Round 1 vs Chris with Jinteki – Personal Evolution and The Professor

Chris picked to Corp first, and was playing shell game Jinteki, after a standard burst of economy on my turn one I dropped a Faerie and started running. I managed to score an early Braintrust by using Faerie to get past a Neural Katana on R&D, then I proceeded to run a number of the card he played down either when there was little risk or I had made him poor from rezzing or Account Siphon. I managed to score a False Lead and another Braintrust from the remote, but also ate a Snare and a one advanced Junebug along the way. Being careful and drawing up, running on click one and all these standard things will do you really well against Jinteki, I was able to pick up the remaining points from R&D after I got a breaker down for the Neural Katana, won 7 – 0.

We swap and Chris starts rig building, so I kick off my asset economy, there is a point in the first few turns where I play a San San into a new remote and the following turn he installs a Professional Contacts, costing him most of his credits. I use the San San the next turn to score, and then the turn after, getting me to four points. He sets up a Nerve Agent and runs a lightly protected HQ a few times scoring an Efficiency Committee but doesn't trash the San San due to lack of credits, I Protect the San San and then get rich while waiting for the agendas, which I score as soon as I see them. Win 7 – 2.

Prestige = 4

Round 2 vs Az with Jinteki – Replicating Perfection and Exile

I decide to corp first, and lock down centrals with the huge amount of money my asset based economy is giving me. He is using draw cards like crazy and then Freelance Coding Contracting them into archives. I get a San San set up in a remote and ice it up, he gets a Deep Red and a Pawn set up and I see what is going on, I rez San San and score, the following turn I manage to keep him out of my San San and score again. He gets set up and decides to R&D lock me scoring two points from R&D, so I score my last agenda on the San San. Then we play the game where he runs R&D and I draw through, he then manages to get into HQ but misses the 1 in 5 which I score for the win 7 – 2

As Jinteki he plays a shell game, which I largely ignore and try and R&D lock him as he doesn't see much ice and the ice he does see he plays on HQ to prevent Account Siphon. I manage to score early from R&D and set up my breaker suite, but he just cannot keep me out and other than a Gila Hands Arcology he manages to get through I see all the agendas before he does. Turned out to be a short game. Win 7 – 1

Prestige = 8

Round 3 vs Filip with Weyland BABW and Chaos Theory

He corps first and is rolling in money very quickly, he rezzes a Tollbooth on HQ but I have access to R&D for a few turns and see some big ice such as Flare. This tells me he likely isn't running the Scorched Earth combo so I start ditching Plascretes. He manages to rez a Hadrians Wall over R&D and start locking me out of centrals. He scores a Hostile Takeover and then a Veterans Program in his remote, but I force him to rez a Curtain Wall to do so. The game turns quite quickly when he installs an agenda and the following turn I Sneakdoor Beta and Shutdown the Curtain Wall, I manage to score some more points from HQ and then Shutdown the Hadrians Wall which he cannot afford to rez again. The changes to the Andy deck to deal with larger ice really shone through here, win 7 – 2

We swap and I manage to get a remote server set up and score an early Gila Hands Arcology which sets me up for money for the rest of the game. I secure central servers and get a San San down, and manage to score another 2 pointer. He manages to make an early Indexing run and score two points as I start locking down my servers more. This game is pretty brutal, as I lock him out of R&D with hard ETR ice and taxing ice and just wait for agendas to FA, eventually winning 7 – 2.

Prestige = 12

Round 4 vs Sam with NBN TWIY* and Andromeda

He corps first, and does a standard opening, I burst economy and get a Faerie and a Corroder out first turn, on the second turn I run R&D and he doesn't rez, and I score an Astro, so I run again and get a Beale, run again and get another Astro. A few turns later I pull a Breaking News from HQ for the win. Random luck is random... Feel really bad for Sam, as there was nothing that he could do about it.

I corp and only see one ice after a mulligan, so protect HQ in case of Account Siphon. He plays a Sure Gamble, drops two R&DI and runs, but doesn't see anything. I draw a Roto and put it in front of R&D, he runs again next turn and I don't rez and he doesn't score, I think he sees seven cards without getting an agenda. I start to get going with economy and manage to get a San San server set up. On his third R&D run he pulls 3 points, I score using the San San and it forces him into a run and I trash his Corroder with a Roto. I manage to score another four points and just need to get my last agenda. I manage to trash his second Corroder and think I have the game tied up and so just draw for my agenda. He Test Runs back his Corroder, and makes an R&D run netting him another three points. I have a rezzed San San, two Biotic Labor and a lot of cash but just cannot get my hands on an agenda because of the two R&DI. He makes a run and doesn't see anything so I use Jackson Howard to shuffle, but don't draw an agenda, so I draw but nothing, draw again and get a Vitruvius, which I Biotic, Biotic and then score on the San San for the win. Crazy close game.

Prestige = 16

Round 5 vs Taurean with Weyland BABW and Gabriel Santiago

I corp first, and am able to get some cheap ETR ice up on my central servers early, I get some asset economy going and play some points behind a single Wall of Static, the first one, a Gila gets Inside Jobbed, but the second one gets left and so I score the ABT and activate it because I have a Jackson Howard out. This locks the servers down more and I am able to Fast Advance the rest of my points without to much issue. Win 7 – 1

When he corps, I am a little worried, I have a good starting hand, but it doesn't have any Plascrete and I know Taurean is running the Accelerated Diagnostics Scorched Earth combo. I decide to keep as I'm not sure mulliganing for one card is a good plan vs a solid hand. I get my economy going and aim to out credit him, this is tricky but I manage to keep ahead thanks to Kati and burst economy. However, since I am not running much he scores both a Hostile Takeover and a Cleaners. This does give me a significant economy advantage and so I am able to run R&D which he has only lightly protected. I score some points and he starts building up cash so I get an R&DI down and try to R&D lock him, I manage to to score a Cleaners and then build up credits so he can't combo me to death. I make a final run on R&D and get the winning points, however this game was a lot closer than I realised, as he had a way of comboing out a 5 point agenda from hand when he had the perfect cards and 16 credits, which he did, he just needed me to run so he could activate the Power Shutdown. Win 7 – 4

Prestige = 20

According to the system data I scored 100 points (10 per game) and dropped 21 points, which is just over 2 points on average, so cannot complain, and it left me as 1st seed.

Top 8

The top 8 looked like this: