This is Just a Modern RP Deck v6 (4th, BABW Leeds)

Chappers 508

The Corp counterpart to Money for Running and Clicks for Free v3, this took me to 3rd place in Swiss and 4th after double elim at the 2015 Leeds BABW* qualifier in the garden city of Leeds.

There's not a lot to be said about this - as the name suggests, it's just another modern RP deck and plays like most RP decks. If you do decide to give it a try, though, I'd flag the following:

(1) Marcus Batty is brutal. He's in this deck for three reasons:

  • He can trigger a "trash a program" subroutine on Ichi during approach to trash the Runner's killer, potentially allowing you to wipe out the Runner's entire rig in one swoop. My record is a Torch, a Garrotte and a Lady.

  • If the Runner facechecks a Cortex Lock he can effectively force the Runner to encounter it twice, often leading to an early (and unexpected) kill against weaker opponents.

  • At a push he's a backup Caprice, although a better target subroutine is that on Susanoo-no-mikoto, being a de facto end the run which also forces the Runner to break Crick.

(2) As always with most RP decks you're going to struggle if you're poor. There's a fair bit of operation econ but you will really miss the asset econ if the corp is good about trashing it.

(3) It's a constant source of amazement to me that so many Runners don't expect Snatch and Grab. Particularly great when the Runner had very few credits to hand but lots built up on Kati ...

(4) Genetic Resequencing will win you games: nobody expects you to be able to score an agenda out of RP without signalling the install by advancing it first, so Genetic Resequencing allows you to sneak out a point and add an extra Nisei counter for good measure.

A fun deck. I would say that it felt weaker than my runner deck on the day but I think that runners are generally stronger in the current meta and so wouldn't hold that against it.

And which song are we referencing today? - of course it's the excellent "This is Just a Modern Rock Song" by Belle & Sebastian

(*Bring Another Brit to Worlds, the UK arm of the ANRPC.)

6 comments
2 Aug 2015 Isvan

How did you find Markus? I've played with him a few times but he feels so incredibly awkward against Lady at the moment that I'd be tempted to change him out for something else. I guess he is reasonable since the runner usually wants to break him if he's on the outside of a central, but is that big enough to be worth the influence over Himitsu-Bako? I'd be tempted to try out Quicksand, too.

Did Lotus Field do much work? I've always found it to be a little subpar but I guess ZU.13 is still surprisingly popular for some reason so that matchup works pretty well.

2 Aug 2015 Chappers

Earlier versions of the deck ran 3x Eli rather than 3x Markus, but after UK Nationals I switched to Markus and I haven't regretted the choice. The key problem I had with Eli was:

  • (1) You need end-the-run ice on HQ and R&D; BUT
  • (2) You don't want the runner to just be able to bounce off HQ or R&D so you need end-the-run ice with some teeth; BUT
  • (3) You also need that end-the-run with teeth to be cheap enough to use in the early game.

Markus fits that really well - 4 is just about affordable for RP early game and it's an end-the-run that the Runner can't just bounce off, and even with Lady you're forcing the Runner to waste a Lady token that they wouldn't otherwise have spent. Admittedly, however, this was also partly a meta call at Leeds BABW - Pre-Paid Kate is pretty much non-existent in the Yorkshire meta (because it's boring) so I figured it was unlikely I'd see much of Lady, and against Corroder Markus is just 1 credit less taxing than Eli.

I've never really seen the point of Himitsu-Bako - you're rarely dirt-poor as RP, you have other early-game options like Enigma to keep the runner out at low-cost, and Himitsu-Bako is useless in the late game whereas Markus is still taxing once the Runner has Corroder out (3 creds isn't nothing, whereas 1 could well be nothing if the runner has recurring creds or is Valencia).

All that said, I'm strongly considering Quicksand over R&D, as ice that doesn't directly tax the runner (so encouraging the Runner to run it) but then turns into something very taxing in the late game.

The next version of this deck will probably replace the 2x Enigma with 2x Quicksand, and I'm also questioning Lotus Field. This deck only lost badly once on the day, and that was against the player who finished 1st in Swiss/2nd after double elim, who was running Whizzard with Yog.0 and Net-Ready Eyes. This basically invalidated 4 of my 8 code gates which made it incredibly hard to keep the Runner out. All that said, it isn't yet clear whether Net-Ready Eyes will become a thing in my local meta and I haven't yet figured out what should replace the Lotus Fields, if anything!

3 Aug 2015 Isvan

One thing I would be tempted to try out is Inazuma- it costs a ton of credits to break unless they're using CyCy, and it also plays well with Ichi and Markus since it stops the runner from clicking through them.

3 Aug 2015 Chappers

Funnily enough I was playing against a Tennin Institute: The Secrets Within deck this evening which played Inazuma and was wondering whether it would work in this list.

I'm usually quite reluctant to include positional ice. My reasoning is that although the best-case scenario for positional ice is great, the worst-case scenario is that they're completely dead cards because you can't get them out in the right place. Given that, I'd rather include something with a weaker best-case outcome but a stronger worst-case outcome.

Considering the way this deck is set up, Inazuma would need to be on a central server and in front of something else - ideally something that's nasty, so either Ichi 1.0 or Tollbooth, but possibly Markus 1.0 or Crick (i.e. on Archives). That means I'd need to see one of 3 cards and then put it in front of that card to make it useable. It could also do a reasonable job in front of Susanoo-No-Mikoto on the scoring remote. That's definitely playable but it suggests that in a reasonable number of games it would be a dead card - and given that I'd be reluctant to include it. Something to think about though.

4 Aug 2015 saltytacopanda

I played Chronos instead of Gene Resequencing at the Reading BABW, did you find much chance to score Gene Resequencing after scoring a Nisei?

5 Aug 2015 Chappers

I didn't at BABW - in fact, it was stolen by the Runner in pretty much every game! In previous tournaments and games I have found it useful, though - an extra Nisei MK II token every few games is worth a great deal and I found it more useful than an extra NAPD Contract.

How did you find Chronos Project? I suppose the advantage is that you get a benefit no matter when you score it and so don't need a Nisei MK II to be already scored, but that said Chronos Project is still most effective when scored late (i.e. when you'd also be able to score a Genetic Resequencing.

I'm definitely now considering putting Chronos Project in.