[startup] Lets Deck Some Corps! (8th @ GLC Startup CO, 2-3)

Nephralite 1

So this deck was originally designed to sabotage as fast as possible, and slowly evolved into the most fun aggro I've played in a while. Brought this to the GLC Startup CO (my first netrunner tournament!), alongside my (much better) RH deck, and went 2-2, making top 8, before getting swept in round 1 of top cut.

I think my original desciption of this deck sums it up pretty well:
Breakers? we got 2 mayflys for the whole game
Money? we're chronically broke
Cards? Just keep drawing, it'll solve all your problems
Core damage? If you end the game without taking 6 you haven't been sabotaging enough

This resulted in playing some of the silliest games ever seen, which is my kind of fun.

You probably shouldn't play this list (especially since startup rotation has happened as I finish this write-up), but if you'd like some thoughts on the aggro milling game plan then I have a few.

the most important part of forcing a corp to deck out is denying them their two win conditions of shooting you or scoring out, which leads to 3 key points:
1. don't get shot - one of the weirder choices in this list is T400 Memory Diamond, because hand size buffs when you take core damage are surprisingly good for keeping you alive
2. give them no time - the longer a game goes the more chance the corp finds the agendas they need to win and the more chance they get to score them. Sabotage helps solve this by making their deck smaller, but the fact I never added Imp to this list is frankly a crime
3. don't let them get enough agendas - Just because the goal is mill does not mean we shouldn't try score agendas, especially from R&D, because the corp cannot score an agenda they do not have. Hiding Mayfly and Botulus to steal from a scoring server was a very common play in this deck.

My biggest takeaway from this deck is that sabotage alone is not enough to sink a corp unless you get really lucky, you also need constant aggressive pressure on centrals. Does this deck have that? Not consistently enough, it just abuses Finality a lot.

0 comments