spire apparently). Sad trumpets. Running R&D (knowing it's futile), he rezzes a triple advanced Tree Line and I can't get in. Time is finally called (it's the last round and we're the only table still playing). I'm up on points, so there's a slim chance. He top decks another Atlas, Basalt token for Audacity, fast advances to 7. Loss.

General Tournament Thoughts

• Austin, TX Meta is great! Been down a couple times before from Dallas, and it's always been worth the trip. Thank you branimated for putting on the event! Everyone there was a true joy to spend the afternoon with!
• I just moved from Dallas to San Antonio and haven't gotten to play Netrunner in over a month. A low stakes tournament in an oddball format for funzies was just what I needed. Most fun I've had for a while! Also really glad to see my Dallas pals blurbie, platypus2600 (is this you, Will?), and spookydana (even if you had other things to do in town)!
• In deck building, corps feel like there are a lot of interesting and rude options available. There are a couple mean runner options you can theorycraft, but it mostly felt like "take a good deck and swap the value ID" because as runner you've gotta be ready to face some spooky stuff.
• In play, the busted corps dominated the field. And for a fun little tournament where everyone gets to take turns hopefully being that busted corp, I had fun from both sides. And I heard about some evil runner decks, too.