Supermodernism (1st Place @ The Yellow King)

CrimsonWraith 3638

My Corp deck that won the 14-player 2014 Store Championship at The Yellow King in Colorado Springs, CO. I went 3-1 with it on the day. I'll be putting together a tournament report in the near future and link it in the comments.

This is my GRNDL variant of Martin Presley's Weyland Building a Better World Supermodernism deck. I'd been running Supermodernism in Building a Better World with 3 x Anonymous Tip, 3 x Snare!, 2 x SEA Source, and 1 x Aggressive Secretary for quite a while now. In switching over to GRNDL and cutting five influence, I cut 1 x Tip, 1 x SEA Source, and 1 x Aggressive Secretary, and added 3 x Subliminal Messaging, a third copy of Restructure, and a single Power Grid Overload in their place.

Subliminal Messaging is incredible, definitely a 2x-of in the deck. Three copies seems a bit redundant... but then, I went a whole round without seeing a single one, so who knows. Power Grid Overload is a bit too niche, I'll probably be swapping that out for more ice. I went back and forth on 3x Snare and 1x SEA Source vs. 2x Snare and 2x SEA Source all week long. I went with 2 and 2 in playtesting for the past week (I've been practicing w/proxied GRNDL decks since last weekend), and made a last-second decision last night to switch to 3 and 1. I've won games with both cards, using SEA Source even when I couldn't flatline the Runner to blow-up a Crash Space or Professional Contacts or loaded Kati Jones on multiple occasions, while Snare combos perfectly with scored False Leads to stick folks with unexpected tags. In the end, I felt like Snare had the bigger impact on my practice games, so I dropped a SEA Source and added the third Snare. I believe I made the right decision... Snare single-handedly won my game in the final round and nearly salvaged my only loss of the whole tournament (Runner ran Maker's Eye on second click with an R&D Interface out while I had a scored False Lead, hit Snare but snagged the winning agenda on the fourth card.)

Now you're asking why not stick with Building a Better World so I can run 3 x Snare and 2 x SEA Source, right? GRNDL's early game is absolutely terrifying for Runners, and the fast start is absolutely worth the starting bad publicity and loss of 5 influence. This deck's kryptonite at the moment is Blackmail... I believe I only played one Runner who had it in their deck, but it cost me 5 agenda points (of course, I also baited him into using Blackmail a third time on a Snare) in that one game. If Blackmail becomes a prominent inclusion in Runner decks, I think I'll have to go back to Building a Better World. In the meantime, I prefer GRNDL's opening bombardment.

Here's the full tournament report for this Store Championship: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/1146823/store-championship-the-yellow-king-1st-place-t

29 comments
23 Feb 2014 xethebuilder

really nice deck and congrats on the win! could you talk a little more about how subliminal messaging helped? at first glance seems counter-intuitive in a deck with lots of bad pub.

23 Feb 2014 CrimsonWraith

Thanks for the comment. What seems counter-intuitive about Subliminal Messaging with bad publicity? I don't see any correlation between the two, but maybe I'm missing something. =)

With this deck, you want to bait the runner into running early before they get set-up. The early economic potential sets up easy flatlines against careless runners early on in the game. Power Shutdown, SEA Source, and Power Grid Overload can all only be used if the runner makes a run. Grim and Archer punish runners who face-check ice after getting a fracter or decoder out without a killer. If the runner insists on not running, then Subliminal Messaging essentially functions as a PAD Campaign that cannot be trashed.

23 Feb 2014 xethebuilder

Oh, thanks. I see. I'd assumed the runner would want to run as much as possible to use the bad-pub anyways, thus keeping the subliminals both from recurring and from being necessary to provoke runs. Might have to try it out in my flatline decks.

23 Feb 2014 Flux

Thanks for sharing, it is great to see another GRNDL deck out there. Just wondering if you missed Jackson Howard? Also, would you consider adding Elizabeth Mills or taking out one of your 1-point agendas for a Veterans' Program to deal with the bad pub?

23 Feb 2014 CrimsonWraith

Thanks for the questions!

There's a ton of debate about Jackson Howard vs. Anonymous Tips with this archetype. Many people have their own preferences and I think the one that best suits your playstyle is probably the best option. For me personally, I'm looking for pure card draw, and Anonymous Tips is much more efficient at that than Jackson Howard. With the Power Shutdown/Accelerated Diagnostics combo out there, no smart runner is going to let Jackson Howard sit on the table. As primarily a rush deck, I believe Tips is a much better fit for this list.

As for bad publicity... There was one other GRNDL player in the tournament, and I ended up playing against him in the second round. He tried to get rid of all his bad publicity, and was somewhat successful. Against a different opponent he had as much as 7 BP at one point in the tournament, and got rid of it all through a combination of Elizabeth Mills, Restoring Face, and Veteran's Program. The problem is, the whole deck suffers when you spend that many card slots on getting rid of bad publicity. The whole benefit of using cards that give you bad publicity is the fast money (GRNDL, Hostile Takeover, Geothermal Fracking) and opening of scoring windows (Grim). Spending the credits, clicks, and card slots necessary to get rid of that bad publicity seems to me to negate the benefit of whatever you did to gain the bad publicity in the first place. If you're going to go to that much trouble to get rid of bad publicity, why play GRNDL and cards that give you bad publicity in the first place?

That said... yes, the bad publicity is a huge nuisance. As mentioned above, Blackmail crippled my typical rush start, sniping two agendas and five agenda points in the opening turns. In another game, the runner managed to get out Garrote, Gordian Blade, and Corroder against me, and could walk into just about any server he wanted for free. Of course, as frustrating as those instances were... I also went on to win both games without dropping the bad publicity. So... who knows?

If you want to spend a couple of hours reading up on the archetype, I recommend checking out this topic over at BGG: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/1061455/deck-building-a-better-world-supermodernism-v-2

It's the author's deck list for the original Supermodernism deck, from which I derived my Weyland: BABW deck that this list is the GRNDL variant of.

24 Feb 2014 Flux

Thanks so much for those answers! Also, thanks for the link. Weyland is a new world for me.

25 Feb 2014 Kharn the Betrayer

If you're adding ice and bad pub has been a problem, why not toss ireress in? Birds, meet stone...

25 Feb 2014 PeekaySK

why not toss ireress in

Yog says hi. Shame Ireress isn't STR 4 and 1 to rez, would have been a really interesting piece of ice.

26 Feb 2014 Heartthrob

why not toss ireress in

Yog says hi. Shame Ireress isn't STR 4 and 1 to rez, would have been a really interesting piece of ice.

Yup. Just played against a deck with ireress. My Yog laughed all the way to R&D. Missed opportunity there for sure.

26 Feb 2014 emlun

why not toss ireress in

Yog says hi.

On the other hand, it's excellent Inside Job protection and troublesome for runners trying to orchestrate a Test Femme snipe.

26 Feb 2014 PeekaySK

On the other hand, it's excellent Inside Job protection and troublesome for runners trying to orchestrate a Test Femme snipe.

Well, yes. Same can be said about Shadow, though... and he's actually useful.

26 Feb 2014 romanoSoprano

Might have missed something but doesn't Power Shutdown without Jackson leave you vulnerable to some unlucky trashing of agendas?

26 Feb 2014 CrimsonWraith

It certainly can, but not usually. More often than not, I don't actually mill any cards with Power Shutdown; just playing it is enough to get rid of that loaded Datasucker or Faerie that cripples your unrezzed program destruction ice. The most I'll typically mill is 2 cards to drop Corroder, in which I'll occasionally lose one agenda, but normally not enough to affect the game significantly. There's been one instance where I milled 3 cards, in which I did so to kill an unprotected Plascrete. In that game, I won with a Scorched Earth that turn and didn't have to worry about how many agendas I was trashing. =)

28 Feb 2014 V for Viennetta

May I ask: is there a particular reason why no Beanstalk Royaltes are played?

28 Feb 2014 CrimsonWraith

Without Building a Better World's extra credit, I didn't think I'd be gaining all that much and opted for 3 copies of Subliminal Messaging instead. After a good bit more experience with the deck, I do prefer Subliminal Messaging over Beanstalk Royalties, however three copies is maybe a bit redundant. I've dropped the Power Grid Overload and am currently running two copies each of Subliminal Messaging and Beanstalk Royalties.

28 Feb 2014 V for Viennetta

Sounds like a good idea :)

I wanted to try Subliminal Messaging as well, 2 and 2 sounds like a good compromise for testing :)

2 Mar 2014 rediknight

I think if Blackmail becomes a prominent thing, you don't have to switch back to BABW. Just drop the 2 Beanstalks and put in 2 oversight AI's which can be used on an Archer in your remote.

21 Mar 2014 Moriarty

Thanks for this deck. I have been poking around with it and intend on running it at a local store tourney this weekend (in my case, opting for Howard over Tip). It's a mean, mean deck and I love the constant piles of money. Originally it felt very brittle, but the constant threat of a Snare into False Lead into SE is delicious. Every turn felt like I had meaningful choices to make and I enjoy that sort of game.

29 Mar 2014 rnark

I tried it out tonight on OCTGN with a friend. It was fun. Thanks for posting!

28 Apr 2014 CrimsonWraith

Much belated, but I finally added a link to the full tournament report in the description for anyone interested. =)

4 Jul 2014 Exo

Is it really better to go for more Power Grid Overload over Power Shutdown? Everyone runs Plascrete Carapace at least 2 times.

4 Jul 2014 Exo

I mean the contrary...

5 Jul 2014 CrimsonWraith

In regards to Power Grid Overload vs. Power Shutdown... This is a rush deck first, and a flatline deck second. The inclusion of a single Power Grid Overload was a waste of deck space that was never used at the time and will rarely be useful in this deck when played most effectively. Power Shutdown allows you to keep the game in the early game by trashing cheap breakers and utility cards (Faerie, Datasucker, SMC, Clone Chip, Corroder) and thus enabling your cheap ETR ice to remain effective.

5 Jul 2014 Exo

Thanks for the anwser :)

5 Jul 2014 CrimsonWraith

No problem! Let me know if any other questions come up. =)

3 Sep 2014 Zepaw

Just started Netrunner recently and at my LGS' Netrunner night this week after 7 losses in a row I realized I can't deckbuild yet, Weyland is my favorite and after finding and building this deck I'm 1-1 (after my friend made a PERFECT Hail Mary for the win on the second match). Thanks for the great deck! Glad to have something solid to build from.

3 Sep 2014 CrimsonWraith

Glad you're enjoying it! =)

5 Sep 2014 Zepaw

The success continues! Jumped in on my LGS' 8 week tournament. It is too far in for me to win it all but there are weekly prizes. I bought 3 alt art Scorched Earth from them and made good use of them! Despite having a runner (Chaos Theory) that just got thrashed my win streak with Supermodernism brought me to 3rd of 14 for that night!

Even when I made some beginner flubs that could have crippled me this deck brought me back and won. I'm at 6-1 with it overall. I have yet to feel like I need to add/trade anything. Every (rare) time I badly needed money I got an economy card next turn and subliminal messaging is almost always there. In my last game when I could not draw ICE for the life of me. However I had a perfect set up to scorch (SEA, Scorch x2) and the runner knew it. While he was shaking in his boots afraid to run I churned through agendas and scored him out.

My favorite move so far was turn one putting down 2 ETR ice on a central server then an agenda. The runner's reaction was just priceless. They had no possible way to get through it, couldn't even break the first, and it let me score turn two.

15 Oct 2014 Zepaw

Still my favorite deck. 99% chance I'll be taking it to Worlds (1% chance RP). Most losses have been complete flukes, like a match tonight on OCTGN where 8 of my 15 cards were agendas and 4 of Noise's 5 HQ runs hit 2 point agendas. First time I was completely shut out (if you don't the agenda I threw away for a very painful Archer). No deck can account for that much bad/good luck. Of the 40~ matches I've played I've still killed people far more often than I've scored them out.

It's a near perfect deck because I can't even think of anything to change. The only ones on the chopping block are Power Shutdown and Power Grid Overload because I don't use them much but the few times I had to use them they were game changing.