Elusive Spike Agency | 3rd@ CBI EMEA Pod, 12th@ CBI TopCut

Soundtrack

To get the decklist writeup out of the way: this is very close to my wonderful teammate eden's Ob list, with (iirc) the only difference on my part being -1 Sandstone, +1 Armed Asset Protection. When jamming Facet Ob these past months, I landed on Tucana earlier than it did, thinking that'd help against disruption like Hermes. Sometimes the hell bird does nice things. The AAP meanwhile is a relict from the excellent heartless, mindless list. I should've probably done it like eden and switched it out for another Sandstone, because the extra consistency sure can be nice. The last minute Wraparound include definitely helped alleviate some pressure from AI breaker decks. I attribute my swiss win against the new Circuit breaker to that card.

Now, let's talk about the CBI. I qualified through placing 4th at the September 2024 EMEA AMT which already felt pretty improbable. In the time until the CBI, I had fallen off my Netrunner fixation a little bit, so I wasn't very confident about my chances. The goal was mainly to try winning a game that day. But it turns out, as written in the tomes of spike bias, playing good decks already goes a long way. So I kept winning one game after another until finally, in round 7, I lost against The King's Mulch Hoshiko. We got paired again for the final round and could comfortably ID into the top cut.

Then, me and everyone else wondered how I ended up there, earning me the title of the „most elusive player in the top cut“.

don't tell netrunner players but… you can try talking to girls instead of assuming they're elusive lol

In the top cut, my streak ran out. My one win was in round 1, playing as Esâ against abstracted on AgInfusion, absolutely lucking it out with singles accesses and Sabotage, winning by round 2. The following two games were losses against the future and past Circuit Breakers. I found that I couldn't replicate my Ob win against Kikai, landing on the backfoot and not getting out of that position. In my final match, I was shown the true power of the boat. Thus I was out on 12th place.

Still, I'm really satisfied with my results. Who knew I'd get so far! I only started playing Standard Netrunner last year after RWR got released, so this feels like quite an achievement.

Finally, shoutouts to eden, for getting me on the boat; the author of spike biased, for getting me on the spike bias; and just all of ESA (my testing/sparring group), for being amazing teammates, the incredibly helpful sparring matches, and cheering me on <3