Fight Club Quetzal

Is your least favorite part of Netrunner the run?
Are you worried that the degenerate decks all died with rotation and Core 2.0?
Did you find Dyper too interactive?
Do you want an excuse to play Build Script over Deuces Wild?

Do I have the deck for you!

This is a combo deck which does nothing but set up for a while, then mills a bunch of cards in a single turn. I've been discussing it on the Oslo Netrunner discord (please, join us, we normally talk about nicer stuff than this), and in particular with @nicohasa. I think it's going to beat anyone who doesn't know how it works, and stand a better chance than you'd think even if the Corp knows what's up.

Wait, this is one of those writeups with lots of unneccessary text, isn't it?

This picture is really all you need, so you can just stop here if you like.

No, I want to hear a beautiful story

(Scene: Quetzal is sitting in Tri-Maf HQ on Mars, discussing fiscal policy with some friends. )

Quetzal: "You don't get it at all. If we taxed the corporations even a little bit, they wouldn't want to invest in anything, and nothing would get done! Do you even invisible hand, bro?"

(Quetzal gets their hammer and attacks the mafia, but is quickly disarmed, beaten up and thrown out. However, it's only a flesh wound, and Quetzal staggers back inside to talk to their boss, Dadiana Chacon.)

Quetzal: "Mr. Chacon, could I get a loan?"

Chacon: "You have a lot of nerve coming back in here after what you did to my crew. But yeah, sure, you're probably going to go liberate some Jinteki crops or something, right?"

Quetzal: "...sort of."

Quetzal is beaten up yet again, and leaves without a loan into the nearest stim bar to vent.

Quetzal: "You're not going to believe what a terrible day I had. It all started when I was hanging out with my tri-maf buddies, explaining some of the finer points of fiscal policy..."

(Quetzal relates the day's events. At some point during the tirade, a friend walks in.)

Quetzal: "...and then, they broke my legs! Again!"

Alice: "You have suffered greatly, my friend. I would say that I cannot believe what Jinteki would do to the smallfolk, but I have learned never to underestimate the depths they would sink to."

Quetzal: "Actually, that's-."

Alice: "Come with me, I know a way to make Jinteki pay."

Quetzal: "But-"

Alice: "MARS FOR MARTIANS, MILLS FOR MILLS!"

(The martian clans are outraged over the way AgInfusion has treated Quetzal, and mob their research department, wrecking it.)

Tell me the story again, but in the game

At the start of your turn, you have Titanium Ribs, an Overmind, some Tri-Mafs, a Salvaged Vanadis Armory and a Dadiana Chacon installed. You also have at least 2 IHW in hand.

1. Independent Thinking, trashing 2x Tri-Mafs and whatever other cards are around, taking 2*3 meat damage which hit IHWs, drawing a lot of cards so that you actually survive. You also draw 5 more from Independent Thinking, so your deck is probably empty now.

2. Amped Up for 3 more clicks, leaving you at 7 total for the turn (I know I didn't mention this as being in your grip, but if it wasn't you probably drew it from all the IHWs)

3. Install Hades Shard

   Then blow all your money on pumping the strength of Overmind, which causes Chacon to trash himself and deal 3 more damage to you. Use this damage to trigger Vanadis for 10 mills.

4. Click for credit

5. Install Salvaged Vanadis Armory

6. Amped Up, giving you 3 more clicks for 10 total Trigger the second Vanadis for 11 mills

7. Install a third Vanadis

8. Click for credit

9. Amped Up for 3 more clicks, but more importantly a brain damage Trigger Vanadis it for 12 mills

You still have 4 clicks remaining, but you also milled 33 cards, so now is probably a good time to trigger Hades Shard and win. Or you could spend them on shenanigans to trigger a fourth Vanadis if you want to do a victory lap. There is also room for a "Click 0: trigger trope" before you start comboing in case you need to shuffle in some stuff.

Why I think this deck is actually pretty good

Briefly, you can mill both more and less than 33 cards if you need to. If the Corp is about to win but you only have 1x Tri-Maf, 1x Chacon on the board, just do the above and you'll mill 21 cards, which is statistically still quite an okay chance to win. If you have a bit more time, let your Tropes tick a bit more, and reaching more than 40 mills is possible, if kind of pointless.

In an actual game where the Corp knows what you're up to, they're going to start scoring quickly, and you won't have time to find all the cards you need. Just take as long as you feel comfortable taking, then fire off the combo for as much as you can. The combo sort of scales with the number of pieces you actually did find. If the Corp is stashing the agendas in HQ, make sure to have Clan Vengeance installed on the combo turn to grab whatever agendas the Corp is hiding in HQ.

Doesn't this fold to tech?

It should and probably does. But what kind of tech? Salem's Hospitality is pretty good, but honestly my only suggestion. Bio-Ethics is sort of annoying before you find Titanium Ribs (but ultimately helpful on the combo turn), but apart from that, this isn't really a deck which cares at all about what the Corp is doing. Whampoa Reclamation is mildly annoying, but probably completely shut down by Clan Vengeance. And Jackson Howard is gone. He doesn't even get a hyperlink.

EDIT: Stimslack (I forget who, sorry!) gave me several suggestions for tech, of which I think Genetics Pavillion and Scarcity of Resources were my favorite. Feel free to share more in the comment section.

What if the Corp just goes fast?

I think that's the best answer, which is why the deck has 3x Overmind (props to @Ulrik03) and Quetzal. I don't think it's going to do too much against any kind of decent ice, but it'll at least slow the Corp down a bit. This deck is literally all combo pieces, draw, and some utility cards (Origami/Trope/Overmind), so ultimately the answer to the Corp going fast is to just go faster.

Why/how Trope?

You may need to draw a lot before finding Titanium Ribs or some other pieces. If your deck is empty, having 3x IHW in hand won't help you much. So try to install it early, so that you can start you combo turn by shuffling in a bunch of cards and surviving. It's also your best answer to Salem's Hospitality, I think, but I haven't thought in depth about it.

What about Bookmark?

In an earlier draft of this deck, it had Bookmark. That's actually really good, because it makes holding a bunch of combo pieces easier, so you don't need Origami. However, it's vulnerable to Best Defense. You can get around this by playing Sacrificial Construct, but it becomes sort of heavy on influence. If you want to try this, I'd cut Build Script, 1x Independent Thinking, 2x Drug Dealer for 2x Bookmark, 2x SacCon and then take out 3x Origami for 3x Earthrise.

What about Making an Entrance?

I really want to include this card! However, I think it's for smarter players than me. When playing with it I found myself reluctant to trash that many cards. I think if you're smart with Trope, you probably could just chuck everything but IHW, Tri-Maf and Independent Thinking/Titanium Ribs and get utility from it. Try cutting Street Peddler for it if you want to, as Peddler is already potentially awkward at 16 events.