Android: Netrunner #22: The Chronos Protocol

The Chronos Protocol Internation Tour landed on the doorstep of Patriot Games Sheffield on 12th April and what a turn out it was. 51 players crammed into the venue making for a long but fun day of hard fought Netrunner. Here are the decks I took with me and how they did:

Runner

Identity
Andromeda: Dispossessed Ristie

Events (24)
Indexing*** x1
Sattelite Uplink x3
Inside Job x3
Easy Mark x3
Special Order x3
Running Interference x1
Infiltration x3
Sure Gamble x3
Dirty Laundry x1
Forged Activation Orders x3

Hardware (4)
Plascrete Carapace x1
Blackguard x3

Program (7)
Garotte x1
Gordian Blade*** x1
Deus X* x1
Corroder** x1
Snitch x1
Crescentus x1
Faerie x1

Resource (10)
Armitage Codebusting x1
Same Old Thing x1
Decoy x2
Mr. Li x2
Liberated Account** x3
Kati Jones x1

Total Cards: 45
Influence: 15

My second tournament with this Blackguard deck, but I’ve made a few changes. With 3 Special Orders I decided to risk taking out my spare copies of Corroder and Gordian Blade. This freed up 5 influence which I spent on a third Liberated Account and a single Indexing. I felt this surprise addition could prove it’s worth if I could use it early before Jackson Howard spoiled the fun.

Raymond Flint and Bank Job have been taken out and replaced with 2 Decoys. In the last tournament I was Scorched twice so I was going in prepared this time.
Finally, I added a Same Old Thing for a late game Satellite Uplink, Infiltration or Inside Job.

So how did it fair on the day?
I think I only got Blackguard out twice and by that time the Corp had all the Ice he wanted or was too rich to care.
In round 2, the Corp didn’t Ice up R&D and with Indexing in my starting hand, I decided to forgo the normal Andromeda 4-card opening and instead played Sure Gamble and then Indexing on the second click. This grabbed me an agenda and a Same Old Thing later in the game brought Indexing out again for another. Sadly, I still couldn’t bring it home.

In the game I did win as the Runner, it wasn’t anything special. I managed to pull two agendas from R&D in the first two turns and then a winning agenda from archives in the fourth turn after an Accelerated Beta Test for the Corp had failed to produce any Ice and dumped three cards.

Tournament MVP
Indexing. The late addition proved to be a nice surprise that nabbed me two agendas. 

Corporation

Identity
Jinteki – Replicating Perfection

Agenda (11)
Clone Retirement x2
Gila Hands Arcology x1
Priority Requisition x1
Executive Retreat x1
False Lead x1
Corporate War x1
Braintrust x1
Nisei MK II x2
Fetal AI x1

Asset (12)
Shock x3
GRNDL Refinery** x1
Cerebral Overwriter** x1
PAD Campaign x1
Melange Mining Corp x2
Project Junebug x1
Snare x3

Ice (19)
Yagura x1
Eli 1.0* x1
Chum x1
Ichi 1.0** x2
Wall of Static x3
Chimera x3
Wall of Thorns x1
Hourglass** x1
Enigma x3
Neural Katana x3

Operation (7)
Precognition x1
Scorched Earth**** x1
Subliminal Messaging x1
Trick of Light x1
Hedge Fund x3

Total Cards: 49
Total Influence: 15
Total Agenda Points: 20

After the last tournament I added Subliminal Messaging, two 5-for-3 agendas and GRNDL Refinery for some money making goodness. Shock is in there now to tax the Runner on archive runs and - get this - a single Scorched Earth. If I was really thinking about flatlining the Runner I’d put more copies of False Lead in there, hoping for a Snare tag on click two and forfeit the agenda to take away the last two clicks; but instead the Scorched Earth was there as a cautionary deterant should the Runner come across it in HQ or R&D. And if the Runner was floating tags, well, the Scorched Earth would be waiting.

The deck worked out ok, flatlining the Runner on a Snare and sealing my win in round 3. But the real moment of the tournament for me came in round 4. I’d already lost as the Runner and several Account Siphons later, I was really struggling as the Corp. My opponent had pulled 6 points worth of agendas from R&D and it was just a matter of time. Except he wasn’t getting rid of his tags and had at least 6 of them.
Finally, the stars aligned. The Runner had 2 cards in hand and nothing on the table to protect him. I had just one credit to my name. Mandatory draw: Scorched Earth.
Click - Click - Boom.

Tournament MVP
Shock and Snare worked hard, but I have to give this to Scorched Earth. Just the one appearance, but it put a smile on my face. 

Conclusions

Blackguard is fun to play and I think I have a strong deck. If I don’t get Blackguard out I can use Infiltration and Satellite Uplink to check the Ice or servers before running, but the problem is committing to one of those plans early on rather than trying to keep my options open. Blackguard feels powerful, but a good Corp player can work around it. It’s time to try something new.

I’ve played Jinteki for the last three tournaments and had great fun with some success. With Honour and Profit just around the corner, I’m sure I’ll be back soon, but for now I feel like a change.