You Tricked Bro? (Draft, comments welcome)

Oisin 228

Here's my latest revision of my old You Cold Bro? deck. This was a FA hybrid of Nordrunner's Red Coats glacier deck that could respond to a runner's strategy and style by either building a scoring server, or turtling up and using Biotic (and Jackson to recur the Biotics) to score out of hand. The influence in that deck was used to slot what I consider the most efficient and taxing ice in the game--Wraparound, Lotus Field, and Tollbooth (along with Eli 1.0, Architect, and Ichi 1.0, which all come in faction).

This is, obviously, a different strategy built around three different ways of fast advancing cards. First, the standard Biotic Labor. Second, a combination of space ice and Trick of Light. Third, the rarely used Haas Arcology AI.

I got the idea for this revision from Darkshift07's Director Haas Glacier. That deck uses Director Haas as its sole method of fast advance--using a dedicated Red Coats strategy with ice and ash to tax the runner into submission. I like the idea, but I've tied up too much influence in ToL to run a massive ice package. So I've gone for a different style here--none of my ice is too painful, with the exception of Wormhole, put all of it is extremely cheap. 5 pieces rez for 4 credits, 3 pieces rez for 3 credits, 6 pieces rez for a single credit, and then there's Wormhole, which--practically speaking--rez's for 3 credits. Because it is so cheap, and because we are ETF, we can easily afford to place that ice 3-4 deep. And almost all of this ice ends the run (with the exception of Eli 1.0 and Architect).

The idea here is not to create a scoring server, but, rather, an annoying server. This can be any 2-3 pieces of ice--so long as it is going to cost the runner a click and some credits to get in. This annoying server then hosts 3 cards: NAPD Contract, Aggressive Secretary, and Haas Arcology AI. If you have an Ash 2X3ZB9CY, all the better. Now the runner has to make a two-tiered choice: first, is that an Aggressive Secretary? Second, if it isn't, do I have the credits to get an NAPD Contract? If they run, then great! That's less clicks and credits to attack your centrals. If they don't run, great! I just scored some points or got a cheaper Biotic Labor. And, if worst comes to worst, I can Trick of Light my Aggressive Secretary tokens onto an agenda.

As with any HB FA deck, the toughest part of this deck is knowing when to spend your credits. Do I go broke to Biotic Labor this turn? Or do I install-advance an NAPD?

To help with economy, I've made one other potentially odd choice: there's no Adonis Campaign in this deck. I've been playing HB since the first day I started playing Netrunner, and I only know one truth, ONE truth: Adonis Campaign gets trashed. On sight. Always. You cannot leave an Adonis Campaign unprotected. Because this deck 1) doesn't want to spare ice to protect any other remotes and 2) doesn't ever want to clog up the annoying server with econ, I'm going with PAD Campaign and Eve Campaign. These do get trashed sometimes--but not all the time. And their trash cost is much higher (so an Eve Campaign, unless you are playing Whizzard or Imp, means I spent a click and 2 credits to make the runner spend a click and 5). If you are playing Anarch, then you need to change the strategy a bit, and be very strategic where you put your Wormholes.

Note that Mother Goddess is in here for two reasons: early game it can help to score out an agenda against decks that do not play Inside Job or AI breakers. Late in the game, you can install it on the outside of a server to interrupt Cutlery shenanigans.

I'm still testing this deck out. I got very comfortable with my old deck, which had enough of a Red Coats feel to it that I didn't feel particularly vulnerable against any kind of runner deck. This deck is far more vulnerable to both Siphon recursion (since there's not a lot of ice here that would stop a criminal from hitting HQ--no Ichi 1.0 or Tollbooth to throw on the hand) and Eater/Keyhole (since only the Wormhole is going to crimp their style). But so far it is fun, and it has some resilience since it can score agendas early (real early) and from 1 credit.

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