Maginfusion (12th at Worlds 2019)

After Excalibur got unrestricted I figured that there had to be a good AgInfusion list to be made. I tried some different things and ended up on this list for Worlds. The goals is to build a remote that the runner has to run through so often that they are not able too, either because they are to low on money or clicks. Sometimes you can actually assemble 4 etr's on the remote, between the ID, border control and Nisei tokens, that it doesn't matter how much money they have. The other option is combining Excalibur with an etr effect if the runner has no way to break Excalibur.

The deck went 6-2 in swiss, and 1-0 in the cut. I beat: 1 Maxx, 2 Freedom, 1 Valencia and 3 Alice, and lost to: 1 Valencia and 1 Freedom. Even though the field was fairly diverse I only faced Anarchs both days.

So, is this better than Palana? As so often I think the answer is: it depends. Against credit denial crims you are probably happier playing Palana, but against Apocalypse decks I would much rather be on AgInfusion. Given the decks I faced, it seems I made the correct choice for this tournament :).

Below I will go over my card choices, most of which will probably be obvious for experienced players, but maybe it will help some people new to the archetype or the game in general. If you have any questions leave them in the comments, and I will try and answer as best I can.

Agendas:

3 Nisei MK II: Not much to say about this one, if your deck intends to build a scoring remote play 3.

1 Timely Public Release: I like this as the fourth 2 pointer. It combines with Border Control to make a worse Nisei. Given that I prefer a worse Nisei to the other options is a testament to how good that agenda is. If you don't like TPR, you could try a Corporate Sales Team (more money is good), or a Philotic Entanglement (being able to never advance can be nice). During Worlds it didn't end up mattering, since I never scored the TPR...

3 SSL Endorsement: While 3 pointers that protect themselves are very nice, I think the deck simply needs the extra money from SSL to function.

1 The Future Perfect: I like this as the fourth 3 pointer, it doesn't do anything for you if scored, but it protecting itself is worth a lot, it straight up won me a game during swiss in which the runner found it 3 times on HQ but didn't win any of the psi games. I personally don't like Obokata in decks that don't tax the runners cards in any other way, plus it would mean giving up Mother Goddess as restricted card.

Assets:

3 Rashida Jaheem: Not much to say, gives a lot of resources for a very low cost.

3 NGO Front: Serviceable as a straight up money card, but most of the value comes from having something other than an agenda to advance in your remote to keep the runner guessing.

2 Daily Quest: If one of these ticks for even 2 turns its a decent card, if it ticks for 4+ turns it's just disgusting. That said, they weren't that good for me during the tournament, but that might be due to the matchups I had, since 8 out of the 9 games were either Freedom or on Apocalypse, which demand early ice on your centrals, usually leaving none for an early remote. I like these two slots being money cards, just not sure if these are the best ones yet.

Operations:

3 Hedge Fund, 3 IPO, 3 Celebrity Gift: These give you money, this decks needs a lot of money. On Gift: I feel a lot of people are too scared to show agendas with these. Of course you don't want to show the runner you are flooded, but I will almost always show a hand with 1 agenda, since generally running through whatever ice you have on HQ to get a 1 in 5 chance of finding an agenda is not worth it, especially early on in the game. I would never play less than 3 in Jinteki glacier, going from 3 to 10 is just too good, especially versus econ denial decks.

1 Preemptive Action: I tend to like exactly 1 Preemptive in my glacier decks, for a little recursion. Best use during Worlds was shuffling 3 ice back in after an early Apocalypse. You can use this to shuffle back in agendas, but you have to risk the runner getting them from archives for 1 turn. That said, this is probably the first card I would cut if I needed room for something else.

2 Digital Rights Management: Really good new addition for Jinteki glacier decks, effectively lets you play more Nisei's. The advantage over Fast Track is that you can still score a 5/3 that you got the turn after. This makes your ideal scoring pattern of Nisei-Nisei-5/3 way more consistent. The downside of not being able to play it if the runner successfully ran HQ last turn is usually not that big of a deal for a glacier deck that likes to protect its centrals. So far I have liked having 2 copies.

Upgrades:

3 Marcus Batty: These allow you to try and fire the Excalibur subroutine even if the runner can break it normally. Alternatively, you can use them as extra etr's, either on the remote or on centrals to give even more protection against high impact run events than the ID ability already gives you.

Ice:

3 Anansi, 3 DNA Tracker: These are your hard hitters and ideal targets to force people into with your ID ability. Most breakers suites have trouble breaking one or both of these repeatedly (looking at you bin breakers). Against decks with Hippo I tend to not put these on the outside, even though it gives up a lot of value from your ID, getting your 8 cost ice destroyed is really rough. Against all other decks, try to have at least one of these somewhere on the outside, preferably the one they have the most trouble breaking of course.

3 Excalibur: One of the main reasons to play AgInfusion, if the runner can't deal with it yet you can force them through it using your ID ability. If it is on the remote the runner often has to be able to break it multiple times due to the various etr effects in this deck, which can be a real problem if they rely on Engolo or Pelangi to break it. Sometime rezzing a second Excalibur can be worth it to ensure it fires, but of course you lose the first one.

2 Thimblerig: Ice positioning is very important for this deck and these help you rearrange your ice for the best result. Examples are putting rezzed ice on the outside versus DDOS or putting an unrezzed ice at the bottom of your remote as fodder for your ID ability.

2 Mother Goddess: I chose this as my restricted card, sometimes it helps you rush out an early Nisei which is incredibly useful. Also useful against Apocalypse decks which tend to not allow you to rez your early ice on centrals, meaning this can be unbreakable without an AI for quite some time. If they are not ready for the Apocalypse yet they have to choose between giving you an uncontestable remote or letting you rez more ice on centrals. Later on this is kind of like a worse Bastion, which is actually fine in some situations, like after purging a Turtle. If you draw it too late you can at least use it to fuel your ID ability. Other options for restricted cards I considered are GFI and Obokata, but I feel you really are better of running Mother Godess and SSL Endorsement, since this deck needs a lot of money.

3 Border Control: An early etr subroutine to protect Rashida or Daily Quest and and on demand guaranteed etr later on in the game, what more could you want from a piece of ice?

1 Swordsman: Great against Turtle, generally not so great against most other things. The beauty of AgInfusion is that in matchups were its not good, you can just use it as fuel for your ID. Also considered Macrophage for this slot, which serves a similar purpose.

1 Sadaka: Mostly to kill Net Mercur in the Smoke matchup, or Turning Wheel in any deck that runs it. If there are no good targets, use it for your ID ability.

Finally, I want to thank all the nice people I met (either again or for the first time) over the weekend, making it another great Netrunner experience, and Nisei for organizing a very well run event!