(highest placing) Tao for NtScapenet SC

So this is my Tao I chose to play in the NtScapenet Store championship. Turns out it worked out quite well for me and I was able to land on a Top 10 finish. Both of my decks ended up with a 3-1 record in the swiss but I feel like my runner shouldnt have done as well as it did.

Deck- and Cardchoices:

I chose to play Tao because I really like his ability and he is the new kid on the block. I went with a fairly cookie cutter Apoc list because the corp meta forces the runner to play some very heavy disruption to be able to contest them. To add to that disruption I chose to play an Imp over a 3rd apoc in the hope of that helping out enough for the Spombo matchup (it didnt). The inclusion of the Imp forced me to go with smc + simulchip as my breaker finders instead of something else like Compile. That restricted my leftover slots quite a bit so I felt like I was missing some important cards in the build. Notable cards that Im missing is at least 1 Artist colony and at least 1 extra Engolo. Playing only 1 Engolo restricts your play after apoc alot. You need to spend alot of time setting up again by trashing the facedown engolo to an aesops, installing a simulchip and an extra program to trash to the simulchip.

The Games:

First round I faced a rushy R+. I started the game out a bit slow, but they werent fast use that time to set up a big remote. For most of the early and some of the midgame I was playing just following a fair gameplan of setting up and running the remote. Because of that they had only a total of 2 ICE protecting their centrals which I was able to capitalize on with a timely Apoc. I misplayed quite a bit after the Apoc by getting tagged multiple times which delayed my aesops for a significant time. Despite that the apoc was disruptive enough to allow me to win soon after that.

Second Round I faced Asa. Similar story really. On review of the game I can see that they were severely agenda-flooded in HQ, which probably compromised their play in way that wasnt respecting Apoc. They scored out an early sandbox and quickly built a big 3 ICE remote while their centrals were only protected by a macrophage and a drafter. Once they jammed a second agenda in the remote I felt like it was go time and apocced away their scoring remote as well as a jeeves, a nico campaign server and a total of 6 ICE. After that apoc they were able to rebuild quite well since I was recovering from the Apoc as well. They built a new remote but I was able to get into it a few times to go up to 6 points. Once the remote became uncontestable I was looking to apoc again once they jammed another card into the remote. Turns out I stole a GFI from R&D on my apoc turn to win the game, but if the game went on from that point instead I wouldve likely won either way. After that 2nd Apoc they wouldve only been left with only 2 ICE in their deck.

Third round I wasnt so luck in my matchups and ended up facing Spombo. I had a pretty strong start for the matchup with an Imp and a simulchip in my starting hand to contest their shellgame early and often. To my surprise they didnt purge the turn after I got my Imp down and trashed an agenda with it so I got full use from that Imp. After they wisened up though and started diligently purging every time I refilled my Imp. Turns out Apoc is nearly useless vs them and 4 Imp counter just arent enough to beat Spombo. I lost the game after taking the tags off a news team access while not realizing that they had scored a False Lead. I dont think I wouldve won at that point either way though if I took that news team as a fake point since I wouldve had accumulated too many agendas in my score area and they wouldve been able to combo to a win most likely. No early Vacheron = no win for Tao

Fourth Round I faced a Neurospike Kill Builder of Nations. They were able to set up a very big city works project with 6 counters so I was looking to apoc early. They made a hefty misplay by not using their BC to end my HQ run on my Apoc turn. The apoc was able to wipe away the very very dangerous cws. Since they invested alot of their resources into that cws hoping for the early kill I was able to capitalize on that early tempo loss with some aggressive play to secure the win.

Fifth Round I IDed with my opponent since it guaranteed both of us a shot at the cut and I played my tiebreaker on the corp side.

Conclusions: As you can tell by I never faced a single RPC BtL deck and only 1 Spombo. If I faced those matchups more the decks record wouldnt look nearly as good and I wouldnt have placed nearly as high.

The slots issues I ran into with this apoc build have convinced me that Lat is probably the better Shapoc ID to be playing right now. That why Ill advise you to not play this list just because its the highest placing Tao and you really like the ID. Just play Lat. It has more slots for other cards and can make space for Out of the Ashes to help your Apoc plays a ton. Lats ability lets you get to your Apoc alot faster as well while Taos ability isnt nearly as useful in an Apoc deck, especially after the first or even 2nd Apoc.

TL:DR: Dont play this, play Lat Apoc instead. Its better as demonstrated by ArminFirecracker who was able to make the cut with that Deck.