Something For Nothing, and From Nothing...Something?

falseidol 424

I've been playing this Valencia deck for a while, though before Magnum Opus and Crowdfunding/Labor Rights, it was closer to a traditional Good Stuff build. With a little tinkering here and there, this deck has been very solid for me and consider it basically 'perfected' as long as MWL 3 is in effect. That being said, when Crowdfunding becomes restricted, there are a number of ways this deck could be altered to only be slightly affected. That's assuming no new cards make the cut.

This deck places such a high premium on just gaining credits, and crowdfunding is obviously quite good at doing that, but a great thing about this deck is we don't live or die by it. With 19 economy cards, no one card is critical and no one kind of hate is particularly effective. With tons of money, you usually have options for just playing straight Netrunner.

Program choice is a delicate flower that I'm quite pleased with - based on the self mill from Inject and Labor Rights, I find this spread to be most effective, putting trashcan breakers where I want them, and I have plenty of duplicates if I lose any in an Apocalypse (I can't bear to play 3x MKUltra with it's awful ratios, but you could swap out an Eater if you were so inclined). D4v1d is great but totally unnecessary most of the time, saving money on expensive ICE more than actually needing to break with it. And we can lose an Eater without it being too much of a speed bump. Speaking of Eater:

Obviously synergy with Apocalypse, but given that many crunchy ICE are terribly prohibitive to break with the trashcans, it offers a release valve from blowing all your credits breaking a DNA Tracker or Archer. Works with Wanton Destruction, keeping Crowdfunding online, and generally keeping cards you like in your grip. Without extra Bad Publicity, I try not to run through big ICE with crappy trashcan breakers more than once.

Labor Rights usually targets Liberated Accounts and Wanton Destruction, with other cards here and there based on what's in the heap.

Archives Interface is my current tech against spicy archives primarily, but also keeps heavy recursion from getting out of hand. I actually went from 1 to 2 because I've found it pretty effective in tough match-ups. Could easily be changed for another card, but you'll probably lose Apocalypse a lot just for checking archives, I've found it to be a solid include. You can even kill agendas that you're worried about scoring. Because scoring an agenda is one of very few mandatory actions in Netrunner, the option to opt out shouldn't be underestimated.

Apocalypse is your coup de grace, it often wins games single-handedly, gets a lot of rage-quits, and is a major consideration for the cards in the deck. That being said, it's only 2/50 cards, and there will be games it's too hard to land, you don't see it in time, or mandatory damage makes it unlikely to land. That's usually okay, you can focus on abusing Wanton Destruction or remote lock. Just go with the flow, the deck has tools for most match-ups.

Considerations for the future: obviously, we have no idea what the first wave of Ashes cards are going to be, but pretending the MWL 3.1 is the only big difference, the consideration becomes basically: Paperclip, Crowdfunding, or Employee Strike. I tried playing ES and Corroder and found it too flimsy, and because none of the corp currents are too devastating to this deck, I've been pretty happy with Paperboy. Paperclip versus Crowdfunding will take some playtesting, but it is quite likely that the 9 influence could be better spent before risking a flimsier breaker suite. Day Job is surprisingly solid, but I wouldn't hate swapping it for a better Ashes card. Same for Dirty Laundry (which is fine in and of itself, but many games you can't play it because it is more useful for absorbing damage than 3 bucks). Rebirth is nifty when you have the influence, but I haven't missed it. I wouldn't hate having The Maker's Eye with Labor Rights recursion.

0 comments