On this episode: Kampala kicks in the door, eats everything in your fridge and passes out on the couch.

As predicted, Kampala Ascendant has been a fairly big deal. Anarch and Criminal are looking like the big winners out of it with powerhouses like Zer0, Diversion of Funds and PAD Tap. Corpside, Jinteki has received a very powerful new ID in Mti Mwekundu and Weyland gets a nice little boost in High Profile Target. I’m going to include some pre-Kampala decks in this snapshot as well because they’re still very relevant.

RUNNER

The most obvious impact Kampala has had so far is slamming Zer0 into every Anarch deck. I called it my most anticipated card of the cycle and it’s living up to the hype. More importantly, it’s efficient enough that you can now sneak Clan Vengeance into reg Anarch decks instead of having to go all-in on the Vengeance like you did before. Here’s some examples in MaxX and Null. I couldn’t find a list for one in Val (although Spags did win a regional with it) so here’s what I’ve been playing which should be pretty similar. Much like reg decks, your choice between MaxX and Val is whether you want to sacrifice the speed of MaxX for Val’s very even spread of favorable matchups. On the classic reg Anarch side, the Euros second place list is a warm and comfortable pile of synergy. Control MaxX is also well and truly alive and kicking.

Freedom Khumalo is another strong choice that diverges from reg lists due to his strong synergy cards in Yusuf and Virus Breeding Ground. The Fresno-winning deck from phette uses Zer0 and the new Shaper resource Reclaim to strong effect while a Consume build performed very well at Euros. Tagme is inherently strong but can get unbelievably blown out/blown up by High Profile Target. Freedom seems like something of a meta call as he shines in a field of asset spam or where he can get value single accesses to trash things. Something like Jinteki glacier gives him a harder time leveraging his ID ability. Other spicy Anarch choices are TheBigBoy’s control Reina or this hilarious Fear the Masses combo deck.

Criminal is looking to be in a decent spot and four quite distinct archetypes have shown up. Patrick Gower took down Euros with a Security Nexus 419 with extremely good glacier, CTM and midrange matchups thanks to denial through 419’s ability and an absolutely crushing lategame. The latest version includes Diversion of Funds (unsurprisingly) and DDoS to help shore up the early game. Whiteblade took down a Regional with this straightforward build that leverages Aumakua and general aggression with very solid remote busting thanks to Inside Job, Maxwell James and Aumakua. PAD Taps, DoF, Mining Accident and 419 powers help to slow down the Corp. Honorary Sneakdoor boi Asher and co took this aggressive Leela to a great spot, featuring the return of the Sacrificial Construct/Tapwrm interaction we all know and love. Finally, Geist is still very much a thing and today we’re featuring a Pirate deck, notable for many less breakers and many more events and Dorm Computers than other Geists.

There don’t seem to be many Shapers playing the new Kampala cards at the moment, or at least the lists aren’t getting published. Reclaim does seem to fit very nicely into Pirate Hayley. Engolo Kit is theoretically a thing but Magnum Opus decks never really seem to get there. We did see two very exciting builds come out of Euros though. First up is The Colors of Disease, a beautifully strange list that uses Knobkierie (bet you never thought you’d see that outside Freedom) with Imp, Chakana, Cache and Datasucker for sweet value. It’s a Smoke that encourages value single accesses so I’m all for it! TugtetguT brought a very cool Pawnshop Hayley that uses Brahman to strong effect along with the classic Shaper toolbox of one-off programs.

On the minifaction front, there was a reasonable amount of hype for Black Hat in Sunny but there’s no evidence of her existence so far. Adam continues to do Adam things and is sometimes a pirate. Apex is Apex tier.

CORP

Let’s start off with our morally ambiguous clone masters, Jinteki. First off, rushy Palana glacier is really good. Arguably the best deck in the game, in fact. Rotom took down Euros with a really nice build featuring low cost but insanely taxing ice, the best high-end ice in the game that isn’t called Fairchild 3.0, a ton of money, Rashidas, Scarcity of Resources and a sneaky Bio Vault. What’s not to like? There are a ton of possible variants but here’s a couple of my favorites – a Hydra-style toolbox and a more damage-focused version with old mate Stinson.

Mti Mwekundu is the new hotness, and it’s as strong as it is hard to type without checking the spelling. Weirdly, although all the hype/fear was mostly around asset spam so far it’s been glacier variants putting up the wins. Phette’s list is a very standard Jinteki glacier with Stinson included. Team 2X3ZB9CY made the very cool choice to include Sandstorm and Excalibur, giving you a pseudo-Aginfusion ability on top of your own. Grail provides another viable glacier approach. The asset spam version is certainly out there but seems to have less game against Employee Strike and bad publicity. Speaking of which, the one issue that these lists all have in common is a weakness to Strike and Clan Vengeance…which unfortunately is a pretty significant part of the meta.

NBN is in a decent position thanks to the two powerhouses of Azmari and CTM. At the moment there appear to be three main Azmari variants floating around, but there’s a lot of room to manoeuvre within each of those. The 6 agenda suite of 3x SSL and 3x Degree Mill is quite common. Bouncy Bois somehow manages to have a great name, be kind of an Azmari theme deck (what with all the bouncing) and to also be quite good! Masenqo uses the same agenda suite but with Punitive Counterstrike and a ton of taxing ice as an alternate win con. The other approach is a more tempo-based plan using GFI, Beale and Corporate Sales Team. This variant uses lots of must-trash assets to slow down the Runner while this exploits the power of Surveyor (an excellent new ice) along with Jinja City Grid.

On the CTM side, Yeoda recently won the Atlanta regional with an extremely rushy version based off the latest deck from the God of CTM Chris Dyer. Malia Z0L0k4 and Amani Senai provide spicy ways to mess with the Runner’s tempo more, which is where CTM shines. Of note is the pivot to harsher facechecks in the ice suite over the classic Data Ravens. CTM is in kind of a rough spot though as it has some tough matchups against Reg Val and Nexus 419 which are likely to be a big part of the field. It’s a great deck if you’re very skilled with it but you might find it harder to just pick it up and win games compared to its glory days, which all things considered is largely a positive.

Weyland continues to be in a strong position but like Mti this comes with the Clan Vengeance caveat – a lot of their power plays come from holding multiple cards in hand and you don’t want to see them go in the bin. Firstly, we cannot possibly talk about Weyland without discussing the fact that some absolute maniac took 8th at Euros with goddamn Blue Sun in the most Employee Strike infested meta in history. Non-Titan Weyland right now (by which I mostly mean Argus) has a general game plan of playing the rushy/tempo game to either score out or slam the Runner with Hard-Hitting News as many times as possible followed by killing them dead. Titan is as much of a glass cannon as ever with the main distinction in lists being to kill or not to kill. Again, yada yada Vengeance, yada yada DoF.

Gagarin is having a bit of a resurgence thanks to the power of Rashida Jaheem. Meme master CTZ’s list aims to overwhelm with good assets and continually recur them with Team Sponsorship, scoring out or hitting with HHN for the win. This version uses Museum of History with Executive Search Firm to play Rashida as often as possible, which to be honest I can get behind because firing Rashida is fun. Apart from that, it has a similar plan to the above. I’d also be remiss not to mention this Jemison combo deck with multiple routes to victory through flatline and fast advance. You might note that every single deck listed above combines pressuring the Runner with Hard Hitting News in order to win. It’s a good strategy. Finally, Skorpios continues to be around and also has a decent claim to being one of the strongest decks. You might notice that those decks do not run Hard Hitting News, and instead will Batty and Hunter Seeker you into the dirt. This is also a good strategy.

HB is in…not a great spot. The strongest ID they have is Cerebral Imaging and that is not an ID that likes Employee Strike, Diversion of Funds and Clan Vengeance. Pre-Kampala we saw a Moons variant do extremely well at Euros finishing fourth while Reconstruction Contract combo decks finished second and ninth. Boom CI also made an appearance. People’s Champion Timmy Wong did well with a NEXT Design deck that aims to rush out hard before the lategame Runners can get set up.

Thanks for joining us. There might be another mini-Snapshot before Reign and Reverie because it’s mid Regionals? Who knows. Stay tuned for the KITARA AWARDS and Reign and Reverie first impressions!