GERMAN NATIONALS 2014

Dear All

It has been a while since my last entry. I have to admit that I lost some enthusiasm about Netrunner. i guess the whole Chronos Protocol touring, multiple weekends a month tournaments and constant pseudo theoretical card analysis was draining my whole motivation.

Nevertheless it is back and I am really eager to continue this blog. I will start with a report about the German Nationals which will take place this weekend. Although I will continue with other entries and the problem about a meta which is divided between NBN NEH and J:RP decks which causes runner deck build attempts to be really difficult.

So, stay tuned.

Tokens Brokenegggames - review

Dear fellow Runners and CEOs

Today I want to spend some time to write about something which is as essential as snitching or scoring agendas. The tokens we all are using during our games.

I think FFG did a great job with their design and I still love the "2 different sides" design of the vanilla 1 credit tokens. In general I cant really complain about it. 

The only thing which really annoyed me after a while was the lack of 2 or 3 credit tokens. We all might agree that it is absolutely not necessary to use other tokens but sometimes we just want to. 

For me my interest lit up with the acryl tokens (click marker) I won during the regionals 2013. They felt so good, were durable and I really liked the simplistic design. The FFG credit tokens are also very nice but you need at least 2 sets to be able to play with it but I only have one set.

New tokens:

During the last month several great companies like Team Covenant who makes the best Netrunner videos out there, Brokenegggames, Litko and Go7gaming spend money, time and effort into designing special equipment for Android: Netrunner. In the future I want to order more tokens from different companies to review but the shipping is very expensive at the moment so we will see how this will work out.

Today I want to review tokens from Brokenegggames which they send me for free. I was very skeptical at the beginning about the design of the credit tokens but during some weeks of playing with them I don't want to miss them. Please excuse the different angles and quality of the pictures. I am still experimenting with my lighting setup and camera.

Overview:

They offer 2 general sets, cyberpunk tokens and cyberpunk credit tokens. However you can buy single tokens. Credits are available for values of 1, 2, 3 and 5 plus bad publicity which has the same size as the credit tokens. Usually one token can be bought for 1 $.

Every credit has its own design which I really like. It is plain and simple and really good to see although you get more used to colors.

Only the value 3 credit token is a little bit more difficult to see but not as bad as on the picture. Every token has the same size and I am very pleased with their thickness and haptic. You can't snap them (only with brute force) and I expect them to survive many years. I used them a lot already and I was not really careful. The barely show scratches or other damages.

The size of the token is sophisticated. Don't get me wrong they are really big but that is useful because you can easily grab or flip them. They slide over your playmat which speeds up the whole game.

Talking about a certain style of playing I prefer to pile my tokens and that is something these tokens really shine:

To load Kati Jones or Daily Cast is so much faster and easier to keep track of. You can pile all those tokens and I don't waste time piling up 1 credits or changing money. For me that's simply beautiful and my number one argument if I would recommend it (see below).

The black color of the bad publicity tokens needs getting used to but they are so eye-catching you will never forget your 1 credit as the runner or corp.

The cyberpunk tokens are also brilliant. I arranged most of them so you get a feeling for their size.

Again, all tokens are of high quality and and are very neat. No sharp edges or other flaws. My favorites are the brain damage and virus tokens which are just stunning  and useful. Brokenegggames definitely are players and they know what is useful and what is not. For me it is sometimes important to keep track of brain damage. If I or the runner forgets it it can be really annoying. This red and shiny brain is something you won't overlook. 

The recurring credit is useful for cards like NBN: Making News or Cyberfeeder. You can flip them or push them down from the card. It is a nice little token to have. 

The virus tokens are not too big and you can pile up a lot of them on a Datasucker.

In contrast to all the well designed tokens I am unsure about the ones with the nice lightning symbol on it and the advancement tokens. I found my self reluctantly at first but later always using the regular credit sticks for advancing cards. Nevertheless I really like to use them for hosted markers like Astroscript or Project Atlas but I don't use them for advancing cards. Maybe I am just to lazy but I want to mention that.

I never use the other token with the lightning symbol. I guess it should be used for MU but that's something I really don't need tokens for. Please let me point out that this is a highly specific criticism. You could use them for Femme Fatal markers or whatever.

Regarding storage I use the Ultra Pro Satin Tower box for my two decks. This box has a separate module for storing tokens which is perfect for one credit token set.

My other tokens are stored in a standard DIY market box for 5 $ / €.

It is pretty solid and will survive some punishment during tournaments. It is not the best solution and I will appreciate if others could come up with a better idea but for now it works. I want to have a system which is as small as possible but still as convenient as possible.

Conclusion:

It may be a very bad comparison but with tokens which are not really necessary for me it is the same with good whiskey. You don't really need it but when you have it you will really appreciate it and use it. If you want to have some variety and if you live in the USA I can really recommend those tokens. If you live in Europe like I do ask a couple of friends to combine orders to reduce the costs for shipping.

I love my tokens. they really speed up the game play, they are durable and have a nice haptic. They don't look cheap and you get this little poker chip / jetton feeling when you let them clatter which is awesome!!!! Sorry, couldn't resist to mention that.

If you want to buy them:

www.brokenegggames.com 

Caprice Nisei - Welcome to the fabulous world of mind games

Usually I would post a total review about the new data pack. During the last time I was quite busy so I will start with one card first people are talking about a lot. Caprice Nisei.

It is always difficult to evaluate a new card and how much impact it may have on the meta and on winning rates. It is definitely a very strong card but is it possible to do some math? We will see!

People are discussing about the 5 influence which makes it nearly impossible to play her out of faction and Jinteki is not competitive enough so why is everybody screaming an running around like a headless chicken?

Well, let's look into the mechanics to visualize the effect.


Caprice allows us to enter the mind-blowing world of - well - mind games again with an ability to end the run in 2 out of 3 times and it stays on the table if the gamble was successful because the runner can't trash it. Additionally the more ICE you stick in front of your server the better it gets. That's bloody amazing.

All of this means that of 3 runs 1 will be successful and she will get trashed most likely. Similar cards like corporate troubleshooter or ash sometimes are getting really expensive and you need a much better economy to fuel it. Sure you can guarantee that the runner won't make it which is a huge difference to Caprice but for 0, 1 or 2 credits caprice is much more economic.

If we look at it in more detail you can compare it with a rock paper scissor game but in 2 of three games the corp wins the gamble.

We have 9 possible outcomes:

00, 11, 22 -> Win for the runner (3)
01,02,10,12,20,21 -> Win for the corp (6)

That shows us that Caprice does either nothing or wins flawlessly. There is nothing in between. If you have only one attempt before the corporations scores the Agenda to gable the probability won't change and I love to have this additional option to deny the runner access besides the costs to break through my ICE. If you totally rely on Caprice (open remote) it may be risky but still possible.

Well so far you have a pretty solid card but now we have to talk about the WAY people making decisions. people either decide actively or some are rolling a die. If they make a personal decision you could be able t o predict which amount 0, 1 or 2 credits they are choosing. You may need some time but you could shift the probability more to your favor. If they decide to roll a die it will be a total randomness (like accessing cards from HQ after rolling dice).

It may provide you with an advantage if you a good at predicting your opponents reactions or his or her way of thinking but in a couple of runs you will choose the wrong number inevitably which lead the corp or runner to win.

I would say that Caprice is a strong card but FFG did a great job in balancing it through the influence costs. If you include one copy in your Weyland or HB heavy ICE deck and if you are lucky to install caprice in due time it can really be a pain in the butt for the runner but it won't be that reliable (ok, Atlas -> tutor, but there are better options). In actual Jinteki RP decks it can really be worth if you combine it wish RSVP and Ash to play economy denial with the runner.

We will see how caprice will have an influence on Jinteki wins although I assume its effect will somehow disappear with all the other new cards in the new deluxe expansion.

Evolution of an Andromeda Deck

Andromeda

The Daughter of Cepheus and his Queen Cassiopeia, a beautiful but also arrogant woman who boast to the gods that her Daughter is more beautiful than even the nymphs.

Andromeda was chained to a rock and later freed by Perseus. Her name means ruler of men and after her death Athena placed her among the star constellations in the northern sky. 

My intention is to write a post which will extend over 3 month to show you the evolution of my Andromeda Deck, all insights a gained about games and cards and explanation for all decisions made based on our local meta.

Maybe this post will help your to set up your own criminal deck without just copying an existing one (which is not bad at all). Ultimately, this is the one and only possibility to win, If you build a deck, you will refine it, you play with it and you may realize that your deck is crap. Don't be sad about it. Copy another deck and start to melt it to your play style and favor. Dump bad designs, maximize the chance of winning if that's your goal. Look at the deck lists used on worlds or other winning decks on numerous websites. Try to understand why those players have chosen to use specific cards or combos. Everything put together will make you a better player.

Close after the release of Android Netrunner I started to play a lot of Gabriel Santiago Decks which were pretty strong in those days but shifted to shaper after Creation and Control was released. I tried Anarchs too but was never so convinced by Noiseshops and similar decks to keep me motivated. After I played different shaper identities somehow successful at the German Nationals and our Berlin City Grid tournaments I decided to put them aside for a while to fully embrace the appealing attraction of Andromeda.

Why Andromeda?

Well, I don't really like to agree with people if they simply say Andromeda has to be good because everyone plays it. People who see other people using Andromeda successfully are more likely to try her out too which causes more players to join the pack which makes the choice of Andromeda inflationary. That somehow blinds you. So we have to annalyze the card!

What makes Andromeda better? 

For me it is all about statistics. If I use a 49 cards Deck and I can draw close to 1/5 of all of my cards at the beginning the probability is much higher to draw at least some cards I really want to see. That means in detail:

If I have 3 copies in my deck I have a chance of 38 % to draw one of those cards. If I use tutor cards which adds to my copies of ICE breakers I have 5 cards in total for one set (e.g. 3 special order + 2 corroder ) -> the chance rises to 43 %. 

If I play singletons it is still 18 %. 

The additional base link of one is a very nice addition to give me a little bit more flexibility in terms of taxing ICE, tracing and underworld contacts if I want to make use of it.

I can only recommend the interesting article on Stimhack by Alexfrog who writes about Identities and which supports your level of playing ANR.

Stimhack- Player skill

He points out that Andromeda supports better players in general and you can get the most out of this ID if you are a decent player. I hope this also counts for me. My experience up to now really supports that theory from the opposite point of view. Andromeda is not very forgiving regarding mistakes. You have a huge advantage at the beginning but if you make some bad decisions you will get punished soon.

Criminal decks are classified to be strong in early game and may loose their punch later. I don't agree if you are not playing every card valuable for the late game during the first phase of the early game. I aim to create a deck which allows me to pressure the corp as long as possible and to annoy by derezzing valuable ICE in addition to be able to switch between R&D lock and surgical strikes to remotes. We will see if I will be successful with that assumption. 

Basic deck concept:

Total Cards: 51

Event (24) 

Account Siphon (Core) x3 

Emergency Shutdown (Cyber Exodus) x3 

Special Order (Core) x3 

Inside Job (Core) x3 

Sure Gamble (Core) x3 

Dirty Laundry (Creation and Control) x3 

Forged Activation Orders (Core) x2 

Hostage (Opening Moves) x2 

Lawyer Up (True Colors) x2 

Hardware (12) 

Desperado (Core) x3 

Plascrete Carapace (What Lies Ahead) x2 

R&D Interface (Future Proof) x2 

Dyson Mem Chip (Trace Amount) x2 

E3 Feedback Implants (Trace Amount) x1 

HQ Interface (Humanity's Shadow) x2 

Program (11) 

Faerie (Future Proof) x1 

Crypsis (Core) x1 

Corroder (Core) x2 

Datasucker (Core) x1 

Sneakdoor Beta (Core) x1 

Gorman Drip v1 (Opening Moves) x1 

Expert Schedule Analyzer (Mala Tempora) x1 

Garrote (True Colors) x2 

Torch (Mala Tempora) x1 

Resource (4) 

Kati Jones (Humanity's Shadow) x1 

Professional Contacts (Creation and Control) x1 

Raymond Flint (Mala Tempora) x1 

Underworld Contact (A Study in Static) x1 

So, here we go. the first attempt to test my Andromeda deck. Yes, nasty 51 cards but I will definitely adjust that later.  

Key cards:

I put a lot of events into this deck to give me some flexibility for every situation. Siphon can be used as an economy card (mainly) and to slow down the corp at the beginning of the game or during crucial turns. Some ICE derezzing or forced rezzing cards are always useful and Inside Job allows be to make a remote or central more porous. Hostage allows me to get my Kati or underworld contact faster. Lawyer Up is something I really want to test in combination with Account Siphon or after a run which causes me to get tagged.

My chosen hardware consists simply of some MU and link providers and E3 for nasty Bioroid ICE. HQ and R&D Inyourfaces are my way to increase the chance to snitch Agendas.

For ICE breakers i want to use Torch, Garrote as expensive but effective ICE breakers. Datasucker should make it less expensive for me to get into a server and Expert Schedule analyzer should help me to gain crucial information about the HQ. The rest should be self explanatory.

Results:

After a couple of games I realized that Garrote and Torch are way to expensive for this deck. I did a very simple calculation and thought both Icebreakers would pay off after a couple of runs but the cutback after installing is too grave. I was able to pay for it but during the period of saving the credits, paying and recovering the corp was in a much better position. Torch was an overkill. 9 credits, ouch. I used Raymont Flint rarely and may change for blackmail in the future so I will remove him too later. I love intel but I may switch to infiltration later instead of using Expert Schedule Analyzer. To overcome the issues with credits I decided to remove all R&D and left only one HQ Interface. Medium and Nerve Agent were the latest additions to allow multiple card access.

Total Cards: 49

Event (24)

Account Siphon (Core) x3

Emergency Shutdown (Cyber Exodus) x3

Special Order (Core) x3

Inside Job (Core) x3

Sure Gamble (Core) x3

Dirty Laundry (Creation and Control) x3

Forged Activation Orders (Core) x2

Hostage (Opening Moves) x2

Lawyer Up (True Colors) x2

Hardware (9)

Desperado (Core) x3

Plascrete Carapace (What Lies Ahead) x2

Dyson Mem Chip (Trace Amount) x2

E3 Feedback Implants (Trace Amount) x1

HQ Interface (Humanity's Shadow) x1

Program (12)

Faerie (Future Proof) x1

Crypsis (Core) x1

Corroder (Core) x2

Datasucker (Core) x1

Sneakdoor Beta (Core) x1

Gorman Drip v1 (Opening Moves) x1

Garrote (True Colors) x2

Nerve Agent (Cyber Exodus) x1

Medium (Core) x1

Gordian Blade (Core) x1

Resource (4)

Kati Jones (Humanity's Shadow) x1

Professional Contacts (Creation and Control) x1

Raymond Flint (Mala Tempora) x1

Underworld Contact (A Study in Static) x1

After numerous testing I realized that Medium and Nerve Agent were drawn very late most of the time which is no surprise due to singletons but the influence costs are too high to use more. Gordian blade was definitely the better choice. I drew Garrote early but was not able to pay for it and ETR Sentries like Fenris during the early game were really annoying.

The next changes were more substantial:

Total Cards: 50

Event (23)

Account Siphon (Core) x3

Emergency Shutdown (Cyber Exodus) x3

Special Order (Core) x3

Inside Job (Core) x2

Sure Gamble (Core) x3

Dirty Laundry (Creation and Control) x3

Forged Activation Orders (Core) x2

Hostage (Opening Moves) x2

Lawyer Up (True Colors) x2

Hardware (11)

Desperado (Core) x3

Plascrete Carapace (What Lies Ahead) x2

Dyson Mem Chip (Trace Amount) x2

E3 Feedback Implants (Trace Amount) x1

HQ Interface (Humanity's Shadow) x1

R&D Interface (Future Proof) x2

Program (10)

Faerie (Future Proof) x1

Crypsis (Core) x1

Corroder (Core) x2

Datasucker (Core) x2

Sneakdoor Beta (Core) x1

Gordian Blade (Core) x1

Ninja (Core) x2

Resource (6)

Kati Jones (Humanity's Shadow) x1
Underworld Contact (A Study in Static) x1
Decoy (Core) x2

Bank Job (Core) x2

Gorman drip was also too unreliable and wasted valuable deck space (although I changed my mind and value it now as an unusual economy card) so in favor of getting the deck size down to 49 cards it was removed. Unfortunately I needed some more defense against the imminent threat of getting scorched by Sea Source or autotag induced flat-lining and tried out decoy to defend against NBN and Weyland. I was not able to bring the deck size down to 49 but one card more does not affect the probability to draw a desired card very much (only 0,2 % lesser chance with 3 cards, decksize 49 or 50 ).

Garrote was swapped with 2 x Ninja. Two Bank Jobs - although somehow nostalgic - gave me some economy options because a lot of corps are playing assets unprotected. Some are not so we will see how reliable this option will be. One Inside Job was removed to make space. 

Actually this deck was much more useful and consistent but it is still difficult to set up a R&D lock or HQ superiority. Economy is stable. Long term with Kati, burst with Account Siphon and Bank Job. Would love to use some Armitage Codebusting but deck size is a problem.

HB and Weyland was much easier to beat. Fast advance is still dangerous but this Archetype is strong either way. And yes, I hate Sweeps already... I am still unsure if one copy of Underworld Contacts is enough. Nevertheless I will try this deck for our store championships and refine it until the Chronos Protocol.

Another interesting experience was that I faced various ETR Ice which shakes the very foundation of the so called strong early game criminal play style. I was rarely able to run early and hard. It was very similar to my shaper deck although I agree with the general opinion that shaper shine later. Maybe I still make some mistakes or our meta is different.

The card pool is growing fast so we cannot prepare for all eventualities but we can try to get as close as possible. It may be futile and a King Sisyphus act but the struggle will be high rewarded with insight and wins.

Don't give up, play fair and hard.






Changes:

So, the time has come. I played several games and can say that I was not pleased as I thought I would be. Don't get me wrong. Andy performed well but I was only able to win through hard work. I had to make the right decisions at the right time and I was rarely able to set up my underworld contacts or R&D Lock. In addition I realized that Hostage gave a me a nice opportunity to pick my resourced but I just needed Kati. Bank Job was not very successful. Only Jackson was installed in a free remote and ceased to exists when I started to run.

Of 10 games I could use Bank Job once. Honestly I was pretty frustrated. Especially my old Nemesis the fast advance play-style freaked me out although Sneakdoor and HQ Interface performed very good. The most efficient way to deal with FA strategies is an R&D Lock but I was not able to establish it soon enough. 

I spend one night, sitting over my deck and was close to putting Andy aside but Keyhole came to my aid and I changed the whole deck type:

Total Cards: 49

Event (20)
Account Siphon (Core) x3
Emergency Shutdown (Cyber Exodus) x3
Special Order (Core) x3
Inside Job (Core) x2
Sure Gamble (Core) x3
Dirty Laundry (Creation and Control) x3
Easy Mark (Core) x2
Blackmail (Fear and Loathing) x1

 
Hardware (10)
Desperado (Core) x3
Plascrete Carapace (What Lies Ahead) x2
Dyson Mem Chip (Trace Amount) x2
E3 Feedback Implants (Trace Amount) x1
HQ Interface (Humanity's Shadow) x2 

Program (12)
Crypsis (Core) x1
Corroder (Core) x2
Datasucker (Core) x2
Sneakdoor Beta (Core) x2
Gordian Blade (Core) x1
Ninja (Core) x2
Keyhole (True Colors) x2 

Resource (7)
Kati Jones (Humanity's Shadow) x2
Decoy (Core) x1
Bank Job (Core) x2
Armitage Codebusting (Core) x2

I still use Bank Job but I will definitely replace the card with my next update. Keyhole performed amazingly. It really puts the thumb on the corp and sometimes I was able to win after 3 rounds. One of it's advantages is the immunity against traps. Jackson Howard can still be very annoying but at the moment I am very successful with this deck. Blackmail was not good as I hoped but I will keep one card just in case. I removed Forged Activation Order because I forced the rezz of so many Ice Walls, Paper Walls and Pop Up Windows that I classified the card as waste of deck space most of the time. Two Easy Marks allowed me to burst for some credits. Blackmail was awesome. Weyland and GRNDL hate blackmail!

The card draw is still a problem. I need Keyhole fast and at the moment I do not have the influence for Diesel or Quality time. Maybe I will use Peacock to gain some points but I rather would love to keep Gordian Blade. 

In conclusion I would say that the deck is pretty solid and definitely competitive (6th place Chronos Protocol Dortmund, 42 players in total) but still not at its end of evolution. I just wanted to show that not only a standard Yog, Mimic, Corroder, 3 x Datasucker Andy deck can win you games. Let's see what Honor and Profit brings, I already think of:

Keep running!

Pictures:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Andromeda_(mythology)
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pierre-Paul_Prud%27hon_-_Justice_and_Divine_Vengeance_Pursuing_Crime.JPG
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sisyphos

Netrunner Tokens - Brokenegggames - Rectification

Update 7.4.2014: Please find the original post below.

After all the hassle I was ready to totally give up brokenegggames but they wrote me a final email after I published my article and comments.

They apologized again and promised me a gift to make up for all the trouble. I was skeptical but full of expectations. I was ready to write a sarcastic email again after I saw no further changes of the tracking ID (like before). Unexpectedly the status changed and I was really looking forward to it. 

On one day last week  the promised compensation arrived. I was totally surprised because I received a valid tax ID, a friendly email and it took only 2 weeks after I placed the order.

They send me both sets which sums up to 40 $ plus additional shipping. I never received such a compensation so I am very happy and somehow relived.

Nevertheless - you may understand - I was very uncertain. Was this only a response to my public postings? I shot them an email and ask if the could explain why this order was delivered accordingly in contrast to the other 2 orders. 

The following may not be true but I strongly assume it is because it fits into the whole picture.

They wrote me that the clerk at the USPS facility stole a couple of packages. He got fired but this explains why I received no tracking ID after the shop printed out the label. It was never scanned after receiving. The altered some ways to handle their international orders and I pretty sure it will be much better in the near future.

I herewith want to rectify my former posting because I think I have to do so and I think they are a small new company with great ambitions. Bad publicity is never good and I don't want to blame somebody who is not responsible for a mistake.

We will  order again and I will observe and posts how that works out.

in the next days I will upload a review about the tokens.

_____________________

Original message:

Dear all

this is just a very brief warning for all you happy runners out there who are willing to spend a lot of money on special acrylic tokens for Netrunner.

Unfortunately I already prepared most of the framework for my review about the wonderful tokens of brokenegggames.com we ordered over 2 month ago. I was so excited about them but it turned out to be a huge disappointment.

I still find them the most beautiful and useful tokens out there at the moment, especially their credit stick design is brilliant and they are - excuse me Team Covenant I enjoy your videos but not your tokens - really neat.

Check them out here www.brokenegggames.com.

We decided (besides 50 $ for shipping) to order tokens worth 350 $ and we already prepared to wait a long time. Some internet background check was not very promising but I payed via Paypal to get customer support for the worst case scenario.

I will spare you the whole story but after over one month I wrote them a message. 

They replied and told me the package was send back to them (I never heard about the reason nor got a tracking ID first hand). After several emails which assured me that everything would be fine and they will send it again I received a tracking ID which never changed status from electronic shipping info received (which means the shop has printed out a label but had not handed over the package to USPS yet). 

I waited patiently but had to request customer protection after 45 days with paypal. 

At this time I already offered (as a customer!!!) to pay additional 30 $ for express shipping. Additional 20 days were added to sort everything out. I received no answer for all of my last emails which were always motivated and appreciative. I am a patient customer, I can understand "out of stock", "backed up with orders" or other issues as long as the shop talks to me. If someone lies to me or ignores my requests (but claims to answer after 36 h) I am getting angry.

After Paypal started to request the tracking ID they uploaded the old one which still says electronic shipping info received. After one week Paypal transferred the money back to my account.

Well, until the present time nothing was delivered and nobody answered my last emails.

I can only warn you to buy from this company. You can risk it but pay via Paypal to be on the safe side. 

If you have positive experiences please share those with us.

Tournament report - Store Championship Hamburg

On Saturday, March 15th a small group of our Berlin City Grid decided to squeeze into one car and take chances at the Hamburg Store Championship 2014.

We departed at 6:40 which forced me to bring at least 3 red bull, a travel mug full of coffee to have a minimum chance to stay focused at the tournament which began at 10 am. 

With good mood and after picking up the last buddy we spend most of the time during the trip talking, laughing and already predicting the Hamburg meta which was a surprise (or not). I will write about that later.

Due to our fastidious planning we arrived in time at 9:55 to register and got in touch with the other participants who were mainly from Hamburg. Only one other nice guy came from Münster.

The store the whole event took place in was awesome. The Atlantis Game Store is one of the best locations I ever had the luck to visit. It is huge, well decorated, comfy and elegant in the same way and provides 2 different play areas at the first floor and basement. It is a bit more pricey but offers discounts for several games.

I fear it would be swarmed by all those Yugioh and Pokemon kids but on Saturday it was blocked for the Netrunner players which created a nice atmosphere. One match per table assured enough space and the store provided snacks and drinks to buy.

The tournament organizer who I won't name here out of thoughtfulness did a great job. He introduced the event, set up the tournament rules and judges and soon we were ready to play. He was the first TO I met who performed deck checks which earned my respect. I would not accuse somebody for cheating but it send a good signal to everybody. 

We were 15 players in total so one of us got a bye for every round. I was chosen first which gave me the opportunity to look at all the identities played. It was a little bit disappointing because a lot of players brought netdecks to the tournament which is not something bad or condemn-able in general but lacks a bit of self-confidence or eagerness to experience with their own decks (my 2 cents). Some told me they downloaded a deck the day before the tournament they never had played with before. Well, I should not stick my own head out too much because I started with Andromeda and NBN:TWIY too. Criminals and NBN dominated the tournament. One player played HB:CI and the rest Weyland. Jinteki was missing. On the runners side I spotted one Kid, 2 Noise players and the rest of the pack played Andromeda or Gabe.

Most Andromeda decks I saw played the anarch breaker suite with Datasucker, the occasional Femme and Knight. Weyland was 50 % pure tag'n'bag or rush hybrid decks.

Round 1: bye for me

Round 2: NBN:TWIY and Shaper: Kid

Unfortunately my first game was vs. one of my friends from Berlin. Nevertheless we both played for winning. He had a good start with his Kid deck and was able to snitch 4 Agenda Points out of R&D when I still faced one of the worst draws I could imagine. 2 x 4/2, 2 x Archer and a shipment from sansan on my starting hand after the mulligan (before I had 4 Agendas).

Well, I was able to recover to 3 points with one Astro and destroyed his Yog with an Archer but he finished the game with one Beale from HQ and another draw from R&D. 

He played NBN fast advance so I run aggressively and was able to install Keyhole soon. I rampaged through his R&D and trashed multiple Agendas and Jackson Howards. The funny part was that I had at least 6 tags and he played a Psychographics decks and only 1 credit was missing on his side to score another Beale. He used Jackson 3 times to put agendas back into his R&D but finally the pressure was too intense and I won. Close!

Round 3:Andromeda and NBN:TWIY

A pretty solid criminal deck with Datasucker and not really any surprise. I was able to play 2 sweep weeks during the first round so I had a strong economy and rezzed Tollbooth in front of R&D and HQ. I was able to build up a lot of pressure with 2 early Astroscripts with one token each. He snitched a Breaking News. Although my Archer was no obstacle for his Faerie he stole no agenda from R&D although I feared he would after installing a R&D Interface.

The game was very exciting because he had tons of credits after several Armitage Codebusting actions, Kati Jones or Desperado runs. I was not able to tax him down noteworthy so I gambled at the end and installed a Beale in an open remote and one additional ICE (only popup) and one GRNDL in my protected remote (3 Ice in total, 2 rezzed). He prepared for 3 clicks and attacked the remote. I really saw him considering a run on the lonely card but he could not risk it. I scored Beale and won next turn.

He played NBN and I was able to steal one agenda from R&D early, one Breaking News he installed unprotected and after a Sneakdoor, HQ Int., HQ Int. run I snitched one additional 2 pointer (Astro). He made a mistake and clicked for Jackson with 2 cards on his hand. I run HQ and stole 2 agendas. The game was over very fast but very intense due to the speed.

Round 4: Gabe and NBN:TWIY

I was able to score one Astro and 1 breaking news during the early game but he installed Desperado in first round and was able to siphon me 3 times during crucial periods of the game. He got lucky and snitched the two 2 pointer of 5 cards from my hand during 2 turns and stole another from R&D. It was only a matter of time and he won the game after finding a Breaking news. He played a Knight which I was able to destroy with my Archer but inevitably he did not needed it. 

In contrast, however my Andromeda deck ripped through his defenses easily and with 2 well placed Inside Jobs I was able to score 4 points before he scored something. I only made one unsuccessful keyhole run and decided to run his hand more aggressively because he drew cards a lot but never played a single one. I won quite fast but this guy (first place at the end) was tough.

Round 5: Andromeda and NBN:TWIY

My opponent was a nice guy from Hamburg and I really enjoyed the game. I was a bit nervous because I had no idea about the overall scoring but thought I could reach first place if I would win both games. I started as a runner and again Keyhole kept his promise and shredded through his R&D. I guess I got most of the points from R&D which was only protected by a Pop Up Window and one wraparound. the game was over in 10 minutes. I constantly trashed ICE I could not break so his defenses were weakened a lot. 

The NBN game was one of the most hilarious games I ever had. He constantly ignored my Dataraven but put out a Plascrete just in case. I had no scorched in my hand but I assumed he was afraid of getting flatlined. I was able to score a Market Research worth 3 points as my first agenda. He stole one Astroscript. I was getting nervous because he never played a siphon or other events. He trashed my San San and Marked Accounts constantly which was in my favor because he lost a bunch of credits. After he discarded 2 Inside Jobs I tried to gamble and scored one Astro behind a single Bastion. He attacked my HQ furiously and I was expecting him to shut down my Archer in front of R&D. It never came. At the end I scored another Marked Research with SanSan City Grid and my Astroscript token.

All of his Account Siphons were still in his deck (only 15 cards left).

After everybody finished I was pretty convinced to make it top 3 but it was one lost game which denied me the 1 place. Nevertheless I was very happy with the mat which is really awesome and got two copies of Kati Jones like everybody else. 

I really enjoyed the weekend. I spend a whole day with my friends, a super hilarious journey, I met nice people and was pretty successful. ;) Let's see how the next store championship will be.

As I mentioned before I was surprised to see so many people using net decks and I can only encourage people to make their own experience. I still believe that a deck you defined during several month will still perform better as a standard Andromeda deck. It will be still strong but the player wins the game not the deck.

I will release my "Evolution of my Andromeda deck" post soon to explain my point of view more clearly.

Keep running!

Pictures: http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/ffg_content/organized-play/2014/store-championships/adn-2014-storechamp-prizes.png