Hatsune Týrku is going to beat you to death (4th @ Warwick

AceEmpress 554

The Tournament

This is the Thunderbolt that got me to 4th in the latest Warwick CO. Specifically, it's the exact version of the deck I bought to that tournament - hence the distinct lack of NGO Front, which should be in place of the Greasing the Palm and at least one other card which I can't find the brain to cross reference right now. This, friends, is why when your partner asks "hey do you need any proxy printing" you should have the latest version of the list in front of you as you check your physical deck. Despite that, it performed very well, going 2-1 and only losing to Lap, who went undefeated. because of not seeing enough money. (The exact same fate I found in testing that lead to slotting the NGOs, but he is a strong enough player that I think even with more money all I could have done is put up a fight).

Huge, huge, huge thanks as always to harmonbee for hosting, and to everyone who came up here to play - it was an absolute blast and just an incredibly fun day all around! It was a wild mix of decks and seeing people and coming back into Netrunner after a busy final term of Uni and it's left me incredibly hyped to do more stuff over the coming months

The Deck

When Thunderbolt was spoiled I was very intriuged by it - caring about subtypes is a cool design space and the derez package has uses other than the unpleasant frustration of Stegodon MK IV into Formicary! It's taken a lot of tuning to get it here, but the deck has been my pet project since the set was spoiled and I think it's slowly starting to get to a place where it sings. The effect of the ID is hard to evaluate on paper, but in practice it's usually "AP or Destroyer ice cost 3c more to break on the run they're rezzed" - the strength boost means a lot of things change breakpoints, while the extra sub means Boomeranging through hurts and even the dreaded Physarum Entangler has to pay a tad more.

I want to get this out before sorting other stuff today so I don't have the time at the moment for a deep dive into card choices (it's something I'd definitely like to do in the future!) but the gist is:

Money is crucial early to be able to represent threats and go at a decent pace - ideally you want to force the runner to interact before they're ready because of that extra early tax, but you have the tools to go longer. The cash density of Regolith is ideal for this, but the smattering of faster stuff and advanceables helps a lot too.

Vovô Ozetti is just pleasant at base and stellar once you have any kind of derez tool - he even makes Regolith Mining License free to rez at threat which is a nice party trick.

Stegodon MK IV or Brasília Government Grid both offer a late game package to apply a frankly unfair amount of tax - ideally you can have an unrezzed ice to threaten with because between a Stegodon (which triggers off any derez), Brasilia, and your ID, you can give an ice effectively +6 strength to crush the soul of breakers with poor boosts.

A scored Lightning Laboratory suddenly lets you play incredibly greedily and from low credits because your ice is so scary - it even lets you spring a Bloop on someone with no prior Harmonics.

Cloud Eater wins games :)

Hopefully I'll get my runner up soonish, but it's just the same Lat I've been playing a lot of recently because I had him printed off - it's not as exciting as this wild ride! In a week or two with a bit more time on my hands I'll sort out a proper writeup and in depth discussion of card choices because this is a deck I want to talk about but I'm in a bit of a rush right now and I want to remember to claim with this while it's on my mind.

2 comments
27 May 2024 rotage

Nice list, been wanting to see some Thunderbolt lists. Is Tithe work looking at as it is a cheap AP plus it could be a nice derez target

28 May 2024 AceEmpress

Tithe is potentially interesting and I hadn't considered it - in my experience the limiting factor on derezzes has usually been the runner not giving many opportunities to rez ice, rather than not being able to afford them. It also doesn't hit a strength breakpoint for most things tax-wise, so it doesn't get the same scale of benefit - it's efficient but maybe not as effective in terms of end result. That said, having a very cheap annoying ice for low money starts helps in other way, so it's definitely worth trying out.