hAARPsichord (2nd at Lockdown 13)

DeeR 1934

Indeed, as today's youth have now gravitated to Video Games and Virtual Reality Devices, hAARPsichord is joining the retirement home for corporations. As Odol gave Nisei Division a fond farewell [ https://netrunnerdb.com/en/decklist/64591/a-farewell-to-psi-1st-lockdown-13-] and Bookkeeper gave Data Raven a last hurrah [ https://netrunnerdb.com/en/decklist/64620/lucky-acme-3rd-at-lockdown-13-] , this deck is an attempt to say goodbye to Haarpsichord.

The inspiration for this deck was internet_potato's first principles Haarp (http://www.netrunnerdb.com/en/decklist/54608/first-principles-haarp), which was primarily focused on winning favorable agenda for agenda trades. This is an EXCELLENT description of the motif, and I highly encourage future Haarp players in Eternal to read it. Unlike that deck, instead of focusing on discouraging central runs with taxing ICE; this deck tries to encourage set up with traps. Spending a turn clearing two tags from a News Team or drawing up before charging at what may be a Junebug is HUGE for Haarp, as it is a turn they don't get an agenda from you. Junebug also has nice synergy with Hangeki, as you can basically force a -1 point agenda any time you have a 3+ Junebug on the table and the runner has trashed a card (and there are enough must-trash-assets that you shouldn't worry about that.

A few notes on individual choices:

AR-Enhanced Security: For a while, I tried not running ARES in exchange for Explode-a-Palooza or Bellona, but I think the 3 of is actually quite useful here. Once an ARES is scored, any run to trash an asset effectively costs 2 clicks, which is one more click where the runner isn't poking at other servers. Moreover, this turns the probability of a random access being a 1 pointer into 2/3 (which as we all know from Odol's psi game skills, always happens).

Hangeki/Stock Buy-Back: I like the influence spread here. One Stock Buy Back is useful because it means you typically never have to worry about credits the rest of the game (DoF was banned in this Lockdown). I liked Hangeki more on the whole though, as a 5th -1 Agenda point was more helpful to the deck's mission than more credits.

EoI/SEA Source: For a while, I ran 1 SEA source and 2 EoI's. I dropped the SEA source because I never made enough money to fire it -- this was a mistake, as some players just stop worrying about money when running against Haarp, and SEA source requires it to at least be in their minds. If I were to do it over, I would remove an EoI and add an SEA. 2 is enough to scare runners.

In the tournament, the deck lost to Longi's Khusyuk Az (I did feel really smart rezzing a franchise city just before a successful Khusyuk run, only to learn that Az only hit operations and QPMs while tagged), and Odol's Sunny (the only game all tournament I put an asset behind ICE). It beat HumbleJuggernaut's Jesminder (it's on stream, but it's a really long and grindy game so it might not be worth it :P), Bookkeeper's Alice (keeping a News Team in HQ effectively turns off her ability, which is fun), and mcg's Ken (I fired a Sweeps Week for 0 credits at one point in that one, got really lucky to win that game). Thanks to my opponents and to Vesper for organizing another stellar tournament. My most intense netrunner games always happen to be on Vesper's streams.

2 comments
30 Mar 2021 Longi

Hey, really nice deck. We had also pretty good and tight games;)

30 Mar 2021 DeeR

Totally. Khusyuk Az was exactly the right call for this meta; I tried doing a similar deck for OKORINA (with the Class Act, Drug Dealer, Aesop engine), it is super tough!