There was another Netrunner tournament this Sunday with 8 entrants. We had two new legal data packs with Old Hollywood and The Universe of Tomorrow so a lot of new things were tried. I heard a rumor that a full playset of both Aesop’s Pawnshop and Wyldside were available so I decided to not take my jankiest ideas and play Noise and Blue Sun. The Noise build was practically unchanged from what I’ve played previously. The Blue Sun was a new glacier build with space ice and the new agendas Hollywood Renovation and The Future is Now. I wanted the threat of scorch and I also threw in two snares for extra spice.

Swiss

With 8 players we did 4 rounds of swiss, without any cut.

Match 1: Dan, Valencia/Haarpsichord

vs Valencia

I tried to push a Hollywood Renovation early, but it was snagged with blackmail. It was a big gamble which unfortunately didn’t pan out. This was a kinda large mistake, but in the end it didn’t matter. I got my huge ice up and running and I forced him out of my servers. I made a big play with Hollywood Renovation where I fast advanced a The Future is Now with the 5th and 6th advancement tokens and the game was basically over from that point. I think I flatlined him in the end, but that’s more of a symbolic victory as I could have just as easily scored out.

vs Haarpsichord

Super close, he had scored a lot of points and I was sitting with clot. In the end he installs 3 new remotes, one behind an ice. I push through the ice to steal the first agenda and I imp the second one (now the Imp is without counters). So I install another program, trashing the imp, then trashing the third remote with the imp. All new remotes were agendas. After this my victory was clear as a run on archives sealed the deal.

4 points, 2-0

Match 2: Harald, Haarpsichord, Haylee

vs Haarpsichord

I felt like I was behind the whole game, but so did Harald. In the end I managed to snag another very close win, but I’m not sure how that happened. All my Aesop’s were in the bottom of my stack but somehow I managed to steal/imp enough to make up for it. What decided things was a Clot hidden on my street peddler, which he overlooked. Without it I should have lost the game.

vs Haylee

I allowed some accesses to R&D, but mostly no big damage was done. Then I sealed the game up and the win was basically clear. I had a public support ticking down but we ran out of time so I got one point for being up to 6 agenda points. Maybe I could have played it faster to get the victory on time, but I don’t know.

7 points, 4-0

Match 3: Henrik, NEH, Chaos Theory

vs NEH

I got set up fairly well and I managed to trash a sansan early. I had clot and everything was going alright. I hit a Snare in a remote which took me off guard a bit. The turn after he made another remote and I contemplated running on it, I did have imp tokens after all, but I decided it was fine to possibly allow him a single agenda. Big mistake as I installed cards down to 3 cards in hand and I died to a breaking news and scorch. For some reason I was convinced he was running the fast advance version, or some kind of nearpad, but the reality is I played too fast and didn’t consider everything properly. Live (or die) and learn I guess.

vs Chaos Theory

After I rezzed an Archer on the remote it was basically game over as he couldn’t break it with the exception of datasuckers/parasiters, which quickly got used. I iced up my centrals with huge space ice and I could simply score out and win. He tried a big Vamp play against HQ, but on the last click and with a tag he died against double scorch after taking down my curtain wall.

9 points, 5-1

Match 4: Johannes, Haarpsichord/Ian

vs Haarpsichord

A blistering game where he rushed out agendas and I tried to punish/steal with Imp. The game slowed down when I had a Clot on board and I pushed up to 6 points. A run on archives with a Jackson reshuffle and then triggering Utopia shard sealed the deal.

vs Ian

We laughed about our decks being super late game focused and he stayed true to his words and he installed a ton of resources, three Gang Signs and two HQ interfaces. I was kinda agenda flooded but I managed to push them out in Archives with double Jackson. The game was decided in a funny way I think, even if I misplayed it quite a bit (I blame tiredness or something!).

I had Hollywood Renovation with a bunch of advancement tokens, The Future is Now in a naked remote and one Snare and one Scorch in my hand. So I advanced Hollywood Renovation 3 times and scored it. He hit a Snare but nothing else with all his accesses. Then I scored The Future is Now and fetched my second Snare from R&D, which he accessed and died to. Naturally the correct play would have been to advance Hollywood Renovation twice, score The Future is Now and fetch the Snare. Now if he hits a Snare I can just scorch him on my last click.

13 points, 7-1

The results

The self critic in me keeps on thinking about the lost game and the game which went to time, but some small part of me tries to point out that things actually went well. I felt fine in all games and it never felt hopeless in any game. I did take “better” or more serious decks and the other guys joked about my very serious decks, but it’s fine. I did accomplish my goal and I even won the tournament, yay!

I managed to achieve my goal and I got to choose a playset of Aesops! I also got a couple of Swordsman and a new deckbox. It’s a little bit sad that I declined the Femme Fatale alt-art as it’s preeetty… But maybe next time.