I have played in roughly 10 Netrunner tournaments.

I have won exactly 0 of them. The best I ever did was top 8 in a 20-person GNK. This is the last year I will allow it to happen.

And if I am going to win a tournament this year, I will first have to take a step back and figure out why I haven’t won one, or why I haven’t consistently done better. Here are 3 reasons I haven’t won a tournament.

1) I make mistakes tournament winners don’t make.

Whizzard stares down the single, unrezzed ICE on HB:EtF’s R&D server. Medium is installed, ready to start loading virus counters and accessing ALL THE CARDS!!! Clone chip on the table. Mimic and Atman in the heap. Plenty of money in the bank.

What is that ICE?

Surely it must be an Architect, right? I’m ready. That mimic can’t wait to get out on the board. I take some cash for clicks 1 and 2. “Click 3: Run R&D”

My opponent looks at his credit pool, then peeks at his ICE. “Spend 8. Rez Ichi 2.0”

Ichi 2.0?!? That was supposed to be an Architect! I consider my options. Mimic won’t work. Atman could but that is gonna cost me 8 and then an additional 3 every time I run it. That seems lame. Or I could just let it fire.

I let it fire. Bye Medium. Bye 3 credits to avoid brain damage. Access 1 card.

I lose the game about 15 minutes later.

Why? Well, it should be obvious by now. I should have installed the Atman. Yes, it would have been expensive, but I would have a breaker that could get into R&D for 3 credits. Oh, by the way, he had a rezzed Viktor 2.0 on HQ. Two strength 5 ICE and I chose to not get an Atman at 5.

These kind of mistakes have to go if I want to win a tournament. I simply have to increase the amount of optimal plays I make and decrease the mistakes. At least I am learning to identify them.

2) I play decks tournament winners don’t play

I am a creative person. When it comes to Netrunner, I generally don’t like to play the most popular decks (Foodcoats, Prepaid Kate, Butchershop NEH, etc.) simply on principle. I have this deep desire to invent the next big archetype.

So naturally, during the 2015 Store Championship Season, I spent a month trying to make Edward Kim a thing. Oh sure, I trashed some Scorched Earths and Biotic Labors and Hedge Funds, but I didn’t win many games. I also tried very hard to make a good Titan Transnational deck but to no avail.

In the year since, I believe I have improved my deck building dramatically, but I have to admit: I can’t build a tier one deck on my own. I am just not that good yet. That doesn’t mean I shouldn’t keep trying (I’m looking at you, Quetzal with Faust and cutlery) but it does mean if I seriously want to win a tournament, I need to be ok playing the best decks out there.

Yes, this eats at my soul a little, but as I often say, you have to learn your scales before you can improvise Jazz. There are crazy-good deck builders out there. Learning why their decks are good by playing them will help me win and make me a more creative deck-builder.

Sneak Preview: I have been playing a variant of SlySquid’s MaxX deck with cutlery and loving every second of it. Why didn’t I play her before?!? Stay tuned for an upcoming post about it.

3) I don’t practice like big tournament winners do.

I play Netrunner as often as I can. I even play against myself sometimes . . . a lot. But I don’t specifically play against the best decks or as the best decks. Somewhere in my mind I believe that since I have seen enough videos of Prepaid Kate or Astrobiotics I will know how to play against them when I face one at a tournament.

Wrong.

My Executive Bootcamp NEXT Foundry died a quick and painful death against Prepaid Kate. Hayley watched helplessly while Replicating Perfection scored two Future Perfects behind two ICE with no upgrades.

Once I saw those decks in action, I started tilting. I wasn’t ready for the crushing terror of Account Siphon spam (though I am happy to deal it out to unsuspecting corporations). I didn’t realize how quickly NEH could get the money and cards to SEA Source-Scorch-Scorch me.

If I am going to win a tournament, I need to know those decks backwards and forwards, both playing as them and against them.

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So there are my 3 initial reasons. I want to point out that all of them are my responsibility. They are all based on deliberate choices I have made and can all be fixed my more deliberate choices.

I don’t like to chalk things up to luck in this game. Sure, sometimes you single-access your way to victory. Sometimes you top-deck all the Astroscripts. Sometimes that Beta Test sends 7 agenda points into Archives.

But no one made you fire the Beta test. No one made you put Astroscript in your deck. No one made you have the right breaker and have enough money to check R&D one more time.

You win because you make choices that put you in a position to hit a lucky agenda. You win because you put a certain tool in your deck. And you win because you intentionally learned how to play against as many scenarios as possible.

I want to make more of those choices this year.

How about you?

What choices have kept you in the bottom rungs of tournament standings?

What things do you want to improve on this year? What are your goals?