Kill decks convert at Summer Showdown
Is this the End of the Line for Seb?
Summer Showdown 2025
17th - 18th May 2025
Online
147 Players
9 rounds SSS, Cut to top-16
Top Cut decklists are here
You can watch the entiriety of Swiss on aksu’s youtube channel.
You can watch the early rounds of the Top Cut on the Metropole Grid youtube channel.
You can watch the final rounds of the Top Cut on the SanSanFrancisco twitch channel.
ManintheMoon sure knows how to throw a party! Somehow, this “CTK” ended up being one of the largest online tournaments of all time. Maybe it was the incredibly generous prize support—which included physical alt arts by Brindelmold, Cat Shen, Lennyxyz, Matheus Calza, PreNic, Aleksandra Simonović and Cassius Marcellus Coolidge, as well as—for the Top 8—some exclusive j.net cardbacks.
Elevation has been out for just over a month and there are already a couple of boogeymen haunting the meta. Some players have called for bans targeting Seb, Sable, Nebula and AU Co.—but, with targets on their back, would these decks still be able to perform?
With almost 600 games of netrunner played, we have plenty of data to wade through—so let’s take a look.
Runner
Criminal (62) continues to be the most popular Runner faction—with players continuing to enjoy the generous helpings of blue “good stuff” that was released in Elevation. MuslihaT (17) and Barry (10) were not as popular as perennial favourite Sable (26)—who has the luxury of choosing between Twinning and Deep Dive builds.
Shaper (32) proved, once again, to be the least popular Runner faction. For those few still playing green, Magdalene (11) seems to be emerging as the new Shaper ID of choice, although there are a number of Lat stans still out there (8).
For perhaps the first time ever, Seb (17) was the most represented Anarch (55) ID—narrowly edging out Hoshiko (16). As an early candidate for one of the “best decks”, some may have expected to see even more of the activist organiser. Perhaps the fear of floating tags, or the complexity of having to manage Audrey counters, was too high of a barrier to entry.
Worth mentioning that every Runner ID—apart from Nova—was represented by at least one player at the Summer Showdown.
In terms of which IDs did well, it was the humble Hoshiko (61% win rate, 73 games, 2.91x cut conversion)—rather than the flashy Seb (53%, 73 games, 1.1x)—that proved to have the best performance. It seems like Seb may have struggled in dealing with Measured Response and other flatline threats, as he lost games to Thule (1-2), Issuaq (0-2), Prav (0-1), Nuvem (1-2) and Zwicky (1-3).
All five of the top Hosh players were sporting mild variations of the same “reg” list—with some preferring Bravado while others preferred Boomerang. Nice to know that losing three of her most powerful cards to the most recent banlist update hasn't crushed this magical girls' spirit. The only slightly iffy looking matchups were against BtL (3-4) and Poétrï (1-2). Everything else seemed comfortable.
Magdalene (49%, 39 games, 1.69x) would win the whole event, despite failing to achieve a positive win rate overall. Interesting that neither Magdaelene player in the Top Cut was playing KnickKnack—both opting for a Fermenter based economy engine instead. No other Shaper IDs made it through to day 2.
Sable (51%, 100 games, 1.41x) and MuslihaT (51%, 59 games, 0.57x) were neck-and-neck in terms of win rates, but the symphonic prodigy was far more effective at making it into the Top Cut. Both Twinning and Deep Dive builds were equally represented in the Top-16, although the Twinning builds seemed to find slightly more success.
Corp
Fans of a diverse meta will be pleased to see a roughly even Corp faction spread, with Weyland and NBN both represented by 34 players each, and HB coming in at 32. Jinteki (46) was the most popular Corp faction, with AU Co. (31) the most played ID by far—and for good reason.
AU Co. managed a 61% win rate over 131 games, and a 1.78x cut conversion. The list that won the event was playing Oppo Research, but other lists in the Top Cut were using Plutus, Hostile Architecture and even Your Digital Life—so there is a large variety of different AU Co. builds out there to be aware of. Despite all this, it’s worth saying that AU Co. was much better against Criminal—and to a certain extent against Shaper—than when playing against Anarch. Hoshiko (11-10) and Seb (9-8) both squeaked positive win rates against the golden egg.
Lethal decks from other Corp factions also converted well into the Top Cut. Thule (44%, 27 games, 1.53x) was underwhelming, but was able to take games off of both Seb and Sable. There were Measured Response and Azef flatline strategies in some, but not all, of the top Ob (49%, 37 games, 2.04x) and BtL (50%, 22 games, 4.59x) decks. The new hotness out of NBN is a shell game Prav list (66%, 32 games, 4.59x) that uses Touch-ups and End of the Line to secure victory.
There were only three PD players at the event—and they were scattered across the top middle and bottom tables—but the ID seemed to perform well (69%, 13 games, 3.06x) so there might be something here worth exploring. The top PD list was playing Midnight-3 and Your Digital Life, but also Skunkworks and Anoetic Void. So a sort of hybrid of the two most popular PD builds from last season.
Nebula (43%, 80 games, 0x) had its most disappointing results yet—losing games against Hosh (4-5), Seb (4-5) and almost every Criminal. It seems like players may have learnt how to defeat the talent management division’s typically linear game plan.
Overall Results
Corp doomers may want to consider that the overall Corp win rate was a respectable 52% in Swiss (over 569 games), although that number did drop to 43% in the Top Cut (over 30 games).
Meta Breakers
Shell Game Prav
As played by not_yeti (2nd), davz131 (4th) and NervousNightjar (15th)
From the same team of people that popularised EAzmari comes a pure flatline NBN deck that only ever intends to win by scoring exactly one agenda. In this case, that agenda is either Orbital Superiority or Tomorrow’s Headline. It is scored using Touch-ups, and is immediately followed by an End of the Line.
Unfortunately, there seems to be little runner counterplay to this game plan other than to include tech cards. Anarch is particularly vulnerable to this attack, as Steelsking Scarring provides almost no protection. Shapers, however, have very little to worry about. Lat draw, an off-turn Lilypad draw, or simply Stoneship Chart Room, all neutralise this line of play. Criminal players may want to consider including a copy of No Free Lunch.
Alternatively, just touch the agendas—but without touching the traps.
Final Standings
DeeR (SnareBears, QtM) - AU Co. (Oppo Research) [6-1-0] / Magdalene (Lilypad) [6-1-0]
not_yeti (EA Sports) - Prav (Touch-ups) [7-1-1] / Hoshiko (Boomerang) [4-3-0]
passive_mult - Thule (Measured Response) [5-1-0] / MuslihaT (Finality) [4-3-1]
davz131 (EA Sports) - Prav (Touch-ups) [4-3-0] / Seb [7-0-1]
Smolgrump - AU Co. (Plutus) [4-0-2] / Phoenix [5-2-0]
MotionBlur - BtL (Djupstad) [5-2-0] / Sable (Twinning) [5-1-1]
Icecreamcollege (The Future Perfect) - AU Co. (Hostile Architecture) [5-1-0] / Hoshiko (Boomerang) [3-2-2]
Cobalt (QtM) - Ob (Phật) [3-3-0] / Hoshiko (Boomerang) [5-1-1]
Alice - LEO [3-2-2] / Hoshiko (Bravado) [4-1-0]
cablooshe - AU Co. (Hostile Architecture) [4-0-1] / Phoenix [3-3-1]
Toron - BtL [3-3-1] / Hoshiko (Boomerang) [4-1-0]
Whiteblade111 (SnareBears) - Ob (Phật) [4-3-0] / Sable (Twinning) [3-1-1]
Wyanut - AU Co. (Hostile Architecture) [3-3-0] / Magdalene (Madani) [4-0-1]
diogenes - AU Co. (Your Digital Life) [2-3-0] / Sable (Deep Dive) [5-1-0]
nervousnightjar (EA Sports) - Prav (Touch-ups) [4-1-0] / Seb [3-3-0]
Lutheus - PD (Midnight-3) [4-2-0] / Sable (Deep Dive) [2-3-0]
There are more casual tournaments happening next weekend in Sheffield (UK), Saint-Petersburg (RU) and Linköping (SE). There is also an online AMT.
The next MegaCity Championship will be in Denver (US-CO) on Saturday 31st May.
Why do they hate Shaper but not Grindteki
I only see 2 players on PD (Lutheus and Mortivor), who's the third?