Liberate Chela! (Lockdown 6)

Quote Jakuza: “i never had to read that prompt, ever”

So, let me tell you a story...

...the story of the liberated chela. it all began, when everything shut down. The world closed the door, but opened a window into to the unrestricted and creative world of netrunner deckbuilding. The mind was still free, and was looking for ways to get distracted and occupied. While running and deckbuilding, the mind engaged on a swift Marathon and found companions on its journey, encouraging and exploring ideas. In the end, there was no swiftness, no marathon, no running, but the silent, devout waiting and quiet cheering in the Temple of the Liberated Mind, waiting for the time to liberate Chela once again. This is a lockdown success story. Try it. And enjoy the pause when they realize whats going on.

In the beginning, the reactions were diverse. Some said, it couldn’t be done, some were intrigued, and finally I found someone to get excited about it. We got it together in a working state. Due to the lockdown ban list, the deck changed slightly. This is the lockdown 6 version, and I won 2 of 4 games with it. But even loosing, the reactions of my opponents were usually on of two:

intrigued surprise

or plain frustration

Here is how i usually proceed:

-I always mulligan for Fan Sites if possible, or Diesel, next best thing. Don’t run after the money in the beginning, it will come to you soon. You usually don’t run in the beginning, draw for your pieces and ignore the corp (if he is not playing Titan). Best start would be two Fan Sites in the first turn, or at least one. Everything else comes second.

-You will need a Beth or a Temple of the Liberated Mind, to get you to the fifth click to fire the Chela. Both, if your opponent is playing MCA. Peace in Our Time enhances Beth beautifully, so money or clicks were never really an issue. I didn’t miss the Stimhacks I had to cut for lockdown 6

-Some could say, there is too much draw in a fourty card deck. I never felt that way, you are always on a time clock. And you need your pieces in place quickly to have the possibility to run at the appropriate time or fire the Liberated Chela. I was thinking about recursion, but couldn’t find the slot or the tool to fit in the deck. I would kill for a Same Old Thing though.

-The breakers were usually there in time. So I never used Compile, so this could go for something else. Not sure what I would trade them for right now.

Besides that: try it and have fun. I certainly did. And if you come up with an idea to make it work in standard, tag me ;-)

If you want to see it winning on stream, check out Vesper's Stream from Lockdown 6

Some suggestions i heard during the matches or on stream:

-Notoriety: i did consider it, and it could be worth it. but it involves a lot of running for one point, and i am lazy ;-). i am not sure if it really fits the game plan, but it could be like a backup option.

-Hyperdriver: the deck started before hyperdriver was a thing again, and it might be worth looking at it. The deck might need some rebuilding. You would want the hyperdriver early in game, but not before the fan sites i guess, so there might be a conflict, and i am not sure if it would work better than this version. But i have to think about it.

-Comet: i do like comet as a console, but i have never considered it in this deck. this version of the deck runs 20 events, but it was usually the “drawing the right cards”-part, that was lacking, not the “i don’t have enough clicks”-part. I did try supercorridor, but I don’t really need +2 MU, although the extra hand size was nice (but not crucial), so aniccam works for me (and is cheaper). It even works quite well without aniccam showing up.

Thanks:

-To Vesper, who helped me build and test the first version of it. (fond memory that you had to forfeit 2 bellonas to prevent me from winning), and because his lockdown events kept me distracted and entertained.

-To pspacekitten, who encouraged and understood my wish to try out weird things, even if they fail. Because thats the way creativity works: playing with possibilities. You might fail, but you might come up with something.

-To ayyyliens, who showed Beth the door to the Temple of liberated Mind.

-To Jakuza, lostgeek and Cpt. Nice for being surprised and intrigued.

-To all my opponents and their individual reactions, when they realized, what was happening

-And finally, to all the people, who were frustratingly realistic and tried to supportingly discourage my efforts. Because I got over it and did it anyway. I might not be the worlds best mom, but this is my baby. And it might never win any prices, but I love it for its consistent weirdness ;-)