Sportscasting Masterclass (3-0, 7th @ Naarm Districts)

This is the first decklist I've taken to a tournament that I felt I'd really put my own spin on, beyond taking an existing decklist and swapping in a pet card, so I thought I should make the effort to do my first proper write up! But before that, a word from our sponsor:

Congratulations on being accepted into our SPORTSMETAL^TM sportscasting Masterclass series! We are thrilled to be partnering with Azmari EdTech's star instructor Amani Senai to bring you a course that will teach you everything you need to know to master high octane sports commentary consistent with our brand.
Upon graduation, you will be eligible to join our community streaming affiliate program, making you part of the greater Haas Bioroid family. (Please note that any rebroadcasting of SPORTSMETAL^TM content on personal Net streams prior to acceptance into the affiliate program is not permitted. SPORTSMETAL^TM will take all appropriate actions to remove such content and seek compensation.)
We look forward to welcoming you to our new district educational centre, in person attendance at which is necessary to pass the course. We understand that recent funding cuts to district public transit will make this more difficult for some of you, but we are sure your dedication to this program means you won't mind spending the extra time to get here!

The Idea
In the last few months I've been trying to play a bunch of the different IDs that are rotating at our local meetups and Sportsmetal was the last cab off the rank. I had so much fun with the ID that I decided play it at our Naarm/Melbourne District Championship. I knew that several variants of Amani Sports decks had put in good performances at tournaments in 2024 and Amani Senai is the number 1 card that I hate to play against when I'm running, so I figured that was a good direction to go in. Recent examples were leveraging Fully Operational to get value out of an Asa-esque play-style of establishing multiple iced remotes but in the (admittedly few) test games I played I never set up more than one iced remote server and found that exerting pressure through putting down as many agendas and must-trash assets on the table as I could worked better for me.

In thinking about other cards that were rotating I realised that MCA Austerity Policy would fit perfectly with this game plan:

• It robs the runner of clicks to make it harder for them to reestablish their board state after Amani and Working Prototype bounces,
• It's another must-trash asset to distract them from other important tools,
• And it can provide explosive tempo when the runner is unable to deal with it in time.

So I ditched some ice and the Fully Ops, opted for more asset- and upgrade-based econ, threw in a cheeky Warroid Tracker, and went for it.

Performance
I had anticipated that criminal would be the least favourable matchup for this deck due to run-based econ and Miss Bones, but on the day it cleaned up against a Cezve Az, Mining Accident 419, and Swift Khusyuk Ken. MCA fired at least once each game, and on a couple of occasions where the runner trashed it before I got to the third counter, that effort created a window for me to score out with Powers on the table and simply bring it back.

My Wage Workers demonstrated an admirable work ethic, enabling me to set up numerous threats on the board and usually round out a turn by using the extra on MCA, while Cohort, Tranq, and of course Rashida provided persistent draw so that I always had plenty of cards to install. Ablative Barrier put in a solid performance, with the on-rez effect from two of them helping me to reestablish a formidable board state in my match against Az after my opponent had emptied a Bones to clear the field.

One Year of Competitive Netrunner
I played in my first CO shortly after the release of RWR and back then would certainly not have expected that a year later I would make it into the top 8 at both the Djillong/Geelong and Naarm/Melbourne District Championships. I definitely credit much of my improvement as a player to the high calibre of the folks I get to play with regularly at our local meetups and tournaments, including abstracted, ThePatrician, EqualzDee, Bluestar, HaverOfFun, F3nr1s, Kror, y.pro, lukevanryn and many more!

Thanks to Scarius for organising a great tournament, and to the whole Naarm/Melbourne Netrunner community for just generally being a great bunch of people to hang out and sling cardboard with.