Midseason Blockbuster (3-0 - 4-man round-robin SC)

This is a deck I took to a recent local store champ. It is a really simple deck that aims to:

1- Out-econ the runner

2- Land a midseason to either tag & boom the runner, or drain them of cash

3- Recover econ quickly if the tags don't land or stick

With 18 econ cards (and 5 agendas that give you an econ advantage if they're accessed/scored) this deck can out-credit most runners, especially in the early game. If they take an early credit lead the deck can midseasons to take down the runner's cash and then recover quickly, with 10 of the econ cards costing 0-1 credits to play. But the long-term plan is to play a midseasons or hard-hitting to land enough tags to boom the runner or score out a 7 point Beale.

So why not NEH or CTM instead of Haarp? Some of that comes down to personal taste - I love Haarp and the way it opens up certain tactics and plays. I expect CTM may be a better ID for the deck (as the aim is to out-econ the runner, so paying an extra 3 or taking a tag to trash Sensie, Jackson or Virtual Tour would help) but I love the early game protection Haarp offers. The deck runs little-to-no ICE so it's vulnerable to early Legworks and R&D digs.

Why no Pop-up/Vanilla? I tried versions of this deck with econ-impacting ICE (such as Pop-up/Turnpike) and low-cost early game ICE (Vanilla, Quandary, etc.) and found them both to be much more clunky. It's better to just pop Mother where she's needed (HQ against blue, RnD against red) and leave everything else open. When I tried Pop-up/Vanilla I always found them to be the absolute worst card to have in hand, and found the deck worked better without them.

Why no 24/7 Breaking News? Aaron has all but killed that combo - making it a hard thing to devote 3/4 cards and 2/3 influence to. I've only ever missed the combo once in the 30-40 games I've played and found NAPD with it's econ drain or natural steal-avoid to be much more useful. If they score it, wonderful, you're +4 credits up on the runner. If they leave it, then great, they're 2 points further away from winning.

Why no News Team? News Team is one of my favourite cards. But with all 2-point agendas and this deck usually not going much further than 10 turns it's unlikely the runner will land 2 and if they don't then it's just 3 deck slots used for something that doesn't help with econ, draw or landing a midseasons.

How does the deck beat green with Film Critic? I've only played against 2 decks that ran Film Critic - the first I won by scoring out under a remote server protected by Mother, the second I managed to play Hard-hitting, Jackson it back in and play it again, making it stick and Boom-ing. But yes, this is where you miss the 24/7 Breaking News combo. Luckily there's not much green around right now.

So that's it! I'm pretty sure this deck is shit but I'm eager to see how it does at a regionals. With a meta that doesn't see much Plasacrete, Obelus or green in general and with people relying heavily on Aaron to save them I think this deck has a chance to be good in much better hands than mine - perhaps with a few tweaks. If not - it is certainly a fun deck that will make your opponent sweat! If anyone tries this deck I'd love to hear some feedback.