Exceedingly Fair PE - 40th at Worlds 2017

A.k.a “Faster Pussycat---Kill! Kill! (1965)”

Hello! Welcome to the fairest*, most honest deck at Worlds 2017. Zero degenerate combos! A plan that just involves scoring 7 points! What could be fairer than that? Don’t believe me? Here’s some testimonials from my opponents:-

Ff0x: “You know, that is pretty fair”

Ajar: “You were right, that is fair”

Zeromus; “There’s maybe one unfair card in there”

Genesis

Like a lot of my decks, the inspiration for this came from a number of sources and kind of coalesced into an idea which I immediately wanted to start testing. The spark came when I listened to the post-rotation Dead Channel podcast with Johno and Chris Dyer, where Chris mentioned that with access to 7 3/2 agendas (if you take the average for Medical Breakthrough), Jinteki were now the Fast Advance faction of choice.

I heard that and I thought “That’s true - why is no-one doing that?”

That made me think about the time I had spent watching Ben Ni’s excellent Jammy HB videos and realised that with their ICE suite, access to econ ops, FA tools and Snare!, that Jinteki could certainly play a similar game.

The final piece of the puzzle was the inception of the Dataloop/Obokata PE deck shortly before Worlds. This provided not only a basis for a scoring remote, but an alternative plan for scoring your last points via an uncontestable Obokata.

Card Breakdown

The Agenda Suite is the easiest part of this deck to construct. You want every 3/2 you have access to (so 3 Braintrust, 3 Medical Breakthrough, 1 Philotic) and round out your 20 points with a pair of Obokata Protocols as your Unicorn card.

Assets exist just as punishment. Snare! Is a great card and plays a key part in your Jammy game to make people guess on Agenda vs Snare in the remote. It also lets you defend your hand with Celebrity Gift and holding snares without needing to ICE it sometimes, and it punishes multi-access digs on R&D. Breached Domes are mainly to live in your archives and make people not want to run there either, turning on Shipment from Tennin as a scoring option.

2 CVS for Clot, Turtle, Tapworm and other Virus nonsense, as well as for living in your scoring remote as another bluffed 3/2. The PriSec could very well be a Ben Mushashi - both are good in different circumstances, but I felt I got marginally better value out of the PriSec as the tag can be key (making people check PriSec/Snare combos is brutal) but that slot is a complete push - play what you think is best between the PriSec and Ben there.

Operations are 12 Econ Ops - IPO. Gift, Hedge and GLC - if you found a great use for the 3 INF that GLC cost you, those could easily be Medical Research Fundraisers, but as the deck wants to draw through into Agendas at a steady pace, the draw effect from GLC is not insignificant.

2 Biotic, 3 Shipment from Tennin are your FA tools, with 2 Pre-emptives to bring them back once they are used.Fast Track allows you to find an agenda early to jam while the runner is still setting up, and enables a fun Fast Track > Medical Breakthrough > Biotic > Install and score from hand finisher in close games.

Ideal ICE placement is a Dataloop/Kakugo scoring remote, Kakugos on the inside/Trackers on the outside of centrals. Yagura and Cortex Lock and Komainu are early threats. Generally I never install the second Dataloop unless Hunting Grounds comes out and I need to shore up the Jammy remote. Miraju goes on R&D if you suspect indexing and HQ if you don’t.

The Gameplan

Playing this deck is a constantly shifting level of agenda aggression. Scoring is your number one priority, and when given any opportunity for a guaranteed score, you should cash it in even if it breaks you. Remember that every score is also hand disruption thanks to your ID ability and can take key pieces from hand early. Leverage your opponents fear of unknown ICE early - I have scored 7 points behind an unrezzed DNA tracker with this deck.

The first Medical Breakthrough is normally a win/win for you. install/advance behind an ICE either forces a very taxing (and potentially lethal if unprepared) score for your opponent turning on your other 3/2s, or lets you score 2 points and turn on your other 3/2s. In most games, I tended to score the first agenda off the table behind ICE, mid-game I button up Centrals with annoying ICE, put Domes in Archives, get money and wait for SfT opportunities. After that, when you are economically better equipped, you can start playing guessing games in your scoring remote. Fun plays here involve installing and double advancing any agenda in a Loop/Kakugo server and have your opponent have to guess whether it’s an Obo they have to devote an entire turn to contesting and maybe still not be able to steal, or a 3/2 you are scoring for free, or just throwing in Snares! To make your opponent go smash their face into them.

Even against Clotty decks with SacCons you have plenty of game. Install stuff into the remote, advance it once, ask them if they want to Clot. SfT can score a 3/2 without being able to be clotted from 1 advancement token, so take advantage of that if your opponent is slow off the mark. When they do Clot, they still have to make a trip into your Remote to get the clotted agenda, which generally is fine. When the 3rd Breakthrough is live, they have to clot on response to a naked install to prevent an SfT score, which can be huge pressure - plus you have CVS when needed also.

It’s worth noting that Philotic can also often provide you with an unreliable but additional win condition, representing 4 Net when Fast Advanced out if your opponent has already taken 3 of your other 3/2s. Opponents who poke for accesses will tend to find themselves milled out by a combination of Kakugo triggers, faceplanted Snares! and PE triggers which sometimes means they just end up with too few cards to ever steal an Obokata for the rest of the game.

Remember, the keys to this deck are a mixture of aggression, bluffing and speed. Make your opponent feel pressure to act, take your scores every time you can find them, then let them make their own difficult decisions.

I’m really pleased with how this deck performed, going 4-1 in King of Servers and 6-2 in Worlds swiss, losing on a one-in-five last chance access vs Geist and to Dan D’Argenio who’s magic hands found 3 agendas in 4 accesses as Omar.

So take this deck, go forth, and show the world how fair Netrunner can still win Corp games in 2017.

*~Possibly not very fair at all. Kakugo is kind of a messed up card, and Obokata Protocol is insanely good, Tracker is a great piece of ICE right now, Data Loop in combination with OboPro is all kinds of messed up. Fairness is a state of mind. If you are still feeling Fair after four hours, consult your doctor.~