CRUSADER

"...We must rise to meet the new challenges. And we must have faith."

INTRODUCTIONS

Play this deck if you want to:

• Make upwards of 20+ credits each turn.
• Laugh when you beat your opponent whilst using Starlight Crusade Funding.
• Use Eureka!, twice, in one click, to install your breaker suite.
• Guffaw when your opponent thinks they have a scoring window.

OVERVIEW

This deck is built around 3 cards. They are, in order of importance, as follows:

• Adjusted Chronotype
• Starlight Crusade Funding
• Comet

This is ideally a mid to late game deck. This means that the Corp will likely have scored 2-3 agendas by the time you're ready to roll. The breaker choice reflects this. Don't feel daunted by the high install costs -- if you can't trick them out (see GAME PHASES below), then your economy is more than enough to hard install them.

ECONOMY

This deck's economy is fueled entirely by:

• Sure Gamble
  • EARLY - MIDDLE - LATE GAME
• Lucky Find
  • MIDDLE - LATE GAME
• Power Nap
  • LATE GAME

These events can (and should) be bolstered by the following support cards:

• Starlight Crusade Funding
• Comet
• Prepaid VoicePAD
• Levy AR Lab Access (to recur your economy cards)

Finally, this extremely robust economy is supported by its powerful breaker suite: Garrote, Torch, Battering Ram.

GAME PHASES

OPENING HAND
You really want to see:

• Sure Gamble
  Lucky Find is an acceptable alternative.

• Quality Time
  Game Day with Public Sympathy is a potential alternative.

• Adjusted Chronotype or Starlight Crusade Funding

EARLY GAME
Turns 1-3

Draw, Draw, Draw

Here, you want to draw like a madman. Install any Public Sympathy, Prepaid VoicePAD you come across. Use your economy cards sparingly, only enough to keep your head above water. Game Day should only be used with common sense -- your current hand should be at least 3-4 cards less than your max hand size. Public Sympathy helps with this.

Hold onto exactly one Levy AR Lab Access.

Install Order

Install Adjusted Chronotype as soon as you find it. After that, Starlight Crusade Funding. Once you have those two, you can start using Lucky Find, but only if necessary. Ditch Garrote and Torch if you find them.

Don't Play Solitaire

If you see an opening to R&D, take it. Since you're running with no programs for much of the game, don't be too afraid to run. Try to stall your opponent.

MID GAME
Turns 3-6

Money, Money, Money

Once you have Starlight Crusade Funding and Adjusted Chronotype installed, throw down a Comet when you come across it. Try to use any Prepaid VoicePAD credits and Comet's ability each turn.

Setting Up the Wombo Combo

Hold onto exactly two Test Run and two Eureka!, the rest can be trashed. Install Battering Ram whenever is convenient.

LATE GAME
Turn 7+

Make It Rain

Your deck should be mostly depleted. Now you can start using your Power Naps. My ideal turn is Click 1: Lucky Find into Power Nap (using Comet). By the time your deck runs out the first time, this chain will be earning you 15+ credits for a single click.

Let's Play Some Netrunner

Your opponent may be freaking out now, and thinks the fact that you have no breakers on the board is a scoring window. It isn't. When you're ready, Click 1: Test Run (for Garrote) into Test Run (for Torch). Run. Use The Maker's Eye after nabbing whatever agenda the Corp was trying to score.

On your next turn, use Click 1: Eureka! into Eureka!. From here on out, you can ditch Eureka! whenever you draw it.

"But altruiste!" you say. "My opponent has been making money this whole game! What if he has an Ash?"

"Oh, sweet summer child," I reply. "You have upwards of 45+ credits, he can't out trace you."

"But... what if he has a Caprice?"

"You are capable of Scrooge McDuck levels of credits. Run as many times as you need to, bid 0 every time. He will run out of money."

Same Old Thing

When you're out of economy cards, it's time to start again. Use your Levy AR Lab Access you've been holding onto. My personal favourite chain is Levy AR Lab Access into Game Day.

TIPS AND EXCEPTIONS

Like anything with A:NR, the above guidelines shouldn't be taken as law. Don't be unwilling to change your game plan to adjust to your opponent. For example:

JINTEKI
Against a classic net damage deck, you have to change your strategy most. You simply don't need that much money; you are usually able to get away without installing most of the economy support cards, and simply opting to use them as a damage buffer.
Glacier style ID's can be played much closer to the ideal case, but don't fall into the trap of letting Tennin get a billion advancement counters.

WEYLAND
Weyland is actually quite easy to play against using this style of deck. With Public Sympathy and your mountains of credits, you don't typically have to fear a flatline.

HAAS-BIOROID
HB is probably the perfect match for you. Most HB decks are slow; abuse the hell out of that. Since many HB ice don't harshly punish face checking (at least without programs installed), try to poke and prod as often as you can.

NBN
You want to treat FA NBN similarly to how you treat Jinteki:PE -- don't worry about getting "the perfect economy". However, if you suspect your opponent is running NEARPAD or one of its ilk, you will need money, and lots of it. Fortunately, it is nearly impossible for NBN to out-econ you for a Midseasons.

CHRONOS PROJECT
AHHH JESUS H CHRIST. If you think your opponent is running Chronos Project (typically Jinteki:PE), FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DON'T LET HIM SCORE ONE. Sorry, there's not much else to say about that agenda. It's a shitty agenda, and there's not much playing around it in a recursive-heavy deck.

VARIATIONS

DIESEL

I've gone back and forth between Diesel and Quality Time for a while. They both have their strengths. With Comet, I prefer to use Diesel -- it complements Prepaid VoicePAD much better with this console*. I would love to run both, but there simply isn't room.

To clarify: following up with a 0-cost event such as Diesel or Power Nap is awesome, since you don't miss out on the discount from Prepaid VoicePAD.

ATMAN, DEUS X

You probably noticed that this rig has 1 spare MU. I still haven't decided on keeping one (or both) of the above utility cards for the last slot. Depending on your meta, you may want to slot one (or both) of these in.

BEACH PARTY

For many iterations, this deck used Beach Party to increase handsize, relying on twinning it with Gene Conditioning Shoppe. You may prefer this, but I found it was simply too many moving pieces for my taste.

You may argue this deck already has many moving pieces; you're partially right, but most of them aren't strictly necessary. Installation of Prepaid VoicePAD or Comet can often be waived. Public Sympathy has an immediate payoff. However, Beach Party works fantastically with Game Day.

IN CLOSING

No. I haven't won 16 tournaments with this deck.

No. This deck isn't 598-0 on OCTGN.

No. This deck is not a tier-1 masterpiece of art.

Yes. This is the closest we may ever get to making Starlight Crusade Funding work.

Yes. This deck is hilariously fun.

Yes. This deck isn't completely terrible. On OCTGN, I'm at roughly 20-5 with it, or thereabouts, in this current iteration.

Yes. I've gotten sick of this writing style.

Yes. I never wanted to be one of those people to make a deck guide as long as Atlas Shrugged, but here we are.

Remember, folks. Big girls play with doubles.