N E U R+O (6-0 and 2nd at Singapore SC)

AKA The Tag Hell Remote

I'd like to preface this by apologizing to the Jnet community for bringing this deck into casual lobby for testing over the past 3 weeks, as well as to all of my opponents on the day. Shoutout to @MelkorsFolly who managed to get himself killed in 2 different ways in both of our games!

Runner deck was a variant of @IonFox's Loup list and went much more embarrassingly 1-4 on the day. (In fairness, 3 of those losses were to eventual winner @Bridgeman's PD. Cyberdex Sandbox is a helluva card.)

Background

Looking over the successful Reality Plus/SYNC decklists posted over the SC period, I made a few observations:

1. Vegan lists aren't really that much of a thing compared to the BOOM! versions, and the Reeducation/Neurospike combination was relatively fringe and mostly dismissed as a meme combo. Then I found this list and got pretty inspired - is there actually a reason not to have 2 kill combos in the same list? Probably not!

2. The difference between SYNC and R+ is largely academic in my opinion. The threshold for Hard-Hitting News-inflicted Tag Hell is of course easier to hit for SYNC, but the credit swing is more noticeable in R+, especially in the early game with Prisec and Ping facechecks. The card draw is also pretty nutty if creds aren't the issue, and generally draws you into more operation econ anyway (which this deck plays a lot of). Having HHN draw 2 feels real sweet, and not having your ID turned off by Citadel Sanctuary or Deuces Wild is just upside.

3. Spending all your influence is pretty overrated.

Concept

Point of note: If you haven't already read the excellent writeups by the authors of the decks in the previous section, I highly encourage you to do so!

6-agenda NBN is a tried and true archetype, but what really sets it back IMO is the inability to force early runs in critical matchups - Shapoc decks, late-game Val, and the odd Nexus 419/Sunny would just sit back, econ up, and crush you on 6 points at their leisure.

Conversely, the Reeducation/Neurospike combination is a pretty cheesy way to flatline people, but it's held back by the fact that you have to incubate the agenda in the remote over multiple turns (barring Seamless Launch shenanigans), and investing too heavily in quad-advancing it is tempo-crippling, and probably also game-losing if it ever gets stolen without immediate Punitive Counterstrike-style retribution. Influence also an issue.

My solution to these issues was click compression - if you stack enough Ping effects on the remote, and slow-roll a Reeducation in it, the runner has 3 options:

1. Run the Tag Hell Remote. Steal Reeducation. Fail to clear all the tags. Get BOOM!-ed.

2. Run the Tag Hell Remote. Spend too much money clearing all the damn tags. Get HHN'ed back into Tag Hell anyway.

3. Sit back and play around HHN. Maybe poke centrals with run events. Setup econ. Get Neurospike-ed.

That's it, that's literally the entire deck, it's that simple. If you ever get 4 tag effects onto the remote and trip/quad advance a Reeducation in it, and the runner doesn't run on exactly their first click, they're just dead.

Of course, there's a whole other game of Netrunner to play in the meantime while that gets set up, so that's what the rest of the deck is there for. Just cards to keep the runner on their toes while you set up the Tag Hell Remote.

Cards

Agendas: Nothing to see here, move along. Bellona is an incredible defensive agenda, and is great for messing up HHN math. 6/44 is a pretty dumb density ratio.

Assets: NGO Front and Rashida Jaheem and Spin Doctor, what a surprise. Drawing cards is really good in this deck. Advancing cards that aren't Reeducation, not so much, hence only 2 NGO. Spending clicks to advance feels real bad when you could be doing anything else to advance your board.

Operations: Nothing here really out of the ordinary. If you've got Neurospike in hand, you only need to triple-A the Reeducation; if you've only got Consulting Visit, you need to quad-A. IAAing confidently enough in the remote is generally taken to be an NGO by most people, and it's not like they're gonna risk going into the Tag Hell Remote just to see for themselves.

Shoutout to Predictive Planogram for being the low-key workhorse of the deck. Both modes are valuable in the early turns, and the kicked version is incredible when the runner is in Tag Hell but isn't actually dead yet.

ICE: Ping is the most important ICE in the deck, and Prisec is good enough to be considered Pings 4-6. These are your main click compression tools in the Tag Hell Remote. IP Block is generally great all round, and doubles as Pings 7-8 in Mayfly/Aumakua matchups.

Funhouse and Thoth are your ghetto Pings 9-10. Not incredible (my kingdom for a Data Raven!), but it's what you've got. Hydra is an alternative here. Finally, Slot Machine is your only non-Ping ICE, but it gets a pass here because it's just nutty on centrals.

Of course, it has to be said: This deck folds to a very interesting subset of tech cards.

Misdirection is the mortal enemy of Tag Hell decks everywhere, but thankfully the only runners on it are mostly on Shapoc and don't have the clicks to spare on the Apoc turn. If this card starts getting played outside Apoc decks, slotting Best Defense may be the answer. Pro Tip: if you suspect Apoc out of your opponent, the Tag Hell server needs to be R&D instead!

Guru Davinder is technically a catch-all, but is really really sad to see multiple Prisecs.

Caldera and On the Lam is technically foolproof, but these aren't the tech cards that most crims want to be playing in this PD/BTL meta we're seeing anyway.

Card Considerations

Sprint for the last inf. Had it in originally but cut it for NGOs, just so I could have garbage to IAA in the remote and bait runs.

Subliminal Messaging is decent drip in the more standoff-ish matchups, and helps dump your hand after overdrawing with Rashida and Spindocs.

Echo Chamber is the card you want if you're interested in pedestrian matters such as scoring out the normal way. Always preferred to just murder them instead.

Hansei Review for more econ.

Surveyor/Mausolus if you like dragging people through remotes multiple times, though the deck eventually went in another direction.

AMAZE Amusements was a consideration but never really got around to testing. Probably pretty good now that I think about it.

Shoutouts:

@Ghost00 for organizing the SC and pulling me out of retirement,
@IonFox my insufferable testing partner (we need to do this more often),
All my opponents on the day!