Boring Deck (3rd @ American Conts 2024)

Enjoying the life update

Keep it boring Mr. Paraglider ;)

I do have a few questions:

Specific to the deck.

1. Why Revolver only as a sentry breaker? It seems that if you need to run through Saisentan multiple time, you will run out of Simulchip.
2. Why Cupellation?
3. Why not use Bahia Bands instead of Build Script?
4. Why not use Daily Casts instead of Telework Contract?
5. Why no Cataloguer?
6. What would you have changed, after the competition?

Related to the competition : What meta (corp wise) were you expecting?

Cheers!

"Nothing fancy."

Just your regular old Pressure Spike, Revolver, Pelangi shaper rig. Nothing to see here.

"Boring deck."

What a ruse.

Congrats and WP!

@Kikai hehe okay I'll admit the breaker suite is a pretty cool and dynamic machine

Hi @Diogene!

1. Revolver is the most cost-efficient sentry breaker and the deck's ability to break ice is weakest early. I have yet to play a game where I've ran out of Revolver counters in such a manner where I was unhappy that my sentry breaker was Revolver. It's just a matter of using the counters efficiently and only running when you need to. Simulchips, credits, pelangi counters, it's all just different forms of currency. If you play a different sentry breaker and you need to run through a 4 strength sentry multiple times then you'll probably run out of money
2. Cuppellation can be tutored with SMC, can be recurred with Simulchip, and is all of the following: HQ multiaccess, combo disruption, saves credits when trashing high cost things, beats persistent effects like AMAZE or Tucana, and is a way of trashing cards that beats Warroid Tracker, Hostile Architecture, Oppo, Active Policing, AR-Enhanced Security
3. No reason really. Bahia could be better. Build Script is always reliable whereas Bahia has a higher ceiling but may not always be playable. Build Script was a late addition and the deck was already very good so I just chose the always consistent and reliable option.
4. As a 1x, they're about the same for Lat. Casts is worse against Working Prototype and against tags. At a lower cost it's easier to just throw telework onto the board to get cards out of hand quickly for a Lat draw
5. Why do we need Cataloguer?
6. Nothing. Maybe Bahia Bands instead of the Build Script is a decent shout but the deck performed perfectly over the weekend

Honestly, I don't know. I knew that Sportsmetal had made a good showing in Boston so I expected some amount of Sports, but otherwise, I was expecting to see random decks and I would figure it out game by game.

That's such an interesting list, thanks for posting. Looks like my kinda play style, if I ever get good enough to pilot such a deck haha :)

A Couple questions though 1) Why the one of Fermenter? And would you ever tutor for it with SMC?

2) With 3 Overclocks and Trick Shots, are you not a bit low on real credits to install things. Especially if SMCs don't shot up early enough (like what do you do if they're in the bottom half of the deck or so and you draw a lot of Overclock/Trick Shots early?)

3) How do you deal with mass Tags? Or did you not expect there to be such a thing after the Bellona ban?

4) In general what's the gameplan? Just control remotes/disrupt corp win con until you can run hand with a cup snap some agendas and win from there?

@TheRobin Thanks! It’s a really fun way to play the game and is a great way of practicing Netrunner fundamentals.

1. The Fermenter and the Build Script could probably be justifiably swapped for many things. The Fermenter is a great econ card tho! Let it sit there and cook to 5 or 6 counters. If the corp purges then it stays ticking and you get a free turn. I have used SMC and Simulchip for it in asset matchups. The list used to have 2x Fermenter and no Clot. Now with 1 and 1, Fermenter will show up less consistently but it’s still a great card when it does show.

2. That can happen! And life will be tough! If you’re against an asset deck then the Overclocks and Trick Shots can be useful to trash stuff and slow the corp down. If you’re not against an asset deck (like PD) and you draw your run events and don’t draw SMC then you check out Round 2 of the stream where I got wrecked 😄. The key is to find the first SMC and then delay using that as long as possible (and Simulchip can be used for SMC if you really need to). This IS a small issue that needs to be kept in mind. Prioritizing drawing cards during gameplay is important

3. All NBN decks got significantly worse without Bellona and this deck was doing fine before the bans. Getting Paricia early with SMC and keeping assets off the board will keep most tag decks away from having money. From my experience (prior to the Bellona ban), this deck has the econ to stay on top of tag decks and I never had a problems with that.

4. That’s exactly right! Pay attention to what the corp is trying to do and respond to their threats (only after you’ve assessed that there is actually a threat you need to respond to). If the corp is not threatening anything then you draw cards, gain credits, and improve your board so that you’ll be ready when a threat does show up. You need the find the right balance of interaction: if you ignore the corp too much then it might be too late by the time you try to interact, but every time you do make a run, you should ask yourself “what is the corp actually threatening to do? How does my run impact their plan?”

I’m planning to do a stream this weekend and I’ll likely play some games with Lat to showcase how to go about navigating games with this deck

Thanks you for the detailed explanation, much appreciated :) I'm looking forward to seeing that stream then, unfortunately I can't join live because timezones.

Oh, also a couple more question about the Asset spam matchups, if that's okay.

How often do you check facedown assets? And more generally, do you try to keep their econ assets off the table, or just looking to find their win-con assets?

How does this deck deal with Saisetan and Anansi? With Jinteki in the meta, Revolver as the only sentry breaker seems like a liability. Did you find the combination of Pelangi, Stoneship, and Simulchip cycling to be sufficient, or are you thinking about other solutions?

@TheRobin in most situations against assets you should only check cards when you're willing to trash stuff. Contesting econ should always be plan A. Usually this deck can play an econ event, throw down Paricia (with SMC), and then check stuff. I usually check until my Paricia is empty. Again, if you're checking things but are unwilling to trash Marilyn Campaign then you probably shouldn't be checking. Usually running just to check for agendas and Rashidas is NOT better than ignoring the board and just dealing with the consequences of not running. Get Paricia early and control the board with the support cast of other cards usually works quite well

@Disk Elemental I have found the Pelangi and Simulchips to be sufficient in supporting the Revolver. If a jinteki opens with all 3 Seisentans then things can get very tricky but in most cases I have found that limiting runs to only the necessary ones ensures the sentry breaking situation remains sustainable. If you try Echelon (or maybe you have other ideas), you will quickly find 4+ strength sentries to be a huge pain. Such is the give and take of netrunner deckbuilding decisions :)

@Sokka after playing twenty-ish games with the list, I came to the same conclusion. Having 'limited' breakers feels scary, but in practice free breaking makes it less limited creds. I never once had a situation where Revolver counters were a limiting factor--just needed in a change in perspective to realize it.

Went 3-1 with this list at OtG, only dropped a single round in a game where I had to draw through more than half the deck before finding a SMC.

Amazing list, dude, seriously. This is the kind of thing that reminds me why I love Shaper.

@Disk Elemental Thank you! Hearing you enjoyed it and it’s doing well for you makes me very happy! 😊

Yeah the whole “find the first SMC quickly or else Overclocks and Trick Shots start to clog” is the biggest bottleneck with the deck. It doesn’t happen often and this is why there’s 3x Chartroom to help thin the deck and get the list as consistent as possible.

Thank you for the awesome list! as a new player that still hadn't found a runner deck that felt fun and comfortable this was awesome.

The deck is built in a way that resembles a MTG deck in its gameplan where you want to keep building a board while limiting trades to be as positive as possible.

I really appreciate that it forces you to take a step back and properly assess the board instead of panicking and trying to foolishly chase the corp around.

Thank you for helping me enjoy playing runner!

@Rene Reed I’m so glad to hear about your experience! Thank you for sharing and welcome to Netrunner! 😊

I always tell new players to focus on fundamentals when learning the game. This requires playing decks that aren’t trying to do fancy things. Decks like this one allow you to focus on learning the fundamentals of the game without having to think about any fancy win-cons or complex abilities. Many popular decks are popular because draw your attention to the deck. This deck draws your attention to playing runner; which, as I said earlier, is the funnest part of the whole game

Have you thought about Into the Depths, maybe replacing Dirty Laundry? You can use each of the choices (though admittedly charging doesn't seem super necessary), so it'd be strictly better on iced servers. How often do you find yourself Dirty Laundry'ing a no-ice server?

@bbnumber2 that’s definitely not a change you want to make. I would say at least 70% of the time I play Dirty Laundry it is on a no-ice server. Making this swap will clog a lot of hands; Into the Depths is a dead card if you can’t get past ice and that’s going to cause a lot of earlygame headaches. On turn 1 Laundry can be played after installing Aniccam which is a very good start. Laundry is also a key card when contesting asset decks without falling behind on setting up.

Have you ever considered changing the Script for a Hush? I'd think Hush would be rather flexible in dealing with a lot of things that are otherwise potentially problematic or taxing

@TheRobin Hush was in earlier versions of the deck. I cut it because I felt it wasn’t doing enough. When it’s good it can be very good; but when it’s not good it’s a safety blanket for piece of mind at best and a dead card otherwise. Especially with Bellona getting banned which decreases the sightings of Funhouse, I felt I would rather play a card that is always decent (Build Script) rather than a card more polarizing like Hush.

I will say I seem to be fairly alone in this take tho. I think the vast majority of players will elect to put Hush in this deck and they will value it more than the Build Script (or Bahia Bands). I prefer the simple life: as many cards possible as active cards at all times.

I see, yeah that makes sense. So far the Build Script has been very nice; always solid, never not wanted :)

Hi, I played your deck 20ish times and I am having issue with Neurospike / Reeducation Azmari. Any tips?

And second question, what are your targets for DJ Fenris beyond Steve Cambridge? I saw in one of the replay you chose Quitzal. Can you (or anyone else), please, elaborate? thx

@IvanP Reeducation Neurospike decks usually are all-in on killing you with that combo. Any other win condition (like scoring to 7 points) is very weak because they need to score three 3-pointers. Also, their ice is usually a bunch of cheap ice that end the run (known as gear-checks). Installing Stoneships as you draw them should be good enough to prevent you from dying as you set up. So from the very start of the game you should just focus on setting up your board as efficiently as possible without worrying at all about what the corp is doing. Get cards installed, Ocerclock/Trick Shot your breakers, and get lots of money. You should be able to get Lat draw every turn. If they ever install a naked card then you should always run it to force them to rez Spin Doctors (because that can be how they kill you through yoour Stoneship(s)). Once you're set up, since all the ice is gearchecks and your breakers are efficient, you should be able to run the remote whenever you need to. Once you're set up, you can also go Cupellation an important operation out of HQ. Watching the replay above against Azmari and following the decisions I make will be quite useful.

As for DJ: it's almost always Steve. There are so many econ events in this deck that it's a lot of value to recur them (and get HQ accesses at the same time). Sometimes tho if HQ is too expensive (4 or more credits is too expensive) then other IDs can be more value. Sable can be useful for the Deep Dive sometimes in a rare situation where maybe you want to Deep Dive soon, can't find Hannah, and HQ is too expensive to get Steve value. Quetzal can sometimes be extremely good. Pressure Spike can be clunky to use sometimes and is 3 or more credits to break any barrier with more than 1 strength. Quetzal is great against Tree Line or Akhet. In the above match against Ob, that was a situation where I hadn't yet found Pressure Spike or SMC and I was up against an Ob that was clearly looking to rush out (which is information that can be inferred via the existence of Wraparound in the deck). On the turn I installed DJ Quetzel, I wanted to get into that remote to steal any agenda or trash any Regolith or Rashida that might be in there. It was a way of getting past that Wraparound this turn and every other turn in the future for free. HQ already costs at least 3 credits to break into later in the game so Steve wasn't looking great.

Against Rush Ob if you draw DJ early you can also DJ for Los. I usually like this if I am in this situation because Rush Ob has a lot of gearcheck ice you can bounce off and they also rez ice on their turn with Tucana.

Against asset decks MAYBE you can DJ for Loup. I have yet to do this but I can see this being good. Essentially, this is all just a judgement of value that you'll have to make based on the situation you are in

Thank you for a very detailed reply. As a relatively new player, I appreciate this deck to teach me "good netrunner" (as you have mentioned in your stream), but at the same time it requires so much knowledge of the card pool and corps that at times it feels overwhelming (e.g. you inferring rush ob from wraparound). Any tips here, especially in regards to current meta?

@IvanP this all improves as you play more games, understand decks, and begin thinking about deckbuilding. I would suggest not thinking too much about the current meta and what the competitive field looks like. Instead, focus on improving your fundamentals: plan out your turns, build your own board, don't spend money where you don't need to, and make runs with purpose. The higher level understandings will naturally come

I think this is the best way to optimize your time with the game. If you spend enormous amounts of time trying to understand the current meta and the current powerful decks, that can all be wiped out by a change in banlist or a set rotation which leave you back at square one

it doesn’t try to win in one turn with 3 copies of Deep Dive

@Sokka please point me towards the deck that does this! :D

@percomis it’s a deck that comes from Netrunner’s favourite astronaut @maninthemoon

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