The Infamy Gauntlet - Q4 GNK Winner

Transcript of every time I bring this deck to an event

"Are you on Maw?"

"No I am on The Gauntlet"

"That seems bad"

Me:

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This is the most recent iteration of the The Gauntlet based Smoke I have been working on for a year.

It has served me very well in a lot of events and I was able to take down a small GNK with it.

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EVENTS

1x Interdiction won me two games at this tournament alone. Since this deck is based around a late game lock, you find it and hold it to the turn when it wins you the game. Can also be used to clear Scarcity.

The deck has changed econ packages entirely with the removal of Temüjin Contract. With that in mind we need a small number of cards that give big hits of econ. 3x Peace in Our Time gives you big money for set up and messes with corps that try to keep their money low to avoid Tapwrm.

Sure Gamble is good because money is good.

3x The Maker's Eye is a more recent change to the RD access package. This deck used to live on the combination of Indexing and Mad Dash. However, the shift in the meta and the rise of Miraju, Atlas, and the loss of New Angeles City Hall has made that combo more fragile. I went for RD access that leaves me with clicks to clear tags and draw up.

HARDWARE

2x The Gauntlet is probably the most contentious part of this build. People frequently tell me it should be Maw and I agree that card is good in Smoke. I prefer the glove because I enjoy getting additional accesses instead of the pseudo accesses that Maw provides. It also costs two less influence per, freeing influence for more powerful breakers and utility cards. Also, if you can bait two ice onto HQ, the permanent legwork is incredible. If they decide to overwrite those ICE to deny accesses that is even better.

RESOURCES

2x Beth Kilrain-Chang is just good for what ails you in Shaper. It partners well with Misdirection and Professional Contacts and because we are using Peace in Our Time she is always on.

Daily Casts is a fine card that has Smoke on it. It also gives you money I think?!?!

I recently abandoned my tried and true Clone Chip and embraced Film Critic as my restricted card. I found myself having unused chips in the late game and I was running out of cards against Jinteki. FC has a myriad of uses but primarily deals with Obokata, Future Perfect, QPM, Argus, PE and Punitive.

I added Ghost Runner to help kickstart Mercur and give me more food for Switchblade.

Hunting Grounds is one of the best silver bullets right now. It deals with Data Raven, Komainu, Tollbooth, Data Loop, and Grail.

3x Net Mercur because it is Smoke's most powerful asset. Period. It's a Desperado, it's card draw, it's late game inevitability.

I have used several draw engines in this deck but I have settled on Professional Contacts. It provides draw and money, compresses my basic actions. It does't flood my hand like Laguna Velasco District does and it isn't as slot intensive as Diesel and Deuces Wild. The name of the game with Smoke is getting the effects you need in as few slots as possible.

3x Sacrificial Construct provides protection against Skorpios and for Tapwrm. Sac Con asks the corp if they would rather give you a free turn or free money! Either answer is good for you. Sac Con and an SMC early can also bluff the Clot you don't have.

ICEBREAKERS

Dai V is a breaker that solves problems in a passable way.....most of the time. It is strange, against certain corps I have won games with just it and Refractor. Some times, I never install it in an entire tournament. It's like a dependable friend that is there when you need them. It is also great when a Skorp thinks they have lockout because they RFGed Paperclip.

Paperclip is the most cost effective solution for most barriers. The other options are either too inefficient, require additional slots for support, or are just not good fits. We will eat the higher price and influence for the efficiency and saved slots.

Refractor is the best decoder in the stealth arsenal, maybe in the game in general. Low cost, good numbers, breaks 1 for 1.

Switchblade has replaced Dagger for me now that I have cut Clot. People seem to be fond of multi sub sentries and Switchblade deals with that efficiently. It also boosts for 7 at a time instead of 5 giving it a little more game against IT Dept / Rototurret.

PROGRAMS

Cloak is a must have in a rig as hungry for stealth bucks as ours. It also allows you to farm Net Mercur dollars twice a turn instead of once.

Equivocation is a Smoke branded card that is a lovely R&D Interface replacement that lets you flood the corps hand. This directly improves the pressure The Gauntlet provides by forcing the corp to ditch tools and hold agendas.

Misdirection is specifically for HHN, Argus upgrade hell, and smart yellow players that force you through multiple Data Ravens. It helps you maintain the lock by making clearing tags trivial even against things like SYNC.

Self-modifying Code is the name of the show and the name of the best card in Netrunner.

The primary late game economy is 2x Tapwrm and 3x Sacrificial Construct. In many games, the amount of pressure you apply to RD makes Corps abandon purging. When that happens, the drip economy of about 2-4 credits is all you need to stay powerful and run every turn. If they do purge through you got 5 free turns.

So that's the deck, I enjoy it immensely!

-CodeMarvelous

I frequently stream this and other decks I am working on HERE