BABW Northampton

All fired up from Nationals, and with it being pretty local to me, I decided that my next tournament would be the "Bring A Brit to Worlds" qualifier in Northampton run by Hamish. These are community run regional events, with the top one or two from each going into the final, where the winner gets a ticket to worlds and funding for travel/hotels.

Not having time to build and learn anything new, I took the same decks as I did to Nationals, albeit with a couple of tweaks (-1 Brain Trust, -1 Shi.Kyu, -1 Space Camp, -1 Caprice, +2 "Clones Are Not People", +2 Clone Retirement to the Tennin deck, -3 NACH, -2 Employee Strike, +2 Rumor Mill, +3 Networking, -1 Making an Entrance, -1 Sports Hopper, -1 Trope to the Val deck)

So we had 8 players there including Paul and me, with the format being 4 rounds of Swiss and then a top 4 double elimination.

Game 1 vs Ian - Kate/ETF

Against Kate, I managed to score out 3 Medical Breakthrough very quickly, but unfortunately without seeing any copies of "Clones are not People"... and then he stole all my 1 point agendas (along with 2 Shi.Kyu) , leaving me with only 3 The Future Perfects left in my deck and only two Trick of Light left to score it with... which still would leave it vulnerable for a turn. No problem, I'll just Jackson back a trick of light, there's 1 left in my deck. Got down to two cards... (what I thought was a 3rd ToL, and the Jackson) but only had two actions left so decided not to risk it. Next turn he thankfully didn't run R&D, so I drew one... and it was a Shock!? Drew the last (thankfully a Jackson) and installed it. End of his turn, popped the Jackson to bring back a pair of Biotic Labours... Biotic, Install, Trick, Trick, Advance WIN. My hands were shaking for about 45 minutes after that match!

Against ETF, the stars lined up and Val worked her magic. He scored a pair of ABT out quickly, but then the Keyhole Machine fired up and I started grinding his deck away - only found one agenda, but got rid of a few key cards in his deck and every time something hit the table face down I blackmailed in and took it. Was looking to be a timed win for me, but managed to score the last few points in the last turn with Blackmail and then picking up the milled agenda from the bin.

Result: 2-0 (Ian finished 7th)

The first round overall had two splits and two sweeps, putting me in the top 2. Obviously, it's not going to last.

Game 2 vs Alex - Kate/CI

Against CI, RNJesus did not smile on me and I didn't see any money... so no keyholing for Val, and with nothing much to Blackmail except a very full HQ I only just got myself to 2 points before the combo fired off and it was GG time. Rebirth *might* have made some difference if I could have become Edward Kim and sniped key operations out of his hand, but it was not to be. An account siphon or two would have been amazing, but didn't see either all game.

I lost track of how many time I could have scored agendas if it wasn't for either Clot or the threat of it against Kate. Probably could have finished on 11 points... instead I think I finished on 5, and even Alex having no cards left didn't help. 2 cyberbex and 3 "Install advance oh look it's clot ok overwrite with Jackson" didn't manage to end the clot threat. No idea what to do against clot except "not play Fast Advance".

Result: 0-2 (Alex finished 2nd in Swiss, and 1st overall)

We then broke for lunch, and while eating a delicious Subway I chatted to Hamish for a bit. Turns out that the Alex who swept me in round 2 was Alex bloody White, the UK Nationals Champion for 2015 so I immediately felt better about losing.

Game 3 vs Michael - Palana/Wizzard

Wizzard struggled to find a breaker other than David, which kept him out of my centrals - and made me very careful to keep my ice walls lower than 5 strength! By the time Faust made an appearance, I had scored 5 points and had all I needed to score the last 2.

The game against Palana though was very bad... 2nd turn he removed his bad pub (at which point I then had two Blackmail pop up through Earthrise) and Eater didn't make an appearance until he'd got 5 points scored and had already advanced his last agenda twice. Elusive breakers on both sides made this pairing a little disappointing.

Result: 1-1 (Michael finished 4th in both Swiss and overall)

At this point, I'm in 4th place with a round to go... not sure if a split will do or if I need to sweep to get into the top cut. Turns out I would have needed to sweep, and have my SoS carry me through. (IDs aren't allowed at BABW though, so even if I was confident in my maths it's not an option.)

Game 4 vs Jim - ETF/Gabe

In this game, I discover that Crisium Grids on R&D and HQ just fucks my whole game plan up - no Keyhole, no Account Siphon, and with Jim slamming out Biotic Labor I can't even Blackmail my way into servers to steal agendas. This is the trouble with decks that rely on special tricks...

As the corp, I drew a hand of 3 assets and 2 operations, so decided to mulligan... big bloody mistake right there, as the new hand was 3 agendas and 2 operations, with 3 more agendas on the top of the deck. Jim stole all the low value agendas bar a single Clone Retirement (which I scored BEFORE he stole one) leaving me struggling to get the cash required to Biotic/Trick/Trick/Advance out TWO Future Perfects. As you can probably guess, that didn't happen.

Result: 0-2 (Jim finished 1st in Swiss, 2nd overall)

Which means at the end of the day I finished on 3 and 5, for 6th place. I did have the highest strength of schedule at the end though, having faced 1st, 2nd, 4th and 7th place! Turns out a split in the final round would have only got me to 5th, and a sweep would have actually got me to 2nd place! What a difference 2 points make, even in a 8 person tournament. 

All told though I had a great day, had some excellent games and didn't get paired up against Paul (which as we play each other twice a week anyway, would be a bit of a waste). I also got to game point against a UK Nationals Champion, so even though I didn't technically win the match I'm counting that as "good enough for now".

Thanks to Hamish from Guardians of Tyr for running it, Wargames Workshop for hosting, and all the players (including Mikee and Matt, who I didn't play) for being friendly and welcoming, and Paul for giving me a lift so my wife could have the car! And Alex... I'm adding "take at least 2 points from Alex White" to my goals list ;-)

Edit: I originally said it was hosted at Wayland Games, but that's the store in Birmingham I tried to get to at Nationals... #fail

Facechecking Nationals - Part 3 (Go Big Or Stay Home)

Continued from Facechecking Nationals - Part 2 (7 Rounds for 7 Agendas)

After the last round had finished, Paul and I jumped in his car and drove to the hotel - fully planning to drop the stuff off and go and meet some people for a well needed drink. Unfortunately we got to the room, and by the time I'd found out where everyone was meeting I was pretty much asleep.

For the second day, I walked around catching pokemon while Paul made some rapid adjustments to his Corp deck, and built a whole new Runner deck before heading over to play some side games. We only ended up playing one as the four of us decided to play a double elimination format, which as one of the four was a new player took a total of 3 hours! I came second, but the winner (Matt) had already got everything you could get with one winner ticket, so he gave it to me and I got myself an alt-art Political Operative to go with the alt-art Chronos Project we all got for entering the main event itself.

All in all, I have had a most excellent adventure... I met some awesome people, caught up with a few of the MK crew that I'd met before, and played more Netrunner than I usually do in a month.

What's next? My goal for the next year are:

1. Hit the top 50% of a Winter GNK event. It looks like my local events are near the end of the season, so I will probably travel about a bit to get lots of practice and the best chance of hitting my target. 
2. Get comfortable with factions I don't usually play. Next I'll be going for Criminal and NBN, as I don't think I've ever played either and they were the decks I had biggest problems against.
3. To take part in at least 2 regionals, and get more wins than I do losses.
4. Next year for Nationals... I want to reach the top 64. I know it's going to be difficult, but if I can win 2 more games over the course of the day then it's achievable.
5. Use this blog to tracking my progress, and record all the things I learn along the way.

Again a massive shout to Rasmus, Alex, Joseph, Damien, Ben, Leigh and Andy - thanks for being great opponents - and to the TOs and judges from the weekend for doing a stirling job.

Oh and thanks to Paul for a) driving me there and b) getting started in this crazy hobby with me :)

Facechecking Nationals - Part 2 (7 Rounds for 7 Agendas)

Continued from Facechecking Nationals - Part 1 (The Road To Birmingham)

At this point the tournament starts, and I sit down to face my first opponent...

Game 1 vs Rasmus - IG/Wizzard

Turns out to beat Prison IG, I need to get into archives to flip the face down cards - so Eater won't do the job*. Started burning through my deck hunting for a blackmail, and then he dropped Genetics Pavilion and even with Sports Hopper I was limited to 4 cards a turn (2 on mine, 2 on his). I rather quickly died to Bio-Ethics Association, and then discovered all my Blackmail was in the bottom 10 cards of my deck. Sad face.

* Although apparently I was wrong about this... could have done with knowing it on Saturday!

Wizzard vs Tennin went better, and I managed to Fast Advance out 4 points before he double-Medium-dug me down to the bottom of my deck and stole 7 points before I could blink.

Rasmus then kindly went through a few options I might have missed when facing Prison IG in case I faced it again and we went off to wait for round 2.

Result: 0-2 (Rasmus finished 25th)

Game 2 vs Alex - Weyland/Geist

My Val deck did it's magic, and I found 7 points worth of agendas very quickly though Eater/Keyhole and Blackmail. Weyland struggled against the speed a good starting hand gives me, and I got my first win!

My game vs Geist however was my favourite of the whole day - such a tense finish against a lovely opponent. We were both on 6 points when he discovered a Future Perfect in my archives... along with 3 Shock! He lost the psi game and went to 2 cards. Drew up to 3, and ran again only to lose another psi game. As the agenda score would have won him the game before he took the damage, Alex decided to make one more run... meaning the game came down to how many counters I had in my hand! Luckily for me I won the 3rd psi game in a row and he flatlined himself.

Not only was this my favourite game of the day, but Alex was also my favourite opponent (and he had some very tough competition, as everyone I met was a pleasure to play against) so big shout out to him.

Result: 2-0 (Alex finished 155th)

Game 3 vs Joseph - Palana/Quetzal

A slow build up by Quetzal gave Tennin a chance to build up some tokens on ICE, which gave me all the time I needed to FA out 7 points.

Sadly in the reverse match, I missed a card being installed unprotected and didn't run it - the Global Food Initiative then got scored, and I never quite caught up from there.

Result: 1-1 (Joseph finished 106th)

Game 4 vs Damien - CI/Andy

Got to 5 points as Tennin, had a Biotic and Braintrust in hand... then got Siphoned into the floor. Didn't manage to get my economy back on track before Damien managed to steal his 7th point. Disappointingly close!

Employee Strike managed to disrupt CI for a turn or two, and I managed to snipe agendas out of a 15 card hand, but couldn't get into R&D to Keyhole and then failed to trash one of the two Jackson Howard on the board because I didn't have the money at the time. The next turn, his combo went off... and I lost.

Result: 0-2 (Damien finished 96th)

Game 5 vs Ben - Sync/Hayley

5 minutes into the match, one of the judges handing out the result slips told Ben how much he loved his decks... not what I wanted to hear!

Many desperate runs and a Turntable got me several agendas from Sync (including his Astro, complete with token) but eventually had to go Tag-Me, and then Exchange of Information switched my GFI for a Breaking News, and that was game over.

Playing against Spy-Camera Hayley I had a good start while he set up, had all the cards I needed to score out AND the money... but couldn't do anything against his clot. One thing I never got to practice against was how to deal with a Clone Chip > Clot threat when your opponent is on game point and you don't have a Jackson about... still not 100% sure how I could have dealt with it, but as it went to time and he had no cards left it was a very tense finish :)

Result: 0-2 (Ben finished 54th)

Game 6 vs Leigh - Palana/Ken

Blackmail and Keyhole did the job against Palana, the speed of the Val deck gives them no time to get set up and that's why I love it.

Against Ken, he just ran constantly and I couldn't ICE up fast enough to keep him out. Security Testing is a pain, it counts as a successful run but without him actually accessing archives my plan failed terribly.

Result: 1-1 (Leigh finished 138th)

Game 7 vs Andy - Biotech/Sunny

I got some lucky runs early (although did hit a Snare) but never let myself get below 4 cards as I couldn't remember how much damage the Brewery did! Eventually Keyhole dropped something that wasn't a TFP into Archives - I'd already seen how that might go in round 2 - and I scooped up my last few points from his bin.

Sunny proved that her weakness was a lack of speed, and without Shaper-bullshit to save him like Hayley had earlier in the day, I finished my final match with a sweep.

Result: 2-0 (Andy finished 140th)

So all in all, I finished with 6 wins and 8 losses, giving me 18 points and the position of 111th in 157 players - on the same points as the person who finished 94th, just with a worse Strength of Schedule (in fact the 2nd worst SoS out of anyone on 18 points!).

For my first ever Nationals tournament, and only my 2nd day playing someone face to face who wasn't Paul I'm feeling pretty good about this. If I can get my head around some of the intricacies (such as how to stop being Clot-locked) then I know next year I'll be able to significantly improve on my final position!

Continued in Facechecking Nationals - Part 3 (Go Big Or Stay Home)

Facechecking Nationals - Part 1 (The Road To Birmingham)

While I've been playing A:NR for over a year, until very recently I had only ever played against my friend Paul (who I played the original Netrunner with, back in 1999). In June we discovered a GNK was happening in Milton Keynes. so we popped along, only to get utterly destroyed. The two games I won that night were against him, and he didn't get a single win... but we had a lot of fun in the process, and decided to go along to more competitions.

So this past weekend, as you may be aware, was the 2016 UK Nationals.

Yes, my second experience of the competitive Netrunner scene was the biggest event in the UK because apparently I'm a bit of an Anarch in that regard.

Which decks to take? Runner was easy - my Val deck (Drinking The Pub Dry) was fast, resilient and above all fun to play but I just couldn't find a corp deck I enjoyed playing. I spent a lot of time trying different netdecks out, seeing what I liked amd how they worked (so I would know how to face them) but just never felt inspired. They just weren't as fun as playing my dodgy Tennin deck!

Discussing this on the Facebook "UK Netrunner" group, someone said to me:

"Take the deck you know, and that you enjoy playing. You're better off with an uncompetitive deck you like and have experience with than a top tier deck that you either don't like or haven't played much with"

So "Damned If You Do..." Tennin it was! I did make some fairly major changes to it, moving its concept from asset spam shell game bullshit to remoteless fast advance but it was still a tricksy deck full of traps capable of flatlining people who weren't careful and that's really what I enjoy about Jinteki. There's something delicious about the runner feeling like they need to make a run on your open archives to avoid you getting the free advancement token and then finding out it's full of Shock, Shi-Kyu and Space Camp... *evil laugh*

The day itself eventually arrived, and Paul picked me up at 6:45am which means I had to get up earlier for Netrunner than I do for work and we set off for Birmingham with 90 minutes to spare before the end of registration. Which it turns out was damn lucky as not only was every motorway full of roadworks, but somehow we'd both got it into our heads that it was at the NEC after getting there, realising our mistake and then driving to the ICC we arrived with 15 minutes before registration closed! Quickly writing out our deck lists (me because I'd brought a printed out email, him because he'd not done it) and having a quick smoke, the round 1 pairings were posted...

Continued in "Facechecking Nationals - Part 2 (7 Rounds for 7 Agendas)"