Phast Pharma

Yukon 584

DRUGS!

Harmony Medtech. Whenever I am bored with corps, I come back to Harmony to see if I can make it work. This is the deck that has made me the Ghost Branch Meta's top Harmony Medtech player. It was some stiff competition as 2 other players tried decks for a couple matches and hated it.

This is the iteration I took to ANRPC Child's Play Charity Netrunner Tournament. I made some card choices for this event for thematic reasons. It went about as well as expected. I got the combo off a couple times, and there were several times if I had drawn an agenda I would have won the game. But alas, things aligned against the children and evil runners stole all our medical research. The deck went 0-4 and I had a blast playing it. I believe that makes this deck pandefeated.

Why share an pandefeated deck?
Two reasons. I think the concept has some promise or at least applications in other lists.

Also, I do it for the children. THINK OF THE CHILDREN.

Card Choices

Agenda Suite

Every agenda except the Corporate Sales Team can be a 3/2. Earlier iterations use Media Blitz to make Medical Breakthrough ridiculous. Scoring 4 points for 3 advancements was fun the 1 time it worked. But it was too unreliable. Turns out not a lot of 2 point agendas benefit from Media Blitz.

Braintrust, Philotic Entanglement are both here for obvious reasons. Merger is just funny. Runners get happy because they stole a 3 pointer, but then realize it doesn't matter. It is a liablity against Mad Dash but I feel it is worth the include in 2-point Medtech. Corporate Sales Team could easily be a Nisei MK II, but as a 1x it is honestly just there to finish the agenda suite. I asked my wife which I should play and she said she had no idea what a Nisei was. The card didn't come up at all, but in round 2 I desperately wanted to see it.

Assets/Upgrades

First... Political Dealings. The goal of the deck is to draw an agenda, slam it in a remote, and score it! What could be easier? Dealings lets you do that without a click. It's fun when it works. Breaker Bay Grid makes it so you can rez this card without breaking your bank. Including Breaker Bay was the 1st time this deck actually worked. I was so happy I cried when I thought of all the children I'd be helping.

Daily Business Show makes it a lot easier to find those agendas to install. It also lets us talk about the children we are helping. Estelle Moon draws you a lot of cards. Or some cards. sometimes just one card. But if you can do it click 4 runner turn then you get to ignore clot! I'm sure she has kids, or likes kids, or once was nice to a kid.
Jeeves Model Bioroids lets you score those pesky 4/2s. Or 3/2s if the runner has The Source. Also he cleans bedpans.
Mental Health Clinic triggers moon. It also lets up the kids. They've got hard times ahead of them, Protecting their minds is just as important as their bodies.
Cyberdex Virus Suite is because Shapers are so preoccupied with whether or not they can, that they don't stop to think if they should.

Ice Suite

I was looking for something taxing. Turns out it is taxing for myself as well. But Kakugo limits repeat runs. Crick recovers my toys. DNA Tracker is hard to break cost effectively. Mind Game is the perfectly costed ice until the runner actually wants to play the psi game. Komainu is there because every corp deck should have a punishing sentry. 2 of the cards even have DNA themes!
Finally Mirāju. This is the card that was going to make the deck amazing. I had such beautiful dreams for this ice. It was instantly 3x in the deck. No more Jacko problems. Combo firing all the time. Then I realized it de-rezzed and I couldnt afford to rez it all the time. It's still a 1x ice, very situational.

Operations

Friends in High Places gets back toys, Kids need friends.
Preemptive Action gets back Friends, Kids need more friends.
Hedge Fund makes money. But Kids find financial investment boring. So Medical Research Fundraiser also makes money. I wanted 3x for thematic reasons, but my buddy Sanjay convinced me I shouldn't play it all. Well jokes on him! I snuck one in! It came up once when I gave a Whizzard 3 credits. He already had 30 credits so it didn't seem that bad.

The Event!

Round 1 - Leela

Timed loss. Things were actually going perfectly. But game 1 had gone long. We were tied on 2 points. Time was called, an Leela pulled a 1-in-5 agenda on HQ. I didn't topdeck an agenda so I didnt tie it up again.

Round 2 - Gabe

It was a neat deck that felt very 2015. Emergency Shutdown made me rez Kakugo 4 times. Gabe got ahead and stole 2 Medical Breakthroughs. I scored the last one from hand. I was in a bad place with R&D accesses, so I installed Moon, naked installed the Merger and then Friends' Breaker Bay/Political Dealings. The other cards were enough of a threat that the Merger was never contested. Afterwards I just needed to see one agenda in 8 cards, but it didnt happen. Gabe defeated me. But he ended up in the cut (4th) so I felt alright about this.

Round 3 - Inversificator Kit

Turns out the deck is almost entirely Code Gates. My opponent also knew exactly what I was up to, so made sure to keep my remotes clear, even to the detriment of their own economy. It was an incredibly fun game though and I'm pleased that this player went to the cut and finished 3rd.

Round 4 - Whizzard

I knew this was going to be impossible as soon as we sat down. Then he installed Archives Interface and Salsette Slums. I wept gently for the children.

Final Thoughts

Well. It's a deck. A fun deck. but if the runner has any tech for assets life becomes difficult. Whizzard/Maw/Alice make this deck miserable. After round 4 I started thinking about where to go next with the idea. It turns out my friend was on an Industrial Genomics: Growing Solutions doing something very similar with better success.
For these political dealings shenanigans, IG is an option to explore, as is Jinteki Biotech: Life Imagined.
As far as medtech goes.... maybe 3 pointers and Mushin No Shin shell game? Obokata Protocol makes this possible, and maybe Improved Protein Source. I don't know how a disgraced researcher and new food sources helps the children, but I'll make up something sufficient in my headcanon.

2 comments
10 Jul 2017 Sanjay

My favorite thing about this deck is that @Conphas played Medical Research Fundraiser specifically because this was a charity tournament.

13 Jan 2018 igrekk

Great catch on Breaker Bay Grid and Political Dealings synergy! I think Team Sponsorship could be great addition too