Bark at the Moon V1.3

Card draw simulator
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Repartition by Strength
Derived from
Hard ICED Tea V1.2
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Cancer Ace 156

The whole idea; draw like crazy until you have the cards you need. Set up your combo just right, and win in a single turn when they won't know what hit them.

Your ICE spread is most important; feel free to find out what works for you, but the most important ICE in this deck are Whirlpool and Howler. Stick Whirlpool in front of Howler and punch your opponent in the face with a Janus during their run for the grand total of one credit (actually, Engineering the Future means you get that credit back, so there's that.) Those two are followed closely by Cell Portal. If they happen to click through the first Bioroid ICE you toss at them, just send 'em back to the Howler and now they are facing two Bioroid ICE.

Janus, Heimdall, Ichi, and Wotan are there to make them pay. Toss 'em down to your discards for Howler or hold onto them until you can use Oversight AI or Bioroid Efficiency Research to rez 'em for cheaps. Eli, Rototurret, Fenris, and Chimera all ensure some early game protection for R&D and HQ. Avoid Code Gates; don't give them a reason to search out their Code Gate breaker, so that they won't be prepared for Cell Portal.

Assets are pretty simple. Melange is there for emergency cash, since it gives you more than you will usually need (you need a net of 5 credits to rez Cell Portal, Howler, and Whirlpool). Jackson Howard is vital to the deck, drawing you the parts of your combo you need and letting you discard your Bioroid ICE down to archives where you really need them.

About Agendas; this may seem like an unusual spread, largely because it is. I hope the benefit of Priority Requisition is obvious, but the others maybe not so much. Project Vitruvius can pull back some valuable cards from Archives, or it can just be a 3/2 agenda. Mandatory Upgrades actually fits perfectly with the idea of this deck. There will come a moment where you want your opponent to run, and Agendas with high advance costs are there to tempt them the longest. Plus, once you have scored a Mandatory Upgrades it's a whole different ball game. You can score Project Vitruvius out of hand. You can install and use Melange on the same turn. If you are set up right, your opponent can run and you will win the the exchange, or your opponent can let you score your Agendas. Either way, your position is good.

Why no Accelerated Beta Test? The problem with that agenda in this deck is the number of times in older versions of the deck that I pulled Cell Portal, Whirlpool, or Howler with it. They are the most important cards to this deck and the absolute worst cards to pull with Beta Test. You don't want any of those rezzed before your opponent runs to warn them what might be coming. I chose to take them out of this build, but if you want to try them be my guest. A slightly earlier version ran -1 Vitruvius and -1 Priority Req and +2 Accelerated Beta Test.

I also would have loved to get more Oversight AI in here, as well as Inazuma, but I felt the three Jacksons and Whirlpools were needed more.

Feedback is always welcome.

14 comments
21 Jun 2014 esutter479

I like this concept a lot. I'm going to see if there's a way to try and weave this idea in with my NEXT Design idea. :)

21 Jun 2014 Cancer Ace

Thanks for the comment! I originally built this as NEXT Design deck myself, so the concept can definitely work there. I moved to Engineering the Future for the extra influence and the little bit of a boost to my econ, since Howler will give me a free credit on their turn. Give it a try though and you'll probably like the result.

22 Jun 2014 esutter479

I just may. :)

You seem to be all about burst Econ here, and that can be really good. Have you tried or thought about Eve Campaign? I may slip those in instead of Melange Mining Corp., simply cuz it will draw the Runner's attention and make it tough on their Econ as well if they jump.

I'm not sure about the Oversight AI...I may try Closed Accounts instead for those willful taggers (especially those who want to Siphon me out).

Those agendas look great, and I've been pondering the Accelerated Beta Test switch as well...perhaps to Project Vitruvius in my NEXT Design deck, not sure on that one yet though. An ABT that works could spell complete and total doom for the Runner, heh.

I was thinking about Chimera in my NEXT deck, as well...but wondered if that would be far too taxing early on for me. I wonder if you wouldn't mind taking a look at my latest update to it and offering some feedback? :)

22 Jun 2014 esutter479

I meant to point this out before, too...but the econ seems a tad light. I know, it's rough to conserve the right amount of space to pull everything off...but I'm wondering if there isn't some kind of way to slip another Hedge Fund in there.

22 Jun 2014 Cancer Ace

You are correct about the burst Econ. Generally every time I ran Eve Campaign my opponents managed to trash it before I could actually make any money off of it. So while yes, it could work well, I have found my opponents are just as likely to try and trash a Melange when I want them too. You

Oversight AI is in here because I had two influence and wasn't sure what to do with them. Using it on Wotan makes your opponents sad. Closed Accounts is my preferred tag punishment as well, so if you play against a lot of tag floaters go for it. I would also consider a third copy of Cell Portal or even Inazuma.

ABT works better in NEXT Design because you should be running a ton of ICE. Related, I used to run Director Haas's Pet Project. Was brilliant to score it when I had Cell Portal, Howler, and Whirlpool in hand.

Chimera can cost you early, but more importantly it can keep your opponent out early. Don't be afraid to not rez it except when you have to.

If you're running a NEXT Design version, don't underestimate how much the money from being Engineering the Future helps. I have spent a lot of turns clicking for credits, but they were turns well spent. I might try Private Contracts. Thing is, often times you don't need a lot of credits.

23 Jun 2014 zzzzzuu

Interesting 1 run 1 death concept!

However, I would be cautious of decks with e3 Feedback Implants, especially now that they're increasingly used due to presence of Overmind. e3 breaks Janus for 1 click 3 creds. That could throw a wrench in your plans... or plan.

23 Jun 2014 esutter479

I would think you'd have to spend another click to break an additional subroutine on Janus (since there's 4 to break)...so 1 click for the first BD, then credit from e3...then another click for the 3rd, then e3 again for the 4th. It doesn't say you can continue to e3-whore to break more than 1 in a row with it.

23 Jun 2014 zzzzzuu

Ah. As much as I hope you were right (I love Janus), there has been official ruling for that.

:(

23 Jun 2014 esutter479

WOW that ruling is cheese. That officially makes e3 the single most overpowered runner card.

23 Jun 2014 esutter479

Good lord, that's like having a Femme for less credits. Now I'm forced to run Hardware destruction too? That officially pisses me off.

23 Jun 2014 zzzzzuu

I lost 12 days of sleep after the ruling. e3 haunted my dreams. And also, urinary incontinence.

23 Jun 2014 esutter479

Heh, I hear ya man. I guess I'll have to consider Hourglass as a defense mechanism if those e3 Feedback Implants start popping up where I play every week (they haven't yet, thank god...but never say never).

23 Jun 2014 Cancer Ace

I hear you guys on E3, and I feel like more people should run it, but I rarely run into it currently. I think a lot of people running Overmind in Criminal run it for obvious reasons, but I am the only player I can think of who does that, since most people prefer Femme. Most Shaypers I see run Overmind prefer to run it with Scavenge and save themselves the influence. Anarchs usually just run Knight, or even Darwin.

The real danger of Overmind doesn't come from E3, believe it or not. Overmind, or any other AI breaker, can break Whirlpool and Howler.

All that being said, this is why I often feel that this deck "Only works once." Your biggest strength in this build is your opponent not being properly prepared, seeing that you don't have enough credits to rez your dangerous ICE and running on what they think will be an easy score. Snitch can actually be a problem as well.

All that being said, having play tested this build much more, I can say this much; don't get distracted from your actual goal. Draw cards and set up your combo. Don't try to play real Netrunner unless you need to. I'm considering pulling out the Mandatory Upgrades for this reason, but have not decided what to swap them for (probably ABT, but we shall see).

1 Jul 2014 esutter479

NAPD Contract might not be a bad swap out...tax the runner! :)