HB Blood Angel (Worcester Manaleak Winning Corp)

Cerberus 4880

This deck is all sorts of amazing, it hasn't lost a game yet in casual play and is currently undefeated in two tournaments.

Early game is has solid ETR Ice in the form of NEXT Ice, it also has Roto's and Ichi's to ensure that a Sentry breaker is always installed. It is also incredibly taxing, NEXT Ice become more and more expensive and Ichi's, Tollbooths, Eli's and Heimdall's are all a huge problem for runners. The economy in the deck is solid and is fully capable of supporting the rezzing of the expensive Ice.

The deck also threatens a flatline through the use of Punitive Counterstrike, this is not the primary win condition, but what I have found is that it can kill the runner in the late game when they score a 3 pointer as they often run low on credits due to the taxing Ice, or alternatively the runner sees this card in a Central Server and therefore won't run until they have the credit advantage or a Plascrete out. Both are extremely good for this deck.

I would like to get two cards into the deck, an Aggressive Secretary and an Archived Memories, both would do lots of work. However, I have no idea what to drop to fit them in.

8 comments
10 Aug 2014 Pinkwarrior

You could probably drop a couple of Ice for the aggressive & Archived 20 is quite alot. Id probably look at dropping 1-eli &1-ichi my self. you'll still have a decent enough number of em in the deck then.

I actually run even slimier my self at 16 Ice but i only run the one server not counting Jackson's and on rare occasion struggle early game with protection.

10 Aug 2014 Thike

Why the 3x ABT instead of 3x Vitruvius? Or even NAPD? PV would allows you to Punitive easier and NAPD would tax the runner before the kill.

11 Aug 2014 bayushidavid

I like it a lot. I run something similar, but with more focus on the flat-line threat to allow it to score earlier (http://www.netrunnerdb.com/en/decklist/8420/the-trooper). That has the side effect of making it a bit more unstable than yours looks to be.

Melange for Adonis is a switch that I might look at. Mine struggles on the economy and Melange does a lot more for economy if you can keep it out for a turn or two. However I would keep your ICE numbers high. Using Melange means you need a secure remote sooner rather than later.

I tried Agg Sec in mine and it was disappointing. If I have a decent scoring opportunity I want to score from it. If it's not a decent opportunity the runner doesn't fall for the trap.

I would second running 3x Vitruvius over ABT. A double-advanced Vitruvius is just nuts in this deck - whether for Punitive or Restructure.

My only concern/question is that I find Roto overpriced in these days of instant-speed parasite recursion everywhere.

11 Aug 2014 Cerberus

@Pinkwarrior I don't think dropping two ice is good for a glacier style deck. But one is worth considering. I think your build is a very different deck type with only 16 ice.

@Thike my reason for ABT over PV is that ABT ties in with the decks primary win strategy, which is taxing ice. It combined with Jackson Howard is amazing. I agree an over scored PV helps enable the flatline considerably and this has happened in one game, but its definitely a secondary win condition. I will test PV and a 2 of each and report back.

Thanks for the feedback, good things to consider.

11 Aug 2014 Cerberus

@bayushidavid seems like I definitely need to test PV as the main 3/2. I'm worried about needing to advance all my agendas as playing a card and the runner being unsure if its an Ash, Eve or an agenda is good.

I cannot recommend Melange in this build enough. With this and a taxing server it forces a runner to spend to trash it, or it turns on all of your expensive ice. Adonis doesn't have the same effect, as they will leave it to run its course.

I see what you are saying regarding Agg Sec, and as a 1 of, its unlikely to come at the right time and causes more R&D vulnerability.

Thanks

11 Aug 2014 DrunkenGineer

Looking at that Ice Strength graph, I'm seeing all sorts of trouble that an Atman0 and an Atman4 can cause. Have you ever found that to be a problem?

12 Aug 2014 Cerberus

@DrunkenGineer not found it a huge problem, Atman at 4 is strong against the deck (Rotos are included to force the Atman at 0), but the NEXT ice do good work to counter Atman, either with variable strength or by taxing with multiple subs.

13 Aug 2014 DrunkenGineer

Ah true, the NEXT are really good anti-Atman tech. I didn't realize that at first.