Close to the Sun (7-0, 2nd Aus South Nats)

Right up until I was filling in my decklist at registration, I thought I was going to play Lat. It was the opposite of a panic switch: a moment of total clarity. Why be one of a crowd of Boring Lats doing cut math when I can be the fun, bold Mercury player on the bottom tables? Why have a deck filled with cyberpunk gadgets and doodads when you can just play cards named for doing reckless things and having crazy thoughts?

Then I realised someone else brought Mercury, and I was no longer an iconoclast but at severe risk of being the other, worse Mercury player. Then the other Mercury started winning, so to be safe I had no choice but to be King of Swiss.

I am not quite convinced this deck is actually good. However, it didn’t drop a game all day, and a nearly identical version also went undefeated at a sunset AMT earlier this year, so maybe it has real juice. This deck is very fun if you want to feel like you are drowning as soon as any server is double iced. More than half of my games were clinched the turn before a certain loss. This is the ideal form of Netrunner. Don’t play Mercury if you don’t want to live too close to the sun.

Mulligan for Hermes. We’re entirely in the business of touching cards and bouncing more cards. There’s no real breakers, no long-term econ, no pinhole, no bones, no doof, no other plan. Remember, the Corp’s deck wants to betray them. You’re just here to help out.

You can probably cut a Spark for Eru. Maybe get a second Boomerang back in so you can charge remotes more often. ‘Amelia Earhart’ did pass through my head during the tournament, but I don’t want to risk adding a second dimension to the deck. Having so few options that you don’t mindfreak yourself into messing up is more important. Just touch cards.

My corp was exactly not_yeti’s RH list, which cleaned up in Swiss with 3 kills and 0 points scored, but was surgically taken apart by F3nr1s’ Aniccam Hosh twice in the cut.

Not to get sentimental, but here is an incomplete list of important names: Kror, Styx, Gloompunk, Charlotte, October, Max, Nick, Scarius, Sarah (Sarius?), Alex, Luke, Vale, Dylan, Bing, Brad, Jackson, Sutto, Blake, Abstracted, Jenny, eBentl, Sohum, Kyra, Jai, Habib, Miles, Leela.

And not to be bitter, but here is a complete list of important names: F3nr1s.

Best Netrunner tournament of my life.