RP Snare

I piloted this deck to 1st after swiss and 1st place overall, going 7-0 on the corp side in 4 rounds of swiss and 3 rounds of double elimination. Our tournament was very small at 10 players so this obviously isn't an amazing showing, but I'm proud of its play.

The name of the game is Anti-Faust, so I’ll talk about ICE first. Jinteki has a concentration of in-faction Faust hate, and staples in other factions like Spiderweb and Tollbooth are relatively easy to import. The only thing we’re missing is Turing. Otherwise, my ICE has either very high strength or multiple subs and is a little spikier than a traditional RP Glacier from 2015. Assassin, Cortex Lock, and Komainu do work against overzealous Anarchs that might install half a rig and try to use Parasite/AI breakers for the rest. There are a lot of one-ofs here because each piece of ICE is a role-player. Ashigaru and Wraparound punish Faust-only rigs with an enormous card tax, Crick is standard RP for recovering lost Sundews or Para-sucker’d ICE, Lotus Field still is relevant post-MWL, Assassin punishes low Link Anarchs and Noise in particular, Cortex Lock can disrupt early aggression where the runner installs a Mimic and face checks, Komainu is a huge tax for Mimic or Faust, Susanoo taxes Faust and most Killers, and Swordsman can disrupt early AI aggression.

Now that we’ve established a good defense, we can work towards scoring. Braintrust and Nisei are the stars. I think most runners still expect Mental Health Clinic in RP, so playing a tricky unprotected Braintrust can usually jump you up two points for very little effort. If they check it, RP’s click tax often means they aren’t drawing or gaining credits. GFI keeps agenda density down, and allows a 3-agenda victory for RP. The one-of Fetal is another anti-Faust choice, although Philotic is definitely a consideration.

Jackson and Sundew are Glacier standards, allowing you to fix your draw and pump up your credit pool to prepare for the long haul. Snare is another anti-Faust call. After a taxing run, Snare can kick the runner when they’re down and give a solid scoring window. I rarely install Snares, instead keeping them as spikes in HQ and R&D. Like Foodcoats, agendas tend to leave HQ very quickly, so Snare makes those random HQ accesses (or Legworks against a small HQ) particularly deadly and punishing. It’s also very satisfying to score against Gang Sign+HQ Interface with an HQ full of Snares.

Caprice Nisei is the only thing that makes Glacier viable. I’d like to include three, but this deck is a bit of a hybrid. An early Braintrust or Mk II might not need a Nisei standing guard. There are a few flex meta slots, but I like covering the bases rather than focusing on the Glacier victory. Crisium Grid is anti-Apoc and chain Siphons tech, and plays well with Crick on Archives. Especially against Criminal Decoders. CVS is a stop-gap against Medium digs, Para-sucker, and Imp.

Celebrity Gifts, Hedge Fund, and Restructure allow me to build a bank before scoring. I wish there was more room for low-cost economy operations like Sweeps, but Celebrity Gifts is a pretty good consolation prize. Cerebral Static can play havoc with a runner’s game plan, everything from acting as a speed bump against Leela to pulling Noise’s teeth. Interns allows me to recycle trashed ICE, fish Sundews out of Archives, or replay Caprice into the scoring remote.

TOURNAMENT REPORT

Rd 1 - Victory, 7-2

My first round was against a post-MWL PPVP Kate build. She struggled without Clone Chips to recycle SMC. An Assassin on R&D compelled her to retrieve her Killer, then an Ashigaru on the scoring remote allowed me to push out two quick Mk IIs. Kate was pressured into firing off two quick Maker’s Eyes, but was only able to draw a Braintrust. Two Nisei tokens allowed me to comfortably score a GFI after a few turns of digging through the lock.

Rd 2 - Victory, 7-4

In round 2, I met a unique Val build using Personal Workshop, Faust, Wyldcakes, and Memstrips to build a double or triple Medium rig buttressed by three Datasuckers and instant-speed Parasites off of the workshop. My ICE-light build suffers under this kind of assault, but some judicious rezzing and the threat of Snare kept her runs low-profit. Multiple Mediums threatened R&D, but low Agenda density in HQ and some other good luck (combined with a good lot of purging) allowed me to creep ahead. He only allowed me my Braintrusts (I think intending only to Blackmail advanced cards in remotes), but I was able to creep towards victory and ultimately score a GFI after two successful Caprice Psi games.

Rd 3 - Victory, 7-4

In round 3, I battled a Logos Leela with full Gang Sign+HQ Interface combo. Normally, I wouldn’t mind so much, but I had a spate of bad luck. I mulliganed from a no ICE hand into a no ICE hand, drew into a Spiderweb and Caprice, which I used to cover an HQ containing 4 points. Leela ripped 4 points and a number of trashables off of R&D turn 1, and then more trashables turn 2 when I continued to brick on ICE. I was able to stabilize with Jackson while using Operation economy to build a big bank. A Braintrust score on click 1 after a install+double advance on the previous turn forced Leela to access 2 cards of a 3 card HQ containing 2 Snares. He hit one, which allowed me to trash a Kati with the tag. I then reinstalled the R&D ICE he bounced on the third click. After that, Leela had a hard time putting a rig together and I was able to score out and avoid too much trouble from her ability.

Rd 4 - Victory, 7-2

In round 4, I came up against Noise. An early flood ended up a blessing in disguise as I had exactly enough points to win out. Noise had a fast start and a good number of mills, but no luck on Agendas. He couldn’t find Faust despite an early Wyldcakes and I was able to push out a Mk II, a Braintrust, and a GFI in pretty quick succession. Without Faust, he couldn’t contest protected Sundews, and unlucky mills just buried him deeper.

My runner wasn’t as skilled a run, dropping a game to Convenience Shop and Biotech. 12 Prestige and good tiebreakers allowed me to snatch first after Swiss, though. The cut was standard single-side double elimination rounds.

Rd 5 - Victory, 7-2

My second game against the same Val. This one went more easily my way than the first. She couldn’t profitably run R&D early game because her Mediums eluded her. I slowed the game down and she got a wild hair to run into a lightly protected HQ and found a Snare. Fatigue was showing and he didn’t shake the tag. I trashed his last Same Old Things, removing the Blackmail threat, and a Wyldside on my turn. Without the constant infusion of cards and the added cost of clicking to draw, her moves were much more predictable. A Caprice over R&D thwarted later game Medium digs (thank Psi!) and he could never get traction enough to threaten my scoring remote.

Rd 6 - Victory, 7-0

I chose to run against my Round 4 opponent’s Corp, not liking my chances against Noise a second time. He tried too hard to go for the kill and my Runner was able to scoop some agendas while ahead on money or with Plascrete and IHW.

Rd 7 - Victory, 7-6

My third game against Val was a barnburner! I couldn’t get a scoring remote for the life of me and he had my number on Psi, with me losing 4 of 7 games on the remote and 1 of 1 on R&D. I ended up feeding him 6 points, scoring only a Mk II in the meantime. He could have contested it but chose not to because it would have used his whole turn and he’d only get 1 crack at it through Caprice. This allowed me to bank a Mk II token, but didn’t mean much as he got me on Psi twice when I tried to push out a GFI to go to five points. I was able to bluff a Braintrust as a third Caprice (two were trashed into Archives) in the remote and claw my way to 4. Interns played a large role, allowing me to recycle Caprice twice on the remote. A dearth of Blackmails meant he had to switch to a more traditional rig and I built a taxing R&D which allowed me to dig for the last two agendas I needed. I was able to squeak up to 6 points before slapping the winning Agenda in the remote with a Caprice. Without Blackmails, he ran a taxing remote (which ultimately meant little) and got stopped by Caprice. A Psi game that determined the winner broke in my favor and I pulled it out.

I’m very happy with my performance against Faust. The Val player after our third game said he hated my ICE suite. Mission accomplished!