Black Crusade, 1st Place Seattle SC

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The Crusade v2 (1st place in 3 Store Championships)
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evilmanimani 98

Basically a Cambridge-esque Jinteki PE deck with grail. Normal Cambridge decks don't bother taxing runner economy at all and just turn their cards into hitpoints--this deck still does that, but it also gearchecks them with Galahad (and potentially Merlin), and then continues to tax their economy. I've tested it against most of the strong post-mwl runner lists and I think it's favored against most of them (though all Shaper has to do to take a dump on the deck is slot Net Shield and not play like an idiot). I came in second at a Seattle-area store championship--corpside didn't drop a single game in four rounds of Swiss or after the cut (I lost in finals to a Haarp butcher deck because I don't know the match well).

Flex slots are pretty slim but one of the medical research fundraisers could turn into a Crisium Grid for Keyhole protection, and you could drop a galahad or pop-up for a Swordsman if you did that. Also, while I realize that MRF makes far more sense in a deck that doesn't have any interest in the runner's credit pool, it's important to be able to substantially recover from a siphon/vamp with an operation that isn't a double--Gila Hands+MRF allows for exactly that. Lastly, the singleton Chronos Project is a meta call. Right now almost every runner deck is playing a singleton Levy and getting that out of the game almost guarantees a win.

Update: I went undefeated with this deck at a second tournament and took first with it. I made the changes I mentioned above, but they wound up not being relevant in any of the games. I still think they were the right move, though.

8 comments
9 Feb 2016 moistloaf

it was a pleasure losing to you twice. Very elegant list and great piloting

10 Feb 2016 evilmanimani

Thanks!

7 Mar 2016 OuterCrow

This looks really stylish. Questions: do you win most games via net damage flatline, or scoring out agendas? What is your ideal and/or most common play for Mushin No Shin?

7 Mar 2016 OuterCrow

Additionally, I am assuming you prioritise a Gila Hands rush score as early as possible?

8 Mar 2016 evilmanimani

I almost always win via flatline, and I'm actively trying to set up a kill in most games. I've scored out a couple times against overly cautious players, and against Noise I try to score out, but most Noise players get anxious and do something that lets me kill them before I can win by points.

Mushin does a lot of things. The ideal play varies a lot with matchup and opponent playstyle; fortunately, the card is good in just about any circumstance, so you can always find something strong to do with it. In the early game, I like to use it on House or Gila so I can score them without losing tempo. It's also good early with Fetal AI and, if you're feeling brave, Future Perfect; scoring at least one of either is pretty important, since the deck works best when the runner is on the clock both via their hitpoints (that is, running out of cards altogether) and via the scoreboard. That play works best when you put the runner in a situation where they must choose between two remotes to run; a solid turn 2-3 play would be Mushin Fetal AI, install a Psychic Field.

8 Mar 2016 esutter479

I like this. Grail shinanegans in PE! I'm gonna try out a modified version of this tonight in my local GNK.

12 Mar 2016 esutter479

Update: My version went undefeated in 3 games. It worked out really well! I won one of them by scoring out (lol), but my other 2 opponents were kills. It's mildly taxing...it's relishing in the mind games...it's punishing R&D digs...everything you want out of PE. Silly side note - my 2nd opponent dug R&D with a 7 counter Medium and hit NADA, while I scored 2 Fetals, 2 Houses and a Philotic for the win.

12 Mar 2016 evilmanimani

Awesome, glad to hear it went well for you.