A farewell to Nationals (11-1 @ East + West US Nats)

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No Tributary? No Problem. (1st @ West Can Nats 2024)
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Ag of +5 Infusion [0-2, 4th at NJ CO]
sokka's ag but with the mav
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Sokka 5863

Check out my Nationals debrief stream!

Coast-to-coast wins at US Nationals this year (with SebastianK and OTG sandwiched in the middle)! I felt a lot of self-imposed pressure on this last one in Seattle because it was the last nationals of the season (last nationals EVER) that I planned on attending and I wanted to keep my nationals winstreak alive. While East Coast Nationals was largely motivated by another reason, West Coast Nationals was entirely for the streak and I’m so happy that I can continue to say (forever) that I’ve won every nationals level event I’ve ever attended (6/6: CanNats 2019, US Nats 2022, CanNats 2022, West CanNats 2024, and now East and West US Nats 2024).

This is the list I played at Intercontinentals, East Coast US Nationals in Boston, and West Coast US Nationals in Seattle. The deck was the exact same across all three tournaments. My runner writeup is here: Lat

There were only two changes from my West Coast CanNats version. I swapped the Vampy for a second Thimblerig and cut the Mavirus for a Rime. Vampy and Thimblerig are each good at different things but Thimble being a cheap gear-check is important to protect early assets, helps secure all servers against World Tree, is super clutch against Bankhar, and rearranging ice is always decently useful. Mavirus vs Rime is a much closer analysis. Mavirus is a key card in some matchups while useless in most matchups. Rime is always useful to some extent, at worst is a facedown piece of ice, and can lead to some pretty fun(ny) situations especially involving Echelon. Probably should play Mavirus tho.

This Ag is not the best deck. Rather, it’s a viable slow deck. Slower games means more decisions for both players. That’s more opportunities for you to outplay your opponent and/or for your opponent to make mistakes.

The Nationals Gods really watched over me throughout this last tournament in Seattle, giving me a clear helping hand during a number of my corp games where I was either dead lost on the board or the odds of a game-losing access were very bad for me.

In-person Netrunner is the best. See y’all at worlds.

7 comments
9 Aug 2024 Diogene

Awesome write-up!

Why not use the inf for Manegarm Skunkworks instead of Border Control, since you play Anoetic Void?

Cheers!

9 Aug 2024 rapanui

Diogene- maybe total ice density matters a lot due to the ID ability? Also makes centrals slightly less porous. Just guessing here.

10 Aug 2024 Sokka

@Diogene I think when just comparing the two cards head-to-head, Skunk is better than Void. However, there’s just no good ice. Boto is expensive and can be awkward to use, Vampy is weak on remotes since it doesn’t ETR, and every other ice has issues. Border is a fine early game ETR and is also great in the late game. I want 16 non-Rime ice and the alternatives for Border are all bad

11 Aug 2024 Sokka

@Diogene I think when just comparing the two cards head-to-head, Skunk is better than Border Control. However, there’s just no good ice. Boto is expensive and can be awkward to use, Vampy is weak on remotes since it doesn’t ETR, and every other ice has issues. Border is a fine early game ETR and is also great in the late game. I want 16 non-Rime ice and the alternatives for Border are all bad

11 Aug 2024 Matuszczak

Congrats Will!!! :) Completely agree on the scramble to get to 16 playable ICE: surprised you skipped 1x Cloud Eater. Do you think 10’s too much or do you have another reason not to play the snake?

11 Aug 2024 Sokka

@Matuszczak Thanks! I’m not too impressed by the snake in theory. Entangler seems like a major weakness and the relevance of tags is usually questionable (only matters if runner has key resources). I haven’t actually tried it tho so maybe I’ll like it but in theory I think the deck doesn’t want to be paying 10 for that (and 1x SAM is not a reliable way to rez it)

13 Aug 2024 Matuszczak

All valid points, but probably still worth testing since we really need to dig deep for playable ICE here. In my limited testing so far the guaranteed inconvenience of a firing sub was a decent compensation for the 2 added cost compared to Anansi... aaaand a 4th Anansi isn't too bad here.