Up Against The Wall

It was the final day of Netrunner at the Wizards of the Coast tournament center in Renton, Washington. Thursday had been a fun sealed deck tournament, and Saturday was a constructed deck tourney with 14 participants. After the big fun on Saturday, my cousin Rob Leachman and I went into downtown Seattle for a great dinner of Aviator Amber Ale and Chicken Carbonara. We finally got back to my friend Adem's house (where we were staying) around 10:30 PM or so. I went upstairs to listen to Adem's new demo tape (he's a musician) and when I went back downstairs 20 minutes later, Rob was asleep on the couch, exhausted from 2 hard days of Netrunner. So what does all this have to do with playing the game? Be patient, I'll explain. Because I had finished in third place in Saturday's tournament, I thought it would be wise to develop a new Corp deck for Sunday. I opened one of my boosters and found my rare was a Data Masons! Normally this would be a big disappointment, but I was lightheaded and exhausted from beer and lack of sleep, I knew I had a plan! I went to sleep at 3:30 AM. The tournament started at 11:00 AM, and it was a 30 minute drive to the tournament center. We awoke at 9:00 AM and raced (Scrambled, as Rob put it) to arrive around 10:00 AM. Rob and I played part of a practice game with my new Corp, over our breakfast, and it was time for our third tournament in four days. I played against Cameron Herzog in the first round. I had struggled to a draw with him the previous day, but I had hope that my new Corp would be a good match for his Runner. It was. I started rezzing up Rio City Grids and Data Walls almost immediately (he nicked a Data Mason off R&D early) and the race was on: Build a huge Rio fort before Bodyweight/Organ Donor becomes unstoppable. I scored an early Tycho Extension but Cameron made a long run down my big fort, making both his Bartmoss rolls *and* my Rio rolls, and won. My runner deck was designed to attack HQ and destroy ice, and I managed to get a Tycho from Cameron, who had a very bad initial draw. I only installed a single Code Cracker the whole game, and eventually got behind the Project Consultant curve, and lost again. My second opponent had more trouble with my giant Rio fort - but still scored 6 agenda points before I managed to get seven myself. Now I was running. Things went well early- I got an Agenda out of HQ on the second turn and used Inside Job to get another on the fourth. I only needed two more points to win. It happened that I had played this opponent the previous day, as well, and I knew, more or less, what to expect. He placed a card in his only data fort, with two ice, and I had my plan. I would use a Loan from Chiba (my second), Short Circuit for a Jackhammer, install the Jackhammer, and Inside Job the fort. So I played my Loan, used my Short Circuit, and... OOOOOOPS! About 2:30 AM that morning, I had placed a Jackhammer in my card box. It was still there! I had nothing in my 45 card Runner stack that could break walls. I was totally screwed. This is especially ironic when you realize that my Corp deck was 70% walls. I limped along with the Raptor I took instead, paying two bits per turn for my Loans, and time ran out. After losing my first game, I knew this wasn't good. Everyone was really nice and let me put a Jackhammer in my stack for the last round (I took out a Score!). And I ended up getting fourth place, which included a couple of Proteus boosters (look at the date of this story to see how neat this was). But I will never forget, and hopefully, never repeat, the time I was UP AGAINST THE WALL. Byron Massey, Byron@harborside.com

 My thanks to Byron. Got a field report? Contact cardguy@bitblaster.com. Updated 18 Aug 96.