WholeFoods' 60 Minutes

I want you to try something for me. Imagine a world where Rumour Mill was never printed.

What Corps are good now? NBN is still bonkers, but their tendency to leave servers open let runners sporting Temujin Contracts to make tons of money and run away with the game. There is, however, one ID that can efficiently tax their centrals to neutralise Temujin whilst still having enough drip econ to rely on a robust scoring strategy and powerful ICE. That ID is Replicating Perfection.

It’s at this point we have to stop imagining however, as we do live in a world with Rumour Mill, a no-counterplay silver bullet that completely hoses RP and everything it stands for. This got me thinking. If the only thing stopping RP is Rumour Mill, then surely all an RP deck needs is a way to counter Rumour Mill.

Enter The News Now Hour.

Rez this asset when you’re going for a score and the runner will have to run your remote last click if they want to play RM (run central, run TNNH, play RM, run), and that’s what Nisei tokens are for. Besides that it’s free, and can also prevent employee strikes from ruining your Sundews’ day.

This is the deck I took to the Leisure Games GNK on the 8th October, placing first. It is currently undefeated in both that tournament and multiple StimHack League games on Jinteki.net.

Card choices:

Agendas: You only play 8, so density is really low, which is always nice. Scoring plan is 2-2-3. Pretty standard really.

Nisei/TFP: Standard agenda setup. Psi-games save lives, I would use some way of randomising them if you’re going to play this deck.

Global Food Initiative: I had one spare influence, plus this makes it almost a certainty the runner needs 4 agendas to win.

Braintrust: Fills the last 2 points mostly, also nice as an early Caprice/Batty bluff for easy points.

Assets:

Mental Health Clinic/PAD: Drip econ. Be careful with rezzing MHC vs Faust decks. Other than that, just play these as soon as you draw them.

Sundew: The linchpin of this deck, and what lets you rez all your big ice. The runner will try to get these, so make sure to protect them as best as you can. I usually treat the first one like an Adonis, leaving it in my scoring server for a few turns before installing an agenda over it. The second goes naked, or with a small ice over it.

Jackson Howard: Our lord and saviour. No explanation needed.

Executive Boot Camp: Did a surprising amount of work on the day. It can use the second ability at instant speed, so just use the first ability as much as you can before searching for Sundews/TNNH as you please. I would rez 1-cost ICE first, then anything bigger if you need to, then any Caprices you have.

The News Now Hour: This didn’t do anything on the day, but I’m perfectly happy playing a 3-influence silver bullet that near-completely shuts down the most powerful of hate cards. Cut at your own peril. I would put this out whenever I have a spare click, only rezzing it when I play a current or install an agenda.

Upgrade:

Caprice Nisei/Marcus Batty: Pretty much your win conditions. Make sure to get an even split between the remote and pressured servers if given the chance. Most of the time though, you’ll get one or two of these and the rest will be trashed from R&D. One or two is all you need though…

Operation:

Cerebral Static: We’re playing TNNH, so we might as well play a current to go along with it. Cerebral is pretty nice, hurting Whiz, Kit and Haley really badly.

Hedge Fund: Self-explanatory

Interns: Crucial here. Sundew is your main target, but you can also recur TNNH, defensive upgrades, ICE, and any agendas that you threw in the bin, to the shock of the runner…makes me giggle every time.

ICE:

Eli 1.0: Your bread and butter, and well worth the 6 influence. Use it in a taxing central, or on the remote.

Pup: Joint MVP along with Crick. The fact you can halve the effectiveness of a Temujin for just one credit is insane. Later game, use these to protect Sundews or any other econ.

Crick: Hey, you know what makes Passport cry? Double Crick on Archives. Didn’t fire all day, but is an excellent deterrent when rezzed with EBC. I’d use the third one to protect econ if two are already out.

Enigma: Makes up the numbers, and good on the remote or centrals. Only running one because of Yog, but a decent tax and face-check punish.

Cobra: I mostly picked this to work with Batty, but it’s rare this happens. The ice is still pretty taxing and it can be deadly for a runner, but if you’re looking to cut ice, this is where you start.

Assassin: A really nice tax, but falls to Stealth or anyone with Rabbit Hole. If I had influence this would be an Ichi.

Lotus Field: Mostly around as anarch tech, this is also pretty nice against Datasucker decks or as a general remote ice. A bit too expensive for centrals, given it just ends the run.

DNA Tracker: The new kid on the block, and looking pretty awesome. Late game this goes on the remote, but early I would put it on the targeted central (HQ for criminal, R&D otherwise) if you can afford it. Also works to cap off a server, but beware of stacking code gates against Gordian/Houdini!

So there we go. Mostly standard, but with a little surprise tech for you aspiring glaciers out there. Oh, and if you’re wondering why it’s called WholeFoods, I saw a RP deck online that said playing against RP is like going to the Whole Foods isle at the supermarket: everything is too expensive and takes too long to do anything with, so in the end you go around the back and ask the nice Asian lady if you can get anything for free.

Please ask any questions below!