Chrono Trigger (Undefeated, 3rd @ Cascadia Throwback)

This list is a long time coming.

The short version is that I piloted to 3rd place at the Cascadia Throwback event, where it went undefeated (3-0-1). The draw was an ID in the last round of swiss that guaranteed a top 4 seed in the cut, allowing me to choose Corp in the first cut game. We won our first cut game, eventually losing to @Aruzan's sick Chairman Hiro combo Ob list for 3rd place.

Its a Jinteki Punitive list at heart, but Chronos Protocol enables us to play Complete Image along with a Neurospike threat that forces the runner's hand a bit.

The longer version is much more interesting though, if you'll indulge me.

I first started learning netrunner in the liminal space between when FFG stopped printing cards and when NSG (then-NISEI) released Downfall and Uprising. My brother visited me in Madison, WI and showed me the game. He brought a Titan Transnational: Investing In Your Future list and a MaxX: Maximum Punk Rock deck and after playing 3 or 4 games I was absolutely hooked. He mentioned that jnet existed before he left town, and despite living in a premier netrunner location at the time, I had no knowledge of how to even start finding out if people in the area played and had no physical cards of my own.

My fresh, empty netrunner mind was looking to build a my first deck when the new cards came out. Complete Image was a new and shiny win-con card and after stumbling upon Chronos Protocol: Selective Mind-mapping, I sunk my teeth into trying to make it work in the format. Back then, we had goodies like Salem's Hospitality and Neural EMP, and SSL Endorsement but even then it was not a good deck. It was a bad deck built by a bad player. Even optimized, I'm sure it would still have been bad. The one's who knew what was up would just sit there and do nothing because I had no threats if they never stole 3 points. As a side note, Complete Image is actually a fascinating window into the evolutionary development of the threat mechanic post-FFG.

But we had a linear game plan and I knew it reinforced a good habit of keeping very close tabs on the cards in my opponent's hand, what cards they played, and what was potentially left in deck. This helped me focus on figuring out runner deck archetypes and the general card pool more quickly out of necessity.

I had an irrational love for this ridiculous combo deck, but my first netrunner love had only ever lived online.

Fast forward to Cascadia 2024.

The organizers announced that the startup event was being replaced with a throwback tournament, and I immediately knew what we had to do. We were 110% going to find a way to play Chronos Protocol/Complete Image at an in-person tournament with the current standard card pool. I literally considered zero other Corp ideas despite the bevy of certifiably f**ked up filth available to me.

This was the only way. So, we got to building.

A Punitive Counterstrike foundation made the most sense to me, especially since we could also import Standard Procedure as our click-one burst econ rather effectively. The Neurospike theoretically punishes a runner that simply seeks to deny Complete Image windows entirely. The La Costa Grid also naturally supports this strategy along with some sturdy econ. After adding all of the good, sturdy net damage ice of each type we top it off with a Gene Splicer to help score out and potentially bait punishing ID triggers.

I mostly expected to just have fun with this mostly nostalgic list. But we just kept on winning games with it.

Game 1 v. Ayla

As far as I understand, this runner was trying to do some kind of combo with Surfer, Pichação, and Diana's Hunt. We just set up our La Costa Remote w/ a Charlotte until we could push out a Fujii behind Anansi/Vampy. We let the agenda cook while we looked for follow-up combo pieces and shored up our econ. Once it got to 3 counters the runner had their echelon and an SMC live so they click-one Overclock the remote. We were on like 9 credits, so we just let them in to steal, got a peak at the hand on steal while we sniped a card.

They end their turn on 4 credits and 5 cards in hand. Our turn is:

• Click 1: Standard Procedure to money up and gather necessary intel

• Click 2: Punitive Counterstrike to take them down to two cards in hand without proc'ing our ID.

• Click 3: Complete Image, which at 2 cards in hand is a 100% killshot w/ intel.

Perfection.

Round 2 v. Haley

This runner was on an Aesops Hayley engine on Ashen Epilogue and Harmony AR Therapy for long-term cash. They are also on a single Caldera, which was highly annoying. They had some money issues after installing an Inversificator to break a Vampyronassa on the remote and clear first my La Costa Grid.

We got the second one set up and just started cookin' gendies. We score a Bacterial Programming, but also have one stolen but miss on our Punitive Counterstrike window.

We were able to snipe the Ashen Epilogue from hand after scoring a Fujii Asset Retrieval we cooked in the remote, forcing the runner to DJ Fenris back a Harmony AR Therapyto hand when the deck was running out of cards. We found the Send a Message to jam in the remote for the win, but also caught the runner with 3 cards in hand in a Complete Image window that allowed us to, at worst, snipe the Harmony and give a 50/50 at winning the game. We win the coin flip and get our second Complete Image kill of the day.

Round 3 v. Progenitor Loup

This was a scary matchup for us, but our opponent was happy to ID into top seed and I was happy to ID to guarantee a top 4 seed in a single-elimination cut, allowing me to choose sides in my first cut game.

We played the game for fun anyway, but time in the round was called and we didnt have time to finish. That game was on its way to be a 3-3 tie either way. It went better than expected but we were on thin ice after getting some key cards Imped. They ran HQ and had to steal a Bacterial from hand, but we missed on finding any of our Punitives on the dig. We went for one long-shot complete image w/ 5 in hand that was more to disrupt the gameplan than to win, but we had a shot since I knew they had two copies of the same card in hand. We are able to snipe the Carnivore and I think hit a Chisel before fizzling out.

In the long-run, we probably lose that matchup more times than not, but we make it into the cut as the 3rd seed.

Cut Game 1 v. Account Siphon Steve

Econ denial like that is very scary for us given our operating costs, but this game actually ended up finishing early in a pretty crazy sequence.

Turn 1 we double ice HQ with an Anemone on the outside to handle Alarm Clock, if needed. From there we slowly built out our remote.

We put a Charlotte in, advance it, and click for a credit to end turn on 5 credits with a Saisentan over top. I think this was turn 3 or 4. The next turn, my opponent Bravados the remote with 6 cards in hand. We rez Saisentan, naming event, and since we get to snipe on the first damage sub we get tons of info and guarantee at least 4 damage.

This terrifying monstrosity of a hand was filled with an Account Siphon, a Diversion of Funds, a Bahia Bands, a No Free Lunch, a Pinhole Threading, and a card I cannot remember at the moment. We snipe the Account Siphon first (obviously), and secondarily hit an event. Second and third subs also hit events, wiping out their entire hand. You love to see it.

But I'm on zero credits and they're about to force my only econ piece off the board. Luckily they were scared enough about what the remote could be that they jacked out. But since I was on zero, they figured they could waltz into HQ for a free Steve trigger to recoup at least some of the damage that happened.

We rez the Charlotte, pop it for 3 credits, rez the Anemone and kill them dead.

chef's kiss

Overall, we had a lot of luck on our side but it felt so amazing to have that kind of success with a nostalgic deck in such a busted format. I actually think this deck presents a lot of intractable problems for a lot of runners and is more difficult to pick apart than it looks.

But the best part of this adventure into my netrunner origin story is that one of our prizes was to pick from a huge selection of dope alt art cards and IDs. As I was thumbing through them, I stumbled upon another deep cut.

In 2014, FFG held the Chronos Protocol Tour, a series of European tournaments where players got to vote between two versions of the Chronos Protocol ID, with the winner to be printed. The Jinteki version won obv, but the losing ID was a fascinating HB version.

Wouldn't you know it, in this pile of alt arts was an alt art of the unprinted HB version of the ID. We were obligated to take it to cap off our Cascadia.

Amazing format, amazing tournament. 12/10 would Cascadia again.