I'm really excited to share this deck which I think is a new way of playing Esâ and has been a lot of fun to pilot. It provides a lot of tricky play pattern choices for the runner, match-up dependent strategy choices, and if you are lucky you get to play 3 deep dives in a single turn! The deck name is a slight reference to that brief period of time when Out of The Ashes and Deep Dive led to similar end of game combos.

Deck Strategy

The main idea behind this deck is to aggressively burn through your entire deck as quickly as possible and then finish the game by playing 2 (or 3) Deep Dives in a single turn. I'll try to outline the way to pull this off effectively, how to get to that stage of the game, and my thoughts for the card choices I made here.

The Combo Turn

Let's start at the end, which is the a key feature of the deck. The simplest way to play two deep dives and score three agendas in one turn is to play Running Hot which gives us the two extra clicks we need. Playing Running Hot often has the side effect of trashing a deep dive from hand though, and that is where Katorga Breakout shines, allowing us to recover a deep dive during the three required runs on centrals. For this reason you want to play Running hot before completing those three runs.

Another important optimization is to use Buffer Drive on the combo turn. If a Deep Dive is in the heap, you can remove Buffer Drive from the game to place it on top of the stack so that when you play Running Hot the draw you get from Esâ will add it to your hand. This means that to combo you really only need to be holding a Running Hot and either Deep Dive and Katorga or just two Katorga so long as the remaining Deep Dives are in the heap.

We also have other ways to make the combo easier and/or to get a third deep dive. Both Basilar Synthgland and Hannah give us an additional click so you don't even need Running Hot. Or you can end up with four extra clicks which allows us to play both deep dives, then play Katorga to recover one and play it again if we haven't won yet.

If you can get some version of this combo off you usually win. So the challenge becomes getting to this game state as quickly as possible while still putting pressure on the Corp to slow them down.

Early and Mid Game

To get to the combo we need to burn through our deck as fast as possible so that we actually see all our combo pieces (even if some end up in the heap). We also need to install our breakers and have enough money to run all three centrals. We do this using The Price , Moshing , Zer0 , and Lago . Ideally we are trashing Strike Fund and Steelskin Scarring to give us even more gas. We also install Marrow, Ghosttongue, and Synthglands which provide lots of value, draw us a card, and put a little pressure on the corp with sabotage.

Because of all this trashing Buffer Drive can be very helpful for making sure we don't trash too many of our combo pieces or breakers. It also allows us to keep adding Strikes and Steelskins back into the deck. This works well with Labor Rights which can trash Strikes and Steelskins itself but also shuffles those cards away from the bottom of the deck and can add back in whatever you need from the heap if something critical is trashed.

Money is a bit tight in the early to mid game. We hopefully set up Fermenters early so they can pay us 8 or 10 credits right before the combo turn. Mostly we are relying on Strike funds, Zer0, and Raindrops to give us a little money.

Lastly, we want to pressure the corps remote using Bankhar (ideally combined with Raindrops). Getting breakers down early also pressure the corp and can make them nervous about rushing out (which is what they need to do to win). And if you can find an agenda in the early game it makes the late go much easier! Finding the right balance between pressuring the corp and setting up your own board state can be very tricky.

A note on sabotage

Most games the only core damage before the combo turn you want to take is from Marrow, Ghosttongue, and Synthglands, and the Synthglands is optional. You do want to make sure you are taking core damage on distinct turns so you get the card draw and sabotage though, so be careful about when you play The Price since it might only show you one of these three cards.

Match-ups

Now that we know how the deck wants to play let's talk about how games actually occur. In practice you will need to make tough calls about when you run the remote. You will also often have to identify when the corp is about to win so that you can combo as best you can just before that. Below are some of my thoughts but I'm not really the best player so you should explore to find your own lines. After all that is what makes Netrunner so fun!

One of the hardest match-ups is against Asa or PD which can score out before we are set up to combo and make contesting the remote very difficult very quickly. Often you will need to try to combo out much before you draw through your entire deck so you have to be open minded and nontraditional lines. For example you might only see one deep dive but perhaps you can play it twice using Katorga, or maybe you have not seen Running hot but you don't need it with Synthglands, or maybe you just play a regular Deep Dive (although you usually want at least one extra click so you can steal Ikawah).

Against decks that are not winning by turn 8 it is more likely to draw into the combo. Try not to slow yourself down by getting lots of tags or losing lots of tempo. If they can't win before you combo you will often win. For example, against tempo decks like Sparrow Brawler maybe just sit back since a lot of their tempo comes from you getting pinged or stealing oracles and it's hard for them to truly rush out.

Against sports, use Marrow to punish them for scoring small agendas and try not to score their 1 pointers for them. If they are going the core damage route, I find that embracing the core damage usually works. Maybe wait as long as possible to take core and run HQ a little to find any ontological you can, but take the nightmare archives as core damage and don't worry about Djupstad Grid firing. Once you are at two core just go all in and race them.

Against flatline decks don't play Synthglands so that with Marrow you are always sitting on a hand of 6 or 7 cards, hopefully with Steelskin in hand. Usually these decks don't really have a scoring plan and will fold to a turn of 3 deep dives. In general against asset spammy decks you can't really trash much. But those decks also don't usually protect centrals a lot and you have a decent chance to combo out before they can do whatever they are trying to do.

More details on specific cards

There is definitely some flexibility in the slots, especially the exact number of each card. I'm really curious what ideas people have for tuning the deck or changing it! I would love to have another Zer0 or Lago to make sure I see them earlier, and perhaps we could cut a Katorga or Labor Rights to make room. I do caution against cutting too many installable pieces though because then The Price starts to miss.

Buffer Drive: I actually believe this card is good in this deck. I might be wrong, perhaps it is just faster and reliable enough to just play your deck out and labor rights what you need back. But the ability to cycle strike funds, keep combo pieces, and being able to summon a deep dive on the combo turn seem like huge upsides. Lastly, in testing without Buffer drive the deck can run out of steam against slower decks before it has enough resources and then you find yourself just clicking for credits.

Strike Fund and Steelskin: Speaking of Strike Funds and Steelskin Scarring, you almost never want to play these since they will end up being trashed from your hand naturally and once you play them you can't cycle them with Buffer. The exception is at the end of the game when you are just trying to money up.

Labor Rights: Every time I play a labor rights I find myself thinking real hard. Often it's correct to play them early if you have three cards you want to get back like strike funds or breakers or combo pieces. If you get to an empty deck it is also really nice to play them to recur whatever you need. I honestly still struggle with the best lines of play with this card so maybe I'm just saying if you feel that way too you are not alone.

Breakers: I chose the breakers I did so that we could have reasonably efficient ways to break any ice on the combo turn and also pressure early. As a bonus we often install them with The Price so the cost is 0 or 1. I did not choose Begemot or Buzzsaw since they might not be able to break high strength ice on centrals. I could see Botulus or Hush being a decent addition but did not want to sacrafice any slots for them.

Basilar Synthglands: Yes, you take two core damage for only one sabotage trigger but that's fine. You still get a trigger and the bonus click is a lot of gas in setup and helps with the combo turn. With Marrow we can afford the loss of hand size so this card feels very strong in the list.

Hannah "Wheels" Pilintra: Honestly, Hannah could go. Rarely do you need the extra click on the combo turn. But, she is good tech against assets spams decks that you want to be checking servers on and also don't be afraid to pop her to remove a tag and gain some tempo.

Final Thoughts

The last thing I want to say is that this deck is really fun to pilot! You have to think about what the corp is doing, what is in your heap, what order to play your cards, what cards to recur, and there are tons of unique lines that show up when you have cards like Labor Rights and Katorga. I'm sure it can be improved upon so please share your thoughts if you have them!

Last, last, thanks to Pouchsurfer for helping me build and test the deck!