Knights of Taxation (1st, store champ, Jan 2015, Montreal)

Card draw simulator
Odds: 0% – 0% – 0% more
Repartition by Cost
Repartition by Strength
Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
RP:daily struggle - 1st place Regionals Bratislava 2015
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semaphores 472

Introduction:

Replicating Perfection is extremely strong late game, when it can get its asset economy set up, as well as a scoring server with Caprice Nisei, and maybe some scored Nisei Mk II counters. However, it takes some time to set up, and RP can be quite vulnerable during this early game.

Grail ICE:

Grail ICE can be scary early game, threatening to wipe out the runner's rig or kill them with net damage if they don't have a full rig of all three breaker types. By playing Grail ICE in RP, you can try to wipe out their rig or do some net damage to give yourself more time to build up. Even if they know you are playing Grail, they will still have to build up first. Remember that Grail ICE are still good late game as taxing ice.

Other card choices:

One downside of playing Grail ICE is that the full set takes up a lot of influence, which means you will have to choose carefully how to spend your last 3 influence (Grail = 9, 3 Jackson = 3, total 12 already). I don't find Ash and Enhanced Login Protocol are needed in this deck, as both are weak early game and our late game is already extremely strong. Daily Business Show and Eli are strong in the early game to help us set up, as well as useful in the late game to help us win.

Perhaps controversially, almost all the ICE chosen for this deck are weak to parasite. I deliberately chose not to play Lotus Field, Himitsu-Bako, Tollbooth, Wall of Static, etc. The strategy here is to try to overload the runner with Parasite targets. They only have so many Parasites they can use (and Clone Chip and Deju Vu), and if they are too reliant on that, they won't be able to get in once they have no more. Furthermore, because RP ices up all centrals already, it is hard for the runner to accumulate Datasucker tokens, which makes it hard to destroy ICE instantly during a run (with Parasite and Datasucker tokens). This means that the runner will have to encounter most ICE at least once. Encountering any Grail ICE even just once can be devastating, especially to runners that cannot fetch breakers (Anarch) and runners that cannot recover from trashing programs (Criminal).

16 comments
19 Jan 2015 Jashay

Was the Source legal for this tournament? If it was, Excalibur is the perfect fit for this.

How was the Daily Business Show in this deck?

19 Jan 2015 semaphores

@Jashay, The Source was legal for this tournament, but I personally don't like ICE that doesn't protect centrals early game, and isn't good on remotes. You generally have at least 2 other Grail in HQ anyway, so I'd imagine you would rarely reveal Excalibur. That being said, I have never actually tested it, and you may be right in its usefulness.

Daily Business Show is extremely strong. You can use it early game to get your economy and ICE without being agenda-flooded. You can use it late game to get your Caprice Nisei or agendas (the ones you want to score: Nisei MK II first, or The Future Perfect if you have 4 points already). You can even use it to look for Jackson Howard against Noise. They even stack to provide more filtering power, and if you keep spiky centrals, you can often play these unprotected as they cost a lot to trash.

19 Jan 2015 CodeMarvelous

This is very similar to what I have been running. Its brutal.

19 Jan 2015 sruman

Given weakness to parasite, just wondering if would think about swapping an NAPD for 2 chronos projects? Definitely sub-optimal for non-parasite but could protect a number of ice if it hits.

19 Jan 2015 semaphores

@sruman, NAPD Contract are strong in that they protect themselves from being stolen early game. Parasite isn't that great of a fear for this deck, as runners won't have enough Parasites to destroy all the ICE, and it slows them down a lot too.

19 Jan 2015 ddbrown30

What was your reasoning behind the decision to not include Enhanced Login Protocol?

20 Jan 2015 Evilawn

The curve of that deck is so smooth it feels like a pro-player MTG deck.

20 Jan 2015 semaphores

@ddbrown30, I considered Enhanced Login Protocol, but as it costs 2 credits, a click, and a card to play (4 resources total), the runner would have to run more than 4 times without a run event card and without stealing an agenda before the card pays for itself. Most runners play plenty of run event cards (The Maker's Eye, Legwork, Dirty Laundry), or will just build up so that they can run fewer than 4 times to steal an agenda, in which case the current doesn't pay off for the corp. It is also 2 influence, which would cut away from our Daily Business Show and Eli 1.0. Finally, Enhanced Login Protocol doesn't help us to recover from a weak early game, and our late game is strong enough that we don't need it.

20 Jan 2015 Saikron

I recommend freeing up influence for IT Department. RP/Grail/IT Dep is ridiculously strong if you also use Excalibur.

With Excalibur, you only have to click once per turn to maintain your IT Department counters. If you get this combo set up, basically the only way for the runner to win is to raise credits to break through strength 10+ grail ICE with 3 subs in both a central and in your IT Department server or to have 2 D4V1Ds.

20 Jan 2015 semaphores

@Saikron, I have been strongly considering IT Department. Unbreakable Komainu or any Grail ICE could pretty much win you the game. Though I didn't have time to test it before my tournament, it is definitely worth testing.

21 Jan 2015 licoricemaniac

I played against this deck at the tournament and I can confirm that it is strong. RP is usually a good match-up for my Katman, and I felt under pressure since the start of the game. He pulled a double DBS and I think it was the MVP.

@semaphores Don't be so quick to dismiss Enhanced Login Protocol. It is not just a matter of numbers. It may cost 4 resource points, but what it does for you is protect the asset economy in the early game and help you transition to the mid game. That extra click can mean the difference between life and death for your Sundew. If you can keep that up for 2-3 turns than you have an edge.

21 Jan 2015 clickclickclik

I never played Jinteki before, I sleeved the deck up and played it tonight. I think I'm in love.

21 Jan 2015 Dydra

I have a very SERIAL question and I want to know the truth !!

IS THIS DECK , 17-0 IN YOUR CURRENT META?

21 Jan 2015 semaphores

@licoricemaniac, The question is what two influence would you cut for the single Enhanced Login Protocol that you can't fetch or recur? Probably not Grail or Jackson, so it would have to be 2 Daily Business Show or 1 Daily Business Show and 1 Eli 1.0.

@Dydra, Yes.

21 Jan 2015 semaphores

@licoricemaniac, Also, you say that Enhanced Login Protocol protects your asset economy, but if you have unrezzed ICE on each central (each one threatening to be Grail that wipes their rig or kills them with net damage), the runner can't run centrals (and therefore remotes) until they get all three breakers out. This is generally all you need to protect your asset economy in early game and transition you to mid game.

21 Jan 2015 nintendom

Congrats, you solved netrunner. All hail to you. :P