Come Closer (1st, Canadian Nationals 2016)

Which card would you like to access first?

1st place at the Canadian Nationals (61 Players).

Going into the tournament, I expected a ton of Temujin out of all runner factions and decided to go with a CTM list that could compress down to a single scoring remote. This deck threatens to win with the speed of political assets and NBN, combined with the punishment of hard hitting news, forcing the runner to act before they are prepared.

If the runner sits back, you can calmly sit on your political assets and either NA agendas or FA with a SanSan. Breaking News enables you to harm passive runners.

If the runner goes tag-me, the combination of taxing and scaling ice means that you can resist and survive while the tag punishment cards make their way into your hand.

If the runner attempts to thread the needle, always staying around 8-12 credits while trashing things, you can bait them into very unfavourable exchanges with your high trash cost upgrades. Hitting double Mumbad Virtual Tour (not a region!) in the remote is the runner's 1 way ticket to fame on the Hard Hitting News.

Highlight of the Tournament

My opponent is on Whizzard, and has a 12c Liberated on the table.

I have a remote that consists of Pop-Up and MVT.

On my turn, I draw into a second MVT. Click 2 install it, Click 3 install Archangel.

Fearing the NA sneak, my opponent runs with 11 credits.

Archangel bounces the Liberated, but Whizzard perseveres, Popup drains him to 10.

Trying very hard to not go all giddy, I ask which card they would like to access first.

MVT fires, bringing them down to 8, and we trace 4.

He opts to take the tag, instead of spending 4.

The second MVT hits, draining him to 3, which puts him in HHN territory on my next turn.

Record

A combination of Regional BYE, IDs, and a deck-checking game loss meant I only had to actually play my corp deck 5 times over the 2 day tournament.

Across 6 rounds of Swiss and Top8, this deck went 4W 1L.

Agendas

Nothing too special going on here. If EOI is part of your plan, you probably don't want to waver here. I tested cutting a Breaking News for 15 Minutes (and the inf) but ultimately, I couldn't find anything better.

Assets

1x Bankers - It's no secret that the Bankers are Bonkers. A single bankers is equivalent to the a runner's desperado + security testing run. That being said, in a Temujin meta, even the Bankers could be considered a liability.

1x EBC - While I had never personally played against the Dyper Kate lists, I still wanted to be prepared. EBC allows you to get those few key rezzes needed to lock that combo out. In any other matchup, it can be used to bait a run into an MVT remote, then tutor whichever asset is relevant at the time. I had to burn the 2nd Bankers that people usually play in CTM for this and I think this was the right call.

1x Launch Campaign - In previous iterations, I was running PADs, and found that they were simply too slow. Not only were they -1 on the turn you rezzed them, but they provided an open remote for Temujin / Testerado shenanigans. I converted one to a Launch Campaign as both an economy card and a "trap" that could entice the runner to run the remote.

3x Sensie - This card is so strong that I am willing to give the runner Temujin credits for it. Every activation of this card is a huge win for the corp, and runners are usually very quick to destroy it. Protected by MVT, they can usually last quite a few extra turns.

Upgrades

3x MVT - MVT was the MVP of my deck all day. While it may seems innocent enough at first glance, the forced trash, followed by the CTM trace, is usually enough to throw off the runners math when it comes to next turn's Hard Hitting News.

2x SSCG - Another "must" trash upgrade that supports everything the deck is trying to do. Install it with MVT and watch the runner try to guess right.

Operations

2x HHN - The great enabler. Runners must have at least 8 after making a run, lest they be unable to clear all the tags on their turn. Even if they have more than 8, it's excellent to slap down an agenda click 1/2 and then HHN on the 3rd to create a really bad spot for the runner.

1x Closed Accounts - This plus Breaking News means you are never truly out of contention. If the runner has no way to bounce back quickly from 0, it creates a huge window for you to slap down an agenda.

1x EOI - Everyone's favourite new NBN card. Bait runs with a GFI, then take it back later. Unsurprisingly, players are wise to this and I don't think I ever landed one.

1x Psycho - Excellent way to close out the game. Highlight usage of this card was against a siphon deck, where I had sweeps, beale, and psycho in hand. They had 5 tags after siphoning me, and next turn a clicked for a credit and 2 other things. Waited for them to end their turn with 5 cards in hand scored out with the Sweeps -> Beale -> Psycho.

1x TM - A counter card to Employee Strike, I either never drew it or never got it to fire. It's hard to gauge how much "control" TM gives you, but overall I'd probably cut this for a 3rd SanSan (pulling the inf from Magnet).

ICE

Quicksand - Solid meta call. With many players going to criminal, the ever increasing strength of quicksand make it very prohibitive to make repeated runs. Slap it on RnD behind an Archangel for the best times.

3x Archangel - Criminals can't break codegates, and bouncing a loaded Temujin is always great. On the anarch side, d4vid counters start vanishing quite quickly when you stack archangels, and then it's an easy trace^6 to bounce the medium.

1x Magnet - This used to be Enigma, but I had a floating inf point after the Bankers -> EBC swap. I figured upgrading Enigma to become unparasite-able was a decent of spending it. Next time around though, I'd stick with the Enigma and buy me a shiny 3rd SanSan.

2x Pop-up - This is where PAD campaigns 2 and 3 went. Any deck that is "gotta go fast" can benefit from pop ups, and while it doesn't etr, it doesn't feel as bad when the runner only gains 3 from Temujin, while you gain 1.

Stay tuned for the runner list!