Worlds 2016
What a fun time!
Coming off of a bad showing at Worlds 2015 (198th place), I spent most of 2016 getting pretty serious about improving my netrunner game. I spent a lot of time getting into the larger Wisconsin meta, traveling most weekends, and playing a LOT of Jinteki.net. While my local meta varied from 1 to 2 other players, I was able to see my play get seriously better over the year.
Going into worlds, I wasn’t excited about any corp. Temujin, Beth, Omar, Rumor Mill, and Obelus had given runners a lot of new tools to help dominate decks. I settled on CTM Bankers, but the exact numbers on cards wasn’t nailed down. The list that I took to the icebreaker on Wednesday wasn’t great, it didn’t have 3 hard hitting, only 1 of Closed Accounts and Exchange of Information. It also had 1x Quicksand, which is mostly just a bad Wall of Static that gets blown up before it does anything interesting. I ended up talking with spags Wednesday night and audibled into his list. The 3x Hard-Hitting was crucial against the Wyldcakes/Ice Carver Whizzards. The only decks that ever gave me trouble were the Siphon Spam Omar/Val/Wiz with Obelus and Hades Shard shenanigans, but I was even able to take a couple of those games. Clicking for credits is often the right move in this deck, staying up on money is key.
On the runner side I had settled into playing Chaos Theory Au Revior since the SF team posted their list at Gen Con. While it is bad against an early Sensie or Bankers out of CTM, it can’t lose to IG 49, Boom, Midseasons, or any other degenerate corps(except CI7). Plus not that many people played against it, and half the players asked me how many account siphons were in the deck.
Decks!
Bankers CTM
NBN: Controlling the Message
Agenda (10)
1x AstroScript Pilot Program
3x Breaking News ★★★
3x Global Food Initiative ●●●
3x Project Beale
Asset (8)
2x Commercial Bankers Group ●●●●
3x Jackson Howard
3x Sensie Actors Union
Upgrade (4)
2x Mumbad Virtual Tour ○○○○
2x SanSan City Grid ★★
Operation (14)
2x Closed Accounts
2x Exchange of Information
3x Hard-Hitting News
3x Hedge Fund
1x Psychographics
3x Sweeps Week
Barrier (3)
3x Resistor
Code Gate (6)
2x Archangel
3x Pop-up Window
1x Tollbooth
Sentry (4)
2x Data Raven
2x Turnpike
7 influence spent (max 12-5★=7, available 0)
20 agenda points (between 20 and 21)
49 cards (min 45)
Cards up to 23 Seconds
Decklist published on https://netrunnerdb.com.
Agendas:
3x Beale 3x Food 3x BN 1x Astro
A normal agenda split, because they’re all great cards. Astro is still bonkers, BN turns on tag shenanigans, Food reduces agenda density and is still an absurd EoI target, and Beale is not only good since it is a 3/2, but with psychgraphics you can easily score it for up to 7 points.
Asset Package:
3x Sensie 2x Bankers 3x Jackson
Power Money and Draw is all you need. I see a lot of lists with PAD or Launch, but they just don’t do enough for the slots. Both political assets are must answer cards. Jackson needs no introduction. I find any more assets than this are just win more, and still weak to Salsette and your other bad match ups
Upgrades:
2x Mumbad Virtual Tour
Great card, can help you tax out even Whizzard if put on top of anther political assets or deep in a remote with SanSan. Also useful to plop behind an ice in a remote baiting the run to drain the runner for a follow up Hard-Hitting. I didn’t find myself putting this on central all that often, as most of the time when runners are hitting centrals hard they’ve gone tag me and are either too rich or too poor for it to matter.
2x SanSan
Fast advancing agendas is good. Scoring BN into tag punishment or trashing a key resource is great. This card has been good since core and is great for the deck.
Economy Operations:
3x Sweeps 3x Hedge
Money is good
Tag Package:
3x Hard Hitting 2x Closed Accounts 2x Exchange of Information 1 x Psychographics
3 Hard hitting is definitely the right call. You want this early to punish Whizz for trashing your political assets even if they get the salsette early, unless they moneyed hard first turn you can normally land the tags. Even if they have the 8 credits to clear, you still cost them a turn and 8 credits. CTM is all about taxing out the runner, in every area, and hard hitting is a key card here. Even if the opponent floats a tag or two it is often good to pile on the 4 more, as it turns on psycho, stops them from dropping the tags later and go full tag me, and makes your resistors amazing.
2x Closed is also a big deal, as you can punish runners who siphon early but still need the money for mediums, obelus, or breakers. Landing the FA Breaking News into a closed accounts can ruin runners who sit back and build up cash before the attack. Exchange of Information is still broken, as the BN EoI for Food is still degenerate and backbreaking. Even exchanging for beale or astro when your opponent is at 5 points is good. Psycho allows for the score out of hand for things like food, or the psychobeale. Even if its just for a 2 point beale or astro is good. In a meta with little clot pressure, fast advance is still great.
No All-Seeing was a last minute change that felt right. Against wyldcakes, they rarely installed their cakes, and only against the one MihnMax did I want it, but I was still able to score out first.
Ice:
All the ice exists to tax the runner into the ground. If I could I’d play 5+ resistor, as its the best ice in the deck. You don’t need ETR, the Tollbooth only exists to shut down HQ against siphon spam or RnD against medium spam. Just make more money and tax the runner into the poor house, then score agendas.
Rude Girl with Rude Reporter
Chaos Theory: Wünderkind
Event (9)
3x Diesel
3x Quality Time
3x Sure Gamble
Hardware (5)
2x Astrolabe
2x Clone Chip ★★
1x Feedback Filter
Resource (11)
2x Artist Colony
1x Beth Kilrain-Chang
3x Fan Site
1x Film Critic
2x New Angeles City Hall
1x Sacrificial Construct
1x The Turning Wheel ●
Icebreaker (3)
1x Gordian Blade
1x GS Shrike M2 ●●
1x Snowball
Program (12)
3x Au Revoir ●●●●● ●
1x Clot ●●
3x Hyperdriver
1x Leprechaun
3x Self-modifying Code
1x Snitch ●●
13 influence spent (max 15-2★=13, available 0)
40 cards (min 40)
Cards up to Blood Money
Decklist published on https://netrunnerdb.com.
The game plan for this deck is pretty straightforward, set up first. Don’t run remotes, don’t interact until you have your econ engine set up. You cannot lose in the late game if your playing in the late game. Once set up, camp the remotes till you have enough turning wheel counters to access the deck. Sometimes you have to hunt early, and most games don’t go that smoothly, but you can easily win this way.
All star best friend
1x Beth Kilrain-Chang
Economy, Draw, Clicks. Get a friend that can do it all. The bonus click late game for 15 credits and 5 turning wheel counters a turn is pretty good.
Economy
3x Sure Gamble, 3x Au Revior, 1x Snitch
Sure gamble is very nice early game to allow for Quality time digs without bankrupting yourself. It also allows you to get the Au Reviors with SMC if needed. Late game I discarded them often. Once you get the 3x Au Revior you can gain 3 credits a click, which is all the money you need. Snitch keeps the dream alive after they ice up, and allows you to get turning wheel counters on HQ and RnD
Draw:
3x Diesel 3x Quality Time 2x Astrolabe 3x Hyperdriver
Astrolabe continues to be the best console and one of the best draw engines in green. The fact that it puts you on 6MU is pretty good too
The Diesel and Quality time lets you dig for the silver bullets and lets you get set up quick. Quality time is a bit expensive early but you can usually fire one or two and not be broke, doubly true if you have a turn 1 sure gamble.
Hyperdriver is really good. It lets you set up quick, and you can install SMC and Hyper Driver with the bonus MU from CT. You can also get 24 credits in a turn late game if you need it, and the Leprechaun reduces the MU penalty.
Multiaccess:
1x The Turning Wheel
All you need. Once your set up, just camp the remotes, then build up tokens till you can access the whole deck in a turn. If you need you can run early, but with saccon clot, you don’t need to worry about FA, and you should be making enough money that the server isn’t too taxing for a gain 12 run turn. Really sucks when it gets blown up, protect this at all costs. Fear the foxfire.
Install anything, anytime:
3x Fansite 2x Artist Colony
This deck gives up early agendas, so put down your Fan Sites and then go get your missing pieces later. Artist colony is great to get your silver bullet package when needed, and has been one of my favorite cards out of Mumbad since release. Use it to trash their News Teams, 15 minutes, or Food if the EoI is incoming.
Breakers:
1x Shrike 1x Gordian Blade 1x Snowball
Snowball is bad, but gets the job done. Shrike has always been a pretty good killer, and gordian blade is still pretty good. Still efficient to break all of the corps ice. Fear mom god, but once assembled can easily get into most servers for cheap.
Other Program Stuff:
3x SMC 1x Leprechaun 2x Clone Chip
SMC does its job, gets breakers if needed, gets Au Revior early, or whatever you need. Leprechaun reduces the penalty of SMC and Hyperdriver, and gives the +1 MU needed for late game rig of Gordian, Shrike, Snowball, 3x Au Revoir, and Snitch. Clone chip is still great, recurs clot, gets back your SMC to set up quickly if needed, and helps fix your mistakes. The 2x is an influence limit, but many people expect the third. I won two games off of people fearing the artist colony for the 3rd nonexistent clone chip. Counting influence continues to be good.
Silver Bullets:
1x Clot 1x Saccon 2x NACH, 1x FIlm Critic, 1x Feedback Filter
Clot is still good, and many people are running only a 1 or 2 CVS, many times none at all. With Saccon you can lock FA out while building your king’s ransom. Saccon assists with the clot and also lessens the threat of your leprechaun getting killed. It also helps against Batty nonsense.
2x NACH is the right call and a great card. Helps protect yourself against the tag for kill, so you can’t get murdered. Also turns off closed accounts and protects your tuning wheel against getting destroyed. I often ran one early for protection, but the second was very nice if I couldn’t find the film critic in time, or I went for mulitaccess to get things out of hand midgame. Never get Boom!ed again!
1x Film Critic still is great. NAPD Contract is back on the rise, I still hate playing PSI for The Future Perfect, and It blanks annoying cards like red herrings and midseasons. The fact that it protects NACH is even better. Can’t wait to host an Obokata Protocol with a Ben Musashi in the server.
1x Feedback Filter. This card is normally pretty bad. Its not bad when you make 15 credits a turn. IG 49 cannot kill you if you find this before they combo. You just sit back, make money, then access the whole deck. Great against the Jinteki: Potential Unleashed. Dead in non Jinteki match ups but makes the rest trivial.
Wednesday - Icebreaker
After a relatively short drive into town we started off the week with the icebreaker. I had no clue what to except that day, but I knew that my decks could use more practice against real players, so I decided to bring my real decks. I was not on the CTM listed above, but a brew with more(worse) ice, and not enough tag punishment. As a note some games I don’t remember much, games mush together. But if you played against me feel free to add more.
Round 1: Spencer Lee
vs ETF - win
He set up prety quickly, and Iced an Executive Bootcamp that was able to rez ice on HQ and RND before I was able to go kill it. Despite that, I was still able to snitch off of archives enough too camp the remote and win out the game. The nice thing is that against ETF you don’t need any tech cards, so its easier to prevent the rush out.
vs Stealth Kit - loss
Man I lost against a stealth kit with CTM, what a chump. I muliganed into a bad hand and couldn’t find early political assets to punish the fact that its a green identiy. He had the early Temujin to money up and was able to get 3 points early before I locked him out. He was in a rough spot after I was able to protect RnD and the remote with a rezed San San in it. I only had a data raven in front of HQ. I scored my 5th point and ended the turn with a beale, food, and 3 other cards in hand, feeling pretty good about the game. I pass the turn and he has 5 credits with an SMC. He breaks it end of turn to get the nerve agent. He runs 4 times on HQ and wins. What a good include.
1-1
Round 2: Thomas Mason (@ seeheartype?)
vs CTM - win
I moneyed up early, got to hide behind NACH early to keep my money and cards safe. He was close to FA’ing to win, but sacccon clot is good.
vs Whizzard - loss
Got him tagged early after baiting a run into bankrupting him on a SanSan MVT, but he got back with double medium and knifed the resistor. Knifed is a pretty good card. Despite the 8 tags, couldn’t lock him out.
2-2
Round 3: Eric Caoli(@ eric_c)
vs wiz - loss
I knew Eric from Stimhack/Slack and I knew he was a good player so I was pretty worried going into this game. This was a long first game. He had the early employee strike and kept trashing my shit. Despite this I was able to score out a breaking news to turn off the current. He moneyed up hard and never let me get the economic game in my favor. He even discarded each turn with faust to keep me off Sweeps Week, so much so that I discarded them. I eventually got to 6 point off of an EoI, but he secured centrals while I digged for the Breaking news. This is where I wrote down that quicksand is bad.
vs CTM - loss
We didn’t have much time in this game but he had an early sensie and bankers and I had the slow start, but got set up. He made a double tollbooth remote that was 10 credits to break. He scored out and won the timed win, but he would have one the match anyways
2-4
My game vs Eric was a long difficult game so I was feeling pretty drained after the match. Luckily we had a lunch break and I was able to relax and back off the tilt before the next match.
Match 4: Sanjay Kulacek
vs Tennin - loss
He rushed out early behind a lotus field and I couldn’t find my stuff. I ended up running a caprice 5 times and losing each game which is sad. I want a pol op.
vs ? win
I don’t remember this game, and I wrote this after the day was over but I know I won this somehow.
3-5
Match 5: Peter Dinya(@ percomis)
vs NEH Jeeves FA - win
Was able to set up quick despite the fact that he was able to score out to 6 points, I was able to set up sacccon clot. He got the clot, both clone chips, and the saccon, but he didn’t seem to find the CVS. In the end he was respecting the 3rd non existant saccon before I was able to score out.
vs Wiz - loss
Tagged him out but couldn’t find closed accounts or a san san. This was the round where I decided that I needed to switch up this deck badly.
4-6
After going negative for the day I wasn’t feeling great about the actual tournament. I ended up relaxing with some Wisconsin players and spags gave me his CTM list. I ended up going on to it card for card, it was much better than the list I was on.
Worlds 2016: Day 1!
After switching up my corp deck and leaving a breaking news in Aaron Andries runner deck at late night testing I wasn’t feeling great about day 1. But the show will go on.
Match 1: Gary Bowerbank(@ evilgaz)
Great, playing a top 16 player last year round 1. Really starting off at a sprint.
vs Whiz - win
Tagged him early, but he started bricking agendas off the top of RnD, one of which was a food. Got to 5 points, but I was able to score a beale and an astro. He kept up the pressure on centrals but I was able to FA the Breaking news for the EoI win.
vs CTM - loss
Got set up, but not before he scored out to 6 points. Couldn’t maintain the clot while checking remotes and lost the match.
1-1
Match 2: Collin Hanna (@ colinphanna)
Onto an 8 jellybean betrunner player, I was a bit worried.
Vs Palana Fast Advance - loss
Slow set up, he had a good opener with money, ice, and drew agendas. Rushed out, proved in fact that clones aint dudes, and won.
vs Apoc Kate - win
Suspected the Apoc early, held back on ice. Moneyed up and stuck tags. He apoced out, but I had sensie and a few ice. I set up quickly and denied his aseops to allow him to set up. Then I psycho bealed for 5 and won.
2-2
After two great players and splitting against them I was feeling pretty good about myself. On to round 3
Round 3: Elssa Qadeeri
Vs New Angeles Sol - win
I had a quick start with astrolabe and beth. He was worried about turning beth on so he didn’t play his money operations, and drew a bunch of cards. Finally found a Scarcity of Resources but I just didn’t install any fan sites/ac. He tried scoring behind double data hound but I had the cash to go through. Decided he had to be flooded, found 5 points in hand.
vs mihn maxx -win
Kept him poor after the siphon with closed accounts and he didn’t set up quick. Maxx milled most of his fall guys and DLR so he didn’t set up quick. I trashed what he did have and kept him poor but couldn’t find agendas to score. Eventually he reloaded into 2 fall guy, WNP, and the DLR. I was able to score out 1 turn before the loss. Missed ASI but still got it
4-2
Felt good going into the food break about splitting with great players and being positive. Walked and got into a good space for game 4
Match 4: Sungho Lee
vs Val blackmail spam - win
Got him tagged and while he recurred blackmail w/ medium I’d purge after 3 tokens. Couldn’t find the gas and I scored out.
vs 54 CTM - win
Bad mulligan but found an astrolabe. After he made about 10 servers I asked his deck size, he smiled and said 54 while rezzing a museum of history. Well it was the aryabhata tech version with restructured datapool, and media blitz to turn it on. Well CT makes all the money, set up and accessed all of the remotes. Eventually gave up with 30ish counters on turning wheel. As a side note, the ban on dice makes turning wheel a bitch to deal with.
6-2
Match 5: Roberto Franco(@ Darta)
vs CTM - win
He kept a slow hand, I suspect he thought I was on siphon spam because his eyes lit up when I played the Au Revior. I was set up on turn 3, and the game went exactly to plan. access the remote, set up clot, then won accessing the whole deck
vs Omar
This was the siphon spam deck that I heard about and I kept a hand with double closed accounts. He was too poor to set up quckily after the siphon, and despite 5 siphons in the game I was able to lock him out. Clicking for credits and having pop up windows is very very nice.
8-2
I found myself at the top table at this point and never thought I would be there. I was really hoping to get the last sweep so I could ID the day 2.
Match 6: Gregory Toung(@ crithitd20)
vs Kate good stuff? - loss
Man he just made all the money, I had no early threat and stayed out of HHN range. He found the beale I naked installed Eventually got the beth click, ran jackson, then indexed, proved clones weren’t dudes, and stole for 5 points taking the tags. Close, but the indexing was clutch.
vs NEH Shutdown combo- win
He scored the breaking news, and an early astro and a beale. I dug dug dug and found the NACH before he could 24/7, and established the clot lock and was gaining 15 a turn. He knew the jig was up and popped shut down, installed jackson, ad for sweeps, interns, and subliminal, made a second pile and hatchet job, but was 6 credits short, then i shook the tags from 24/7 and the boom whiffed. He couldn’t have waited longer without me running away with the game. 15 credits a turn is too much
9-3
Highlight of the day was Zach Cavis(Jack Carvis?) making a great argument that Endless Hunger should be able to trash oppnents cards. Great guy, and dying for a good cause of better templating in netrunner.
After being 17th going into day 2 I was hyped beyond belief and it took a while for me to settle down for the night. After a pretty good night’s sleep it was on to day 2.
Day 2
Round 7: Eric Caoli(@ eric_c)
Well I knew this match up from the first day, and I was thinking I’d get swept going in
vs Wiz - win
He found the salsettes but I was able to hit him with the HHN, he cleared but then I stuck him with the second. Got to 6 points but had to durdle looking for the last points. He ran my hand looking for the agenda that didn’t exist, eventually psycho’ed a food for the win
vs CTM - loss
He knew what I was on and mulled into bankers and sensie. I had a slow start. He had the fun play of having a SanSan with a breaking news on it. Advance, score, install, psycho for 2 to score the astro. Just NBN things. Wasn’t close
10-4
Round 8: Kyle James(@ bluebird503)
vs CTM - win
Set up, he was on the product placements, which I let him have. He got to game point but I digged deep into RnD and won
vs wiz - loss
He was on the Obelus wizz into omar, trahsed my stuff and couldn’t keep him out of RnD. Cutlery is good against 13 ice.
11-5
Knew I had to sweep to top 16
Round 9: Andre Nilsson(@ thearete)
vs Sync - loss
He blind installed a beale and an astro since he was flooded. I set up and he scored them. I was almost set up and stole a food, had all the parts except a NACH. I forgot that he could Install then before I had priority astro counter and flip the san san to score. He did that and I dropped the food before he had the chance to EoI but I lost my Turning Wheel. Goodbye late game inevitability. I found the other two food and a beale but he made a remote of Fairchild 3 and 3 Data ravens that cost 21 to run. I ran it about 8 times. I forgot that Sync only had 2 beale, and I went broke hunting for the third beale, eventually getting tagged. I also didn’t trash agendas so he EoI’ed for the win. Don’t play games while exhausted.
vs Maxx -loss
I didn’t write anything down
11-7
Despite the bad beat at the end I still ended the day at 35th, and among some of the best players in netrunner. I never thought I’d get that far, but missing the top 16 was really rough. Luckily Aaron Andries still repped the WI meta in the top 16 and won a game with congresss Kate, but couldn’t take it home. I still had a great time and met so many great people that I couldn’t even list. Luckily we still had KoS!
King of Servers
My team consisted of myself on CT and CTM, Andrew Schnider(@ cranked) on 420 Leela and Midseasons Boom Blue sun, Jordan Morris(@ rubyvr00m) on Josh’s Val Incubator and 49 IG, and Rose Moore on JARVIS and Haley good stuff.
I didn’t write down everything, but I had a great time playing the brits, forgetting that Red Herrings does nothing if you have Film Critic, playing the all national champ teams, proving that feedbackfilter was a good include, and two great games with Marsellus.
I’m selling the day short here but I didn’t focus on getting details down, just running nets and having fun. If I messed up anyone’s names or any details feel free to correct me above.