Why Publish a Tao List That Finished 12/19?

Sometimes the purpose of your deck choice is to serve as a warning to others.

Hi, I'm that person that always says "howdy, gl and hf" on Jnet. I brought this deck to the Pittsburgh district tournament this past weekend, and it went 1-1. Why post this? Maybe I just feel like screaming into the void that is the Internet, but perhaps there is something to be learned here by others (and myself).

As a middling player, I realized early this year, that I need to recognize that a few things are true:

• My brain isn't setup to do well at this game. First, I'm old. Not "it's not cold in here, you're just dying", but we're on the wrong side of 40, forget 30.

• Life handed me the bag of mental disorders and said "Don't take one; take a handful". Those issues impact my executive functioning and my ability to execute a coherent game plan (or sometimes any game plan).

• I need to select cards to include that work for and with my brain, rather than cards that are just good in abstract.

• Fun is important, process is important, outcomes are not important.

I told my corp opponent in round 2 that I considered them a really good player, and that I thought they were difficult to play against, and also that I was afraid to play them. They stated "fear is the mind killer", which, fair. I replied "True, but Paul Atreides probably didn't have 5 mental disorders, but who knows?" The point is: accept reality, then make decisions accordingly. I figured I would encounter them during swiss, so I included cards that would allow me to make it a contest, and not solo-netrunner on their side.

SMC makes me feel safe enough to run. Provided I have enough credits to install the appropriate breaker and prevent my board from getting deleted, I feel good to go. This isn't a controversial choice, here. No one will get flak for including SMC. The point is to pick a card that does what you need, not what the top players are using. I need a card to help me overcome my emotional turmoil and contest the scoring remote. I do not like face-checking. Actually, that's incorrect. Face-checking is like nails on a chalkboard to my brain. I cannot drastically change my brain, so I need to understand reality and then make good choices.

The opposite of SMC for me is Counter Surveillance. That card scares the crap out of me. I have to be tagged several times for it to really work? Hard pass. At the start of every corp turn I would hear a voice in my head saying "wake up, time to die".

Another card that helps me is Juli. When I play netrunner, I am inefficient. Either I waste clicks for no rational reason, or I force myself to run when I am not prepared and then I end up getting deleted. Juli helps me with that because it's 2 credits once to save 4 clicks over 4 turns.

Playing Juli also helped me discover an interesting trick. When you have "Wheels" and Juli in play and you use "Wheels" to run a remote, you not only save a click from the base once-a-turn "Wheels" ability, you also earn one from Juli as well. I doubt I am the first person to discover this, but here we are.

I'm not sure this write-up is/was worthwhile. If it helps one other person, then the answer is yes. If not, well . . . maybe you laughed. All of life is a trial by fire.