Originally published at: Tournament Report: 1st at Philly - StimHack
Discuss the latest tournament report here.
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I spit out my drink when I read that. Well done, sir.
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I like the inclusion of Tollbooth a lot, it makes a lot of sense in modern AstroBiotics decks. Your NEH list seems like the best non-Grail AstroBiotics list I’ve seen since Clot.
Well played!
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Yeah, 2 copies lets you find one early to put the runner on the back foot asap. Next time I’d definitely cut one of my other ice, probably a wraparound, for another econ card, because the 2 TBs and ichi each pretty much count as 2 pieces of ice compared to how taxing neh’s ice usually is.
Do you think ichi is good enough to replace the 2nd architect as well as the 1st? My experience with regass tells me that in a list with cvs, each ichi adds about 5-10% to the MU.
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2nd place report:
I lost so many psi games in the first half of swiss that I thought I was finally going to not win a netrunner tournament. I didn’t realize I was supposed to win this one too until moments before I snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.
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Tough to say. I think you want to find your architect first, and ichi second. Architect is a lot better on the remote, forcing out the mimic immediately rather than at the runner’s convenience (with clot kate, you can let a click 1 architect fire no problem). On the other hand, ichi is a lot better on centrals. Kate can’t afford to CC sharpshooter to pass it. 2 ichis is probably better if your opponent doesn’t know your deck composition; worse otherwise, and definitely worse if your opponent thinks you’re on butchershop.
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@bblum That seems like a lot of mid-high cost ice to rez against runners that can deny your assets, did you find yourself wanting more econ in general? I watched a lot of NEH on the stream stall out on econ pretty badly.
I saw you recurring your CVS a bunch versus medium lock on stream. Did you find one copy of CVS and Fast track to be enough to avoid the lock? Seems like a second CVS would have some synergy with Ichi but that’s kind of comborific.
Finally, isn’t Lotus a strong include for a double gear check versus a heavy Anarch field? I think I’d consider dropping an Eli for one.
Lotus is even worse than Eli against 4tman and it’s free to go through with a net ready yog. It’s also 2 more to rez.
I don’t like cutting Eli very much at all. Though I see your point about Lotus being a good 4th gear check for anarchs.
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Love it. Congrats, man. SUPER happy to see you win one.
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Well… yes and no. There’s not enough econ, especially not against whizzard. DBS usually counts as econ, but is bad vs medium, but I’d still keep 2 copies. Using CVS to counter medium was a desperation play and definitely not recommended as plan A. I think the best way to beat medium is to just make enough money to rez (and defend from parasite) a booth or ichi on R&D, and the best change for that is to cut the CVS, cut a wraparound, add the 3rd SFSS and 1 marked accounts. 1 fast track is probably best; 2 is a luxury the deck can’t have right now.
As for lotus, double gear check is good but I hate it when my ice becomes blank in the late game. There’s apparently a power shutdown + lotus NEH list going around that I haven’t seen yet, which is probably way better at beating medium if you find your combo at the right time.
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Congrats again! Inspires me to write my tournament report from Rochester…
congrats. i only saw your finals games, but that runner game was really well played 
tough to work with what you had and come away with a win against rp
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Congrats again! Really enjoyed staying up to watch the finals live. One question though. I noticed you never trashed the DBS in the final game. Was that intentional or you just never felt you could afford the tempo hit?
apparently Dan had the same start on RP against me (hedge, double tollbooth, sundew behinds it and celebrity gift) and I just lost to him pathetically, felt like nothing I can do. Your final runner game taught me a lot ( including bid 1 
) .
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Good points. Doesn’t CVS help with keeping them off suckers for Tollboth though? The initial purge and then one less server to worry about for suckers by having it in the bin.
I’m not sure if Marked helps much against Whizz but might help in other match ups.
One Fast Track is probably the right call but I’ve gotten so used to having two. Won me so many games at Nationals.
The only matchup were you are really poor and it matters is the Whizz Matchup ;). But NBN still has the edge because whizzard is weak against early rush.
Tempo hit. Actually, I forgot that dan only plays 1 DBS in his RP (I prefer builds with 2). If I had remembered that I would have tried harder to get rid of it. It’s always hard to tell with that card, probably the game’s most skill-testing asset to decide when to trash. I suppose I made the decision subconsciously that you only trash DBS when you’re ahead, not when you’re behind. Sometimes they just find their second nisei anyway…
Yeah but it’s enough of a corner-case that I won’t consider it for deckbuilding decisions. You gotta find your CVS at the right time and protect it to be able to use it at the right time… I dunno, you could be right, especially about archives. I didn’t test reg-ass anarch matchups as much as I should have. I’ll at least say that I’ll cut my 15th ice for another econ before I cut the CVS.
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Among the whole double elim bracket, there were 12 runner wins and 3 corp wins. That’s maybe partly a fluke, but I think it also speaks to major balance issues. Corp needs help, and they need a new non-glacier win condition that doesn’t have coin-toss matchups against hate cards.
Interesting point.
Very well done, Ben. Congrats! 
Where did you find that lovely Kate alt art, btw?