No-Show Rewiring CI (Worlds Runner-Up)

Here's my hot mess of a corp deck. It went 11-1, and it fits my specific playstyle of a modular combo deck with plural win conditions. They are, in order:

1: Use Brain Rewiring and Contract Killer to flatline the runner in the same turn. This is not innovative and usually uses Show of Force instead, but I went with two Boot Camps to find CK. This makes the easier combo of BW+CK extremely consistent (you only need two Kaguyas for a Contract Killer win compared to three for a Show of Force win). In exchange you can't win this way if they install any damage protection or are Geist, which is fine because you then

2: Fast advance 7 points. You can do all 7 in one turn but it's actually much faster and easier to FA an Efficiency Committee and then score 5 the following turn. I was usually winning around T7-9 by FA if I ignored the possibility of the Rewiring flatline. I disliked how Show of Force interrupted this possible line which led to cutting them entirely and making this easier to do should the runner steal a decent chunk of agendas. This likely was a mistake but I assumed the meta was unlikely to have both Clot lock and good damage prevention (I was wrong and had to play against it all weekend).

3: Emergency score behind dumb stacked mythic ICE. This would never have worked in this meta and the one match where I was totally shut down I tried it and lost.

The only cards I think that confused people were Vanilla and Consulting Visit. The Vanillas can be overwritten and allow for a gearcheck that forces installing a wasteful fracter while not costing you much. The Consulting Visit drew a lot of confusion and ire, but in my defense it can serve to either make one of your possible combos easier to perform if you're missing very specific pieces like the one-of Audacity, can find a current very consistently, or start the stupid Archived Memories Violet Level Clearance train. It used to be an IPO and it could certainly be better as such but it helped me be a bit more flexible in games in exchange for making the list less honed to a specific win condition.

My favorite game of the weekend was R7 against Weston Odom, where he Estrike'd me I believe T1 and I eventually had to FA an Eff Comm putting me at 2 credits. I then had to bait TWO Counter Surveillance whiffs in order to hope to win. One was by implying a flood on an empty HQ, the other was by keeping Mogo derezzed on R&D the whole game until he ran it and I rezzed it with a CVS to purge his God of War counters and keep him out. He had 0 recursion cards and I flatlined him shortly after, though after the game I realized the correct play was to score 7 one turn earlier with double Vitruvius and a Brain Rewiring for the value 7th point. In the Top 12 match I managed a T4 flatline against Asger which could have double purged through Clot if needed, which felt extremely dirty but wasn't needed since he drew suboptimally. I don't think I played amazingly against Dan in my one streamed game with the deck, but it was very exciting to play such a high-profile match on stream and he was a ton of fun to discuss theory with briefly post-game.

This may not be the best CI Rewiring deck, but I think it was the best one for me personally. It fits how I like to play combo Netrunner decks, and I really enjoyed my weekend with it even if I dislike how easily consistent a Rewiring flatline is. I think the most powerful and egregious card for the deck is Violet Level Clearance, which isn't a dangerous card in a vaccum but with the current card pool it makes CI blindingly quick regardless of what version of CI you play while removing its downsides entirely from the equation. CI as an ID will always run the risk of becoming problematic due to its ability to "circumvent" the inevitability of HQ agenda flood while stockpiling loads of powerful FA operations in a way you couldn't for any other ID. At the moment I do think it is a necessary evil until we receive new tools to help combat runners' ability to pressure an accessible HQ so effectively without having to slot cards like DBS or Whampoa. HB has always had a problem with mediocre IDs, and I hope we get a more powerful one soon so purple folks can play some respectable Netrunner again.

Thanks to all my opponents for being incredible sports and wonderful people, and I'm already looking forward to next year.