King Arthur's Feast (SHL 3 winner)

Matuszczak 2273

Very solid Palana build that carried me through Stimhack League finals (1st place, 3-0) and Warsaw Regionals (2nd place, 5-1) this week.

The grail ICE suite allows me to have 10 good pieces of ICE instead of the usual 5 with bioroid suites. Additionally almost every piece of ICE in the deck does not allow the runner to bounce without pain. The high ICE count is there to make up for Swordsmans being weak in non-Faust matchups and to make it easier to keep 2 grails in hand. Ashigaru is a remote ICE 9 times out of 10. Paired with a cheaper piece of ICE and 1-2 defensive upgrades, it's usually enough to keep your agendas safe.

Notable omissions include Pup (it's cheap and really annoying for runners, but just doesn't do enough to keep servers safe), Lotus Field (too expensive for a 2 card Faust tax). The most controversial one if probably TFP. It's undoubtedly the 2nd best 3-pointer in the game, but I see no reason to play it if I can have 2 GFIs. Even if I win the PSI game, the problem does not disappear and the runner will keep hunting the agenda on centrals.

Some interesting possible includes that narrowly did not make the list are Snare!, Clones are not People (@apo successfully runs both in his Palana) and Mumbad City Grid (won a SC with a version that had -1 Komainu, -1 Swordsman, +2 MCG).

Overall a fun deck to play and one of the only ones that can challenge the very top runners these days.

14 comments
15 May 2016 Bandura

Congratulations on your win! Did you end up having to score 4 agendas much? To increase the odds of not having this issue, would you recommend Clones or running a third GFI over Fetal?

15 May 2016 Matuszczak

@BanduraThanks! I do end up having to score 4 agendas quite often (I'd estimate once every 3-4 games I win with this deck). Both options you mentioned are good. I'd be leaning towards Clones as some damage to punish running through Komainu is really nice and sometimes wins games.

15 May 2016 Gaxeco

I would change a Mother Goddess for a Swordsman here Besides of that, good deck :)

15 May 2016 Shockeh

Excellent; Happy to see Grail back in action, and Palana might be the one ID in Jinteki that can truly afford it. Interesting to see Ashigaru, given you have so much casual pain - No belief in Wall of Thorns for one credit less, a little less keepout in Subroutines but +1 str, +2 damage?

Suppose it depends how 'spiky' you intend to be.

15 May 2016 Shockeh

Slight other question: Why a pair of CVS? You don't have the tech/agendas to FA, so it is just a fierce hatred of Parasucker?

15 May 2016 Spaceman_Spiff

Played this today in a small tournament. It did well, going undefeated. I went -1 Swordsman, -1 CVS, -1 Ashigaru; +2 Mumbad City Grid, +1 Clones Ain't Dudes

It pulled out a few wins that I didn't necessarily deserve with my play, so that was nice. I even got a Fetal kill. The Mumbads were alright, definitely added a bit more tax when they were used and were a lot of fun - but also would probably be my first things cut.

16 May 2016 phette23

re: @shockeh's comments: both of those decisions (Ashigaru over Wall of Thorns, 2x CVS) make the list a lot better against Anarch. WoT is pretty easy to D4v1d through while Ashigaru taxes Faust heavily. One strength of the ICE suite is it largely invalidates D4v1d, with the exception of Crick over Archives. CVS is a necessity against all the good viruses, not just Clot or Datasucker.

I love the look of this list but I'm worried about Employee Strike damaging the economy a lot with so much expensive ICE. I wonder if swapping "Clones are not People" or Cerebral Static for a couple ICE is the move.

16 May 2016 Maëlig

What made you decide against the inclusion of mumbad city grid? Seems like it would be pretty gound with the grail ICE and komainu.

18 May 2016 OuterCrow

Cool deck. How do you usually use Celebrity Gift when you may often have Grail ice in hand? Do you more commonly show them a hand full of them as a deterrent to run, hold some back for a surprise during a run, or to bluff an agenda in HQ? Obviously dependent on the situation of the moment, but definitely some VERY interesting choices with the use of that card.

18 May 2016 Matuszczak

@Spaceman_SpiffCongrats! @phette23 You are on point with the answer. Employee Strike is annoying and is going to cost a few credits, but isn't the worst thing that can happen to you. I wouldn't bother slotting a current just to deal with it. Cerebral Static costs 2 and a card slot itself. Clones are not People are a better choice if you can land it as both current switch and a point, but you can survive ES without your own current.@MaëligMCG is extremely good on paper and does really well in proper core set style Netrunner games, where you rez ICE and people pay to break it. Generally the more solid the server the better MCG is. With so much ICE destruction around, especially against top players I often find myself trying to put together a reasonable server from whatever I have and MCG becomes awkward then. Not saying it's a bad card, I just realized that if I have good enough servers to benefit from it, I'm in good shape anyway. @OuterCrowGreat question, I feel people underestimate the downside of Celebrity Gift and play it too automatically. I try to avoid playing it turn 1 and will often play something along the lines of draw-ICE-ICE. People will know you're on Grail very fast, but it helps a lot to keep them in fear of Komainu. Also if they are not on AI, they will not know, which Grail I installed. I will also sometimes not play CG later on in the game if I don't need the money or I am flooded and the runner didn't see CG (if he did and I'm not playing CG for money despite being desperate for it, he is likely to add 2 and 2 anyway). I don't see much point in not showing a full hand if I can, there is nothing extremely surprising in the list and runner will just be super cautious.

19 May 2016 tzeentchling

What would you take out to fit a Snare! or two in? Maybe a Swordsman and a Komainu?

20 May 2016 Matuszczak

@tzeentchlingI'm facing a lot of Faust Anarchs recently and both Swordsman and Komainu are amazing in the machup. Komainu is very good against other factions as well so in my meta I would keep a set of those 2. Crick would probably be the first thing I would cut, but I still think it deserves the slot more than Snare!. If you want the deck to have more teeth, switching a Sales Team for a Fetal is also an option.

22 Jul 2016 percomis

With MWL2 and the assumed downfall of Faust and instant Parasites, what changes would you do to the deck? Also, would you add Voter Intimidation?

2 Aug 2016 Myriad

Any chance Sandburg might be worth a spot in this deck? I can't quite figure out how to reengineer this deck for that card, but I feel like it is there somewhere.