Deus Ex Machina 1.1

Update 1/27/16:

So apparently people are actually playing this. No one is more surprised (Delightedly!) then me. This is a minor update with some small changes from the last few days.

-1 Investigative Journalism +1 Amped Up

Journalism basically did nothing. If people actually tech against this it may go back in, but for now, I'm adding my new testing card, Amped Up. It's supposed to help alleviate click burden on certain key turns, but so far I haven't really managed the setup right - having enough available Blackmail to make full use requires a lot of planning ahead. Time will tell with this.

-1 Daily Casts +1 Dirty Laundry

These have swapped in sets multiple times over the course of this deck's development. I've decided that I don't want 3 or either, but a mix, as there are circumstances where each is not really what I want, and they all tend to be fairly dead later on. Casts is less dead later, so I kept 2.

Other notes: I've discovered that bad early draws can result in a setup that's cripplingly slow in some matches (NBNFA in particular, if they're at 5 agenda points and I'm only 25-30 cards down, it's bad) so I'm testing replacing Lucky Find + Something that's probably other draw with 2x Quality Time.

About the deck:

So, after a month or so of tinkering and a reasonable amount of success in the Stimhack League and at local GNK tournaments, I'm finally satisfied enough with this creation to publish it. It's a very odd deck, that, at first glance, looks like a pile of junk. I mean, double Levy? Triple Voice Pad post-mwl? ORAGAMI? But it is much more then it appears. Which brings me to:

de·us ex ma·chi·na

noun

an unexpected power or event saving a seemingly hopeless situation, especially as a contrived plot device in a play or novel.

Like a Deus Ex Machina, this deck is unexpected(completely), unstoppable(kinda), and ruins otherwise excellent stories (read: games of Netrunner). This deck is built primarily to do one thing: spam Blackmail.

The maximum possible number of Blackmail runs in one game is 27 (my record is 21). The vast majority of the runs you do in a given game with this deck will be Blackmail runs. This turns the game completely on it's head, since you essentially ignore the Corp's primary defensive mechanic, and also their economy. Leave that naked triple PAD Campaign until you have nothing better to do, because you pretty much don't care. Unless they have a mechanic that allows them to rez ice outside of a run, or are RP, then most corp decks won't rez a single ice the entire game.

The second major part of this deck is the combination of The Source and Traffic Jam. It's a potent combination for anyone vs NBNFA, as well as hurting the 2/3 agendas that Foodcoats and RP like so much. It's downfall is normally how fragile it is, since NBN usually doesn't have too much of a problem forcing an agenda through, then scoring out once the source is gone. Same deal with Foodcoats/RP. That means they normally need protection, and good timing, or they might just not do anything. It's different here, though, because fair is for go fish. Using a combination of SoT and Deja Vu to recur Traffic Jam and The Source, you can force the corp to score through them EVERY SINGLE TIME. Combined with your neigh-unfettered access to whatever remote server you feel like, it becomes extremely difficult to get even a single agenda through.

What enables all of this is the event econ/draw/recursion engine, combined with the double Levy to ensure that you don't run out of tricks. Origami ties the plan together by both making you effectively flatline-immune, and allowing you to hold a lot of answers at once, either to keep for a specific circumstance, or to chain together in rapid succession, as well as providing redundancy and consistency.

I've spent a lot of time singing this deck's praises, so I'll talk a bit about the three primary matchups you're likely to see, as well as a few card choices.

VS: NBNFA This is one of the few runner decks that I think is actually heavily favored against NBN. They don't have any way at all to stop you from running, you can trash SanSan without much of an issue thanks to Bad Pub + Scrubber, their Fast Advance plan becomes neigh-unachievable after they've scored about twice, and they can't tag you for shenanigans due to NACH. Mull/dig for traffic jam/the source, and don't panic when they push a couple of agendas through – they'll often score an astro first, then use the astro to score a beale once they see traffic jam. At that point they are in serious trouble, since that makes their primary agendas both 2/5, and they'll try to install a Breaking News/15 Minutes and triple advance next turn. Check every remote, trash SanSan with extreme prejudice and occasionally blackmail HQ/R&D and you'll be fine. Biotic Labor can be an issue, so try to keep Jackson off the board and RPF it with Archives Interface after it's used. This match is usually about 65/35 in your favor.

VS: Foodcoats This deck is also heavily favored against Foodcoats, even more so then NBNFA. The Source forces him to telegraph when he's trying to score, and you don't care at all about how big his glacier is. The variant that runs Biotic Labor has a slightly better matchup, since an Accelerated Beta Test can potentially mess you up, especially if he hits a Turing. Generally the only prayer that Foodcoats has is winning multiple Caprice Psi games. Mull for the source and draw, save your blackmail to scoring servers/Jackson. Be willing to put a lot of effort into breaking through Caprice, and try to have Jackson cleared and Archives Interface to follow up, to prevent Archived Memories shenanigans. Also beware an Ash/Caprice server, and try and break that up before it happens. This match is usually about 75/25 in your favor.

VS: Jinteki RP This match sucks. Entirely because of Caprice. RP requires the most effort to get to her, has 3 copies, and potentially Nisei MKII for extra terrible. You ignore their glacier nearly as well as Foodcoats, though it's more resource intensive. Often this match comes down almost entirely to psi games. If you win enough psi games, you win. If not, you lose. It can help to use Faust to break through archives as your initial run, to free up blackmails on remotes. An alternative strategy is to aggressively run R&D backed up by Medium, which forces them to devote time to stopping that, and try to slow down their scoring with Traffic Jam/The Source, and then just race them. If they rez Caprice on R&D, just switch plans to contesting remotes and leave her there. This match improves immensely when Councilman is released, but at the moment, it's probably about 30/70 in RP's favor.

Notes on specific cards/packages:

Frame Job/Investigative Journalism is a package intended to prevent a worst case scenario: the corp clearing their bad pub. It doesn't happen often, as neither Clone Retirement or Elizabeth Mills get played much, and none of the other bad pub removal really sees play at all. But if it does, it's devastating. I'll generally try and install Investigative Journalism the first time I have a free click, just in case. Frame Job is a backup, in case they clear bad pub before I see Investigative Journalism, but more often I use it to clear News Team and the like.

Fim Critic/New Angeles City Hall/Rachel Beckman is mostly self explanatory as an extension of The Source. Film Critic keeps everything running smoothly, and negates some troublesome agendas. NACH keeps your many, many resources around. Rachel is surprisingly useful here, due to often needing a large number of actions (sometimes 2-click actions) in a small space. She helps keep your Film Critic uncongested, and makes sure you can run enough times and still play draw/econ.

Archives Interface is experimental still. Not sure it will stay, but being able to prevent recursion of specific problematic cards is useful. It can also force the corp to Jackson when they might not really want to, or if they would rather let you trash it.

Counterplay: As loath as I am to admit it, this deck has 2 very real weak spots, and knowing how to work around them is very important to your success.

Recursion Denial: Basically Blacklist and Chronos Protocol. Chronos you deal with like any other agenda, just keep them from scoring it. If it comes at a bad time, you pretty much straight up lose. Blacklist can be an issue as well. If you suspect a there may be a Blacklist somewhere, be sure to keep either a Blackmail or Faust in hand, since it'll prevent you from recurring. Blacklist needs to get trashed ASAP, as it stops this deck dead in it's tracks.

Rezzed Ice: Another thing you don't see especially often, but bad when it happens. Things like Accelerated Beta Test, Executive Boot Camp or Oversight AI throw a wrench in your “All the Blackmail, forever” plan. Fighting through with Faust is your best option. If this kind of thing is common in your meta, consider dropping Lucky Find for Emergency Shutdown, or alongside something else for two Parasite.

Final Notes: This deck is still a work in progress, and I'll update it periodically as I continue to refine it. Feel free to try it out, and tell me how your games go. It's in an excellent position in the meta right now, and is a hell of a lot of fun (for you).