Gauss Rifle (5-2 Gencon, 2nd)

For those uninitiated, the reason why this deck is called "Gauss Rifle" is due to its similarity to @dien's Railgun. Railgun's are generally much simpler to build and fire, whereas Gauss Rifles have many moving parts, to complete the analogy. As an Author's Note: This deck was origionally named "I'm an Idiot" due to the fact that @bblum has many a time called me an idiot for attempting combo's with too many pieces. From a results standpoint however, it's hard to argue that this deck is potent in a meat damage light meta.

As stated above, the deck went 5-2 at GenCon, having a chance to win it all with two whiffed coinflips. It won the final played match of Day 1 on a similar coinflip, so I have no regrets in taking it. While at a glance the deck seems to be reliant on these many coinflips, it's performed well now at both Cleveland Regionals and GenCon.

Shoutouts to @cerberus and @webster who both looked at this deck and provided some feedback on the last touches which did eventually have an effect on its performance.

The Deck:

Your Basic Combo is as follows:

1. Score Breaking News

2. Assemble the following cards and play them: Hasty Relocation placing 24/7 Boom at the top of your deck

3. Accelerated Diagnostics

Consulting Visit can replace Hasty Relocation, BOOM! or if necessary a 2nd BOOM. A reminder that Consulting Visit can only be played as the last card of Diagnostics, as tutoring fizzles the Diagnostics.

The agenda suite is a mess, but such is the nature of NBN in 2017. Scoring Breaking News is the first step of the combo so 3of is non-negotiable, as is 15 minutes given that it's a 2/1 and will enable out of hand plays. In fact, one possible addition the deck could use is Fast Track, but slots are tight and it's difficult to make any cuts. Mulligan hard for Breaking News in all matchups, the rest of the Agendas are mostly meaningless. Exploda can grant some quick bucks to put you into kill range, and 5/3s while painful if stolen lower agenda density and the possibility of agendas piling up in hand.

Sealed Vault exists here for both Siphon and Vamp, along with providing the necessary Weyland influence for Consulting Visit below. The primary reason to choose Sealed Vault over Crisium Grid is due to the fact that you can install Sealed Vault for an NEH card, along with the fact that Sealed Vault is 0 credits to rez and this deck does not generally make a lot of money. (The Combo can be performed at 2 credits minimum). Jackson here is not used in the combo, but is instead used as a draw and filtering mechanism along with most of the other Operations in the deck.

From an Operations Standpoint, I've taken as much of each part of the combo as I can while keeping the necessary influence. Hasty is the most likely target for Consulting Visit, and due to the fact that it costs 2 inf, it can only be a 1of. Diagnostics I'd like to have as a 3of, but simply don't have the influence for. 2x BOOM! is non-negotiable, you will need it if you see any hate. Beanstalk here actually performs very well to recover quickly, along with playing it in the pile to perform the combo at low credits. Hedge is honestly the weakes econ card in this list, but Hedge doesn't cost influence. Special Report should only be used to filter agendas, and is great hwen comboed with Anonymous Tip for when you overdraw them.

The Ice Suite while porous all perform a specific role and performs them very well. IP Block is great vs Whizzard and any AI decks, low cost and high tax, it's a great speedbump for any runner with 0 Link. Consider not installing/Rezzing it vs 1 Link Runners like Andy. Archangel is here to pick up multi-access cards, as those are your primary enemy. Your opponents will need to be fast to stop you, this deck is about racing. A pickup of a medium is generally backbreaking and I've found wins to be comfortable anytime this fires. Data Raven is a guaranteed ETR or Tag, both help tremendously. You aren't happy about the 4c tax but it'll do the job stuffing a run, rez primarly when facing multi-access.

The Chimera here is a last minute addition. @cerberus advised me to play more ETR ice, but that's not my style. I generally prefer to go light on ice, so Chimera here is used only as an extreme emergency gearcheck. It managed to clutch stop a legwork in the finals of Gencon.

Well, there it is. I'm happy this deck was able to make it to second and am a little disappointed I couldn't take it all, but huge props and congratulations to @samrs. Sam was my roommate for last year's GenCon and has been a staple practice and deck discussion partner of mine. He absolutely deserved this GenCon win and I wish him only the best.

Thanks for everyone who supported me and watched the stream. If there's one thing I truly love about Netrunner it is that so many strategies can be viable. Whether you want to play something stable and predictable like moons, or gamble like a madman...

Simpleton Out.