The Dark Side Of The Moon

This deck is inspired by Pink Floyd's 1973 song Brain Damage. It explores themes such as mental instability and the struggles that are associated with it and then kills the runner. "I'll see you on the dark side of the moon" is often quoted whilst using this deck especially after the runner suffers brain damage and most certainly when the runner flatlines.

The main idea behind this deck is simple: flatline the runner. If the runner is not careful this can easily be done by Cerebrals, Fenris and on the odd occasion Viktor 1.0. Even if the runner is careful, Markus Batty in a server with a Fenris or Viktor is great: they either play Psi for brain damage or they do not run the server. Great for r&d protection. Or in a remote with Melange...just keep getting money off that Melange and they will come in sooner or later otherwise you are genrally set for the rest of the game after three to four turns of clicking Melange. You then replace it with an agenda and continue on but with 30+ credits.

Self-Destruct Chips also help reduce the runners handsize and allow for flatlines. Snare!s are in there to finish off the runner. Keep them in hand, a lightly protected or unprotected HQ (not against siphon decks obviously) is good and with only two or three cards in hand means there is more chance of them hitting one.

Defective Brainchips is great to put an extra brain damage on. Runners are reluctant to run a server with an upgrade when this is on the board so use it to your advantage. Double advance cards in a remote if they know you are running ambushes. They will be reluctant to run the remote especially if Defective Brainchips is on the board. This is good especially in a weak remote you both know they can get into. You play the mind games with them.

There are only eight agendas so you should not get flooded but you do have jacksons there. I prefer to use the Jacksons for Markus Battys, Snare!s and Cerebral Overwriters and then econ but if you are flooded you obviously want to get rid of the agendas. Only having either agendas means Defective Brainchips stays around longer too.

Matchups where this is pretty much an auto-lose are ones that increase the runner's handsize (Beach Party, Public Sympathy). There is no reason for the runner not to run remotes or potential Markus Batty servers. Even with landing three brain damage they will go down to three hand size if you are lucky There is no pressure on the runner. Noise is not so great either as you want to recur the cards mentioned above to keep the runner guessing.

This deck is not going to be top tier even when perfectly piloted as it does rely on the runner making a bad play. However, it is fun to play* if you are looking for something different.

• This deck may not be fun to play if you are the runner.