d1en's Everyone deserves a chance (3rd seed at Worlds)

d1en 3425

Rewind back to Saturday, November 8th, post Round 1, it was a horrible Round. Completely swept out from the get-go by Tim Fowler, I had a gutted feeling in my heart this wouldn't the Worlds improvement I worked for. I left the Game Centre, popped on some tunes, and returned with a renewed attitude. Fast Forward to end of Round 8, I managed to drop only one game, securing the Third Seed out of 294 players, higher than that of the person who knocked me clean down.

This list came about from continued testing since my Regionals win in Rochester, NY. The build has always been a strong suit against RP and HB, but struggled with Fastro. Knowing that I would be encountering Fastro throughout the tournament, I built a list capable of having the draw and acceleration needed to get through the deck for key pieces. That’s how I came about to finish 4th at Canadian Nationals, but it still wasn’t enough, losing to Jason Deng, the eventual winner. That’s when I realized Desperado wasn’t the right console at the end of the day, and not finding breakers at the right time always became a issue.

Thus, this led to the eventual change for Turntable and SMC. It was the perfect solution, and through months of testing, I finally had a Runner deck I felt happy with. There were plenty of times throughout the tournament when I would trade up for either a Astroscript with a token, or switch a 1 pointer for the Corp’s 2 pointer. Hell, I even traded a NAPD for a GFI, effectively reducing their point count. I chose to stick with this above all other advice for DLR Val, because I truly believed in the hard work of the community who supported this build. I didn't want to let go of what everyone contributed, and I knew that if I had a chance to jump on a Featured table, I really wanted to put on a good show for everyone to watch.

There are a few flex slots in there for a variety of things. For example, if you feel that combo pieces are being played consistently in your meta, you can opt to take out the Scrubbers and put in Imp as to further disrupt. For the day of Worlds, I had a feeling Asset attrition was the name of the game. I also worried about HB Foodcoats, and that led me to slotting Stimhack rather than having another Blackmail. Stimhack is that amazing econ card that if you find Atman on a Peddler or have a Clone Chip in play, it’ll help rig building acceleration or not get taxed on the way breaking into RnD to have another run for Medium digging.

There are a few things that have to be said on how to play the deck. If you’re playing against Fastro, you want to have hands where it gives you the card draw or acceleration through your deck. Don’t worry sometimes about letting the first Astro through. You have Turntable for a reason, I mad scratched 6 Astros and four 1-pointers for 2-pointers to delay their scores, ultimately winning losing matches. If you’re playing against RP, it’s one of it’s most favourable matchups. HB Glacier is a razor thin edge which requires critical thinking and careful use of your clicks. One misplay and you can lose your entire rig. Here was the breakout of my day:

Tim Fowler - NEH/Kate 0-2 Derrick Billings - Turtlebacks/Hailey LLDS Chameleon 2-0 Canadian player (I’m sorry I forgot your name!) - RP/Noise 2-0 Nick Soto - HB Media Blitz/Hailey Stealth 2-0 Aaron Andries - HB Food Coats/dlr Val 2-0 Stjepan Pavuna - HB Food Coats/Noise 1-1 Corp split Ahmed Ahbassi - NEH/ProCo PPVP Kate 2-0 Gregor Terrill - NEH/DLR Val w/The Source 2-0

This list was tuned and tweaked with feedback from many people in my Toronto meta. Shout outs to XVRogue, DanJo(@robomagic), Luke S, Mikhail(@pankoescolar), Aaron C, and many others from my local Toronto meta who supported me in building this list. Shout outs to @spags, Aaron Andries and Joe Schupp for believing in me and encouraging me to play what my heart said to. Shout outs to Dan D'Argenio(@mediohxcore) for keeping me motivated enough to MemStrip on stream. Shout outs to Dave Hoyland for being a amazing human being and strong opponent. Shout outs to @nobodyhasthis for being a supporter of the Strip Revolution. Shout outs to @tmoiynmwg for believing in me and helping me through this Cinderella story. If there's anyone else I missed, please post a comment and kindly remind me!

I have so many people to thank, so I'm going to end on saying shout outs to EVERYONE I met, everyone who congratulated, and everyone who encouraged me this Worlds weekend to come back and make this Cinderella story come true. The deck name is homage to what I had messaged my girlfriend after I got swept in Round 1.

I asked her, "Don't I deserve at least a chance?" At the end of the day on Friday, I read the flavour text on Valencia. "Everyone deserves a chance. Everyone."

13 comments
9 Nov 2015 iceqs

definitely the one i've been looking for the most.

I haven't had the time to re-watch the match but IIRC it was really close in the end. It was a second D4V1D instead of the Medium installed with the MemStrips right?

Good stuff Valencia is definitely one of the best deck to play a real Netrunner battle. Kudos to you :D

9 Nov 2015 Fentonizer

Suggestions

  • -2 Stimhack
  • +2 Memstrips

But srs, it was great watching you on the stream. Well done on the placing!

9 Nov 2015 scd

Nice job! Great meeting you at Worlds!

9 Nov 2015 Ziziros

just as I was getting the hang of your last Val build.... congrats on an awesome showing! excited to give this a go

9 Nov 2015 robomagic

A great deck that I played alongside @d1en at Worlds and at King of Servers on for our team, the Four Run Sixes. All the credit to him for the great meta-call that this deck is designed for.

10 Nov 2015 tmoiynmwg

2x Blackmail, 1x MemStrips. Mad props, Cinderella.

11 Nov 2015 spags

Well done, Dien!

11 Nov 2015 aandries

Proud of this guy, great deck. Even better when your opponents put you on Val DLR and screw their setup. Genius move.

11 Nov 2015 Corporations Rule

@d1en Did you say what your corp list was in that write up? I didn't catch it. Just wondering. :)

13 Nov 2015 lukesim3

I slept on Val for a long time, but watching Dien play this deck and its predecessors in our local Toronto meta convinced me to give her a try. She's definitely one of my favourite runners now. I played a similar deck at Worlds; it definitely rewards smart, tactical play, and the look on the Corp's face when you turntable their agendas away is priceless.

Congrats, @d1en.

13 Nov 2015 PankoEscolar

@d1en, a rock-solid player with deckbuilding chops, and a giving soul that I'm truly proud to know.

This deck has a favourable matchup against most of the field, only really facing a challenge in Foodcoats. Even then, tight play makes the margins razor-thin (observe the first game of the elimination rounds, where D1en could have eked out a win on three separate accesses, only stymied by one ms. Nisei).

This build is the real deal. Congratulations again on your tight run, and for doing Canada proud! Beer's on me next time (only one though, I know you're a cheap date)

16 Jun 2023 adamusa

One of my favorite decks is this one. You can explore a lot of pretty intriguing topics aa route planner on this deck.

13 Jul 2023 lauryfriese

The perfect game to relax and release daily stress and anger Candy) Crush