Weyland's power eminent at CBI
24.12 still a Corp meta, but there is hope for Runners yet
Circuit Breaker Invitational 2025
18th, 19th, 25th Jan 2025
Online
139 Players
3 regional pods, each consisting of 7-8 rounds of SSS
Cut to top-16, made up of the top 5 from each pod plus the reigning Circuit Breaker
You can watch the three different Swiss pods (APAC, Americas and EMEA) and the Top Cut on the Null Signal Games YouTube channel.
For an interview with the tournament winner, see the TMKF YouTube channel.
It is unclear if it is a question of journalistic ethics or just an additional prize, but at The Surveyor the rules state “if you win the tournament then you don’t have to do the writeup” so I am once again stepping into the breach to help out our new Circuit Breaker, the editor-in-chief: Kikai. I could get very affectionate at this point, but, as he said on stream, “we should try and keep it to the stats”—so let’s do just that.
With very little tournament data since the 24.12 banlist it was a wide open meta going into possibly the second largest Netrunner tournament of the year.
The Circuit Breaker Invitational is one of the few invitational tournaments of the competitive calendar. Each and every attendee at this event won an invite by placing highly at a sanctioned NSG event in 2024, so the idea of picking up some easy wins was completely out of the question.
That being said, there were a few players who were notable for their absences. Sokka, Jai and DeeR—three of the fiercest players in 2024—all opted to sit this one out, opening the way for a lot of new talent to make their mark.
With a new tournament structure and a new banlist, which players and what decks would take top spots at one of the most competitive tournaments of the year, and who would be crowned The Circuit Breaker?
Both Runner Factions Performed Well
Following the banning of Trick Shot we saw an immediate increase in Anarch popularity. That continues to be the case, although the number of Shapers in the field is steadily recovering as players try and find more comfortable lists. Hoshiko (27) was still the most played ID but was closely followed by Lat (23) and Sable (21). Each of these IDs hides a wide variety of archetypes, meaning that there was still a wide raft of deck diversity on show.
Esâ (18) continues to be the most popular non-value ID and maintained a respectable cut conversion of 0.97x, although it is worth remembering that one of the two Esâ in the cut was guaranteed a place before Swiss began.
Kit (12) was a common pick for much of last year, but one that often failed to see tournament successes. Those tides may be turning, as at CBI she managed a remarkable 1.45x cut conversion, albeit with only a 42% win rate. Can Kit pick up one last win at the District Championships before rotation? Probably, yes.
Hoshiko players had a good day, maintaining a strong 1.93x conversion rate, six cut spots (3 x Mulch, 2 x Reg and 1 x Crew) and the first place finish. Lat, on the other hand, only managed 2 slots (a 0.76x conversion rate). Clearly, players looking to rekindle the success of late 2024 Lat—post Trick Shot—are still searching for answers. Despite a semi-decent win rate (48%), Sable also only managed to claim one cut spot (0.41x conversion)
The real star of the Runner side was Arissana (52% win rate, 4.34x conversion!!!) outnumbering Lat in the cut and securing spots for half of her pilots, all signs indicate that we are squarely in an Anarch meta but that doesn’t mean that the best deck is orange. As the meta increasingly mutates to target Mulch and Arruaceiras Crew, the market widens for this powerful and complex frog loving ID.
An Incredible Day for Weyland
Despite a lackluster beginning to the season, almost a quarter of the field stuck to their sizeable guns and still chose to sleeve Weyland. Most of them opted for Ob, and several familiar archetypes from 2024 were on display—almost all of which packed the full 3x copies of Eminent Domain. These players were rewarded hansomely for their loyalty. Ob managed a huge 2.74x conversion rate (55% win rate), with BtL (60%, 2.9x) doing similarly well—albeit with far less players in the field.
It might just be Anarch’s move away from Crew and onto Mulch that paved the way for these Archer decks to see such success, and it is hard to know if that trend will continue long with Kikai’s Aniccam Hosh taking the top spot.
We also saw probably the lowest turnout of PD at a major tournament in the last few years—less than 6% of the field. The one variant that made the cut looks nothing like your “reg” PD, and is instead inspired heavily by the Salvo Testing Asa’s that saw moderate success in 2024.
Asa group decks of several stripes were well represented, but performed and converted poorly (48%, 0.83x).
Azmari Edtech (18) and Near Earth Hub (16) both performed well in the New Year’s Showdown but both had their critics going into this tournament.
NEH won games at CBI but wasn’t able to convert (51%, 0.54x) and while Azmari (63%, 0.97x) would prove to be the stronger pick for this tournament—with EA Sports’ Kikai finally taking the deck to a first place finish at a major competitive event— its critics are unlikely to cede much ground, as this by no means indicates that it was the “best” Corp deck.
Jinteki AgInfusion (69%, 0.62x) and PE (63%, 0.67x) had the highest winrates of any Corp ID, but neither was able to effectively turn those wins into Top Cut placements.
Regional Differences
The unique structure of this tournament gives us an opportunity to investigate how the different regions approached the meta.
APAC
The APAC pod was significantly smaller than the other two pods, but largely reflects the overall trend with a large Asa representation. Freedom made up 15% of the field, tied with Lat, which is significantly higher than in other regions.
As for the decks that made the cut, there are 4 decks looking to score out in 4 unique flavours. Fair to say that APAC players were some of the most creative deck builders across the whole tournament.
Americas
Hoshiko may have been the most represented runner overall but she was only the 5th most popular Runner ID in the Americas pod, as many opted to play Lat and Sable for their “reg” decks instead. The adage “North Americans will always play Anarch” appears to have proven false in this case.
More than half of all AgInfusion players in the field came from the Americas pod, making it the only region where Jinteki was the most represented faction.
The Americas collection of cut players were the most damage heavy of the three pods, with 3 of 5 top cut placements running kill plans, although not necessarily as their only way of winning. Only 5 players in this region elected to play Ob and 3 of them managed to secure cut spots—which is extraordinary.
EMEA
The large number of UK players probably accounts for 32% of the field being on NBN, but this pod also ended up being the home of Weyland, while HB made up just 17% of the field.
More than half of players here opted to play Anarch with Hoshiko alone outnumbering both Shaper and Criminal.
Europe’s offerings to the Top Cut were largely vegan, with just the 1x Reeducation Azmari managing to sneak in on SoS.
The EMEA pod looks less like the tournament overall, but most similar to the Top Cut, and potentially the Districts meta to come.
Hope for Runners in a Corp Meta
Runner continues to struggle overall however we are seeing some early indications that this meta might balance itself yet, with Arissana (52%) and Hoshiko (51%) both achieving positive win rates and many of the more popular IDs such as Lat (49%) and Sable (48%) not far behind. Given the diversity of decks within these IDs it is quite likely that there is at least one high performing archetype in each of them.
Corps maintained a 55% win rate in Swiss (over 475 games) which fell to a 40% win rate in the Top Cut (over 30 games). Open decklists and preparation time will both have been contributing factors to this shift—many of the Corp lists in the Top Cut held secret or creative win cons that would have been difficult to play around in Swiss.
Meta Breakers
Quest Completed!
Played by Bridgeman (7th)
A continuation of the slower Aesop’s Lat variants that he has been working on this last year, the splashing of The Price out of faction seems to have given this the jumpstart it needed to get out of the gates for the faster matchups and Boi-Tata somehow manages to look convincing in this list.
Rain of Arrows
Also played by Bridgeman (7th)
The fan favourite deck of the tournament takes all of the power of Eminent Domain + Archer that we saw in many of the top placing Ob decks but moves it into BtL and still found room for Oberth Protocol and Stand Off, two cards that will have newer players reaching for NRDB!
Wraparound In Ob
Played by Amarum (2nd), jan tuno (4th), pouchoflavender (12th)
Many players had identified that Ob “should” be good into the strong Anarch decks due to their proclivity for playing 3 copies of Mavirus even when viruses aren’t in style. However it seems as if cutting one of those for a single Wraparound may be the missing piece. A tech card that has seen a lot of play recently, being able to easily fetch Wraparound means these decks can only pay a single influence to tech for around their main threat in Arruaceiras crew.
Final Standings
Kikai (EA Sports) - Azmari [6-0-0] / Hoshiko [5-2-0]
Amarum - Ob [4-2-0] / Hoshiko [5-1-0]
sebastiank (TAI Breakers) - [5-2-0] / Arissana [6-1-1]
jan tuno (QtM) - [5-1-0] / Esâ [5-3-0]
J0N4LD (TAI Breakers) - [5-1-0] / Arissana [5-2-0]
Diogene (Dép Dive) - PE [4-2-0] / Kit [3-2-0]
Bridgeman - BtL [4-3-0] / Lat [4-1-0]
davz131(EA Sports) - Azmari [4-2-0] / Hoshiko [4-2-0]
Aruzan (House Hippos) - NEH [3-2-1] / Arissana [4-1-0]
NotAgain (S.C.R.U.B.S) - 4-2-1 / Sable 3-1-0
TheKing (TAI Breakers) - Asa [3-1-1] / Hosh [4-1-0]
pouchoflavender (ESA) - Ob [3-2-0] / Esâ [4-1-0]
abstracted - Lat [2-2-0] / AgInfusion [4-0-0]
Styx (QtM) - Asa [3-1-0] / Hosh [2-3-0]
benvelopment (Steel City Grid) - Ob [3-2-0] / Kit [3-1-1]
Toron - PD [3-2-0] / Hosh [2-2-0]
UK regionals tickets are selling out fast, so get yours now to avoid dissapointment!
Your next opportunity for an invite to the 2026 CBI will be in Bathgate on Saturday 22nd Feb. Come and compete for your chance at a Megacity Bye, a Wooly Mammoth Playmat, and a set of unique UK Regionals alt arts.
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I feel like the asset Ob decks actually have a poor matchup into mulch regardless of Mavirus, since you have to bury your assets and hide them away to prevent free Audrey counters. Maybe the Crew and reg Hosh matchups provide some much needed equity, and there wasn't that much Freedom which can trash the operations too. Maybe there was matchup unfamiliarity too because from what I got to watch I saw some players getting away with murder with their assets (although take that with a grain of salt because these are some of the best to do it).
Bridgeman's lists are so cooolllll. That said, I've played against and watched multiple games of pub runner with the Lat list and Boi Tata saved 0c compared to Carmen (it did have 100% uptime on its alt mode).
I'm still convinced Kit is underplayed; maybe people got sick of playing the Spark lottery or SDS was cooking them this tournament.