The Oscars

Card draw simulator
Odds: 0% – 0% – 0% more
Repartition by Cost
Repartition by Strength
Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
Night at the Oscars! (based on the orig. The Oscars)
Lonely Janus
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zbauermeister 484

This deck is not like other decks. I'm sure you've seen corp decks before that boast about the necessity that you must possess a particularly high degree of bravery in order to properly pilot them. You've seen decks that require a knowledge of "yomi" and "mind games" to be their truly terrifying selves. This is not one of those decks. This deck requires something different: a little thing called acting. You heard me right.

This deck is played in three parts, or acts.

Act one - The Pledge: During this part of the game you mostly play things by the book. You mushin some cards, you install some ICE. The runner should not notice anything strange is going on except for maybe seeing a Power Shutdown or a copy of Aggressive Negotiation. They'll probably chuckle to themselves knowingly or chide you for not spending your influence on more worthwhile resources. Sometime during this act you want to score an agenda and use Aggressive negotiation to search for The Board (or Power shutdown if you are missing it). Aggressive negotiation is key here because you don't have to show the card you search for. Once you have a reasonable number of credits (between 4 and 9 is the correct number I think), The Board, and Power shutdown in your hand, and maybe a jackson on the table, it's time to move on to the next act.

Act two - The Turn: This act is called The Turn because it is only one turn long. It goes like this. Click 1: Install The Board, maybe behind some ICE, maybe not. The key here is to do it confidently, and believe with all of your heart that you are not installing The Board, but are in fact installing a Jackson Howard. This is crucial. Click 2: Power Shutdown your entire deck. Do it confidently, brazenly even. Act like there is no way that this could ever be a bad idea, because you are about to shuffle some cards back in with that jackson you just installed, and then you are going to win the game. During the paid ability window between clicks 2 and 3, wait for 15 seconds. Actually count to 15 in your head, and look a little confused for the first half, and worried for the second. After 15 seconds, ask your opponent to confirm how many credits they have. After they answer, say "fuck". Click 3: Say "dammit, I fucked it up" then take a credit.

Act three - The Prestige: You're not out of the woods yet! This is probably the hardest part, and your hands are shaking. It's the runner's turn now and they are about to give you some notes on your acting ability. Do your best to look dejected while they try to figure out what you were trying to do. The key here is that there is probably no possible combination of cards that you could have shuffled into your deck with jackson that would have won you the game, but you need them to believe that you had something in mind, and that it would have worked if you had only been a little better at math. There are two possible outcomes here, one easier than the other. If the runner takes the short route and says "I'll run archives", you just have to sigh and say "access?", and after they confirm, you rez The Board and watch the fireworks. If however, they say "I take four credits, go ahead" use that jackson you (hopefully) have on the table to shuffle some jacksons and whatever else back in. Basically pretend that you are going to draw the game out as much as possible and try to goad them into making the run. If the runner doesn't die, you weren't convincing enough (or they found this decklist before you did).

Have fun playing the only deck in the history of customizable card games to require that you convince your opponent that you could have done the impossible if you had only thought about it a bit more carefully!

Note: yes, this is the same deck from the 17th episode of SanSan South. That story is the account of my one and only victim.

23 comments
24 Apr 2015 umchoyka

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

24 Apr 2015 KoriSamui

I got the pleasure to witness this in action. It's pretty hilarious.

24 Apr 2015 TrungusWungus

This has got to be the best bluff.

24 Apr 2015 Oziride

ahahah, beautiful!

24 Apr 2015 thopol

This on the last San-San South podcast? The account of it that they were reading was pretty well written too.

Anyway, epic epic deck.

24 Apr 2015 Dydra

Hey, I so totally didn't introduce the concept of 1-pointers with The Board in PE few weeks ago and got "booed" for it :) Kudos for thinking of Aggressive Negotiation rather than Executive Boot Camp so you don't give up what you are playing :)

Nice write up too!

24 Apr 2015 king_mob

Deck list of the week. Utterly hilarious.

24 Apr 2015 Heartthrob

Same deck from that San San South thread on BGG? Gave me a good laugh it did.

24 Apr 2015 diufghadsfiuahs

Man this gave me a good laugh. You really do deserve an Oscar if you pull this off. I sincerely hope no one in my Meta reads this just to see if I can pull it off once before I relocate and live in infamy forever.

25 Apr 2015 spiralshadow

This is so goddamn stupid. I'm cackling like a loon. +1

25 Apr 2015 Shimmer

What point of acting for runner,if u mill all ur cards and can't win by score agendas? It's looks so strange

26 Apr 2015 scd

Amazing.

28 Apr 2015 KefkaPalazzo

Wait, what?

28 Apr 2015 Catsodomy

Shimmer, this will force a draw. This is assuming that in a tourney you play by strength of schedule. In casual play? shrug Im not sure if this is retarded or infinitely brilliant.

28 Apr 2015 Catsodomy

I retract my previous statement, Im a bit drunk. It will kill them with net damage. Net Damage with a maximum of 3 agenda points. Even with Plascrete Carapace and I've Had Worse it will utterly waste them.

28 Apr 2015 scd

Considering Plascrete Carapace won't protect against net damage anyway, yes, it definitely will waste them.

28 Apr 2015 netdeckdane

Hmm, except that what you're mimicking is the accelerated diagnostic kill combo. In Jinteki this costs 8 (2 Scorches) + 1 (Accelerated Diagnostics) +2 (Power Shutdown) + 1 (Jackson Howard) + 2 (Sea Source) = 14 influence. That's not counting duplicates of any cards except the mandatory 2 Scorches. So after you play that aggressive negotiation, if they're paying attention they will realize something fishy is up. =)

29 Apr 2015 jaredrules

You're not necessarily mimicking the Scorch kill. You're up to "something" that the runner can't figure out.

29 Apr 2015 chaosjuggler

i mean, there is an interns a ronin + shipment from sansan x2 kill right if they are on 2 or fewer cards and you have a click left? i don't know much about it but i don't quite think it's right to say theres no way you can kill them with 'the combo' without scorches

29 Apr 2015 netdeckdane

You guys are right, there are probably a few other offshoot accelerated diagnostic kill combos. Maybe this is a better explanation for my skepticism:

All of this is wrapped up in a PE deck. When you're playing a PE deck, unless you are completely new, you are already on guard for hidden traps. So when the corp dumps R&D, I'm already thinking "what hell awaits me in archives." It would have to be a shakespearean-level acting job to override the runner's caution, and keep them from checking your remotes before committing to archives. Because there is not much pressure at all on the runner to run archives that turn.

If this trap was someone feasible in non-Jinteki, I think it might have more success.

8 May 2015 J0n3z

After looking through this deck I realized something that makes this deck even more viable. You don't need to shove your entire deck into archives, just enough net damage to kills (somewhere around 5-7pts max). Just keep installing shocks and let the runner trash them. then draw a bunch of cards, make sure you have the board installed and protected, and dump the necessary amount of 1 pt agendas into the archives. I also like the idea of including Shi.Kyu! as it is an agenda worth -1 (-2 with the board) and, although not counting towards the agenda trigger for Identity, it DOES count for Philotic.

2 Jun 2015 Dread Sovereign

Isn't this basically how you play Corp anyway?

Tricking the runner into making horrendously bad decisions.

3 Oct 2015 Dr Bees

Tried putting in An Offer You Can't Refuse and it worked nicely as a potential backup plan. I'm pretty sure it was released since this deck was published.

Once you've got enough net damage in archives to flatline them, you can go the whole acting route and try and bait them into running psychologically. If in a couple of turns' time it's obvious they aren't going to try it, a couple of Offers creates a win-win situation for you.

I took out a couple of the ice to make room for two of these, haven't played many games at all with the deck though so don't know whether that will affect the game significantly.

Interestingly, I ended up with enough net damage in archives to kill them purely by overdrawing and trashing every turn with jackson. The board was in place, but I didn't draw power shutdown, and didn't even need it in the end.