Pirate Hayley - 1st at Bristol SC

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AFS 3.0 (Binbirb) 4th MK SC
Inspiration for
Captain Hook Hayley
Killer Croc (3rd @ Dragon's Lair SC)
Captain Hook Hayley - 1st at Montecchio Maggiore
Peaceful Pirate (1st place Fremont, CA Store Championship)
Captain Hook!
Freedom Through Piracy (1st @ Padova Regional)
Pirate Hayley
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Nemamiah 3996

Why is it called Pirate Hayley? Because it's got a hook and a bird in it.

Credit for this initial list goes to Catherine Underwood and Dave Saiya, who brewed it up for the Aldershot store championship one week before this event. Catherine published the list at the start of a four hour train journey I was on and it looked silly enough for me to want to mess around with. I tweaked it by souping up the draw, changing the restricted card to Levy and adding Tech Traders in. Spags then provided the most important innovation of all, which was the name.

To my surprise the resulting list is actually pretty good. I'm not sure it's as strong as the top runner decks, but Deep Data Mining is a kind of preposterous card if you keep playing it over and over again. It's also a nice deck to play because it's got a huge decision tree and it forces you to think creatively about what ice your opponent is likely to rez and how you plan to break it.

The basic flow of the deck is to find Tech Traders, one or two econ cards and some cheap draw early. Against a lot of decks you want Laguna down as fast as you can but you may never need to play it if you can find Astrolabe against asset decks. Try and get a Dhegdeer down early; at first it will give you a discount on the first run through your Grappling Hooks, then when you're a bit more set-up it will hold your Savant. Don't try and play Savant too early because it will hog your memory and you won't be able to afford it. One of the tricks with this deck is to ensure that you only have exactly the breakers that you'll need in play; don't play anything more than that or it'll spoil your Data Mining fun.

You have pretty good matchups across the board, and in particular will be decent against big ice decks (especially HB relying on lots of code gates) and Weyland rush, where you have a bunch of ways to break in to their remote early without compromising your late game. The deck tends to run poor early, which can make Stinson or Hard Hitting News an issue so try to play around that if you can.

This deck gets Ghabali in the next pack, which you should cut the worst three cards for (my current guess is a Same Old Thing, a Self Modifying Code and the Sacrificial Construct). That may also let you drop a Grappling Hook to free up some influence. Most importantly, the inclusion of a crocodile will mean that you'll have to change the name to Captain Hook Hayley.

You don't have to make pirate noises and flappy bird motions while playing this deck, and it won't help you if you do. I did anyway.

20 comments
25 Feb 2018 emilyspine

Yarrr!

25 Feb 2018 Cacoethesvictor

The bird motions and silly sound effects do help you win sometimes. I came close to being disqualified for justified violence. ;) Also @cerberus describes this deck as “BORING” I tend to agree. Well done on winning something. 2nd is cooler.

25 Feb 2018 Fruggles

What's the decision tree for using hooks/kongas against skorp?

26 Feb 2018 ChairmanHiro

I've been working on a very similar deck using Kabonesa instead of Hayley, though I did consider how useful Hayley might be dropping all those cheap resources. My version also includes Scavenge that I can spam on Lady and D4vid, though this makes me basically have to give up on DDM and go with indexing instead. I'd definitely be interested in comparing deck notes.

26 Feb 2018 Nemamiah

@Fruggles Against Skorp (assuming it's the traditional 'rush seven points behind ice) archetype it's important to make sure you're always threatening the remote, so you should only drop the DDM if you still have resources available afterwards.

I had a Sac Con because Skorp is very popular in the UK at the moment, but I think the matchup is still very good as long as you make the right runs at the right time. The other trick is to pop good but non essential stuff early in the turn (like Peddler or SMC) then, if they choose to Skorp it, you can safely DDM and spend some of your breakers.

26 Feb 2018 BizTheDad

Did you have a turn one Scarcity of Resources played?

26 Feb 2018 Nemamiah

I did not, but it will make you pretty sad. If you happen have found your Interdiction you'll be fine because you can then replay it as needed with Same Old Thing. If you haven't the best option is to setup what you can and try to land early DDMs (you may need to be a bit more aggressive with this than you usually would) in the hope of clearing it.

This is a standard problem for all Hayley lists though; this one is a bit more vulnerable because it has so many resources but on the flip side it's better at stealing agendas early than the traditional lock lists, and at least it has the capability to play a current of its own.

26 Feb 2018 emilyspine

@Nemamiahwhat happens if your opponent refuses to rez ice and denies you your tempo?

26 Feb 2018 Nemamiah

Accuse them of not playing 'Real Netrunner' and make obnoxious dinosaur noises until they relent

26 Feb 2018 ChairmanHiro

Or just enjoy the fact that 1/3 of their deck is now blank and get your free DDMs.

27 Feb 2018 spags

MY POWER IS UNMATCHED!

image cacaw

27 Feb 2018 emilyspine

@Nemamiahca caw!

1 Mar 2018 rumirumirumirumi

I like the deck and really enjoy playing it. I wonder if you have any advice on dealing with Jinteki glaciers. The current suite can't break DNA Tracker while Inti is installed, and I've found it difficult to threaten servers while both DNA Tracker and Chiyashi are rezzed.

1 Mar 2018 Nemamiah

So first off if you're finding that that's a persistent problem the best option is probably to find space for a second Dhegdeer (though you might have to make an upsetting cut like Interdiction or Diesel). Ideally I'd want two in this list to ensure that this isn't a problem, but as always slots are really tight.

Otherwise it's all about looking at the ice placement and working out what your best way to break each piece is. If there are barriers everywhere use Grappling Hook and Komgmato to break the Tracker and Inti for the barriers; if there aren't many then keep Savant at strength six and use the disposables on the barriers. Your approach might have to change as more ice comes down, so stay flexible.

1 Mar 2018 emilyspine

@Nemamiah I'll fit a second Dhegdeer if it kills me

2 Mar 2018 thunderfist

@Nemamiah At what point in the game do you want to Levy?

3 Mar 2018 Nick!

Thoughts on a single copy of "Freedom Through Equality"? I've found that finding the 7th point can be a little tough.

3 Mar 2018 emilyspine

@Nick! freedom through equality was in the precursor to this list for that exact reason! it combos nicely with DDM but slots are extremely tight. if you want to make room i'd start by cutting the sac con.

3 Mar 2018 Nick!

@emilyspine yeah, I’ve cut 1 Diesel, 1 Sac Con, 1 Same Old Thing, and 1 SMC for 3 Gbahali, 1 Dhegdeer, and 1 Freedom. Couldn’t find another card to cut so I’m just playing at 46 cards for now. Having the second current helps a lot in the scarcity matchups. Deck feels very strong

4 Mar 2018 Handsome Jack

My Navi Mumbai City Grid tech is finally paying off!