Napster [Stockport 8th, 3-1 in Swiss]

Cluster Fox 592

This is the Corp deck I took to the Stockport regional, again it's based on @pj20's Jukebox deck (https://netrunnerdb.com/en/decklist/51009/jukebox-6-1-us-nats-2nd-place-) and it's basically the same as my previously posted Spotify deck (https://netrunnerdb.com/en/decklist/51612/spotify-6th-bochum-regionals-) with 1 card changed so if you want to know how it works, head over there and give it a like or a comment. This is just a tournament report. It's been nearly a week and my memory isn't what it used to be. My apologies if I got any names wrong, please correct me if I did and I will edit as appropriate.


ROUND 1 - vs Liza Talking Thunder (Thomas Balmer) - LOSS
He was playing the Andy Lovell Goosecoats version and I couldn't set up quickly enough to break the Equivocation lock. Not much else to say. Could probably have played it better by throwing some more ice on R&D in the early game but got greedy trying to build a scoring remote from the get-go.

ROUND 2 - vs Freedom Khumalo (Kenton Shepard) - WIN
This was a wild game. I mulliganed in to Lateral Growth, Ikawah Project, Vanilla, Hedge Fund and IPO. I commenced the game by clearing my hand (Lateral the Ikawah, Asa-trigger the Vanilla, Hedge, IPO). My thinking was I hoped I could keep him out of the remote for a turn or two with the gearcheck Vanilla and hoped my R&D wouldn't betray me. BOY WAS I WRONG. Kenton went click 1 install DDoS (3 credits), click 2 run the remote, click 3 steal the Ikawah (2 credits), click 4 run R&D and top deck the SSL. Down 6 points on turn 1, woof. The advantage I had was I started my turn 2 with 19 credits and some semblance of board state, he started his turn 2 with 0 credits and no board state. I managed to claw back from this by rushing out while he frantically drew for answers with no money to speak of.

ROUND 3 - vs Liza (I think his name was Benjamin) - WIN
I rushed out as fast as I could and just jammed agendas. I put down a Crisium on HQ and after I saw Mars for Martians I slapped a Crisium on R&D too. To my opponent's credit he got very unlucky and his three Counter Surveillances were in the bottom 10 cards of his deck and I was able to score out long before he found them. I assumed he wasn't playing the Thunderdome deck I had built with @Slowriffs and @tolaasin because he was running Rogue Trading but he told me after the game he'd actually taken our list and that was the only card he'd changed. Kudos!

ROUND 4 - vs Maxx (Tom Holliday @seehearttype) - WIN
This game was a nailbiter. We both set up pretty quickly and after quite a bit of back and forth he threw down Deep Data Mining. I clenched and showed him the top cards of R&D. Whiff. Unclench. I couldn't find another Crisium to save my life but at least I knew there were no agendas in there. I was ready to UVC next turn and he laid down ANOTHER DDM and I was ready to call it a game but miraculously he whiffed again, allowing me to continue moneying up and putting down protection. Once I got a few cards down on R&D I UVC'd and was able to throw down the winning agenda in my scoring remote which he had no way of contesting. Very close game and very fun.

CUT ROUND 1 - vs Geist (Steven Horsley) - LOSS
This was easily the most tense and the most exciting game I played all day, and not only was Steven a really friendly guy to play against but also a very shrewd Geist player so hats off to him. He had an early Aumakua which he used to poke centrals while I set up. I purged his turtlecounters and got Jeeves value so he sort of gave up on that plan. He played DJ Fenris for Hayley which really sped up his game (I was very much impressed). He stole the SSL and the CST off central accesses while I scored a Vitruvius with a counter and an Ikawah out of my impenetrable scoring remote. We were both looking for that last agenda. I played two UVC's and didn't see an agenda. He Spy Cam'ed and saw a Vitruvius on top (or course, drawing 10 cards without an agenda the next one is on top of R&D) but he had to work to find the correct pirate breaker as I had an Architect on R&D and he managed it with his last click. If it had been an Ikawah it would have won me the game, it was very much a coin toss but excellently played by Steven. I also enjoyed the fact that he commended me on doing so well in the tournament with a deck that doesn't have any nasty tricks, because well, it doesn't. It's just ice and agendas :)

All in all I cannot be disappointed with the result, I've made the cut in every regional I've attended and I'm going to keep playing this deck. Yes, it's vegan, but it's fast, it's consistent and it's a whole lot of fun to play. Shoutouts to everyone I played against, to @sythic for TO'ing an excellent event (the Subway buffet lunch was outstanding), @Tolaasin who I finally got to meet in person after many deckbuilding brainstorm sessions on slack, @mcg and @paulyg for making me feel welcome and last but not least, my brother from another mother Alex for putting up with me for a week, feeding me, giving me a place to stay and showing me around his neck of the UK woods. Without Netrunner I would never have met any of these people or travelled to any of these places, and would have missed out on having one of the best friends a guy can have. The best agenda is the friends we made along the way. Always be running, my friends.
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