Decklist of the week

There is No Fast Advance at Worlds (24th @ Worlds)

Description by the author: IonFox 1637

Because why would there be?

It was practically an accepted truth that the higher end of the runner meta would be completely dominated by an emerald horde of Deep Dive Lat builds, and any single one of them could spend a paltry two influence and single card slot to add Clot to their list. Any dedicated fast advance build would be hopelessly shut down by instant speed clots backed up by chips.

Surely, there would be no player deranged and overcaffeinated enough to risk it all at the most prestigious Netrunner event of the year, after flying halfway around the world in an attempt to soul read an entire meta.

Surely.

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The Worlds Wager

So, questions I often get asked are how many cups of coffee do I consume in a single day, and how on earth does one conclude that Couriers BTL should be their corp for Worlds 2024. The answer to the former is yes. The answer to the latter comes in two parts.

There Is No Clot

This is the main driving factor behind my choice. In the run-up to worlds, TAI Breakers were reasonably certain that the Swift Deep Dive Lat was going to be the dominant force and deck to beat as a corp. The group eventually split in two directions: Holo Asa to stretch the runner thin on remotes and outspeed them, and Tree Line AgInfusion in order to grind and tax out the ephemeral breaker suite. Personally, I was leaning on bringing an AgInfusion as that's what I felt more comfortable on...

Until one month before worlds, while grabbing lunch with Jai (future God Emperor of Swiss), he started talking to me about influence/tech choices for Lat, having just returned from Australian Southern Nationals and still working out how to optimize the deck in the wake of the World Tree ban. A lot of the usual suspects were raised from Wheels to Cupellation to Bones, and then less frequent choices like Inside Job, No One Home and Imp. When we finally traced the circle back to ye olde faithful Clot, it was quickly discarded as most historic dedicated fast advanced strategies either relied on assets which people would still incidentally tech for, or simply lose on centrals without being able to guarantee the win after the first score. If there was any fast advance at worlds, it would be more of a alternative way to close games such as a single Big Deal or Audacity.

I nodded along and indicated agreement, as Jai was making perfect sense as per usual. However, as I was later playing some "Oops, All Barriers" hyperglacier BTL online, it hit me as I trashed a Cleaver for the 4th time. There is no clot because there is no fast advance at worlds. But that means worlds would be the perfect meta for a dedicated fast advance build to fly under the radar with its Achilles heel already accounted for by other people's deckbuilding.

Thus, I had reached my own unique answer to the Dive Lat conundrum, and as my opponent conceded after running out of fracter solutions, I reached for my FFG binders, knowing I would need to make use of the forgotten magicks within.

They Don't Know What You Aren't

The other factor factor was a series of mini reads and occurrences. First, literally being in the same room as Sokka. A couple weeks before, while going over the general game plans for any corp I may end up running against, I realised that the standard BTL glacier plan was... still perfectly fine, and other people would certainly reach the same conclusion and play accordingly. Word getting out that he appeared to be on a similar BTL plan was such a load off my shoulders, as it meant that every other runner was more likely to assume every other BTL was doing something similar, unless given a reason to do otherwise.

Secondly, from observing far too much high level play throughout the year, I could see that better players were generally more cautious and precise. This is further compounded by dive Lat being a very control focused and responsive deck that aims to stop threats while building up for dive as a game closer. Hence, I decided to stake my worlds run that I could subvert all of that and misrepresent my corp to give people a false sense of space, when in reality the runner is put on an immediate clock the moment the first score happens. It helps that a good chunk of my deck is also just the classic Weyland good stuff, so unless the runner happens to randomly access a combo piece, they are none the wiser to the plan until you let them read RPC while moving all those advancements onto the first Project Atlas.

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The Build

This list was originally inspired back in March, when I saw doomrat using an ungodly number of Atlas counters to combo score 5 points the following turn. I thought it was wicked and decided to give it a whirl, and promptly ran into somewhere north of 20 shapers, all of which had clot and proceeded to curb stomp me. It was summarily shelved and left to collect dust in my nrdb decks.

When I returned before worlds, as funny as scoring 5 in one turn was and triggering CI7 PTSD flashbacks on stream would be, the deck simply had to be as fast and consistent as possible. Hence I stripped out everything I deemed not mission critical and went all in, spending all my influence on 3 Biotic Labor and 3 Spin Doctor, and also staying on 3 Red Planet Couriers. You simply need to maximise every possible chance of drawing into the pieces.

Standout Cards

Wall to Wall

The reason W2W is getting a shoutout is because of just how absurdly vital every single mode is. The credit totals in this deck are already a little shaky so passive drip is amazing, every clickless advancement is an Atlas counter, and most importantly, unlike traditional BTL you really want to draw cards to hit those combo pieces. This is the sole reason we even build a remote, and protecting this early game is a top... priority :3

Priority Construction

Which coincidentally brings us straight here. Priority construction, aka "That Jemison card" on stream, is the sleeper hit of the deck. This card is incredible value for a single credit and two clicks. We want a really nasty looking remote, and we want to get as much advancement counters onto the table as fast and cheaply as possible. This does both. Also thanks to this card alone, you hit so many of those vital three advancement breakpoints, and I resolved more fully advanced Hortums at Worlds than I previously had in my life. Even if you don't get the Hortum high roll, every other ice in the deck also immediately gets more menacing and taxing, buying you the time you need.

Too Big to Fail

This was one of the original cards that made the cut through every iteration of the list. The rationale of it is that it simply is the most credits you can get in a single click, especially when you just went broke and need it the most. Also your ice generally stops mattering after the first Couriers resolves, and the whole plan of the deck is to go fast enough so the bad pub doesn't actually end up mattering enough.

Notable Absences

Mavirus

Don't hesitate. Fear is the mind killer. Simply manifest the absence of clot. Also against Crew decks (specifically Hosh), you can usually get away by simply not rezzing ice to save the advancement counters on them and let them take single accesses.

Border Control

Arguably the best ice in faction, so great that the likes of which PD and AgInfusion pay to import at 3 influence apiece, and yet not a single copy exists here. In testing, I found that opening hands with no advanceable ice simply slowed me down too much, and made the jump to play nothing but advanceable ice. Was that an overcorrection? Maybe, but I was moving too many counters on my board to worry about it.

NGO Front

This was actually the final change that took place a couple days before worlds itself. I had just finished a game with rubenpieters as a proof of concept against Swift Lat and he commented that if the NGOs had been Rashida Jaheem, I probably could have scored out even faster instead of click drawing. And he was absolutely right. You lose the ability to try and bluff agendas, but that didn't happen most games anyway, and as a combo deck, you really really like drawing cards. I made the change, tested a couple more games and never looked back.

Possible Changes

This section has really dragged on but I'll throw out some other things real fast.

3rd Logjam or Pharos could be another Hortum, Colossus or even single Border Control to search with Atlas if you need to take a turn off to spin pieces and/or get money. I stuck with it as gaining any number of free counters on rez is great, and it's probably the only ice I would also rez post couriers as it can hit potentially strength 5 and stall the runners just a bit more.

The PriCons could also be substituted and adjusted to include Pivot, Business As Usual, Crisium Grid, anything not ICE. Pivot was something that came up a lot post worlds, but I dropped it as I wanted to tip my hand as little as possible, and not give people a reason to immediately Burner or Cupellation spam me during the event. This list was designed to exploit a closed decklist swiss.

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The Game Plan

"What do you do if someone actually installs clot?"

"Offer them a polite handshake, concede, then enjoy the remaining 30 minutes outside going into a panic spiral." ^-^

Your actual order of goals is really simple on paper.

1. (Biotic) RPC Project Atlas

2. Fast advance another Project Atlas

3. Fast advance The Basalt Spire

And the best part is the is usually quite achievable in practice. You can token ice centrals, but the main thing you really want to do is get a sturdy remote in order to cook a Wall to Wall until you get all the requisite pieces and advancements, and then it's off to the races. Speaking of advancements, while you can install Tree Line if needed, I always much preferred the expendable option as just slapping 3 counters on a piece of ice is acceleration we need.

So, the beauty of this deck is you realistically only need 13 credits and end with 6 Atlas counters to start closing a game. 9 credits for the initial score, actually gain 1 for Audacity Atlas, and then 5 for Biotic Adv Slash Slash to score Basalt. The identity really does help in pushing down the credit floor you need to close games. If you have some extra credits and Atlas counters, you can also just biotic install spin for a lot more safety to freely use Audacity or Slash and Burn.

You can also start off by scoring a Basalt first as well. Doing so will likely be slower and possibly more expensive, but sometimes draw order just necessitates that. The saving grace is at least being able to recycle whatever FA tools you just used to immediately score the Atlas once you draw it.

If you're reasonably certain that your remote is solid (which is quite doable early on), you can also attempt to push an Atlas or Basalt in it, though doing so is definitely a riskier, greedier line. While it did work out for me a few times, it also backfired and cost me a game on day 1.

Apart from that, advance your ice, maintain a healthy credit pool, look ominous and do your best "I haven't drawn my Clearinghouse" impression.

The Secret Line

So remember how I just said you needed only 5 credits to close with Basalt? I lied.

After losing to fellow TAI Breaker SebK on day 1, I woke up on Day 2 at 4am realising that with 2 additional Atlas counters, (Biotic + Too Big to Fail) is a "clickless" +3 credits. Hence on your final turn, assuming you have 6 Atlas counters left (and access to 2 biotics and a TBTF in the deck), you can score a basalt with no hand from a mere two credits by starting the line with TBTF > Biotic Labor to reach the required 5 credits.

Yeah. There's not much else to it. The deck really isn't spicy beyond being a very risky anti-meta pick.

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Worlds Analysis

So I'm going to do something a little different here and just look at the matches I lost corp side. Over the course of the event, the deck went 4-3, but upon reflection two of those losses could have been easily avoided with better play and understanding of my own lines.

Round 8: Loss vs SebK (DoF Ari)

After getting the big Atlas, he reminds me that Conduit is a card that exists by dropping it on the table, using the Ari trigger to slap a Pichação on the unrezzed ice on R&D (oops), and starts tearing through R&D. I manage to get to 4 points but end up dropping down to 3 credits in the process.

Now at this point, I hadn't yet realised the whole Biotic TBTF clickless +3 thing, and took a turn off to spin some FA pieces and money up to where I could score through a Diversion. Unfortunately, R&D didn't hold under the conduit, coughing up the 5 points he needed to win. This is the loss that woke me in the early morning where I realised I could have closed had I seen the line back then.

Round 10: Loss vs Booshy (Lobi Kit)

I end up tunnelling on Trick Shot and greed by trying to push an Atlas through the remote, forgetting Overclock is also a card which gets him in, when there was one ice on R&D and 2 on the remote. Even after that I still manage to get the big Atlas out a couple turns later, but he finds the win with a trick shot. If I just played it slower and just let him take singles off R&D, I would have had a much better shot winning, since Atlas is also really good at messing up Cataloguer.

Round 14: Loss vs Ctz (Dive Lat)

First, just want to shoutout the legend that is Andrew Cortez. I know we're both going into the game X-4, with top cut at stake, on stream and I'm playing against one of my favourite streamers and content creators from back in the day. He effortlessly cracks jokes and makes the whole thing a blast, and I don't even feel the nerves for a single moment (which I actually suffer from a lot, and use coffee jitters to help take the edge off).

For the match itself, this was ironically the only game that felt unwinnnable to me. A combination of a really late Red Planet Couriers and Atlas snipe from HQ and later R&D left me floundering, and the final trickshot to simply pluck 5 more points of the top was a relief to me, even knowing that my worlds run had come to an end. I had both Atlas and Biotic in hand pretty fast, and if I got the Couriers earlier maybe the game would have gone wildly different. But these draws happen, and I couldn't think of a better match to go out on.

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Closing Thoughts

All in all, this worlds was an absolute blast, and I'll certainly treasure every memory I have of it, from getting donuts with the gang in the morning on the way to the Hyatt, to the R+ induced panic on Friday night where I insidiously whispered false promises of an Argus Crackdown PE, to finally meeting so many names and personalities I've watched and chatted with online and learning that each and every one were just as great in person, if not more so.

Shoutouts

Jai, for being an awesome friend and event coach, letting me know lunch is a misplay and that the neon static poker chip set was a good pickup.

The King, for letting me crib his Crew Hosh when I didn't have the reps or confidence to bring the Swift Lat.

Each and every one of the TAI Breakers, for testing games, offering feedback, encouragement and memes. I could not think of a better group to be in, you all honestly are a driving force what I find amazing about Netrunner

NSG for an immaculate event and continued support of the game we all love.

My opponents all weekend, for sharing great games and great stories.

My mother, for letting me borrow her mahjong tiles to use as click trackers and is watching as I type this.

And literally everyone I met and said hi to, it was fantastic to finally physically connect with the larger global community <3

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Oh, and for those still wondering, EVERYONE cut the clot.

Good hunting, everyone~! ^w^