The Battleground
So, let’s preface this whole thing to say I’ve been waiting in anticipation of this tournament for a while now. I don’t love having to travel a long distance to play in tournaments, and I just don’t like having to go to New York in general, so when I heard that Redcap’s Corner, my LGS, was hosting regionals this year, I preregistered instantly and every game I played became regionals testing. I knew because Philadelphia locals travel and play against players from New Jersey, Maryland, and Delaware that there would be a lot of strong talent showing up, but I also knew that the Philadelphia players were some of the best and that we had a great opportunity to defend our home turf.
The real preparation began when Honor and Profit was spoiled. I had been fooling around with a Replicating Perfection glacier deck even before Caprice hit, and knew it was borderline playable and stood up to more scrutiny than db0’s Untrashable version. With Caprice, Pup, Komainu, and The Future Perfect on the way, I knew RP was set for an overhaul, and the first thing I did when the cards became available was put together a list starting with 3 Komainu, 3 Tsurugi, 3 Pup. With Atman and the Anarch breakers dominating tournaments for a long time, troubling the runner with a lot of subroutines has been the best way of making them spend their money. I put the first draft of my new RP deck in my article about the glacier archetype, and heard a lot of good things back from people who tried it.
At the same time as the new Jinteki toys dropped, Andromeda, the runner I had been playing since I picked up the game, was an easy fit for the two most powerful runner cards in Honor and Profit, Security Testing and Legwork. Security Testing is like a Sneakdoor/Kati Jones that puts instant pressure on every corp server, builds your Datasuckers, and costs you absolutely nothing, making it an amazing turn 1 play when you’re trying to dump 3-4 cards while building your economy. Legwork is essentially a much-better HQ interface, which has always been borderline playable in criminal, that you can recur with Same Old Thing. It also gives you an alternate late-game multi access plan to R&D Interface, which is just great because it increases your flexibility while potentially saving you influence.
The NBN Tax Man deck I had been playing before H&P took a hit, however. PPVP Kate decks had access to an amazing, tag-proof economy package going late, and Security Testing in Andromeda meant that my Marked Accounts and PAD campaigns could turn into a liability against the best runner deck, so I began to take RP very seriously as an alternative, despite being concerned about finishing matches in time in a tournament. A combination of encouraging results all over the place with similar decks and reassurance from my friends playing the deck, including SneakySly, and Philadelphians Tom McIntosh, Corey Arnold and Brendan Huffman, I decided to run with it. A major factor was that it turned out to be the deck I was playing the most, which I think should be everyone’s primary deciding factor when it comes to choosing a deck for a tournament which they actually plan on winning. Being able to play quickly can put your opponent on the back foot psychologically, while also helping to avoid unfinished matches, and knowing how the average opponent reacts to your deck lets you know when you can try something tricky and expect good results, or prepare for their tricks in advance.
The local heroes: Corey, Brendan, and Tom
Here are the lists I registered:
Hybrid Parasite Andy (45 cards)
Andromeda: Dispossessed Ristie
Event (18)
3 Account Siphon
3 Dirty Laundry
2 Emergency Shutdown
1 Infiltration
2 Inside Job
1 Legwork
3 Special Order
3 Sure Gamble
Hardware (6)
1 Clone Chip
3 Desperado
1 Plascrete Carapace
1 RAD Interface
Resource (9)
1 Bank Job
2 Kati Jones
2 Mr. Li
2 Same Old Thing
2 Security Testing
Icebreaker (7)
1 Corroder
3 Faerie
1 Femme Fatale
1 Mimic
1 Yog.0
Program (5)
3 Datasucker
2 Parasite
Honor and Perfection (49 cards)
Jinteki: Replicating Perfection
Agenda (9)
3 NAPD Contract
3 Nisei MK II
3 The Future Perfect
Asset (10)
3 Jackson Howard
1 PAD Campaign
3 Mental Health Clinic
3 Sundew
Upgrade (4)
2 Ash 2X3ZB9CY
2 Caprice Nisei
Operation (7)
3 Celebrity Gift
3 Hedge Fund
1 Interns
Barrier (6)
3 Eli 1.0
1 Himitsu-Bako
1 Wall of Thorns
1 Wraparound
Code Gate (4)
2 Quandary
2 Tollbooth
Sentry (9)
3 Komainu
3 Pup
3 Tsurugi
There are few things that need explaining in my runner deck. I had been talking with Jesse Vandover, who already had two regionals under his belt, and decided that his Andromeda was closer to what I wanted to play than what I was testing with. It took until a week before the tournament for us to learn that Upstalk would certainly not be legal, and most of my runner testing was centered around how to deal with Lotus Field, (-1 Clone Chip, +1 Knight). I am a big fan of Quality Time, but went with Mr. Li because the two matchups I most feared were NBN and RP, and I really wanted both 1 RDI for NBN, (it’s very helpful to have if they ever score an Astro or land Midseasons), and access to as many Parasites as possible for RP, and just because it’s a super busted card. The one Bank Job may have been a mistake; I missed my 2nd Plascrete, and I didn’t play the Bank Job all day, (though it was mostly because I just didn’t draw it). However, on a different day, I might not have faced as much scorched and landed some Bank Jobs.
The Replicating Perfection deck hasn’t gone through many changes at all. I initially was trying out an Ichi 2.0 over the 2nd Tollbooth, but it wasn’t as reliable. The place you most often want Tollbooth is on the inside of your scoring remote, (preferably behind an Eli or two), so I bailed on that plan despite the potential upside of landing a critical tag to cripple the runner’s econ. I don’t like spending the last influence on a Shadow, as it seems to me like a shitty 4th Pup, and I like Wraparound better than Ice Wall because Parasites are more concerning than $1. The one change I made from the list in the article is -1 Fetal AI, +1 The Future Perfect, and I still am not sure which was better. I added the 3rd TFP because I was concerned about time. Having to score 4 agendas in a game simply takes forever, and if you ever draw the Fetal, you will go out of your way to score something else almost every time. Having the ability to flatline a runner who has been hit by a Komainu is certainly nice, and the runner winning a TFP psi-game can be a big hit, but in the end, I decided to play more of the Agenda that I actually wanted to score.
The day of the tournament, I woke up around 10:00 AM and made the 15 minute drive to Redcap’s with Jesse Merlin (@Jerklin), my neighbor. He is an unsung but truly great player who had decided to bring NBN Tax and Parasite Gabe, the two decks he’s been playing almost exclusively since we learned to play together in his living room. Being able to wake up late and play on home turf is of huge psychological value. We were going to get the opportunity to play on a good night’s rest, while many others had to cram into cars and take a trip before playing for 13 hours. The local regulars all made it out, of course, along with Apreche, Chris Hinkes and the New York crew, players from all around New Jersey, and Jesse Vandover and all the Marylanders. So, for those counting, that’s two previous regional’s winners, (one repeat winner), and a generally strong field.
Nothing but brotherly love in this city!
A lot of us had round 1 byes, (I think 15 in total), so I took the opportunity to talk Netrunnin’ with people from the surrounding area, grab an italian hoagie from down the street, and look for a 3rd Desperado. I actually didn’t own a third core set up until this point, and figured, as usual, that I could just borrow the cards I needed from friends not playing them. However, my friends were surprisingly intelligent that day and didn’t bring anything but their decks, so I was forced to support my local gaming store and actually buy a core set. I actually missed hearing how many players were at the store during the 11:00 player meeting, as I was busy writing down my decks and counting the cards, (pile shuffling is not a good method of randomization, but it is a great way to reliably count cards). I think it was 86, as I saw the round one pairings listed 35 tables and one odd-number-of-players bye, and heard there were 15 superbyes. We were going to play 6 rounds of swiss with a cut to the top 16 for double elimination. (EDIT: It turns out we had 87 players, not 86, 17 of which had superbyes).
Round 2 vs Angel (HB Fast Advance, Kate)
Angel recognized me and let me know we had played online before and looked a little disheartened to be paired with me in round 1. He won the roll and chose to play Corp first.
He had a very reasonable opening with two ICE on HQ and an Eli on R&D. I also had a good start, laying down a few economy operations and Desperado, but no Security Testing. I clicked through his Eli one time and saw an Inazuma, which informed my play going forward and made my Parasite that much better when he rezzed it in front of his R&D Eli. I trashed some asset economy and a Jackson Howard, but failed to check one remote server, which I realized contained a 2nd Jackson once he Biotic’d out a Beta Test and flipped an Ichi on R&D. I had scored a couple of points out of HQ by then, though, as he was keeping his ICE a secret and I got what I suppose was a lucky access. He managed to score a Gila Hands soon afterwards as well, but his new economy turned on him when I siphoned his accounts. A few random accesses and trashed SanSans later, and I got to 7 and ended the game.
The first game concluded in about 15 minutes, which was great news for me for game 2, but I still stepped on the gas pedal in a big way, ready to avoid time-outs at all costs. My opening hand consisted of Tollbooth, Sundew, and three! Jackson Howards, which is a snap keep against Kate, as defending centrals ASAP is not of huge concern and Jackson is the most important card in the deck to draw. I drew a Celebrity Gift, showed him the goods, and slapped the Tollbooth on R&D to fend off a potential Indexing. He played a Daily Casts turn 1 and managed to take some stabs at R&D on the early turns with less than $3, so I just let him in, wary of rezzing a Tollbooth for less than full value. He trashed two of my Jacksons, which was fine with me, as I had the third ready, but didn’t actually end up needing it, as my draws were superb. He went broke Femming my unrezzed Tollbooth, so I just trashed it for a Komainu and built my remote, (a play dangerously vulnerable to scavenge, but I was not about to spend 8 on the Tollbooth just to tax him for 1). He failed to reset the Femme, and I started to draw some Agendas, right on time. I quickly went for the points, fueled by an unchecked Sundew behind a cheap EtR, relying on his lack of money to let me score a TFP, an NAPD, and finally a Nisei out of my remote before I really got to understand what his deck was even doing.
(4-0, 8 Prestige)
Round 3 vs ? (Scorched Cerebral Imaging, Opus Kate)
My opponent managed to make a big misplay before the round even started, as he took his deck out of his box with a Scorched Earth face-up on the bottom of his deck staring up at me. I knew I was going to have to be careful, though I was planning on being as careful as possible against any CI anyway, as the Scorch plan is becoming pretty trendy. He won the roll and decided to corp first.
I had a very reasonable opening hand, which included Security Testing and Desperado, along with a Parasite, which can be huge against often ICE-light CI builds. He opened with an ICE on HQ and a Blue Level Clearance, and I immediately began to race his money with my Security Testing, as he didn’t have ICE for archives. A Datasucker prompted him to rez his HQ Ichi, which left him Siphon-vulnerable, but I didn’t have it in my hand, so his economy was left somewhat unchecked for a long time, allowing him to play 9 Restructures with Reclamation Order. I scored a few points on randoms, but whiffed on a Legwork. Eventually, I saw a Janus, which I judged to be on R&D, which I just ran on Click 1 every turn so that he couldn’t hit me for more than one BD. He declined to rez for fear of Shutdown for a while, and then Triple Biotic’d a Priority Requisition to rez it for free. I then shut it down, found a Siphon, and pulled ahead. I managed to win on accesses before he got another agenda scored, but never did manage to locate my Plascrete.
Game 2 was a slaughterhouse, though. I kept a pretty iffy 5-ICE hand and drew lots of agendas and little economy. Meanwhile, he played a turn 1 Opus, which can be a real nightmare, followed by a Femme on my HQ and a modded HQ Interface, which quickly tore my hand apart, allowing him to steal a Nisei and a Future Perfect. I ditched an NAPD to archives on a turn where I accidentally drew an extra card and gifted to him, but he sniped the last two points he needed off the top of R&D after Parasiting my ICE.
(5-1, 10 Prestige)
Round 4 vs Tom McIntosh (RP Glacier, PPVP Kate)
Tom is one of the best players in Philadelphia and we were both pretty unhappy about both having to play each other this early with a loss under each of our belts, and having to play each other with each of us playing the notoriously slow RP deck that has taken over our meta. Tom is a methodical player, so I couldn’t expect him to follow my lead and play absurdly quickly, however, it turned out to make no difference at all. I won the roll and chose to run first, though I later decided that I should probably be corping first.
I had a mediocre starting hand, but it had a Parasite and a Clone Chip along with Desperado, so I kept it. I failed to realize, though, that those cards aren’t very good without Faerie to scout out the ICE. He played ICE, ICE, and took a credit. I decided I needed to get a little ballsy and get him to rez ICE so I could kill it, and checked HQ after playing Gamble, Desperado, (somewhere you usually want an EtR vs Criminal). Naturally, he had Komainu there, and I lost 7 cards like a true idiot. With one click left, I figured I’d check R&D, as I thought Pup or Quandary were the only things he could rez. It turns out he added a Yagura to the deck, so I shuffled up for game 2 laughing that at least we didn’t have to worry about time.
Game 2, he came out with Kati Jones to start, but no PPVP. I had a lot of econ assets in my hand and an all around strong start, so he ended up needing to take money off Kati frequently to trash things. A pup in front of what turned out to be a dedicated economy server really slowed him down. He made an equally comical but slightly less devastating mistake than I did when he ran my Sundew server without the money to trash it, and so it stuck around for a few extra turns after that while he was busy drawing cards and using Kati. By the time he found his Prepaids and non-Kati economy, he was in dire straights. I scored some points while he was broke in a Toll/Quandary/Caprice server, and found an Ash to defend my R&D in anticipation of his Parasite for my ICE there, and quickly re ICEd after he played it. His Atman on 0 wasn’t breaking much ICE, and it was clear that he wasn’t used to playing his deck, because 0-Strength Atman is usually better off at another number, as you can just kill 0-Strength ICE with Parasites most of the time, and the only thing I have at 0 is Quandary. Drawing all 3 Sundews, and 2 Clinics really helped my economy and hurt his this game, and we both decided that Kati was the wrong choice for that deck after I scored out and won the game.
(6-2, 12 Prestige)
Round 5 vs Jesse Vandover (Parasite Andy, NBN Midseasons)
Another matchup neither of us wanted. Jesse had just been swept by local hero Jesse Merlin, who now sat undefeated, and immediately had to play against me afterwards. While we both expected each other to be a big source of competition in this tournament, neither of us wanted to see the other before the elimination rounds. His Parasite-focused Andy build could really hurt my RP deck on the right draw, and Midseasons can be very scary for Andy if they play turn 1 Sweeps Week to eliminate your usual head start and threaten a tagstorm. I won the Roll and decided to Corp.
This game was a real pain in the ass. He started with both Testing and Kati and had plenty of money to trash my Assets, along with Mr. Li early. He made good use of all 3 of his Inside Jobs, ruining my Tollbooth-protected Sundews. I kept my head above water by drawing some timely Gifts despite having lost the battle to set up drip, and decided to start scoring in a somewhat whimpy server with my HQ protected from Siphons by a Caprice behind a Wall of Thorns and some smaller ICE. I got an NAPD and a TFP scored, but that put me low on credits and gave him an opportunity to come into my HQ and play a Psi game where I only had one credit available to Psi with. Because I was poor, I figured he would do what I usually do and bet $0 for value, so I spent my last dollar kicking him out before clicking for $3 and then topdecking a Gifts to recover. With each of us on game point, I decided to go for the win with an NAPD despite him having a winning line of play, because I didn’t think I would get a better opportunity considering he had great long-term econ and I didn’t. His winning line was to bounce off my Archives Eli, (god, Security Testing is busted), run my remote to get me to Rez Caprice, trashing my HQ Caprice, Siphon me, and then run the remote again, putting me at too little money to both protect my NAPD and score it next turn. However, he was unaware that I could rez a Caprice with one already on the table, and thus assumed it was Ash or some sort of bluff, and played accordingly. I payed $2 into the Psi, which made it impossible for him to both access and steal the NAPD with only $3 after the Psi and Desperado trigger, and took a nailbiter game one.
Game 2 he got the dreaded turn 1 Sweeps on me, but I managed to keep up with Desperado-Testing. I stole an Astro off R&D with each of us on about 15 credits, and then saw a Midseasons on my next access. He could have spent a lot of money on it, but decided on a sort of half-ass trace which I happily payed for. If he had spent a lot, I think I would have had to pay down all the tags but 7-9, keeping him out of Beale range while hedging against a possible Closed Accounts. Regardless, he managed to draw about a billion agendas and few ICE, so I coasted for the win after that, all but stamping out Vandover’s dream of the triple crown.
(8-2, 16 Prestige)
Round 6 vs ? (Andromeda, TWIY Astrobiotics)
Going into this round, none of us were sure how many 16s would make the top 16, but I was pretty sure that if I took one game I’d be a lock. I was sitting next to Jesse Merlin at the top tables, which was a great feeling. And was feeling great after sweeping Vandover. I won the roll and chose to Corp.
I had an excellent start to finish game 1, setting up a Sundew server quickly protected by a Quandary he had no answer for because his RDI was not a Parasite. He went for R&D and let me set up with 2 Clinics, a PAD, and the Sundew, gaining me an absurd $5 per turn. RP can give up early accesses because the agendas are such a pain to steal, but he managed to whiff anyway aside from a lost TFP Psi. Tollbooth/Eli/Ash let me score a Nisei, and when all that happens the game is basically over, so I’ll spare you the rest.
Game 2 was a matchup that I am normally unhappy to play because I feel like my opponent can just luck draw me out without much opportunity to outplay aside from getting a few more random accesses, which may or may not be fruitful, but I had great economy and trashed all of his SanSans. He couldn’t find an Astro, so he just Biotic’d a Beale, which is a play that deck never wants to make. I found my RDI in the very matchup I included it for, and it did a ton of work locking him out of his deck and getting me all the way to 7 in combination with a stolen Breaking News from HQ.
(10-2, 20 Prestige)
After we cut to the top 16, Jesse Merlin and I were both at 10-2 and sat at 2nd and 3rd, respectively. Unfortunately for a couple of the other locals, Tom McIntosh and Brendan Huffman, they barely missed the cut with 16 prestige, but Jesse and I were both glad to see that Philly managed to snuff out the tournament hopes of Vandover and Hinkes, the two visiting regional champions, and we felt like favorites going into the elimination rounds, unlikely to play each other early because of our high seeds.
Elimination Round 1 vs ? (HB EtF)
I learned before this round that in the new tournament structure, the person who chooses sides is allowed to know his opponent’s IDs. He told me he was playing HB, which I feel pretty comfortable playing against, whether it’s FA or Red Coats, so I chose to run.
Once again, against HBFA, I saw my opponent’s Inazuma and played around it before Parasiting the ICE behind it. I drew just about every economy operation in the deck with the help of a little luck and Mr. Li, so I was easily able to trash most of his gas. In what seemed like a repeat of my first swiss round, I limited his FA by trashing SanSans and pressured R&D. I paid through his HQ Heimdall with Corroder to Siphon him after he scored a few points because I had seen Closed Accounts and didn’t want to get broke by having to float after clicking through it, and that fueled my ability to keep his R&D in check. If I remember correctly, I delivered the finishing blow with a legwork for 2 Agendas that were backlogged in his HQ.
(11-2)
Elimination Round 2 vs ? (Weyland Tag & Bag)
My opponent proudly declared that he was playing Weyland after I won the roll to choose sides, and I happily told him to play that rather than his Andy deck. I consider the matchup to be nearly unlosable, though I did have one less Plascrete than I normally do, and he was clearly a competent and longtime Weyland player.
My turn one Testing once again managed to race an absurd amount of operation economy, and his HQ and R&D being protected by only a Quandary and Enigma meant that I had a great midgame plan of finding Yog and running amok in his centrals. I had no reason to run my Corroder into a Shutdown because he drew no barriers, but he did manage to get to two Faeries while he built a remote which I assumed had an Archer on the inside of. I let him score two 3-advanced Atlas in his remote despite holding Femme and Inside Job because if it were a Snare I could have died to SEA/Scorch, so he got to a scary 5 points with a Hostile. By now, I had Yog and was checking his Centrals every turn. He had 2 Snares trashed at this point, one of which had hit me from R&D, one of which was trashed in the remote, so I took a gamble and ran another unadvanced card in his remote with my Femme, and luckily, it was a False Lead rather than the last Snare. I then saw a Biotic in his HQ after getting Yog online and panicked that he could score his last Atlas and win despite me locking him out of his Grim/Archer remote with Femme and shutting down the Archer. I went nuts on his R&D as he went nuts drawing for his last Atlas, and I managed to find The Cleaners to win before he could get what he needed.
(12-2)
Elimination Round 3 vs Jesse Merlin (Parasite Gabe)
Finally matched up with Jerklin, I had what I consider to be a great matchup for RP having run twice already. We were both really happy to be where we were, and walked to 7-11 to grab a bite before the match. He wasn’t quite as happy about the matchup, which we have played together a lot without him having a ton of success. If I drew economy and ICE to lock him out of HQ and Sneakdoor, he had little chance of winning.
My opening was excellent, with Hedge Fund and HQ Tollbooth to put a stop to Gabe’s ability from the get-go. I think Jesse was getting tired or just thought he had to get somewhat lucky to win, and went for a Siphon right off the bat and got stuffed by the booth. He checked R&D and saw Wraparound, which is conveniently cheap enough to rez early and a huge pain in the ass to Parasite, so I put that in front of the Tollbooth and put another Tollbooth on archives while setting up some small drip he didn’t have the economy to trash all of. Pretty much totally locked out of HQ, he was left clicking for draws to find I-don’t-know-what to save him, and failed to find it. After I scored two Niseis in a Komainu-Quandary-Ash remote, it looked pretty awful for him. Not one to drag out a losing game, he jovially ran into a Tsurugi with 2 cards and no killer so we could get on with our lives.
(13-2)
Elimination Round 4, Winner’s Bracket Finals, vs Ben (Andromeda)
One of the Baltimores, Ben was rocking the Vandover package of Andy/Midseasons. I chose to corp after seeing him play a somewhat sloppy semifinals game vs Tennin on the runner side just before. I was also somewhat worried about the possibility of getting sweeps’d in the Midseasons matchup.
Apreche caught this round on video, so I’ll spare you a ton of details and just link you to the video. I went ahead with my standard lightning-quick play, and my opponent made the mistake of following suit. He wasn’t as comfortable with the matchup as I was, so the fast play benefitted me. My economy ended up slightly better than his. In addition to a lot of small drips, I drew a bunch of Celebrity Gifts and went nuts. I used my economy advantage to start scoring agendas: I had more than enough points to win in hand, so I overtaxed him in my remote by going for four scores, (one unsuccessful) in quick succession rather than trying to block up my archives from his Testing. He took a Future Perfect out of my remote, but had no other agendas stolen, and that left him without enough money to get in and steal the last agenda, which I drew a Caprice to protect on the penultimate turn.
(14-2)
Elimination Round 5, Finals, vs Jesse Merlin (NBN Tax)
South Philly showdown!
There is no way I could explain to you how awesome this felt. Not only had we defended the home turf at Redcap’s, but we were already a lock for first and second. It’s really something special that I could play Jesse in the finals of this very large and difficult tournament, a year after we first opened the core set box at his home in South Philly and learned to play together from the video tutorial and the rule book. There were no bad results anymore. As far as either of us were concerned, we both already won. I jammed my new plastic Andy ID on the table and we were ready to face off again. This game was also caught on tape.
Jesse thought for a second before saying “Well, I guess I have to keep this!” I also kept, a hand with Gamble, Desperado, and 3 Siphons, which normally isn’t that great because of how well our old NBN deck could spend all of its money before an attempted Siphon. However, Jesse started absurdly, with double Sweeps Week, install in a remote, (no ICE!). The crowd was audibly impressed with that, but they were about to get real turn 1 fireworks, which just about made up for my earlier round 4 turn 1 flatline. Without even thinking whether I wanted to check his R&D or play Desperado, I slammed all 3 Siphons on the table at once! The 45 credit swing was going to prove extremely difficult to overcome; I knew Jesse’s list, and therefore knew there were no Psychographics or Closed Accounts to punish me for my theatrics, though I had to be careful with the money still, because his deck had lots of things for me to burn it on, and I was going to be unable to play a Kati Jones after starting with 6 tags. He got an Eli and a Caduceus on R&D, which was where I most wanted to attack him, but I drew into two Parasites and played them in succession, as well as investing in an RDI and my Yog. He did what he had to and trashed both Eli and Cad for new ICE, getting his economy back into reasonable condition with a Marked Acconuts behind an ICE. He rezzed the new ICE on me, a Tollbooth which took me down to low credits without much to show for my spending thus far. He put what I knew must have been an Ash behind his Tollbooth, so I switched focus to HQ, finding a Mimic to deal with the Caduceus there. He then spent his last 5 credits making a 4-strength Draco there, which allowed me to Inside Job his R&D and trash the Ash behind the Tollbooth without having to deal with it being rezzed. At this point, we were both broke, but I was a little more set up than he was, and I drew into 2 Security Testings that allowed me to reenergize my economy without making myself super vulnerable to an asset-trash. Some Dirty Laundries after that comboed quite nicely, and I was sitting in a great position to start hammering his centrals before he could score an Astro. The accesses were friendly to me after that, and I pulled the points I needed to close out the game and become 2014 Philadelphia Regional Champion!
(15-2 Final Record: 8-1 as Runner, 7-1 as Corp)
Overall, I was super happy with my deckbuilding choices and recommend both lists card for card for anyone looking to play Glacier or Criminal. All of my testing was vindicated for the most part. The only slot I am a little shaky on is the Bank Job, which didn’t get played, but as I said before, that’s a meta call. If you’re looking to play Parasite Andy post-H&P, just cut the Clone Chip for a Knight so that Lotus Field doesn’t ruin you.
After some congratulations all around from a huge group of players still hanging around to spectate, Jesse and I walked back to my car and went back the way we came like we do on so many Wednesday nights, discussing card choices and the future of the meta and whatnot. Everything couldn’t have gone better. Thank you to everyone at Redcap’s for running the tournament, thank you to everyone who came out to play, and thank you to everyone in Philly for making us the single best Netrunner city on the planet.
Note: If any of you have some of the names of my unknown opponents or corrections to my memory of what happened in my games, please let me know and I’ll make changes to the article. I’ll add the links to Apreche’s videos as soon as they go up on youtube.