Legality (show more) |
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Standard Ban List 24.05 (latest) |
Standard Ban List 24.03 (active) |
Rotation |
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Deck valid after Sixth Rotation |
This writeup is going to be less about the deck and more about EMEA as a whole - if you've read my writeups from UK nats you know what you're about to get into, if not once you get past the first heading brace for a lot of me being very sappy about EMEA and the best day of my life so far.
This is, of course, based off the only deck I know powerful enough to induce gender realisations, harmonbee's girls. While they haven't put girls 3 up yet, it is very similar to this - I've made the slight changes of a second Burner and extra Sure Gamble because I love disruption and money and can't make card cut choices to save a life.
On the day it went 3-3-1, but I firmly believe a better player (or maybe even me in a cooler room) could have gone 5-1-1 or maybe even 6-1, because two of those losses were me not playing around kills I absolutely should have and actively had seen telegraphed. Specifically, not drawing up while on 3 cards last click vs MAD Ob which turned a very comfortable 6 point lead with most recursion used into a very stylish clone corpse, and deciding that a double advanced card in the remote somehow meant I absolutely had to trick shot this turn against a Punitive RH on zero points. Both of these plays are obvious, pivotal and game-losing mistakes. The draw was against PD, and came from me playing around a Biotic line that was stuck in my head from testing vs Sports rather than clearing a tag to save Eru for one final dig right before time with us both at 6-6. Spoiler alert, the list wasn't even on Biotic. I am sure I made other mistakes, but none that stuck in my head as much, especially in the immediate aftermath. Point is, none of those losses felt like the deck faltering, but instead my failing to read and respect my opponent's deck.
My broader takeaways from the tournament, card and matchup wise, are:
I was going to put a whole day by day overview here, but realised there was no way that I could fit it in any timely fashion, so instead here's a highlight reel.
Day 1, Thursday: Arrive at Brum airport. While waiting, get a call from a letting agent where I frantically juggle paperwork and try to find a quiet place in an airport to hear them. Otherwise, the flight and travel is mostly uneventful, aside from it being infinity degrees in Italy.
Day 2, Friday: Throwback! In the first game, my Ampere (writeup pending) wins with Regenesis Government Takeover! At this point I know that, no matter how the rest of the trip goes, it will have been worth it.
Day 3, Saturday: The tournament! It is boiling and the netrunner is tough but despite my brain slowly melting the atmosphere and people are incredible. I don't have data so every round I find someone I know who does to get my pairings from.
Day 4, Sunday: The Top Cut. I don't have Startup decks and don't wake up early for side events, so instead I make it my mission to keep everyone from the airbnb hydrated and fed. As well as being a really nice chance to get to talk to and look after and hug people, it means I get to take the day at a more relaxed pace. It also means cursing the food options for closing and then only doing drinks until late, which means all I can offer one of the greatest netrunner players and kissers of all time after several rounds of the top cut is a kiss for luck, two cereal bars and some water. It was far less than you deserved, but somehow you made it work.
Day 5, Monday: A lot of very relaxed celebration, fancy food, tired jackbox, and good icecream. One day I will stop fluffing inputs in Smash after falling off a ledge. One day I will have an air game that's at least better than a rock with a parachute and a siren blaring out "here I am come and hit me!" One day...
Day 6, Tuesday: We go on a Funicular and are all completely unmoved by unique methods of public transport because we are the most neurotypical netrunner players in the world. (Lie) We also get some absolutely beautiful photos of Bergamo, and I am trying to keep my emotions together enough to make our flight as we say goodbyes and get onto the bus to the airport.
There are more people than I can name that made this event as amazing as it was, but I will do my best to try:
To all my opponents, for putting up with a tired, slightly late, quiet mess of an who's prone to tanking and getting a bit frustrated. Thank you all for putting up with my breaks to get water and my Shaper nonsense.
To Atien and Porkobolo, you truly did a wonderful job making this event happen. Sorry for committing a little Punitive Government Takeover related murder in Throwback!
To all of EA Sports, for bringing an incredibly cool corp, having ice cream recommendations so good we dragged everyone else there the next day, and being some of the best people in Netrunner. Hopefully I'll see you at regionals!
To all the judges and volunteers who made everything run on the day. You are all no less than heroes, especially in the heat of the venue and how late things ran.
To all of QEH, for helping hone this deck and putting up with my Thunderbolt. Special thanks to:
To everyone in the AirBnB:
The EMEA champion, frog shirt wearing, Ob-slinging netrunner extraordinaire some of you may know as jan tuno! If you had asked me what I expected from this event, I doubt I would have guessed learning you are as good a kisser as a netrunner player. It is hard to put into words just how much seeing you happy makes me smile, and how much I would do to hear your noises of joy. It means the world to me that you won EMEA with my trans flag on stream, both because it shattered my own anxieties about queer success in netrunner and because you deserved that win so fucking much. I love you, from your insights to your Ob lines to your kisses to your endless compassion, and hopefully at some point I will actually get a chance to play netrunner against you :p
Finally, to harmonbee. Phoebe. I will run out of ways to tell you how much I love you long before I exhaust my feelings for you. I wouldn't be playing Netrunner without you. It has been so incredible to have seen your confidence blossom over the past few months, and watching you be the head judge for this event was like seeing you reach the top of a mountain and finally realising how far you've climbed. You did an unbelievable job with this tournament, and also with this deck which is and will always be yours. Your insights shape my play - even with my Thunderbolt and Ampere lists your experience, refinement, and practice have been irreplaceable in making them what they are. In a very real way, EMEA feels cathartic, like this was our chance to prove ourselves after missing Worlds to COVID, and we fucking smashed it. Your love for this game is evident in everything you do, not least the fact you're still here after getting back from judging at an absurd hour on Saturday night only to come back, run the top cut, and invent a whole notation for tracking game state while table judging Ob. I say this not just in my capacity as your partner, but as someone in awe of the effort you've put in - I do not think there was anyone better suited to this role than you.
I hope this wasn't too sappy! Stay tuned for whenever I get round to writing up the top performing Thunderbolt at EMEA because that's going to be the pure deck tech content netrunner players crave. Until then, be gay, look after one another, stay hydrated, steal agendas, and Always Be Running!
10 comments |
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4 Jul 2024
jan tuno
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4 Jul 2024
Tamijo
If anything it wasn't sappy enough! More sap!!! You are lovely and wonderful. I can't wait to hug you, pet you, and stroke your head again. ππ |
5 Jul 2024
Porkobolo
I had a glorious death, exploded trying to stop some corporate taking over a government. I will not complain :D |
5 Jul 2024
evie
first off, deck notes: i will say that annicam is the correct console yeah. god i wish there was another money card besides sure gamble to use cos this deck hates sure gamble. i've only found moderate success with daily casts and it absolutely is the worst card in the deck. how much did the second burner help because i would already consider burner 1 to be a card you don't want to draw most of the time. wheels is silly and slap vandal is interesting. wonder how much either came up. now, personal notes: wooo another akiko deck! i've heard murmurs along the grapevine for a long while about this deck and have been so excited to finally see the decklist (im not in qtm lol). akiko may not be the best netrunner deck but it is one of the most fun ones and i love to see it do well. happy to hear about the girl kissing. it's been fun to root on the sidelines (harmonbee's and tuno's dms) and i've been cheering you on the whole time. love akiko and i'll forever love anyone who plays her |
6 Jul 2024
harmonbee
Slap Vandal is stellar in the rush matchup: grab it with Muse to hit the remote ice or R&D so you can put pressure on early. We've found it helpful for the Azmari matchup in particular for getting past Hydra in a pinch, but it can also help get past Sandstone and Ping without having to grab the very expensive Pressure Spike in the early game. I'm personally less big on Hannah "Wheels" Pilintra than AceEmpress is, so I'll let her comment on it rather than me. The aim is to help the assets matchup (clicklessly challenging assets is incredible), but I've found Cupellation and Paricia to do enough there and I'd rather have a card to help set up early in that slot. I've been considering Fermenter as a possibility in that slot for the monetary boost, but am not 100% on it yet. The other money card, which was AceEmpress' idea, is Rigging Up: you can gain 6c from a Coalescence installed with it (and that's before trashing it with Aesop's), install Aniccam for free or a breaker for free/cheap. Needs testing but I like it on paper. I think girls struggles with early set up - like many Arissana decks it needs to pop an early Environmental Testing to set up, but this deck is worse at doing that so it's slower than those Arissana decks. So we need to make card choices to support that. (And this might be why Daily Casts felt like the worst card in the deck.) Some Arissana decks run Bravado which might be cute here too. Gonna keep thinking about girls (the deck and the concept) regardless, so I'd love to hear your thoughts! |
6 Jul 2024
evie
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... <3