Fight Club Quetzal

presheaf 621

Is your least favorite part of Netrunner the run?
Are you worried that the degenerate decks all died with rotation and Core 2.0?
Did you find Dyper too interactive?
Do you want an excuse to play Build Script over Deuces Wild?

Do I have the deck for you!

This is a combo deck which does nothing but set up for a while, then mills a bunch of cards in a single turn. I've been discussing it on the Oslo Netrunner discord (please, join us, we normally talk about nicer stuff than this), and in particular with @nicohasa. I think it's going to beat anyone who doesn't know how it works, and stand a better chance than you'd think even if the Corp knows what's up.

Wait, this is one of those writeups with lots of unneccessary text, isn't it?

This picture is really all you need, so you can just stop here if you like. alt text

No, I want to hear a beautiful story

(Scene: Quetzal is sitting in Tri-Maf HQ on Mars, discussing fiscal policy with some friends. )

Quetzal: "You don't get it at all. If we taxed the corporations even a little bit, they wouldn't want to invest in anything, and nothing would get done! Do you even invisible hand, bro?"

(Quetzal gets their hammer and attacks the mafia, but is quickly disarmed, beaten up and thrown out. However, it's only a flesh wound, and Quetzal staggers back inside to talk to their boss, Dadiana Chacon.)

Quetzal: "Mr. Chacon, could I get a loan?"

Chacon: "You have a lot of nerve coming back in here after what you did to my crew. But yeah, sure, you're probably going to go liberate some Jinteki crops or something, right?"

Quetzal: "...sort of."

Quetzal is beaten up yet again, and leaves without a loan into the nearest stim bar to vent.

Quetzal: "You're not going to believe what a terrible day I had. It all started when I was hanging out with my tri-maf buddies, explaining some of the finer points of fiscal policy..."

(Quetzal relates the day's events. At some point during the tirade, a friend walks in.)

Quetzal: "...and then, they broke my legs! Again!"

Alice: "You have suffered greatly, my friend. I would say that I cannot believe what Jinteki would do to the smallfolk, but I have learned never to underestimate the depths they would sink to."

Quetzal: "Actually, that's-."

Alice: "Come with me, I know a way to make Jinteki pay."

Quetzal: "But-"

Alice: "MARS FOR MARTIANS, MILLS FOR MILLS!"

(The martian clans are outraged over the way AgInfusion has treated Quetzal, and mob their research department, wrecking it.)

Tell me the story again, but in the game

At the start of your turn, you have Titanium Ribs, an Overmind, some Tri-Mafs, a Salvaged Vanadis Armory and a Dadiana Chacon installed. You also have at least 2 IHW in hand.

  1. Independent Thinking, trashing 2x Tri-Mafs and whatever other cards are around, taking 2*3 meat damage which hit IHWs, drawing a lot of cards so that you actually survive. You also draw 5 more from Independent Thinking, so your deck is probably empty now.

  2. Amped Up for 3 more clicks, leaving you at 7 total for the turn (I know I didn't mention this as being in your grip, but if it wasn't you probably drew it from all the IHWs)

  3. Install Hades Shard

    Then blow all your money on pumping the strength of Overmind, which causes Chacon to trash himself and deal 3 more damage to you. Use this damage to trigger Vanadis for 10 mills.

  4. Click for credit

  5. Install Salvaged Vanadis Armory

  6. Amped Up, giving you 3 more clicks for 10 total Trigger the second Vanadis for 11 mills

  7. Install a third Vanadis

  8. Click for credit

  9. Amped Up for 3 more clicks, but more importantly a brain damage Trigger Vanadis it for 12 mills

You still have 4 clicks remaining, but you also milled 33 cards, so now is probably a good time to trigger Hades Shard and win. Or you could spend them on shenanigans to trigger a fourth Vanadis if you want to do a victory lap. There is also room for a "Click 0: trigger trope" before you start comboing in case you need to shuffle in some stuff.

Why I think this deck is actually pretty good

Briefly, you can mill both more and less than 33 cards if you need to. If the Corp is about to win but you only have 1x Tri-Maf, 1x Chacon on the board, just do the above and you'll mill 21 cards, which is statistically still quite an okay chance to win. If you have a bit more time, let your Tropes tick a bit more, and reaching more than 40 mills is possible, if kind of pointless.

In an actual game where the Corp knows what you're up to, they're going to start scoring quickly, and you won't have time to find all the cards you need. Just take as long as you feel comfortable taking, then fire off the combo for as much as you can. The combo sort of scales with the number of pieces you actually did find. If the Corp is stashing the agendas in HQ, make sure to have Clan Vengeance installed on the combo turn to grab whatever agendas the Corp is hiding in HQ.

Doesn't this fold to tech?

It should and probably does. But what kind of tech? Salem's Hospitality is pretty good, but honestly my only suggestion. Bio-Ethics is sort of annoying before you find Titanium Ribs (but ultimately helpful on the combo turn), but apart from that, this isn't really a deck which cares at all about what the Corp is doing. Whampoa Reclamation is mildly annoying, but probably completely shut down by Clan Vengeance. And Jackson Howard is gone. He doesn't even get a hyperlink.

EDIT: Stimslack (I forget who, sorry!) gave me several suggestions for tech, of which I think Genetics Pavillion and Scarcity of Resources were my favorite. Feel free to share more in the comment section.

What if the Corp just goes fast?

I think that's the best answer, which is why the deck has 3x Overmind (props to @Ulrik03) and Quetzal. I don't think it's going to do too much against any kind of decent ice, but it'll at least slow the Corp down a bit. This deck is literally all combo pieces, draw, and some utility cards (Origami/Trope/Overmind), so ultimately the answer to the Corp going fast is to just go faster.

Why/how Trope?

You may need to draw a lot before finding Titanium Ribs or some other pieces. If your deck is empty, having 3x IHW in hand won't help you much. So try to install it early, so that you can start you combo turn by shuffling in a bunch of cards and surviving. It's also your best answer to Salem's Hospitality, I think, but I haven't thought in depth about it.

What about Bookmark?

In an earlier draft of this deck, it had Bookmark. That's actually really good, because it makes holding a bunch of combo pieces easier, so you don't need Origami. However, it's vulnerable to Best Defense. You can get around this by playing Sacrificial Construct, but it becomes sort of heavy on influence. If you want to try this, I'd cut Build Script, 1x Independent Thinking, 2x Drug Dealer for 2x Bookmark, 2x SacCon and then take out 3x Origami for 3x Earthrise.

What about Making an Entrance?

I really want to include this card! However, I think it's for smarter players than me. When playing with it I found myself reluctant to trash that many cards. I think if you're smart with Trope, you probably could just chuck everything but IHW, Tri-Maf and Independent Thinking/Titanium Ribs and get utility from it. Try cutting Street Peddler for it if you want to, as Peddler is already potentially awkward at 16 events.

13 comments
16 Sep 2017 Gargulec

This is great, but even without Bookmark, it is still vulnerable to Best Defense, which can snipe the Vanadis and deprive you of a third of your mill. There are people in my playgroup who run a similar deck and my experience with playing against them showcases that it is also really vulnerable to being rushed out.

The variant of the deck I am familiar with does not run Independent Thinking - it instead relies on Game Day and Beach Party for draw.

16 Sep 2017 nicohasa

That's pretty easy to play around if you know your opponent is on best defense though. Just don't install the vanadis until the combo turn.

Beach party seems like it would slow you down quite a lot, missing a click each turn. To me game day also does not seem like it gets the most bang for the buck, as you don't use up your whole hand, normally.

In testing today, this deck has managed to mill about 35 cards or so turn 7-8 quite consistently, so you would have to be very fast to rush out i feel.

16 Sep 2017 Grentain

I built almost exactly this same deck last night after seeing Vanadis Armory. The main difference in my build is that I don't bother running Tri-Maf (and therefore don't need a way to trash it). I instead run Bug Out Bag and massive amounts of econ cards. Install a BOB on 25-28 credits, leaving yourself exactly 4 credits (or 3, if you have either a Dadiana or Titanium Ribs already installed), and then empty your hand either by just installing everything, or tucking things away under Bookmark.

EOT, you draw the remainder of your deck (or close enough to it), and immediately trash Bookmark to keep the corp from doing it. If the corp doesn't stop you that turn, you just mill their entire deck by playing Ribs>Amped Up x3> Dadiana x3> Armory+Cyprocytes x3.

It's pretty degenerate.

16 Sep 2017 presheaf

Oh wow, nice idea with Bug-Out Bag. It seems easier to just get loads of money than loads of cards. Congratulations, I'm actually disgusted.

16 Sep 2017 presheaf

On second thought, is there any way you can deal with Salem' s Hospitality? If not I'd stay on this, even though the raw numbers on yours are better.

16 Sep 2017 Income Tax

Thoughts on Ekomind instead of Vigil?

16 Sep 2017 mcbeast

I like this.

16 Sep 2017 presheaf

@Valranoth Thanks for the suggestion, but I think it's a bad idea. I included Vigil because it's a draw card, not because it's a console. The deck is exclusively combo pieces, draw cards and Overmind, and Overmind is there because it's sort of a combo piece and because it can slow the corp down. What would Ekomind do for you?

17 Sep 2017 PurinaBisonChow

How often do you get screwed by the Street Peddlers capturing your Amped Ups? Or two important pieces on one Peddler?

17 Sep 2017 Income Tax

@presheaf: It'd take advantage of the number of cards in hand (either during the combo turn or general size due to Origami boost) to give you more Overmind counters. Not sure if you ever plan on actually using them, but it was a thought.

17 Sep 2017 phlip45

I played against this deck without knowing what it was and accidentally wrecked the combo with a Paper Trail score. Killed two Tri-Mafs before an armory was on the board. So I guess that could be added to the Tech section.

17 Sep 2017 presheaf

@PurinaBisonChow At the time of publishing, my answer would have been "Not that often, and if it's a problem, you can Independent Thinking the Peddler if it's 3x events, and then Trope them back in". I think that's still true, but I've been trying to make the deck faster, so I've elected to cut the Street Peddlers for Sports Hoppers. Sports Hopper is pretty great, actually, as it lets you 'buffer' draws for the combo turn, and hand size can often become an issue for the deck. The 3 extra creds sort of sting, but I think the buffering more than makes up for it.

17 Sep 2017 presheaf

@phlip45 Haha, that's pretty cool. That's actually a pretty strong counter too - the deck runs pretty light on money.