Supermodernism (1st, Auckland Chronos Protocol)

Fjord 1798

Note: 2 Power Grid Overload should be 2 Power Shutdown, sorry!

This was the companion deck to my Dinomite Chaos Theory also going 5-0.

It is a slightly modified Supermodernism originally by Martin Presley Hoobajoo. I won't go into too much detail but I'll explain why I think it works so well.

It's fast

With the first agenda often out on turn 2 it can catch some runners sleeping. It has a generally good matchup against Anarchs because they can have difficulty finding the right breaker. Both Anarchs I faced in the Chronos Protocol just dug through their decks while I scored points. The speed makes it very uncomfortable to be a runner and they have to take risks. By the time they have a rig you're usually on match point. The economy of the deck is just as fast, not many decks can afford to score an agenda then install another one next turn.

Bad hands are ok

Usually one of the worst parts of an agenda flood is a paralysing lack of economy. Here agendas are economy, and can keep you going. Your other hidden defence is fear. Runners won't test you early for for fear of program destruction, snare and SEA Source/Scorched Earth

It steals wins

In 3 out of 5 games at the Chronos Protocol, actually every game that wasn't Anarch, it did not look good for me at some point. They had a fast full breaker suite for my binary ice. Binary meaning my ice stops them completely if they don't have a breaker, but only costs them a credit if they do have one (more likely free with bad pub). Power Shutdown, Grim and Archer will destroy programs but they can be countered by a careful runner. Mimic and Parasite with Datasuckers were doing just that in my games. I went with Aggressive Secretary x2, swapping out Martin's Anonymous Tips and going down to 1 SEA Source. The Secretaries were responsible for two of my wins, flipping hopeless situations. In the other game that was looking a little grim Gabe was putting incredible pressure on me but didn't have time to put up a SEA Source defence and got scorched out.

7 comments
29 Apr 2014 mplain

Why Green level instead of Restructure? Did Blackmail bother you much?

29 Apr 2014 Fjord

Didn't see any Blackmail. I'm not sure it would be a problem actually. I don't start with bad pub and think I could go fast enough to avoid recurring blackmails.

Green Level is good in a starting hand and I it matches the speed of the deck a bit better. For example I'd rather be scoring my next agenda than waiting to hit 10 credits. Restructure is still good of course but if you're at 10 credits you don't actually need more credits at that moment. You will need more later but this deck will reliably provide them.

29 Apr 2014 mortuss

you are talking about Power shutdown but i dont see any in the deck, are the two power grid overloads supposed to be shutdowns?

29 Apr 2014 Fjord

Whoops! Yes, should be shutdowns. Might repost this.

30 Apr 2014 Yoshuriken

Binary ICE is the exact idea I've had about ICE for quite a while, though I didn't know it until a few days ago (and you gave me a name for it! :D). I really love this strategy and am working on my own version of Supermodernism. One difference my deck has is -2 False Lead +2 Vulcan Coverup. I think Vulcans are better because you can get their effect and use them as Archer fodder, as opposed to False Lead which can only do one. I could be wrong though; I haven't tried them out, and you won the tournament. Have you tried Vulcan Coverup in this deck?

30 Apr 2014 Fjord

Hmm I think Vulcan Coverup's damage would rarely be meaningful.

The more I play this deck the more I like False Lead. It probably gets more flatlines with Scorched Earth/Snare than SEA Source. It's also the agenda I put down when I think there's a reasonable chance the runner can get into the remote. One point is no big deal and you don't have to commit advancement tokens. False Lead can secure an agenda point victory as well. In my final game at the Chronos Protocol I was at 5 points with a Government Contracts advanced, the runner spent two clicks getting ready to run and boom False Lead turn over, 3 points. It's difficult to play around, often they can only run on the first click.

  1. Safe run
  2. Snare-False Lead
  3. False Lead-Score
  4. Snare
2 May 2014 Yoshuriken

Cool, I'm gonna try that out now! :)