Nationals Meta Panic!

[voltorocks]

OMG! US nationals are just 2 days away and I'm not even close to settling on a runner deck! Part of the problem stems from the fact that if I have to play one more tournament as PPVP Kate I might cut off my own hand with a butcher knife. So I'm reaching out to stim-hackers to get your read on the meta (if you're open to sharing, ofc. insider secrets and all that :D) for the GenCon tourney! I'm currently proficient with the following decks, though I have time to sharpen up on something else if yall have suggestions for fun but decent decks to try:

-L4J whizzard: Possibly a frontrunner, I played him in the Detroit regionals to great sucess, and I think he's still in a really good spot, though I'm concerned that he's too popular and will get teched against hard. Is this a valid concern? If I choose this deck it would be for try-hard purposes, so it'd need to be able to do well.

-Faust Nasir - I'm not above bringing jank to a tournament, and I think faust puts nasir in a better spot than he's been in, maybe ever. I have plenty of experience with his quirks, and I think I have a decent list, but it may not be ready for primetime without film critic (right now relying on heavy imp support).

-Supplier/career fair/keyhole dripocalyplse Iain. This would be the deck I'd bring if I felt sure I'd face no more than 1 or 2 NBN all day. Blue has a bad rap right now but these types of decks are flying under people's radar right now I think (especially with a more glacier-y meta). Blue cards give the deck a bit more speed and pressure, ofc, but this deck still might be a tough row to hoe. Not interested in hearing how much better Andy would be: I know, and I like Iain

-Hivemind/chakana Noise: peddler has sped this deck up considerably, and once it gets going it's damn near impossible to lose. My Corp deck is very fast so I should have time to play my runner games out, but I'm worried about losing before setup. I'd be open to other noise decks (I hear faust is strong?) but this is literally the only noise deck I've ever played, so pointers in this area would be appreciated.

So what's up? Is it gonna be RP all day? Has Blue Sun Bootcamp Glacier finally broken out of wisconsin and into the national meta? or is clot just so last month that NBN will be back on top? Curious to hear people's thoughts!

[eric_c]

L4J whizzard: Possibly a frontrunner, I played him in the Detroit regionals to great sucess, and I think he's still in a really good spot, though I'm concerned that he's too popular and will get teched against hard. Is this a valid concern? If I choose this deck it would be for try-hard purposes, so it'd need to be able to do well.

our group went into chicago's regionals expecting to see whizzard everywhere and tech'd appropriately, and... the only whizzard players we faced all day were each other lol. i'm probably wrong, but i don't think he'll be too popular this weekend (or that's he in as great a spot as other anarchs right now).

[mendax]

Honestly, the old classic of Andysucker is not too bad right now, as RP has changed so much since worlds 2014. You probably need parasites in there though.

[voltorocks]

or that's he in as great a spot as other anarchs right now

Oh, any I should check out? Don't have time to get comfortable with MaxX, I think, but any others I could probably get ready with in time...

Good to know about the Chicago regionals, I think that'll be a pretty decent indicator.

[eric_c]

just the usual flavors of val, noise, and maxx all seem stronger to me right now.

don't discount iain, though -- like three to five iains made the third day of nationals last year!

[x3r0h0ur]

-Supplier/career fair/keyhole dripocalyplse Iain. This would be the deck I'd bring if I felt sure I'd face no more than 1 or 2 NBN all day. Blue has a bad rap right now but these types of decks are flying under people's radar right now I think (especially with a more glacier-y meta). Blue cards give the deck a bit more speed and pressure, ofc, but this deck still might be a tough row to hoe. Not interested in hearing how much better Andy would be: I know, and I like Iain

Haven't you heard, drip econ decks are non-viable.

Runners - PPVP kate will comprise your entire day, tech for it. Be prepared to play against Leela, but the best step to mitigating her is to know how to play against her. Val is fairly big, she's tough to tax and runs blackmail, so consider teching against blackmail.

Corps - Butchershop was huge during regionals, I'm not so sure this will continue, but you WILL play at least 1 butcher. Fastrobiotics still a big thing. Then the gorilla, RP, you'll see probably 50% of the field playing RP (at least 50% of the top players after the first 2-3 rounds). Parasite and datasucker are so good. Then you'll have random HB sexbot spam and blue sun glacier, probably in equal portions, and again datasucker and parasite take care of at least one of these.

TL:DR - bring decks that don't just die to scorch, but are fast enough for astro, run parasite and datasucker, and for corp, study anti-ppvp kate, and play good netrunner otherwise.

I'd bring ppvp kate and astrobiotics or RP rush if I were way more spike than I am.

[SamRS]

if madness regionals was proof of anything, you want faust noise.

[voltorocks]

Haven't you heard, drip econ decks are non-viable.

Butchershop was huge during regionals, I'm not so sure this will continue, but you WILL play at least 1 butcher.

Heh, I tend to agree with you, and I almost didn't include Iain on the list, but his matchup is actually pretty strong against butchershop thanks to Keyhole and vamp. Likewise, this lategame plan is decent against RP - really classic NBN astrobiotics is just a huge achilles heel still, and probably a good enough reason not to bother.

if madness regionals was proof of anything, you want faust noise.

not familiar with this event. Is there a particualr Foise deck out there that you'd recommend?

[SamRS]

this is the one that won, so it's probably a good starting point http://netrunnerdb.com/en/decklist/24158/good-things-on-sale-stranger-1st-place-plano-tx-regionals

[voltorocks]

cool, thanks for the tip! I did not realize that "Madness" was just referring to the place the regional was held :P... From testing in Nasir, Faust seems like it's really strong right now so I'll definitely test with this!

[x3r0h0ur]

Faust has been the single best addition to my Noise deck since street peddler. And before that cache.

[voltorocks]

The lists I'm seeing look good, and I'm definitely intrigued. I'm curious what changes in playstyle you make - obviously it allows noise to be way more aggro than ever before; are you generally playing very agressively, and if so what are you tossing out for faust? Or is faust just more of an enabler- a safety breaker for when virus tricks aren't quite enough?

I'll be playing as many games as I can today and tomorrow, and will definitely give this a spin and see if I can get into the groove quick enough to play it.

[MondoPeregrino]

Study Guide Ken is practically unstoppable these days!

[spags]

our group went into chicago's regionals expecting to see whizzard everywhere and tech'd appropriately, and... the only whizzard players we faced all day were each other lol. i'm probably wrong, but i don't think he'll be too popular this weekend (or that's he in as great a spot as other anarchs right now).

ANNNNND, the Master Gamer retreats back the basement. Still a solid Anarch shell, but not as fun/flashy/impressive as the other Anarchs running amok (Val, Noice, MaxX, Quetzal). I haven't seen him much at all lately.

[oconnor0]

Do you have a deck?

[MondoPeregrino]

Yeah, and it's awesome!

Don't have access to the exact list at the moment but the influence is Study Guide, Corroder, Deja Vu, Utopia Shard, 2x Maker's Eye, 2x I've Had Worse. There's a couple Prepaids, 3 Faeries and a Garrote for sentries, and the rest is pretty standard criminal stuff.

It makes SO much more money than any other Crim deck I've ever played. It has issues with Crisium Grid and trap ice, though, so if those are everywhere then you're gonna have to be good at playing around them. I can post a full list a bit later if you're really interested

[whatisthistreachery]

Faust is more of a safety valve, but necessary when you need it. Some matchups like NEH you need to be using your Imp token every turn, and d4v1d + Faust can ensure you get in, AND make them rez. It also completely wrecks Lotus Field. If midgame your Wyldside spits out a 2nd Grimoire and 2nd Wyldside, you can have a legitimate excuse to just slam into HQ or R&D for something as small as suckers or a lamprey hit, or ideally an Imp, while netting you as many accesses as a twitchy Kate.

[cspieker]

Noise seems really strong right now.

• Constant milling puts a clock on the glacier builds
• 3x Imp foils any deck relying on Midseason.
• Faust/D4vid/Parasite puts the hurt on rush builds

probably weakest against rush fast advance (astro biotics)? But if you are able to find a Clot or get a big Medium dig going early enough, then things can still go well for you.

edit: seems to me the more pertinent question is what corp to bring to combat the Noise linked by @SamRS above.

[SimonMoon]

Yeah, I think noises biggest weakness is hb rush which isn't seeing as much play as it deserves. Though I haven't played against Faust noise a ton which would probably shore up part of his big weakness in the matchup.

[cspieker]

Bioroids, especially stacked bioroids can get pretty painful for Faust pretty quickly.