Replicating Demise

London InterCity qualifier Dec 2015, 4-1

London Team: UK's second InterCity (Edinburgh) Jan 2016, 2-3

Hear me discuss the deck with the rest of the London team in Episode 6 of the Facecheck Podcast

As mentioned on Run Last Click! (about 13:30 into the episode)

Spoilers: Everyone dies

Game plan

This deck has lots of ways of killing the runner:

1. Project Junebug
2. Ronin
3. Fetal AI
4. Neural Katana
5. Philotic Entanglement
6. Komainu / House of Knives
7. Komainu / Marcus Batty
8. Neural Katana / Marcus Batty
9. Neural Katana / Inazuma
10. Marcus Batty / Ichi 1.0 / Inazuma / Neural Katana

and so on.

All of these are supported by the incredible Genetics Pavilion, which I'll talk about more later on.

The quantity of net damage in this deck means that in addition to the standard -tax provided by Replicating Perfection (and Enhanced Login Protocol), the runner is subject to a card-tax. The variety of net damage in the deck means that you can let the runner kill themselves however they are playing. Replicating Perfection kill decks are unusual and a lot of people will just die, often very quickly. If they're being aggressive then Fetal AI or Project Junebug are likely to kill them. If they sit back you can surprise them with Ronin or a late-game Philotic Entanglement score.

Scoring out is also an option (especially if the runner grows weary of hitting traps) but flatlines are much more common. With Global Food Initiative in the deck it's much harder for the runner to win on points, which gives them time to die.

How to drive

Winning with this deck means being comfortable playing traps and bluffing out agendas . If you like playing Poker, give it a whirl...

ICE

Get spiky ICE on the centrals as early as you can to stop the runner easily bouncing across to the remotes. Komainu, Inazuma, Wall of Thorns and Crick are all examples of ICE that's nice to have on the outside. Neural Katana is best placed somewhere the runner is likely to try and get into so you can kill them with Marcus Batty.

Agendas

Score House of Knives whenever you can, it is one of the best cards in the deck. Save the tokens for impactful runs - I try to avoid using it unless there's a good chance of killing them that turn. It's particularly potent when you've scored more than one because that means for them to access a remote you can deal 4 net damange! (one from each HoK for the required central run and then the remote run).

You don't really want to have to score Fetal AI, but in some games it can be useful to do so. It works well as a trap with Mushin No Shin because it doesn't take any credits to trigger and if they leave it you can score it later for the final two points.

I like to try and leave Philotic Entanglement out bare if I see it early on. Unless they check it straight away they'll assume it's a Snare! and it can very often win you a game that was going badly.

Genetics Pavilion

This card is phenomenal. Often the runner won't trash it because drawing two cards still feels ok. It costs 5 to trash plus the two (or more clicks as well as whatever tax is inflicted by the ICE.

In a deck that is designed to tax the runner's cards, limiting their draw is fantastic.

Levy AR Lab Access says "Draw 5 cards". This won't be possible while Genetics Pavilion is rezzed so if they play it either they suffer a huge tempo hit or you kill them next turn with Ronin or Philotic Entanglement.

I've Had Worse is also subject to this restriction so at best they'll get two cards from it. At worst they'll have already drawn a couple of times and it'll do nothing.

Snare!

Snare! isn't in this deck because deck slots are tight and it costs too much to trigger. However, the runner doesn't know that and they'll almost certainly play around it even though it isn't there. You can take advantage of this by e.g. installing Philotic Entanglement and House of Knives in a blank remote (make sure you have at least 4). I use this playmat to help maintain the illusion.

Good Luck, Have Fun!