Zombie Freedom - 5th and 18th at Worlds 2024

Thanks for brewing this sick list! Seems to go well when I clone up runner! Much love! ❤️

Bost!

loving this deck, and huge congratulations on an amazing performance at Worlds!

Wow, the bots are getting really good ^

Anywho, awesome list! I'm having fun jamming this list. I ran into issues which might just be a piloting problem.

Having leeches and Botulus be the only source of virus counters was problemantic. I played against an asset spam deck that didnt put ice down for many turns so the botulus was dead and the leeches were in the latter third of the deck. Would you recommend replacing the casts with fermenters to solve this problem?

In the early game, I found myself clicking for credits more often than I liked which gave corps a few more turns of breathing room. Did you have to click for credits a lot in the early game? or do you pilot in a such a way that you're not clicking for as many credits.

The deck doesnt seem to be particularly MU hungry. Would Patchwork be a better console for 1 less MU but smoothes out the econ?

I love Crew in here and also have some turns where I have to click for credits to afford the 4 to break down something like a Tatu Bola.

@knack I'm not maninthemoon, I did also play this deck at worlds and by the end of day one had a pretty good grasp on how to pilot it!

Against assets, your virus generators are Audrey and Consume. These should be your priority installs. Audrey does double duty here as it gives you kill protection due to its interaction with Steelskin. It's counterintuitive, but you should actually install a second Audrey against assets, that's ultimately your most reliable way to generate counters. Your goal against assets is to stay slightly solvent and never end up in a position where you can be punished for a run you're considering.

Keiko was chosen for 3 reasons:

There are games where you need additional MU. Being able to Botulus a single sub ice goes a long way towards preserving your Crews and also acts as a token generator if you don't need to run the server. The deck really wants The Twinning, which means it really wants Poemu, which synergizes strongly with Keiko. Given the above, it's a credit every turn of the game.

While Patchwork is also money, between Bankhar and Audrey, it can be hard to spend extra card trashes, and it sometimes cannibalizes your friendship economy package. You'd have to build the whole thing pretty differently.

I found myself clicking for credits often in icy matchups, and then I realized this deck is more about inevitability than early stopping power. Slow down--take a turn or two off. Prioritize economy instead of viruses with The Price; once you're solvent, you can start threatening hard.

Thank you @ThatsNoMun for the very detailed explanation. Knowing what you know now, would you trade daily casts for fermenters or leave the casts?

@knack I think I would leave Casts. The Price value on them is incredible, and they give you consistent drip that lets you threaten trashing turn over turn in the mid to late game as opposed to having to crack a Fermenter when you need money.

That said, it might be that Fermenter is better, and I'm just not seeing the vision. I guess I'd say to try it out and see how it feels :shrug:

Thanks for the questions @knack. I'll be getting to flushing out the write up in a day or so. In general I avoided fermenter because the rig is vert MU constrained until you get the Keiko. I think the Daily Casts do a lot of work and all and all this deck can't actually spend that much money. The money is mostly there of Arruaceiras Crew and clearing tags 🙃

Did you find the Ashen Epilogue useful? Is there something else you would use the influence for instead?

This looks amazing! Do you have any Jnet replays of this deck you could share?

I've played 40 games with this deck on Jnet the past week. At first I was horrendous, but have gotten up to a ~50% win rate lately. Some notes:

• Installing Leech + Audrey, then repeatedly running an un-iced R&D is very strong. You'll be able to consistently trash / get virus counters / see new cards. Crew + Charm to bust open the door can be worth it. This is the main thing that boosted my win rate

• Most turns I find myself drawing once, playing a card, then running. Getting value out of your runs once you're setup with Bankhar you can Freedom ID trash to charge Leech / Audrey / Consume / Solidarity Badge -- this is how you grind your opponent into the ground.

• Probably obvious, but without Bankhar or Audrey you have no way to get through ice without blind installing Boomerang / Botulus, which always feels bad. Draw aggressively with Nuka / Moshing / Steelskin to find your breakers if you need to pressure the scoring remote

• Related, think about what cards you need in the specific matchup before drawing / installing. With beginner Sable decks it often felt like I could just play my hand tactically and get value -- this deck you have to invest clicks / cards into drawing and getting set up asap, so know what you're looking for.

• Against asset decks double Audrey is really good, they'll charge really fast. Against Weyland Glaciar Botulus / Crew is great for deleting ice -- Labor Rights (I've gone up to two copies) to get your crews back and play them multiple times. Solidarity badge can let you move Ashen Epilogue to the bottom of the deck, so you don't accidentally lose it via Bankhar. Generally I run out of gas and get locked out if I don't manage to Labor Rights two crews, and play Ashen Epilogue once I'm decked out

I really enjoy this deck, thanks for sharing it!

@LiamHz I'm glad you're enjoying the deck! Sorry I never got around to "finishing" the write up. Thanks for contributing your thought and experience! That's a great collection of tips!

I honestly don't have any jnet replays. All my worlds testing was done very discreetly in paper and on a jnet clone. Since worlds I basically haven't played any Standard. I've been focusing on setting up the New Years Showdown and helping playtest future cards. After stepping away from the competitive standard meta it was honestly really hard to break down how this deck works XD

If I end up doing well way CBI with the list I'll take a second pass at the write up, but honestly right now the only thing I would add to your tips are try targeting HQ if you can. In general trashing cards out of HQ is worse for the corp then R&D.