Missing the point v0.4

After going through a bit of testing this is 4-2 at the moment with every win a flatline of some sort.

Game 1: Played the venerable AlienToyShop on Octgn, who twigged immediately what was going on. ATS went on to win, but there was a point in the game where I rezzed ICE when it didn't matter, and if I'd saved the credits instead I could have Scorched Earth on my turn. Also was only 1 away a couple of times.

Game 2: Opponent ran HQ. I had 10. Rezzed Kitsune in to a Snare!. He elected to continue the run (foolishly by his own admission) and ate the other Snare! that was in my hand.

Game 3: Opponent bought the bluff and took the tag from Cerebral Cast. Followed it up with a Scorched Earth and a Neural EMP for the win.

Game 4: Opponent (Andromeda) siphoned me a bunch then peeped one of the Scorched Earths off an R&D run and immediately installed Brain Cage. Continued to wear the tags and eventually copped a double Scorched Earth because his hand size was still only 7.

Game 5: Lost heavily on jinteki.net to a Blackmail Val deck because they saw a Scorched Earth early and took their hand size up to 9. They took a brain damage from a Cerebral Cast and then won both the subsequent Cast psi games, so no idea if they would have taken the tag.

Game 6: My good friend zozozo/eph_bee/Frank took me on with foreknowledge of the deck. Thought I had him twice but for I've Had Worse to rear its ugly head. Got the win eventually thanks to popping a brain damage with Cerebral Cast and then 2 Neural EMPs, but MaxX made me work for it.

I really like this deck. It works surprisingly well, because you really want the runner to come at you as much as possible. This is encouraged by your ID ability, which rewards (or rather mitigates punishment for) early aggressive running. The other benefit is that by its nature the style of play required (drawing lots and clicking for credits often) makes it look like you're having a really bad time of things, and that the runner has windows to penetrate your defences.

The key is to not telegraph the tags of the intention. If you can hide the Scorched Earths from the runner then you will surprise them. This is the reason Cerebral Cast and also Tennin Institute: The Secrets Within are perfect here. People will (hopefully) see your ID and mentally trash their Plascretes before they've even drawn them.

Cerebral Cast and Snatch and Grab are your main tag engines here. The runner may oblige by Siphoning you a couple of times and not clearing the tags, or they might cop a Snare! tag that they can't do anything about, but it seems to be an autoreaction to clear a Snare! tag these days.

Basically you want to use these cards because the runner will likely assume that taking the tag is the better of the two options. Cerebral Cast is great for punishing runners, because if you land 3 (feasible if you Jackson Howard some back in) they're within range of a triple Neural EMP if they take the damage every time anyway. Snatch and Grab helps deal with a reliance on Kati Jones and Aesop. If you can threaten a 12-18 credit Kati, the runner would be silly not to take the tag, right?

The composition of the deck has changed a little since v0.1. Philotic Entanglement is in for NAPD Contract in case the runner gets lucky with early aggro and you want to punish that.

I added 2x Shock! and switched the PAD Campaign for Melange Mining Corp. because there's enough to bait runs anyway. The upgrades are gone as there's not enough ICE to regularly rely on Marcus Batty and Hokusai Grid wasn't doing any work.

Medical Research Fundraiser has been replaced with Restructures because as ATS pointed out, nothing screams kill deck like giving the runner money. The two Wormholes are gone for a third Scorched Earth for consistency, and the ICE has been varied up a bit, but is otherwise Jinteki Bullshit.

It's a bit of a wild ride, and sometimes feels like you won by the skin of your teeth, but it always feels like a real battle of wits with the runner and I like that. It feels like real Netrunner.

Testing continues, but I'm really happy with how this deck is doing. All the decks I've played so far have been great but it's not come up against PPVP Kate or Noiseshop yet so I don't know how it does against the Top Tier, but I imagine a Snatch and Grab against Noise would be quite effective.