Nebula shines at Sunrise CTK
That's Gemilang!
Sunrise CTK
26th April 2025
Online
37 Players
7 rounds SSS, Single Elim Cut to Top-4
You can watch the tournament stream on Koga and Larrea’s twitch channels.
The online Sunrise CTK, organised by OF15-15, on Saturday was the first chance for people to play with Elevation cards in a competitive environment. It’s also our first insight into who the big players of the post-rotation meta will be.
Nebula - more simple is more good
Nebula was one of the most anticipated Corp IDs of Elevation. It’s an ID ability that has a straightforward strategy—ICE centrals, play operations—that is largely deployable independent of whatever the Runner game plan might. It’s a pretty linear deck, but that actually makes it great to play into an unknown meta. It proved to be both the most popular (10 players) and the most successful (33 games, 61% win rate, 1.85x cut conversion) Corp ID at the Sunrise CTK.
We saw a couple of different variants on display, but Kingmaking and Superconducting Hub were pretty common features. Being able to play with a hand size of 7 takes some of the hand management pressure off, and means that the Corp can often stall out the game and let the Runner exhaust themselves running centrals.
Nebula is undoubtedly a good ID, but the big question is where do players take it from here? Do you look to distract the Runner by building a remote? And what tag punishment, if any, do you include? Tournament winner, The Observer, was playing End of the Line, which is maybe the kind of edge that the deck needs in order to keep the Runner from being able to solve the board state.
Other Corp decks that won games, but failed to make the Top Cut, include Thule (14 games, 57% win rate) and BtL (16 games, 63% win rate)—so if you were wondering if we are entering an asset or a glacier meta then the answer appears to be “yes.”
Anarch triumph, but Hoshiko homogeny in question
Similar to the last meta, Anarch (56% win rate) was hands down the strongest runner faction of the tournament—and it wasn’t particularly close. What’s interesting, though, is that while Hoshiko hit a perfectly respectable 53% win rate (across 19 games), it was the other more niche Anarch identities that boosted the faction’s results. Seb’s results, in particular, stand out—the activist organizer hit a whopping 78% win rate (across 13 games).
Looking at the matchup spread, Hoshiko had a comfortable time against HB and Jinteki, but struggled against Nebula and Weyland. Other, more disruptive, Anarch IDs were able to use that disruption to find an edge in those matchups.
Although both Criminal and Shaper received a generous amount of support in Elevation, this support has not immediately translated into a competitive advantage.
Despite an admirable performance from Sable (9 games, 67% win rate, 4.63x cut conversion), Barry (17 games, 24% win rate) tanked the faction results (41% win rate). It was a similarly disappointing first showing for Dewi (6 games, 0% win rate) and Magdalene (11 games, 45% win rate), and the Shaper faction results were even worse (39% win rate). Criminal and Shaper players might need a little time to figure out their new cards.
Corp players continue to win games
The overall Corp win rate at the tournament was 54%, which is exactly in line with where the Corp win rate was in the previous meta, and is still teetering on the point of an uncomfortable side bias. Any worries about the immediate effect of rotation on Corp strategy can probably be dismissed.
Final Standings
The Observer - Nebula (Touch Ups + End of the Line) [3-1-0] / Hoshiko (reg) [5-0-0]
TorpedoTyrus - PD (Midnight-3 Arcology) [3-1-0] / Sable (Deep Dive) [3-2-0]
eden_online - Ob (Clearinghouse + Hostile Architecture) [3-2-0] / Seb (Audrey) [3-0-0]
BinkBonkle - Nebula (Kingmaking) [4-1-0] / Loup [2-1-0]
The Surveyor 25.04 meta analysis spreadsheet is available here
"Any worries about the immediate effect of rotation on Corp strategy can probably be dismissed."
I politely disagree with this data-driven assessment. I think despite the results at this particular tournament, we are in a runner-dominant metagame and when people figure out exactly what they should be doing, the percentages are going flip noticeably.