Murder on the Dance Floor

Picture the scene; you're at a Netrunner tournament. It's loud, you're maybe a tad nervous, some of the people here seem like GAMEDRAGON™ Pro tier players. Let me give you a little something-something that'll help level the playing field...

Some incredibly talented people will tell you how cool and busted Fast Advance Nebula is. They might be right, but those decks want you to carefully manage your hand and risk profile. That, is a lot of effort, what if it was easier? What if you could just offload all that thinking to your opponent while you just play what shows up in HQ?

Make your opponent play a technically correct game, make them do credit maths, make them think about the risks.. they're going to sway to our rhythm not the other way around.

The Intro

When someone sits down across from Nebula, they don't know what they're up against. At least right now I'd wager they're probably thinking pure Fast Advance. Maybe there's a little nagging though that you might be Measuring Your Response. Maybe they wonder why your sleeves have Snares on. The important thing is their wheels are almost certainly already spinning. Point. Us.

First Verse

See now here's the thing, this is not-so-secretly still a Fast Advance deck. There are just enough pieces to win that way and we definitely want to threaten that, but it's the B-side.

Still we want to open the same way as a Fast Advance deck, so ICE up centrals, almost-never make a remote, make some money and welcome people into Gemilang Arena. Get some agendas out of hand and into the score area. Tell your opponent not to worry about that False Lead. You just needed another x/3.

The Chorus: F-F-F-Fast Advance

The safest place for agendas is in the score area. Some ways to get them there:

• On the Nebula side (x/3 only):
  • Greasing The Palm to remove a tag or with Sudden Commandment
• At Gemilang Arena:
  • Petty Cash from archives
  • Greasing The Palm
  • Sudden Commandment
  • Touch-ups
  • Technically you can score Next Big Thing with full power Sudden Commandment into Greasing The Palm removing a tag
    • If you pull it off in a tournament game, I'll buy you lunch

The Beat

Let me take you on a quick tour of the Danger Zone:

• Standard solution: Touch-ups + End of the Line // Measured Response
  • Note you can target Mestnichestvo for Touch-ups so you should always have the option, at Gemilang Arena you can also install an agenda
  • At Gemilang Arena you can even do 2 of
• Gemilang Arena + Successful run + <8 credits: Touch-ups + Public Trail + End of the Line
• Threat 4 +<8 credits: Public Trail + End of the Line + Measured Response
• <4 cards in hand +<8 credits: Public Trail + End of the Line
• 2 tags? End of the Line End of the Line bby

Touch-ups solves a lot of problems at the cost of needing to think a little about your opponent's deck composition. Being able to bypass the classic counter of Steelskin Scarring is well worth it. If in doubt, name event, and if it doesn't put them at <4 cards then you've only had to spend the one card and probably have some Mestnichestvo counters to show for it.

Making tags stick:

• Oppo Research on its own can be enough, 4 clicks and 8 credits is a lot to ask while the runner also needs the credits for dodging Measured Response and or Public Trail
• Oppo Research + False Lead should be illegal
  • Generally you want to forfeit False Lead opportunistically at the last possible moment (after an action that leaves 2 clicks remaining) when the runner has tags but against Criminal you may want to consider it on 3 clicks remaining to prevent Lie Low taking the runner from 3->1
• Behold can often do it in combination with False Lead or Ping
• Generally let False Lead do the hard work, once it's in the score area if they ever run facedown ICE with only 2 or 0 clicks left you can get them with Ping or other tagging ICE if they lack a sentry breaker

The Refrain

Sit back, relax, make some money, put some agendas in the score area, then kill the runner the moment they make a mistake.

The Strings Panic

Sometimes your hand will get overloaded with things, some heuristics:

• Keep Touch-ups + End of the Line + Measured Response in hand if possible
• Let your Spin Doctors do their job and shuffle agendas back in
• If you're not worried about Deep Dive, then you can let your opponent take a Next Big Thing just so you can shuffle agendas back
  • Do some Oppo Research on them while they're there
• Behold does good work in hand, but Runners do be curious about cards you install on the board
• People get antsy when you play Public Trail, sometimes paying 4 to make the runner lost 8 is a good deal

Pulling The Plug

The main counter to this style of deck is to pack your efficient breakers and multi-access, maybe a Cupellation or two. Sabotage can also be effective since it's likely to mess with both plans and over-tax Spin Doctors.

To protect yourself from the kill, real or virtual hand size via Marrow, T400, Lat, Lilypad, or Stoneship is your best bet. Tag dodging via No Free Lunch is OK, but not ideal.

Outro

I hope you enjoy flatlining some runners as much as I do <3