Punk Rock Counterculture ( Lockdown compatible v.1.0 )

Bl4nk3t 616

Let me preface this by saying

PunksNotDead

MaxX had a rough time during the last legality changes - the most significant one means MaxX will no longer be able to recover from burning out fast by visiting her friends in academia, well versed in theory - but lets be honest - that was never the punk rock spirit.

She had a brief resurgence with a truly rage filled Apocalypse most prominently in this deck by @watzlav

After DDoS got (rightfully) banlisted, she seemed to be truly burned out for a while.

This changed somewhat with the new Standard Ban List 20.06 - and no one seems to have noticed - yet!

The new Banlist most importantly means, MaxX can both play Paperclip and Labor Rights. Experiments have been conducted with using a singleton Faust, or a three of Zer0, but ultimately I'm not convinced both fit this deck (especially the latter).

What does fit phenomenally well is rogue behavior otherwise known as crimes - crimes -

this solves the two main problems this deck tries to address:

  • get some attention (i.e. get tagged)
  • get rich (enough) quick

with the end goal of burning it all down in a glorious R&D deep dig with Counter Surveillance

don't get discouraged from counter surveying a lightly defended HQ for 3, 4 or 5 cards relativlely early - especially if it means you draw that many cards thanks to Obelus - or you suspect you can trash some otherwise punishing cards - or combo pieces from HQ in combination with a loaded Imp .

The Simulchips serve many purposes including - but not limited to - getting an early God of War to start getting those sweet virus tokens, or get Imps and Chisels when needed.

Don't be afraid to breaking into early remotes with the God of War, or lacking that - the conspiracy breaker suite and a Stimhack.

If all else fails - or R&D is locked up tightly by an insanely wealthy corp - Chisels can help dismantling the remote - or at least keep it manageable.

Important MaxX milled cards can be brought back with the Labor Rights - once the stack is empty - giving the deck some more much needed late game options - including recurring some money (a lesson taught to me by @Saan).


This deck is 100% compatible with the Lockdown format - but totally viable in the standard meta (if a bit daring when there is a lot of corp sponsored murder around, as the case may be). I hear there was a recent BBQ event where it did quite well ;).

As a closing remark, I can only reaffirm

PunkIsNotDed

4 comments
6 Sep 2020 Saan

Nice. I was just mourning the Death of MaxX, so I'm happy to see that she's still being experimented with.

12 Sep 2020 Watzlav

I would consider removing the ice destruction suite to make room for staying alive suite in form of Paparazzi, Wireless Net Pavilion and Dummy Box. Meat damage is still a big threat and Paparazzi is just bullet-proof. Are Mercenaries, Obelus and Imp enough in your experience?

I think with a plan of making few impactful multi-access runs the utility of ice destruction is limited and not as impactful as with Khumalo or Hoshiko. Still, a cool deck. As always with you, out of the leftfield. :) Thanks for the shout-out.

13 Sep 2020 Bl4nk3t

I'm glad I could already inspire this keeping to the minimalist deck size - I notice you cut 1 Obelus , 1 Stimhack and the Acacias - in addition to including the "invulnerability suite" you mentioned in your commentary.

Without Simulchip (presumably cut for influence) - robbing you of the option to get a milled Lord of War into play slightly earlier than otherwise - and no Jarogniew Mercs, I imagine you will have a somewhat difficult time, getting tags fast enough... the more I think about it, I might be tempted to play the mercs, even if all they did was give you an extra tag for an action and no cost ^_^.

You'll have an easier time convincing me to include Liberated Accounts (pretty much locking you in for a turn of "install" - "take 12" - for a net gain of 6).

Dropping the Chisels might work out - but the Devil Charms effectively make one ice free (or almost free) to break with a loaded God of War, so I'm not convinced of dropping these yet.

As for practical experience I can say, that you rarely ever die to Boom! because - thanks to Obelus - the Grip usually affords that much damage and sometimes the corp will be hesitant to play it without actually killing you. Loosing your late game to damage can still be a harsh blow, though. Don't be like me and do the Counter Surveillance run without credits to trash an access Boom! or 2. At the moment this deck has a respectable 61% winrate on Jnet - most losses I ironically had against Sportsmetal utilizing huge Game Changers after non-game-ending Counter Surveillances , ASAs running away with too much draw, AG Infusion for fairly obvious reasons and Outfits with Atlas+counter into HPT.


Imp is still the preferred method of dealing with punisher cards (and Vacheron) - it feels a bit light on the protection... and installing a conspiracy breaker to be able to use a Simulchip to pull one out of the Heap does not exactly feel optimal... it feels much better if a Chisel was trashed by killing an ice, making the Simulchip use trash free.

Currently I'm thinking more in the direction of Rebirth into Khumalo - since many dangerous cards actually have a cost of 0 - and God of War does deliver enough Virus tokens per turn to get a High-Profile Target . Of course this would mean giving up on Lockdown compatibility.

17 Sep 2020 Möbius Striptease

Punk, indeed, lives on! Love this deck, can't wait to try it. I've been having some "success" with this goofball deck lately: netrunnerdb.com

Glad to see other people are still keeping the MaxX dream alive!