BrahmaNetRara v2.1

Image courtesy of Nisachar

(See changes at the bottom.)

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 5x 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 for D4v1d), 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.

The deck also runs Chameleon for super cheap breaking throughout the game. It's good for dealing with low sentries in particular. 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.

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.

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, and in many matchups it will win the game for you practically single-handedly.

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, or even just 1 while you dip below 4 cards in hand. 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. Why not Sports Hopper? Because 3 is less than 4, and this deck already has enough trouble maintaining a normal hand size.

Note, because Elizabeth Mills is becoming popular: If your opponent plays Elizabeth Mills and rezzes her, immediately dump your stuff off of Personal Workshop. You DO in fact have a window to do that - the same window they used to rez her - because her ability requires a click to activate.

Changes

-1 HQ Interface +1 Legwork: Pressure for HQ. HQI is just too expensive and requires 3 following runs on HQ to be worth it. In this deck mid-late game, you really only need one good HQ access, and that's what Legwork gives you.

-1 Sahasrara, -1 Paricia, -1 Personal Workshop, -1 Net Shield, -1 Film Critic; +1 Diesel, +2 Scavenge, +1 Plascrete Carapace, +1 Sharpshooter:

Relying solely on Chameleon for anti-Swordsman isn't flexible enough, so Sharpshooter is in as the cheapest answer available. (It also does wonders versus Archer.) It's only usable once, but the important part is knowing that there's a Swordsman waiting for you. Then you can choose between Chameleon and Femme Fatale depending on the situation.

Scavenge lets you approach the deck from another angle. Mainly, Test Run -> Scavenge is extremely efficient (Femme and Opus in particular), Scavenge serves as another piece of recursion should you need yet another one, and it lets you reset without burning a click running some server and then redrawing and installing. Basically, it's versatile.

Butcher Shop is quite popular in my meta, so going up to 2 Plascretes seems wise. Diesel is in as an experiment to see how useful the draw is, and having a single click triple draw can surprise opponents that think they have you locked out for a turn.

The hope with these changes is that it will speed the deck up. The current environment goes blisteringly quickly, so the goal is to keep up, while maintaining incredible versatility, efficiency, and sustainability.

Thoughts:

Honestly, the biggest thing holding me back with this deck is (still) 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!