BrahmaNetRara

Card draw simulator
Odds: 0% – 0% – 0% more
Repartition by Cost
Repartition by Strength
Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
BrahmaNetRara v2.0
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EnderA 501

mbx_vol_01_01_brahma_cosmos_by_nisachar-

Image courtesy of Nisachar

Brahman brings so many possibilities. Firstly, it's a fantastic multisub breaker. Komainu costs 2-3 credits. Hive costs 3 credits. The "downside" is that you have to put a program on top of your stack after you use it.

But you can use that to your advantage! Cerberus "Lady" H1 and D4v1d get to reset their counters when you reinstall them. Cyber-Cypher and Femme Fatale can choose a new target. Even Paricia can reset it's recurring credits for another run if it really matters. (Run & trash, run & break with Brahman, re-draw, clickless install off of Hayley trigger, run & trash again.)

To pay for all those reinstallations you basically have two choices: London Library or Sahasrara. Going the London Library route would commit fully to Femme Fatale as the main breaker, and constrict your clicks for the running turn. Autoscripter can make up for that a bit, but then you're vulnerable to a single failed run (can't really recur hardware, and it's 3 influence per Autoscripter.)

I chose to go the other way, and run Sahasrara because I think it's more versatile. Of course, it requires a lot of memory, so I run 6x NetChip plus 1 Astrolabe for memory. They work extremely well with Brahman, SMC, and Magnum Opus. The nice thing is that it's really hard to get locked out of a server with the many permutations of breakers (plus e3 Feedback Implants), even when they stack the ice 4+ thick, which helps with R&D and remote locking.

In case you don't want to bounce a breaker, there's always SMC and Paricia to bounce, but with Sahasrara you really don't worry much about reinstall money.

Of course, the deck also runs 3x LLDS Processor plus Chameleon for super cheap breaking throughout the game. It's not strictly speaking necessary, but it's good for keeping runs cheap, particularly sentries. Throw it or another program on Personal Workshop and install it mid-run when you need it. Anything it and Brahman can't handle, D4v1d can. Especially with e3 Feedback Implants. LLDS also benefits "Lady", Femme, and Cyber-Cypher when you (re)install them.

The hate:

Paricia: Asset spam has taken over the game. Wort case, it's an expendable zero-cost program you can use for Brahman. Best case, it's 2 recurring credits to keep the nightmare at bay.

Net Shield: With IG a substantial part of the meta, I feel Net Shield is the natural counter - extending early game so you can dig for agendas, and protecting your grip. You're not going to win the asset war versus them, no matter how much hate you put in, but you can lengthen the amount of time you have to dig for agendas.

Film Critic: Helps vs all Jinteki, plus vs Midseason Replacements, NAPD, Explode-a-palooza, Argus Security, Haarpsichord, and even 15 Minutes. This makes sure that the agenda accesses you get are good for you.

Clot: I think fast advance has always been Shaper's weakness. It's also very, very popular. What fun is never getting to use all these fancy breakers? #SlotTheClot. Clone Chip isn't dedicated to anything in particular, so feel free to burn them on Clot if you don't see another specific use. Test Run gives you more room for recursion, but isn't ideal to use on Clot.

Plascrete Carapace: Kill decks are real. This protects you from 2x Scorched Earth, aka Sea + Scorch + Scorch. It may only be 1x, but you can also fight the trace by winning the money war with Magnum Opus or stay out of reach by always ending your turn with 4+ cards in hand. Still, it's the number 1 enemy of all meat kill decks.

Thoughts

Honestly, the biggest thing holding me back with this deck is myself. The problem is the sheer number of possibilities available in this deck, with the combination of Hayley triggers, Brahman bounces, Program spam, and variety of breakers. If you're faster at thinking through tactical play and better at keeping the corp on their heels, I would love to see you pilot this. As it stands, I am frankly an inept tester for this. But boy is it fun to play!

If you want to change the deck around, you could consider taking out the LLDS/Chameleon combo (you'd need to add a cheap sentry breaker for Swordsman, but then Atman becomes a possibility), Net Shield, Film Critic, maybe a Paricia, and even an e3, and change them to whatever you want. And yeah, it's 47 cards. I'm still testing what to cut, but with SMC + Test Run, it's not a big deal.

4 comments
9 May 2016 FarCryFromHuman

The core breaker engine here looks really good.

A couple notes:

Technical Writer absolutely deserves three slots. You still need a bank to stay ahead of operation-based kill/tag decks and this is the card that will do it for you.

e3 Feedback Implants seems superfluous. I can't see many scenarios where you'll need more than 3 D4v1d and 4 Lady counters in a single run.

Extra influence could go to more silver bullet cards which I think work really well in this build. Cards like Political Operative, Employee Strike and Hunting Grounds pull a lot of weight.

Clot is great and I don't disagree with your reasoning, but if you want that influence back you might look at Chakana. With easy access to R&D you might be able to keep it up often enough that FA decks will clog up with agendas in HQ and Archives. All the NetChips give you plenty of places to put it and let it do its thing.

Legwork seems like an auto-include here, especially with 3x Paricia.

10 May 2016 EnderA

@FarCryFromHuman Thanks for the comment!

I tried Technical Writer for a while and didn't like it, but I could give it another go. In theory it should be amazing in here, with almost entirely hardware & programs, plus the constant reinstallation. The problem I had was that I either wanted econ early (when it had no counters), a consistent stream (can only pop it once), or didn't need it. And when I drew it late it was a dead draw. Granted, late game you aren't drawing many new cards, so that's much less of an issue.

e3 Feedback Implants is in there because of the current meta. People are slotting ice that require lots of D4v1d counters per ice because of Anarch Faust madness. I want to have enough counters to break through the first big ice I encounter, without fearing a mystery ice behind it, as well as extending its reach into late game. This is especially relevant for the Blue Sun and HB matchups. They have a lot of multisub big punishing ice. It's much less necessary for Lady, largely because Brahman himself deals with multisubs. What I could do is switch them both out for a second D4v1d, adding redundancy in another way, or just cut down to 1.

Hunting Grounds isn't necessary simply because of Femme Fatale. I'd add a second Femme over Hunting Grounds. I'm not sure how effective Political Operative or Employee Strike are, but they're worth testing. The main downside is they're temporary solutions to permanent problems. Note that you can't use Paricia credits for Political Operative.

I actually tried Chakana and really wanted to make it work, but it's far too slow to counter fast advance. They're already stacking ice on R&D ASAP, since they don't really care about their remote or HQ. It also hedges even more of your bets on hitting R&D. Granted, it doesn't require a Clone Chip to bring back each time, but I think 3 runs on R&D takes too long to stop fast advance, you'll probably win before they have to purge twice. Especially when bringing it out with SMC/Test Run is one less program that you get to grab for setting up. The Clone Chips are disposable in this deck, so spending them on Clot is fine.

I'd love to have a Legwork (or probably rather HQ Interface). But... only so much influence to go around. I don't really expect to win off of HQ accesses, although I do expect to run it occasionally to keep them honest. If really necessary, I'd replace one of the e3's.

10 May 2016 Nr. Hook

Thanks for sharing the deck! Inspired, I crafted a version adjusted for my playing style. It led me to a 7:2 victory last night against this auto-ICE-rezzing monster: netrunnerdb.com

So, well done!

I'll publish my decklist after I write piloting notes, but here are the changes at a glance:

Disclaimer: by the start of my final (game-winning) turn, I had taken 5 brain damage. Max hand size was 0. Fortunately, the Corp deck was built to score, not scorch.

Again, thanks @EnderA for sharing a fun deck.

10 May 2016 EnderA

@Nr. Hook Awesome! One of the best things about the core of the deck is how flexible it is. Only a few pieces are irreplaceable, and the breaker suite is insanely efficient. I look forward to reading your experience!

Professional Contacts is definitely a strong card. Do you find it better than Symmetrical Visage when you have 2 Oracle May as well? How easy have you found building up Chakana counters?