Eco Sabotage at East Anglian District
Midlands crew seek revenge for Nottingham top-cut takeover
East Anglian District Championship
5th March 2025
EMEA / UK
32 Players
7 rounds SSS, Single Elim Cut to Top-8
East Anglian District was one of the last opportunities for players in the UK to sleeve FFG cardboard at a standard event, but there were a few other factors motivating attendance as well.
For anyone who had played at the London District, this was a chance to claim the coveted Mayor of Londwich badge—awarded to whichever player achieved the highest combined Swiss score across both events. For players from the Midlands, this was a chance to take revenge for the East Anglian invasion of Nottingham District—but would EA Sports be ready to defend their home turf?
So, what did these retribution fuelled mayoral hopefuls play, and how did they do?
A distinct lack of crime
Bucking the recent trend of UK districts constituting a myriad of different Criminal IDs, EA District was mostly Anarch and Shaper—specifically Hoshiko (9) and Lat (5). QEH bought Akiko (3)—a longtime favourite of theirs—while EA Sports tended to prefer Esâ (4).
Both Akiko (10 games, 50% win rate, 1.33x cut conversion) and Esâ (16, 56%, 2x) turned out to be good choices. Lat (19, 47%, 0.8x) and Hoshiko (33, 45%, 1.33x) did not. Hoshiko was unable to take a single game off of AgInfusion (0/4), or Ob (0/3) and only one game off of Azmari (1/4).
It was a particularly bleak day for Runners in general—with no one faction managing a positive win rate. Anarch came closest at 49%, while Criminal flopped at 32%. The overall Corp win rate was an eye watering 56%, and many of the players at the top tables went into round 7—the final round of Swiss—praying for the tournament algorithm to bestow them with the blessed Corp coin flip.
There’s a leak (there’s a leak) in the boiler room…
Readers may not be immediately surprised by the amount of Azmari on display at an East Anglian event, but there was some disagreement in the EA Sports discord about whether Reeducation Kill or BCP Rush was the better approach. Ultimately, both strategies worked—Azmari finished the day with a whopping 89% win rate across 18 games (3.2x cut conversion).
AgInfusion also performed incredibly well (18 games, 78% win rate, 3x cut conversion), although there were more varieties of deck on display. ChonkySeal (S.C.R.U.B.S) was playing Skunkworks and Clearinghouse, while KamiKami (EA Sports) played Punitive and Aashbo (EA Sports) played a regular glacier build. Determining how much these different AgInfusion decks are giving each other cover is left as an exercise for the reader, but, regardless, they are clearly doing something right. A 78% win rate is difficult to argue with.
On the flip side, it would appear that the good ship Ob has finally sprung a leak. A 47% win rate across 17 games, and zero top cut placements, is much less impressive than what we’ve seen at other events. Ecological sabotage and a failure to properly vet outsourced workers may be to blame—as the Hoshiko matchup was fine (3/3), but Esâ (0/4) and Lat (1/4) proved much more difficult.
Player Interview: ChonkySeal
East Anglian District Champion 2025
Scottish District Champion 2025
ChonkySeal started playing netrunner at the very end of 2023, when he was introduced to the game by TheRealLap, who was visiting Nottingham for a Circuit Opener at the Dice Cup. He learned the basics using the FFG Core Set—becoming immediately fascinated by Parasite—and developed his skills playing Startup on jinteki.net. He started playing Standard a month or so before Rebellion Without Rehearsal. His fondest memory of learning to play is the discovery—at five counters— that he would flatline as soon as the Keeling across the table from him reduced him to a negative hand-size.
I asked him about his decklist choices, and the secret to his success.
I am a strong believer in the philosophy of “Vibes-based running.” I love to play aggressive Anarchs. I love to facecheck. I love to put pressure on my opponent to make a mistake and find an angle that works in each game—and that comes with practice. Everyone blunders into a Saisentan at some point; everyone dies to End of the Line, and everyone dies to Snare—the trick is to practice those spooky matchups enough that you can plan around minimising risks and improvising when things get weird.
I enjoy playing Corp decks that force the runner into the thinking tank. I found a lot of success with Loud PE, as the sheer variety of lines and play patterns can easily trip up anyone who is unfamiliar with the deck. AgInfusion poses a similar puzzle—slowing the game down to a crawl, and asking the runner if they can solve the remote server before it becomes insurmountable. Both are decks that require confidence—almost brazenness—to pilot well.
Deck Choices: Clearinghouse AgInfusion and Persephone Hoshiko
Clearinghouse AgInfusion is the brainchild of the S.C.R.U.B.S best deckbuilder—NotAgain—but adapted down to 49 cards. AgInfusion is something that I’ve always gelled nicely with, but our feeling was that it struggled to deal with Runners that could play out until the endgame and camp the remote server. The deck needed to be faster. I attempted to solve this problem with Front Company—to mixed success—but fellow teammate Baserton found that the Skunkworks + Anoetic Void combo generated a challenging remote much faster. The inclusion of Clearinghouse means that this remote produces a win much much faster than runners might be ready for.
Crew Hoshiko was the deck to beat, and we felt as though Clearinghouse solves that problem. It seems as though we were right, as we won Cambridge, Vienna and New York districts all on the same day, with virtually the same decks!
Persephone Hosh was nothing short of a shitpost. I played the deck as part of a Netrunner LARP event hosted by KingSolomon, and had an excellent time. The shock and horror of losing 18 cards in one turn is well worth the long setup required. As I’d already won Scottish Regionals, I wanted to use the rest of the districts season to have some fun and give this deck one last go before the centerpiece rotated. I truly did not expect the deck to perform, considering that EA Sports are known for playing a lot of Azmari—which this deck does not perform well into—but I figured the great AgInfusion and Nuvem matchups would more than make up for it.
The deck definitely gets worse if you spill the beans to your opponents at the pub the night before though. Folks were wary to rez Sentries against me all day!
Final Standings
ChonkySeal (S.C.R.U.B.S) - AgInfusion (Clearinghouse) [6-0-0] / Hoshiko (Persephone) [2-1-0]
not_yeti (EA Sports) - Azmari (Neurospike) [6-0-0] / Sable (Jeitinho) [1-3-0]
Bartimaeus (EA Sports) - Azmari (Neurospike) [3-0-0] / Esâ (Spark) [3-1-0]
harmonbee (QEH) - Nuvem (Oppo) [2-2-0] / Akiko (Aesops) [4-0-0]
davz131 (EA Sports) - Azmari (BCP) [2-1-0] / Esâ (Divide & Conquer) [3-2-0]
Kamikami (EA Sports) - AgInfusion (Punitive) [3-1-0] / Lat (Aesops) [2-2-0]
aashbo (EA Sports) - AgInfusion (Glacier) [4-0-0] / Hoshiko (Crew) [1-3-0]
Ollie (EA Sports) - Azmari (BCP) [3-1-0] / Hoshiko (Crew) [2-2-0]
The official Mayor of Londwich badge being awarded to not_yeti (right)
The UK District Championship season will continue in Birkenhead on Saturday 12th April
It would seem the mayor of Londwich has stayed within EA Sports this year... we gotta rescue it next year.