Perfect Bioroids You Can't Refuse

Ark1t3kt 381

The Concept:

This deck is my attempt at an extremely taxing RP build which makes use of HB’s bioroids to accent the ID’s click compression capabilities. I love the idea of having an Ichi in the remote of an RP server, because it’s just so evil. As you can see, however, the influence is extremely tight and I was therefore only able to fit in six actual bots. However, six is the magical number, since it means that I can now import Jeeves for free. Of course, I am not one to include a card in my deck without building around it, and so I have found a role for Jeeves to play:

As you may have noticed, the deck only runs 4/2’s, and a Philotic. This choice was made so that I can never-advance all my agendas through with “The Butler” and pull some nasty mind games on the runner. Because I’m running a heavy amount of defensive upgrades (as well as non-advancable traps – Edge Of World is so brutal) it is very tricky for the runner to tell the difference between them and the oh-so juicy agendas.

But…

The key problem with all 2-pointers is how on earth do I score that 7th agenda point? Anything that would accomplish this would be…

An Offer You Can’t Refuse!

Personally, I feel that this is an extremely underplayed card that has significant potential. Seriously. How many cards do you see in the game of Netrunner which basically say; “here, satisfy these conditions, and earn a point.” Plus, this card ties the entire deck’s concept together by not only providing that last point, but also by forcing the runner through bioroids that can’t be clicked. Evil! Also, this card gives you sort-of the same effect as running influenceless Global Foods; It means that you only have to score three agendas, whereas the runner has to steal four. Finally, I just had to include An Offer You Can’t Refuse because of its hilarious interaction with Doppleganger, lol.

So that’s the idea, let’s get on with the deck!

Agendas:

Nisei MK II – No surprises here, the back-bone of any glacier-ish Jinteki deck, it is basically an auto-include. Obviously, it’s especially good in RP.

Corporate Sales Team – This is a very solid teir one agenda that gives you crazy amounts of money. It’s absolutely awesome to score one of these guys early game, as it gives you a huge economic lead that’s hard to keep up with. Finally, it allows me to run less other econ cards and therefor saves deck slots.

Fetal AI – Another great agenda out of Jinteki that should add a little more spice to this deck. I tell you, the times that people hit this with less than two creds are hilariously common.

Philotic Entanglement – This is kind of a pet card for me because it allows you to never-advance out two points even without Jeeves, and the net damage is just another added benefit. Besides, I needed another two-pointer and I’m not about to include Braintrust – yuck!

In my opinion, the agendas in this deck seem fairly solid, and, as discussed previously, they can all be never-advanced via Lord Jeeves.

Econ:

Hedge Fund – I’m a little on the edge with this one, and I might drop it for something like, say… Launch Campaign. Just kidding, of course, Hedge Fund has been a no-brainer since the core set.

Sundew – A pretty self-explanatory include in any RP deck, I wasn’t about to leave it out, and it’s just another way to force people through your disgusting bioroids.

Restructure – Another solid op econ card. I only have two, because if you get one first turn you are not a happy camper.

Celebrity Gift – Hands down my favourite econ card, not only is the math great, but it allows you to play hilarious mind games with the runner. (Celeb gift a philotic and an edge of world, then install something in a heavily fortified remote, then watch them sweat buckets. ;)

At this point, we’re sitting at eleven econ cards which seems a little light for a semi-glacier deck until you take into account that we have three Corporate Sales Teams. Bring it on.

Ice:

Crick – A lovely and super annoying card for Anarchs, I usually like to recur sundews and defensive upgrades.

Excalibur – Another card included here purely out of personal preference, it can be surprisingly annoying in RP, or any deck that includes defensive upgrades.

Komainu – A horrible card that is not only crippling, but incredibly taxing to anything but Faerie and Mongoose. I would have liked three, but deck slots are super tight.

Shinobi – This one is probably going to get scrapped. It’s in here because I really just wanted to try it out, but the bad pub is just so anti-synergistic with everything that this deck is trying to accomplish.

Swordsman – This card was tentatively added to the list, and I ask all of you with a good knowledge of the meta: Is this card worth playing post MWL?

Now for the bioroids…

Eli 1.0 – What can I say? It’s a shame that this card is on the MWL, or else I could fit two.

Ichi 1.0 – An incredibly good card, it gets ridiculous when paired with Mr. Batty and you trash the runners entire rig with one piece of ice by using Marcus to scrap their Killer.

Vikram 1.0 – Another nasty piece of ice that does brain damage, which is one of the ideas with this deck.

Ravana 1.0 – With so little actual bioroid ice, some might say that Ravana isn’t worth it. But I couldn’t resist it, because this is basically my second Eli that I want oh-so badly, as well as being just an incredibly good, efficient card that is also very adaptable to the situation at hand.

Turing – Wait, what? This isn’t a bioroid! That’s right, but I still decided to include this guy in the list of bioroids because he achieves the same result – click \ compression. The beautiful thing about this in RP is that, as long as it’s on a remote, the runner will never be able to click through it. (Always put this on a remote, no matter what. If you don’t you will regret it!)

I believe that all of this ice is efficient and taxing, and the bioroids add a nice touch. With this ice suite, not only are you taxing your opponent’s credits, cards, and clicks, you are also well positioned to build daunting servers on which to play An Offer You Can’t Refuse. Finally, all of these pieces of ice punish the runner heavily for making multiple passes through them, something that both RP and the defensive upgrades force them to do.

Last Words:

This deck may or may not be well positioned in the meta, but that isn’t really relevant since I didn’t delve into this concept expecting to come out with a teir one deck. However, I do think that this idea is very interesting and incredibly fun to play, and I encourage all of you to give it a spin.

As always, comments, suggestions, and any kind of feedback are welcome.

5 comments
13 Aug 2016 FarCryFromHuman

Your reasoning is extremely solid, and this seems like a fun RP deck! There's one issue though: Fetal AI is a 5/2, not a 4/2. Scoring it is awful.

As I see it, you have three options:

Improved Protein Source. There's added risk here, but also added reward. It's another out to that elusive 7th point you could potentially struggle with, and you are RP glacier so its not like your centrals will be raided mercilessly. Your deck wants to tax, so the 4 swing isn't ideal, but it might be worthwhile in this specific circumstance. It also frees up a deck slot as you only need to include two.

Medical Breakthrough. I love this agenda. The pressure it puts on the runner is absurd. You can put your first out, and if the runner steals it you now have another agenda you can never-advance without Jeeves. The third you can score from hand. Absolutely brutal.

NAPD Contract. The classic. The 4 tax is exactly what this deck wants, is added protection against already economically stressed runners, and fits your scoring plan. It'll cost you three influence though, which is going to come out of your ICE. You'd probably want to lose the Eli 1.0 and the Ravana 1.0, trading them for similarly taxing pieces of Jinteki ICE.

13 Aug 2016 tonybluehose

I'd also add that Ichi 1.0 on the outermost of a central remote is a HUGE PAIN for runners. Any type of ETR is just a simple bounce, but I think you could focus some of your Biroid Workers to the Main Offices to cause some more problems.

13 Aug 2016 hutch9514

@Arkitekt When DNA Tracker comes out from escalation do you think it might be better than shinobi??

15 Aug 2016 djc6535

I run something a good deal like this. A few ideas:

Try replacing restructured with subliminal messaging. You have pointy ice that runners don't want to face on the centrals AND there is no joy greater than playing subliminal and Celebrity Gift and still having 2 clicks because of Jeeves.

12 ice is really light for RP. I'd suggest finding some room for 3 or so more pieces of ice to get you back up to 15 at least. Remember, you need something on all 3 centrals, usually an extra on R&D and a few for your scoring server.

Turing is nice, but I feel that influence can be better spent. Eli is such a monster in a remote protecting your agendas in RP. That would help balance you out a bit as only having one barrier is a bit light.

16 Aug 2016 Ark1t3kt

Wow, thx for all the great feedback guys, sorry about the late response.

@FarCryFromHuman Lol, what a hilarious mistake! I'm looking at my original decklist right now (on paper) and I did originally have Medical Breakthroughs instead of the Fetals. Doh!

@tonybluehose Yeah, I totally agree with you here man. The bioroids are incredibly brutal on the centrals, and Ichi 1.0 is a beast!

@hutch9514 The short answer: Absolutely. Cannot wait for this card, and in my opinion is infinitely better than Shinobi, filling the exact same role. It's everything I could want in this deck, super taxing, heavy, and has an ability to catch the runner off-guard. (I love nasty codegates!) Thx for reminding me about this card, will def slot it.

@djc6535 Your idea about Subliminal is really interesting and I'm sure it feels good, but I'm just not sure about how it would compare to the raw power of Restructure. I will consider doing some testing with this one. I regretfully agree with both your comments on the ice count and on Turing. I know that the ice is light and I'll definitely have to do something to solve that issue. As far as Turing goes, I love the idea, but I have to say that it has underperformed. Also, Faust is on the MWL now, so... sigh You've convinced me to take a reality check.

You guys have really impressed me on all of your insight and thought that you've put into this idea. Thank you so much for the stellar advice!