Creation trumps Control at OTG
HB not the answer to Criminal and Shaper meta
NANPC - 2024 Off The Grid Midwest Championship NANPC / OTG / US Nationals (Midwest) 8th June 2024 Roseville, MN, USA 32 Players 7 rounds SSS, Cut to top-8
Watch the Swiss and Top Cut streams on Orbital Tangent’s twitch.
At the first of three US nationals championships, 32 players from across the midwest gathered in Minnesota to battle it out for the title of “2024 US (Midwest) National Champion” and a free ticket to the world championship.
Hot off the back of last week’s American Continentals upset, players were obviously keen to avoid another Anarch apocalypse. Only 3 tournament attendees chose to wear orange (2 x Hoshiko, 1 x Esâ) and neither Hoshiko player made it into the Top Cut. There was a wide variety of opinion on what to play instead.
Despite it being a (relatively) small tournament, almost every Criminal and Shaper identity was represented. Shaper was more popular (53%), but both factions performed equally well, with the usual suspects making the cut (Sable, Kit, 419, Lat). In stark contrast with other recent tournaments, Arissana performed incredibly poorly. Our favourite street artist managed a win rate of 15%.
The overall runner win rate was 47%, which is the same as at ACC. However, Runner win rates were much lower in the Top Cut than in Swiss (just 14%). This is interesting, because you would usually expect open decklists to give the runner the advantage. To understand why, we need to take a look at what was happening on the Corp side.
Corp attendance was also very diverse, although HB was easily the most popular faction (37%). The most popular identity choices were PD (6), Asa (5) and RH (4), however, none of these IDs converted particularly well into the Top Cut. HB conversion was 17%. Jinteki conversion was 12%. If there is an answer to a Criminal and Shaper meta, HB and Jinteki are not it.
So what is the answer? and why did runners do so badly in the Top Cut?
SebK, the new national champion of the American midwest, went undefeated with his Venti Ob. He directly attributes this success to the lack of Hoshiko representation. In a post tournament interview, he explained that Maw is the only hope that runners have of disrupting HQ. All other methods of disruption are easily defended against with Border Control and Crisium Grid. With so few Hoshiko in attendance, SebK was free to terrorise both Shapers and Criminals with an obscene 74 card deck that has zero intention of scoring agendas.
When asked if he thought that this development was good for the meta, SebK answered “no.”
Final Standings
SebK (TAI Breakers) - Ob [6-0-0] / Lat [3-1-1]
Dr. Awkward - NEH [5-0-1] / Kit [3-4-0]
Avi - RH [6-0-0] / Arissana [1-4-0]
PiCat (QTM) - Earth Station [3-2-1] / Kit [3-2-0]
dongyroge - PD [4-0-1] / Sable [2-3-0]
Jesse vandover - NEH [4-2-0] / Sable [2-2-0]
pj20 - Asa [3-1-0] / Esâ [2-2-1]
Squeeeeeege (QTM) - Nuvem [3-0-0] / 419 [2-3-1]
Woah. An Earth Station? Thanks for including the testing groups!
No One Home is powerful tech against this, and also double as protection against big chunks of net damage. If this type of "gotcha" deck (to use Sokka's terminology from his stream this weekend) rises in the meta, it might be worth trading some number of pinholes/bones for this in Shaper and Anarch shells.