Daruma's Wild Ride - 2nd at GenCon, undefeated in Swiss

Aesynil 404

Stolen almost entirely from this genius (https://netrunnerdb.com/en/decklist/51511/daruma-s-wild-ride), and adapted for changes in card pool and personal preferences.

Basic premise: Tell the runner they can't jack out, use Ag Infusion to bounce them to an 8-advanced cerebral overwriter, nod understandingly and wait for the judge call to clarify that everything is legit, shake hands and say gg, sit quietly with your shame. But how does it work?

Plan A) This is the preferred route. Install advance advance everything that comes into your hand (within reason) or Mushin it, make money off of NGO, hopefully hit them with an ambush, and most importantly, score Labyrinthe Servers. This is traditional Jinteki shell games, however, if you score that agenda, you win 95% of the time, barring very specific hate. Once the agenda is scored, make sure every central server has 1 unrezzed ice on the outside (2 if you are worried about DDOS), then make a scoring remote, and win. If they run, Ag Infusion them into an ambush and Lab server to prevent them from jacking out.

Plan B) Ice a central (R&D usually, although HQ works against criminals sometimes) with a minimum of 2 ice, 3 if necessary for early game protection. Inazuma should be on the outer side of an unrezzed ice, install Marcus Batty. Rez Inazuma, win a psi game, win the game. You can fire Batty before they encounter the ice, and make it so they cannot break Inazuma, although that risks Femme Fatale getting them by it. Alternatively, there is also a window AFTER they break Inazuma to fire Batty ,as long as you rez him during the earlier window (Checked it with a judge!). Regardless, make sure Sub 2 fires, which reads "The runner cannot jack out until encountering the next ice." Make certain the next ice in the server is an unrezzed one. Bounce them to your murder server. Let them call the judge over to confirm it works this way. Shake hands, gg.

Plan C) Play traditional netrunner on the centrals, and create a scoring remote using the Inazuma / Batty combo. Plays basically the same. Daruma is helpful here so you can snatch agendas out of the scoring remote in case you lose the psi game. You only need to score one Lab Server to win the game.

Archived memories is to grab whichever combo piece you need. More Mushin to keep filling the remotes up? Snatch back a Batty? Whatever piece you need to make it work, really. Special Report for getting combo pieces to hand ASAP and deal with agenda flood. I won by scoring out once, but you really don't want to.

Discussion about the deck: This deck works best in Swiss, when every advanced card could be a Ronin and your hand can be full of Snares. Once I had to share my decklists, the fear factor went down a lot (although it still murdered decently!) The other thing that helps it work is that nobody KNOWS how it works. I had somebody look at my deck list, nod knowingly and say "I know what you're up to," only to get flabbergasted when I fired off the combo. A bit of foreknowledge takes the bite out of it. Nobody remembers what Inazuma does, nobody ever KNEW what Daruma did, and who plays Lab. Servers? The deck plays with you trying to rapidly establish your kill condition, before the runner can figure out what game they're playing.

Some specific strategies/concerns: You always want to have a murder-ambush on the board. a 4-advanced Junebug is ideal - you can fake it as a ronin, and it will kill MOST runners if they hit it. Once they're wise to your game, you want to consider counterplay. a 5-advanced Junebug is almost impossible to swallow. A shaper with Feedback filter dies to an 8-advanced Overwriter. Criminals may pack Caldera, so Junebug is better against them in most cases. Always consider "How would I survive this ambush if I had to?" and make certain you are advanced 1 higher than anything the runner can pull. The runner will stare at the card in confusion as you do it, trying to figure out why you're advancing a card an 8th time. Regardless, having your murder-server down means once you get Lab. Server or manage to pull of a Batty'd Inazuma, they die. Nothing is worse than being ready to kill them, but having nowhere to send them.

Turntable is your enemy, stealing your Lab. Server win condition right after you get it feels terrible. See the point above - make sure they can't get in to score another agenda once you score it.

Security Testing can nullify your murder server. Make sure you have a Daruma in that case, so you can just move it to a different server and kill them there.

Surfer - I forgot my opponent in the finals had Surfer, and it won him the game. Can't bounce them if they just move your ice past the bounce-point! Felt bad (but beautifully played on his part!)

Caldera/Feedback Filter - Junebug against Caldera, 8-advanced Overwriter against Feedback Filter (They'll probably win the money game on a Junebug if they know what you're doing) Guru Davinder - Doesn't stop brain damage Other damage protection - Figure out how to do more damage than they can soak!

In general, the deck was fun to play, got some good laughs, and pissed some other people right on off, so bring it out if you want to feel filthy and lose some friends!

11 comments
5 Aug 2019 ctz

This is a winner. Good work :dab:

5 Aug 2019 plural

as the first runner to lose to this deck at GenCon, hats off, @Aesynil. This was gross and you should be equal parts proud and ashamed of yourself. :D

5 Aug 2019 Council

I'm in awe.

It's time to slot those [[Flip Switch]]'es people.

5 Aug 2019 triorph

Flip Switch doesn't save you from Labyrinthine Servers.

6 Aug 2019 Aesynil

Pride and shame accurately captures my feelings here!

6 Aug 2019 rubyvr00m

I messed around with a similar idea sometime before rotation hit, but was consistently foiled by E. Strike at the time so I shelved it.

It hadn't even occurred to me how strong it must be now that Strike is out of the card pool.

Congrats on the strong finish!

7 Aug 2019 lopert

This is the best deck I've seen in forever.

10 Aug 2019 CaKnuckleguy

Bank Job best tech.

12 Aug 2019 danosuke

Damn you for killing me at NA Champs. Also thanks for sharing the list, pretty amusing :)

14 Aug 2019 tantale

3/10, not enough An Offer You Can't Refuse.

14 Aug 2019 Aesynil

An Offer You Can't Refuse would be truly hilarious, especially if people did not fully realize the danger.

Danosuke - Was a pleasure playing you! I'm not sure which person you were, but it was a great tournament with a lot of great people :)