Prometheus

...also known as Total Recall. So I swapped a movie reference, sue me.

Won a Store Championship and a Regional, so there's that.

The Deck

Prometheus is a hybrid between traditional glacier decks and the new breed of asset-spamming decks that have arisen after the printing of Mumbad City Hall. It melds the glacier gameplan - scoring out of a secure remote - with the advantages of the Alliance engine - namely 6 recurring credits a turn, 5-12 real credits on demand repeatably (more on this later), and keeping agendas in the central you want them with Heritage shenanigans.

Now, one might ask, what makes Prometheus better than previous iterations of asset spam? The short answer is: I can't really say, at least not without mantaining some measure of objectivity. What I can tell you is the two things that maks Prometheus different from decks like Hot Tubs and Superfriends.

1) Prometheus is, first and foremost, a scoring deck in the vein of other glacier decks like Foodcoats. While I've gotten some accidental flatlines in the past with earlier iterations of the deck, the deck in its current state is built to score 7 points, not to kill the runner.

Some might call this singularity of purpose a weakness, and in the grand scheme of things it probably is. All I can muster in my defence is that I've received a significantly decreased number of death threats piloting this deck compared to something like, say, IG Bio-lock. Take that as you will. (I'm kidding, I'm kidding! Mostly.)

2) You'll spend the majority of the game with 4 clicks per turn instead of 3. It's an intoxicating feeling, and the main impetus for the continued development for the deck. I've described Total Recall in the past as 'the most exploitative Jeeves deck in Netrunner history', which really isn't saying a lot considering the age of the cards we're talking about, but as it is I've yet to be proven wrong.

The Gameplay

Your first few turns should usually consist of finding and protecting a MCH (gee, how original) while putting down gearchecks on centrals to deter early aggression. I shouldn't need to mention this, but it is absolutely critical to not get successfully Siphoned within the first 3 turns. Thankfully, you're an asset deck, so Siphon ducking really isn't that difficult, but that isn't a free pass to go around Recalling like nobody's business.

My general MCH targets are usually the first 2 Museums, a Temple or 2, and the first Jeeves. Once those are in play and R&D is reasonably secure, you can start building a real board. Now's the time you start jamming that MCH button faster than a 12-year old at the Time Crisis arcade machine.

In general, most of my turns in the midgame are either CH/CH/CH/(CH/I) or I/I/I/(I/CH), with the occasional IIIA if the runner is aggressively trashing assets and running themselves low on creds. If the runner isn't checking installed remotes and you have a good read on him, you can try installing a naked Atlas or CST, but be warned! I've lost games this way as well.

The lategame is where things might get a little dicey for both players. Ideally you should be at 4 or 5 points, AKA match point, but in the event that the runner is as well, whether from R&D digs or single accesses, well, that's where the game gets interesting. Ideally you should be using Jackson draws or Heritage digs to find your key ICE pieces: Tour Guides/Assassins/whatever other crap you can throw on the remote.

If you're on 5 or 6 points, it's trivial to force remote runs by throwing any random crap into it, since it might be the game-winning 4/2. I've even pulled off a couple of successful Jackson Castles before, but that's obviously a tactic reserved for the most desperate of scenarios. But in general, if you have a 3-deep remote with an Ash at the bottom, it's generally fairly safe to go for it if you have enough of a credit buffer. Terms and conditions, as usual, apply.

Against decks that don't lose to Tour Guide+Ash, notably AR Andy and Stealth, you pull out the big guns: IT Department. Quad-clicking that little sucker enough times locks even the drippiest of drip economies out eventually. Keyword being 'eventually': the important part is being able to identify and setup for the matchup accordingly before it's too late, because a properly setup AR Andy will blow through 1 turn of ITD+Ash without even breaking a sweat.

The Cards

The Recall Combo - what gave the archetype its original name. For the uninitiated, the combo refers to the ability of both Mumbad Virtual Tour and Product Recall to be tutored out with MCH, thus leading to a 2-click expenditure for a 5-credit gain, akin to drawing and playing a Restructure. The synergy, though, lies in the fact that this credit gain can be buffed by a) increasing the trash cost with Encryption Protocol and b) triggering credit gains off non-Weyland cards with IUSE (twice!). I've made 12-credit Recalls before more than once, and it's a very demoralizing sight to see as the runner.

Indian Union Stock Exchange - or IUSE, this card is an unassuming yet major role-player in the deck. IUSE gets the nod over Commercial Bankers Group because a) it's not as obviously a must-trash, and b) it's one of the only sources of action-window-speed credits in the game, which has come in handy more than a few times. Its true value over other econ assets like PAD and Launch Campaign is this last quality, meaning you're one of the few glacier decks that can shrug off Siphon spam/Vamp shenanigans without having to overly fortify HQ or play cards like Sealed Vault. With one rezzed, the first Temple pays for itself, and all subsequent MCH triggers actually gain you credits, since the Temple creds pay for their rez.

Asset Tutors - 2 Tech Startup/1 Executive Boot Camp is where I ended up after testing. Tech Startup is overall the superior option (gains you 2 creds off IUSE!), but I made the concession to a 2/1 split because EBC is the deck's only way to pre-rez ICE, which comes in handy for Au Revoir/TTW decks, as well as DDoS/False Echo. Also better when the runner slams down the second consecutive Slums and blows up the Search Firm and you need that Mills now now NOW.

ICE spread - 13 ICE, 10 of which ETR, all 10 of which can be rezzed T1. That last point is important for protecting the T1 MCH, since the deck fundamentally doesn't let you play Hive, and also lets you play the T1 IIA Oaktown that ye olde Blue Sun decks of yore used to do. Bailiffs are great for a) being unconditional Pop-Ups when rezzed off Temples, and b) eating Parasites that might have gone on Guides. The singleton Cobra hasn't let me down yet, usually going on R&D to catch runners trying to force an early ETR rez with a Sucker or something. Assassins are Assassins, nuff said.

Alright, I think that's quite enough from me. There's a ton of nuance to playing with the deck that only becomes apparent when playing with it in person - what I like to term 'remote micro'. It's for this reason that I personally don't like playing the deck on Jinteki, but anyone of course is welcome to do so.

Thanks for making it this far. This deck has been a labor of love for me, and I'm but one of the many who have championed the archetype since its inception - @Myriad, @CJFM, @dtelad11. Questions and comments are of course welcome. Peace out, and Always Be Running!