RH in an ill fitting suit and fake mustache (9th@Uk Nats)

This deck went 4-1 at UK nats, ending at 9th place. (I ended up playing 3 swiss games in a 7 round event, isnt DSS silly). My round 3 game is on stream to watch, where unfortunately time got called when I, on 6 points, was getting ready to Big Deal a lone Regenesis for the win.

After the win of SnaRH! at the last AMT, it should come as no surprise that a large part of the TAI breakers have been very high on punitive RH post worlds. I was late to join that trend, but as i observed games I noticed a bunch of patterns about the deck, all of which are greatly improved by having a nice and busted ID ability.

UPDATE: SINGAPOORE NATS & NOV AMT

Also took this deck to Singapoore nats and the november AMT, with the single change of -1 NGO +1 anoetic. In both events combined the deck lost a single game (out of 8 games).

Play Pattern the First - Remote Camping

The basic RH combo is to discard a Bacterial Programming into archives, so that if the runner ever runs you feed them a second agenda from RnD and then punitive them for 6 damage. With a self-protecting archives, you can then score Regenesis much easier.

But a 4/3 agenda isn't anything unless you can actually secure its server to score it. Because of this, the easiest way to frustrate the RH gameplan is to camp early remotes for possible regeneis even if taking some Attini is required.

Against this strategy, AgInfusion is king, if you want to contest an early AgInf remote, you need a decoder for the outermost Vampyronassa, a killer for the Saisentan that was rezzed in a central remote, and fracter to get through the innermost Tatu-Bola. And if you dont find all of that with 2 clicks to spare, you are still locked out.

Play Pattern the Second - Never Advance Bait

One of the most powerful things that the RH can do is make any unadvanced card in a remote extremely threatening, specially after you scored the first Regenesis. But RH lists have very little space for assets that represent this threat. This is why the innovation of Snare! was so effective, runners must run the cards in the remote or risk being down 4 points.

The problem is that RH has very few assets to threaten runs with, if one or two rashidas are down, spin doctor is the only thing that can force a run through a remote that isn't an agenda. Because AgInf has extra space and extra need for economy, we can fix both those problems and put in more assets with a single stone.. mining license.

Pushing out a regolith to soften up a runners money before a proper agenda push was a common play with this deck that put me in excellent positions.

Play Pattern the Third - Over-reliance on Anoetic Endgames

It is not uncommon for this archetype to do its thing and score a blazing fast 4 points, but then have a hard time with the last 3 points. The only most reliable way to get the last points is to stick an anoetic in the remote, and then push out a 5/3 without little chance for runner interaction.

The issue with this is that your hopes will get very quickly dashed by a timely pinhole or ltf. Here Ag reprises its role in the creation of pinhole proof monster remotes.

Now, with all of that said, you might reasonably ask why there is only 1 anoetic in this list. The only explanation I can give is that past me was possessed by an evil spirit when making that decision. I got thankfully bailed out in so that anoetic always showed up in my games when I needed it, but if anyone is planning to play the deck, do replace the NGO with a second anoetic.

Play Pattern the Fourth - Oh No, my opponent has a turbine, what now?

Even with the immunity to pinholes, all of our big strength ice get made incredibly sad by a turbine in the runners rig. To the point where running an anoetic remote 3 times to stop as score is very much a possibility.

For this scenario, we have the big innovation, if the runner is going to effortlessly camp our remote, how about we don't give them the opportunity and go straight from scoring a regenesis to winning from hand.

Big Deal also makes runner steals of Bacterial really scary, even if its not in archives or if they have a way to survive 6, because a bacterial pile could very easily contain a Big Deal and 5/3, leading to an immediate win.

We do have to sacrifice a spin and a YDL for the priviledge of these wins, but it is more than worth it. Simulation Resets are incredible at assembling your combo and fishing for regenesis anyway. And even with -1 YDL and a bigger decksize, the only game where I didn't have the money to land a theoretical kill was one where I had used a YDL for value to push out a winning agenda, so it made no difference. (though note that unless it is winning you the game with a push to 7, you should avoid value YDLs, since we have fewer of them)

A note on odds

The one cost getting the busted ag ability and extra influence is that we have to play a sligthly higher deck. Because of that, it is slightly more important to put a bacterial in archives preferably only if you have drawn a punitive already. Obviously you don't need aggresively discard with this deck, since it doesn't give you credits like RH,

A baseline for odds that you can go off in games is: lets say you've draw 10 cards for this game, and seen no punitives. You then have a ~55% chance to see one in your bacterial digs (accounting for a potential second bacterial, but not the 5 cards you'd see off a simulation reset dig). That will sometimes be worth gambling (or bluffing), but, specially if your opponent has reasons to run archives early, it can be worth holding off until you have the secured kill in hand. [for context, with 44 decksize, the odds are 62% in that same situation]