Quinns' Tier 1.2 Gagarin Deck (6th at London Regionals)

Quinns 1957

Here we are again!

Welcome to the cutting edge of Gagarin: Deep Space. Please put on these protective goggles and leave your expectations at the entrance to the facility.

This latest edition of my Gagarin deck achieves success by using "good cards", something I probably should have looked at more before. It's now a pretty horrible thing to play against!

Are you sure?

Yes! And it's very simple to pilot. Here's how it usually works.

  1. ICE your centrals and get Paywall Implementation up.
  2. Start installing cards like it's going out of style.

This puts the runner in a bad place. Between Gagarin's ability and the Paywall, trashing your assets is just as bad as leaving them rezzed (to say nothing of it being insufferably annoying just to CHECK face-down, unprotected cards). If they go down to low, low credits you can threaten Scorched Earth. If they give you some breathing room to either develop their rig or try and outpace your economy to stay out of SEA Source range, you can score agendas.

And you took this to a Regional!

Yes! I was expecting to do terribly but it went 5-1 in Swiss, then 1-1 in the Top 8.

As for changes, I'm going to try swapping the Geothermal Fracking for two Hostile Takeovers. I always avoided Hostile because it gave automatic bad pub which is TERRIBLE for all your taxing remotes, but both the games Gagarin dropped on the day it was sat at 6 agenda points and couldn't end the game. Saving Hostiles for the end (and Jacksoning them back if you get them early) might be a fix.

Trivia

Yuri Gagarin became the first human to journey into outer space only by edging out his rival candidate for the flight, child prodigy Gherman Titov. Titov would later set the record for being the first human to pilot a spaceship personally, as well as becoming the first human to vomit in space. From this fact we can deduce that Yuri didn't throw up during his own flight! A minor victory which reminds me of what using this Netrunner ID feels like.

Today Titov is still the youngest person ever to endure a space flight, being just 25 at the time of his first launch.

26 comments
21 Apr 2015 Spaceman_Spiff

I like your ice setup. I've been running a combination of constellation and regular ice, which I think is just too slow. Did Cortex Lock do any work for you, or would you rather it have been another Architect/Data Raven?

21 Apr 2015 dodgepong

If the runner's running on a Jackson Howard or Executive Boot Camp, you can let them pass the "successful run" window to get a credit from Paywall Implementaion before using the asset's ability to remove it.

I'm fairly certain that the corp's last opportunity to use paid abilities (such as those that remove JHow and EBC) is before the run is considered successful, but after they've decided not to jack out (step 4.3). So if JHow or EBC is the only card in or protecting their server (i.e. the server ceases to exist after they are removed), the run is not considered successful even if they chose not to jack out at 4.2. And by the time they are paying to access cards, the paid ability window is long gone...unless I'm misunderstanding your meaning, or forgetting a step in the run timing structure.

21 Apr 2015 Quinns

@Spaceman_Spiff

Cortex Lock did catch a prepaid Kate turn 1, click 1, which was one hell of a swing for just 2 credits. As to whether it's better than Architect or Data Raven, I couldn't tell you. Right now I'm happiest with an unpredictable mix.

@dodgepong

I've looked at the timing structure. I think you're right! Seems I got some bad advice on the day. I've removed the tip from the original post.

(Regional result still stands, thank god. I only used that rule in a game I ultimately lost.)

21 Apr 2015 HauntPun

I like this but feel perhaps Cortex Lock is a waste if influence? Another ash might be better?

21 Apr 2015 hi_impact

I tried to imagine your newer Gagarin deck when you made your blog post and I think I got it almost right!

Well, outside the crazy cortex lock, which I love.

Vegagarin was just not winning, like you said. The threat of scorch keeps them honest, scared, and its necessary for Weyland.

I don't like the Architect though. It gets eaten by the same icebreaker people play when they smash into Cadueceus.

How's the Wormhole/Orion working out?

21 Apr 2015 lolpaca

I agree re Architect, I'd probably switch it out for a second Data Raven because it's such a disgustingly annoying card in pairs. This looks a lot of fun, definitely giving it a try!

21 Apr 2015 Circadia

I feel like this deck has all the answers to Reina headlock! Ice Wall is a super annoying card as it can easily be re-rezzed. Paywall Implementation negates the Lamprey-lock. Geothermal Fracking allows you to shoot back up credits if you get vamped, and Capital Investors allows you to run away with credits. One of the toughest matchups I had, and I had to face it twice! Awesome deck Quinn, well done on 6th :)

21 Apr 2015 dodgepong

@Quinns How did Capital Investors turn out? Did runners target it pretty hard, or were you able to get good use out of it before it got trashed?

21 Apr 2015 Quinns

@chowyunbrent I think you could be right! Honestly though, I'm keeping Cortex Lock because it's the most fun you can have with 2.

@scourged Wormhole and Orion aren't quite working out, I don't think. I'm going to experiment with replacing them with Hadrian's Wall'ses.

@dodgepongCapital Investors is actually fantastic. If you use it and they trash it, it's good. If you have a Paywall up, it's great. If they can't trash it? It's enormous.

22 Apr 2015 HauntPun

@Quinns Yes I agree with Capital Investors I've been using it heavily in my own Gagarin Deep Space: Expanding the Horizon build and coupled with Encryption Protocol and Paywall Implementation its a force to be reckoned with.

22 Apr 2015 clercqie

Re: Capital Investors, is it better than GRNDL Refineries in the same slot? The latter can gain you an equal or even higher amount of money with the upside of baiting runs into your scoring remote.

Another question: is the Scorch package worth it? I'd like to think you're playing an economy war with Gagarin, and Closed account may provide better tag punishment here at a lower influence cost.

22 Apr 2015 HauntPun

@clercqie A rezzed and active Capital Investors in your scoring remote will bait a run, and if not.. click for 6...

27 Apr 2015 AsteriskCGY

@Quinnssay if you make the switch to hadrians, do you think the Constellation Protocol is still worth it?

28 Apr 2015 Quinns

@AsteriskCGY God no. Though actually, update! I settled on Fire Wall instead of Hadrian's.

3 May 2015 aero

It's just one card, but is Diversified Portfolio a good one-of over the ol' Beanstalk?

3 May 2015 Quinns

@ratamacube No way josé! 25% of the time when you draw it it's better than a Beanstalk, but 25% of the time it's worse. Most importantly, it's at its worst when you really need it, which is in your opening hand.

3 Jun 2015 dmnz

Congratulations on taking Gagarin to 6th, giving hope to non Jinteki: Replicating Perfection players!

I'm seeing a lot of recursion on the runner side in my meta, especially since the release of the SanSan cycle. Would you consider packing a singleton Blacklist and / or Chronos Project in this case? If so, which card(s) would you swap out?

I have made the changes you suggest in the comments: Taken out the 2 cosmic ice and replaced with 2 Fire Wall, -1 Constellation Protocol -1 Geothermal Fracking +2 Hostile Takeover.

4 Jun 2015 Brianish

Is there a role in this for the new Oaktown Grid, do you think?

5 Jun 2015 Quinns

@dmnz I tried Chronos Project, and think it's strong & fun. The variant I took to Nationals removed the Constellation Protocol, the Orion and the Architect, and snuck in another Data Raven, a second Ash and two Crisium Grid. Still dunno what you'd remove to put in any 1 point agendas, though.

@Brianish I've been thinking about Oaktown Grid, and I'd like to test it. My gut says it's not stronger that Geothermal Fracking, though, and informing the runner that the agenda you're advancing isn't an NAPD is huge.

Then again, it might be enough info that they end up trying to run on the server and wasting their time and money... I really don't know.

I am excited for the two other public agendas, though. They both sound phenomenal.

6 Jun 2015 Brianish

You're thinking of Oaktown Renovation, I believe. Oaktown Grid is a new HB upgrade that raises the trash cost of cards in the server. Not sure what you'd remove, but it could dovetail nicely with making everything painfully expensive.

10 Jun 2015 superslug

I don't understand how to win with this deck. I wanted to try out weyland and this looked super interesting but I cannot work it out. I am mostly playing vs pre-paid kate. I don't seem to have the ice to keep them out of r&d or a remote or the time and money to land a sea-scorch.

Do I need to be drawing hard for assets or clicking for money early game? What am i doing wrong?

25 Jun 2015 razortoy

Completely new player here and my first game ever as corp was with this deck. I love it! It seems to me (at least as I played it - and got my first win against a much more experienced player who had just smashed me when I played the runner!) that the point of the deck is the be very punishing economically and try and score the Utopia Shard early if possible (protecting with Ash, behind economically trying ICE). Once you have done this, it can make stealing a double advanced NAPD Contract extremely difficult if not impossible. I had a data raven, Caduceus and Changeling switched to Sentry (because of the economics of the runners rig, it was more expensive for him to break Sentries) and it was costing him so much to get through that when he got there he was unable to steal Agendas. It was pretty fantastic!

16 Aug 2015 Vimes

@clercqie Marked Accounts would be interesting but seeing that this is Weyland and you'd still need the NBN cards for tagging, that plan would actually require a higher influence cost than the Scorched Earth route. Unless the idea is to replace the two SEA for it but then you only have Raven(s) to tag.

17 Aug 2015 Vimes

^I meant Closed Accounts up there, not Marked Accounts.

Have @Quinns or anyone else here thought about any new/upcoming cards to add to this deck? I feel that Contract Killer could have a nice home here, not only to tax the runner well but also to cripple popular economy options like Kati Jones.
Meanwhile, The Universe of Tomorrow is definitely trying to add power to Asset Weyland, but I don't know if any of it has a particular place here. Worlds Plaza is very interesting to me, but also a little risky in my mind as well.

17 Sep 2015 AsteriskCGY

@Vimes Dunno about world's in Gagarin. You get the most out of many cards in a remote, and stacking 3 on one doesn't take advantage of that. Now if you were like HB and didn't want to leave a naked ad, that sounds useful.

27 Jul 2016 CowboyTintin

Quinns, are you still playing? Every now and then I check out your Netrunner tumblr, but no updates! I'm sure we'd all love to hear your thoughts on some of the new expansions...