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Dydra 2799

Is this really, a thing?

I came up with this idea, bouncing between Ber's Jinteki Biotech: Life Imagined and SlySquid's recent update. When I saw the Snowflake in it, it just clicked with me.

Here are the main points:

  • The deck generally relies on scoring 0 advances, while TFP-ing in windows of opportunity that you have ( either they have no money, or no cards).

  • Money is generated primly on the ID's ability, Hedge and Gila. Try to hit and score that early Gila.

  • Playstyle. Now here is where it gets sweet. Anyone who has piloted a deck with Cerebral Cast in it knows that you need both tag-punishment ( preferably both) and net-damage to flatline the runner like a boss. As much as I'd love to put 3 Neural EMPs in it, it risks clogging too much things in your hand. However, Valley Grid works another way than direct net damage. As most people who have already played a bit with Valley Grid, they know that damage mid-run, isn't exactly your best friend. Hence why no House of Knives here.

The sweetest trick , however, is forcing them in bad decisions via the Cerebral Cast. If they decide to take the tag, they either risk getting Scorched, or Closed Accounts. If they take the Brain Damage, welcome to the Valley Grid my friends! 1-2 brain from Cebrel Casts and suddenly that 2-3 ICE remote( or central) is close to deadly. Let alone if you have Edge of the World lying around.

Ouch, ouch, ouch!

6 comments
4 May 2015 badbones777

Really like this - I'm playing Genomics currently but I did dabble with Nisei Division with mixed results but I think this is a really good build and I might have to have go of it.

5 May 2015 LeePo

I test a Jinteki deck with Cerebral Cast and Cortex Lock, but instead of Scorched Earth, I play 3 Bad Times with the 2 Closed Account.

CC plus double BT mean your Cortex are dangerous again, Plascrete sucks, BT is zero influence, and this is in fact deadliest than 2 scorched (shutdown by one Plastcrete...) : hear the runner crying after his rig reduction to 0 or 1 MU is priceless, and it's time for easy scoring windows !

5 May 2015 Dydra

@LeePo , wow, that's some very good feedback, thanks! It does make a lot of sense and I was thinking about the same interaction with Bad Times and Cortex Lock and it is great.

Have to think about replacing the 2 Scorches Directly or something else ... and ofc what to do with the 8 freed up influence.

5 May 2015 LeePo

In fact, in my deck, I don't rely on the Valley/Brain dammage synergy (even if Valley Grid rocks), I use Brain'n'Net to slow down the runner, with 3 Clone Retirement and 3 House of Knives and 2 Tori Hanzo for additionnal Brain pressure with HoK. With six 1 point agendas, I splash my influence in 3 Archer, which synergize well with Cortex.

But if you play Bad Times, I think you need 3 of them, plus the 2 Closed accounts for early pressure.

For your deck, perhaps you need one or Two Cerebral Overwriter, and maybe one Janus (I know, it cost an arm...), but I think Power shutdown for early punishment could be very good. Reclamation Order could be very useful too.

Here my deck : netrunnerdb.com

6 May 2015 SlySquid

Thanks for the shout out Mr. @Dydra!

I love the build, it's tight and very much reminds me of what I loved an out Nisei Division: The Next Generation, soooo many bad choices...

But leveraging Casts and Valley grid is just great! I don't think I would have ever arrived at the same combo but it's so perfect...

Me thinking out loud is you should have Celebrity Gift, my main reason is it shows the runner all the tag hate you back and makes their chioce very clear they don't want tags which only helps lock down your Vally server, that and the econ couldn't help lol

One fringe deck to watch out for also with a deck like this would be the new beach party Kaplin decks, a deck with 15-20 hand size laughs all your forms of damage of (including lowering the hand) so you really need to be able to switch up and just score out... Any thoughts on those decks? Do you feel it's going to be a thing?

7 May 2015 Dydra

@LeePo The Cerebral Overwriter is good addition, but deck slots ... on the place of what? Psychic Field is a Psi, which is important for this ID. Snare! provides additional tagging and Edge of World is just too good for 0 advance decks, that rely on brain damage. Have to remove ICE or smt.

@SlySquid That's some mind games there with the Celebrity Gift . Personally I always advice to never play that card in a trap deck, but this isn't really a trap and whatever they take, will still hit them hard, so this might just do the work :)

About the new decks. I've been playing with some Ekomind and Beach Party/ Origami decks .... Only thing I can say is - they work. Not tier 1 perhaps, but safely tier 2. Only "problem" I found with them, is that - yeah ... you draw your entire deck ... and so what? Yeah you got more/all options, but so what? You still need money and breakers. Until you get a card which gives you money, based on your handsize ( as a runner), I think we are pretty safe from those decks becoming dominant.

Maybe in a Hayley Kaplan: Universal Scholar deck works better, because you can fast-install and complete your rig. I've been going for Quetzal: Free Spirit more.

Only thing that I know for sure is that if those become meta relevant Sweeps Week will be in all of my decks. If they have all of their cards and all of their options, what do I care if they Vamp/Account Siphon me or w/e ... when I can get back to 10+ credits my next turn :)

That's my take on those max hand size decks, at least until more cards come out.