DiRTyPAD! 5th Seed Irish Regionals, 6th Overall

MikeJS 678

This deck took me to 5th seed at the recent Irish Regionals, where I dropped only 1 game on the day to my regular sparring partner Mark (who was running a very tasty MaxX deck with Magnum Opus for economy). Sadly I didn't get the chance to play it post Swiss rounds.

This is a fantastic deck. I'm not sure who originally came up with NEARPAD (I want to say Toomin), but shout outs to them for the idea.

Thoughts on the deck...

Gutenberg x2 on R&D is absolutely monstrous when you have 3x DRT on the board.

Diversified Portfolio made me 37 credits in one match (props to Az for his reaction to the 3rd one)

Snare! +1/2 DRTs is a wonderful way to win a game.

Psychic Field is a questionable include and I wrestled with the following options... all worth considering/testing. 1x Hostile Infrastructure, 2x Turtlebacks, 2x Encryption Protocol, 1x Reclamation Order.

Would love to get feedback/advice on this, particularly from people who have played it themselves, or from opponents on the day.

Something to note... even though it looks like it wants to kill you, 3/4 wins were from agendas.

13 comments
24 May 2015 Toomin

Thanks for the shoutout! This looks fantastic, I'll certainly be playing this list when I get a chance!

25 May 2015 Glitch

I always love seeing this archetype do well at high level events, great build! Just a couple of questions:

1) what made you decide to exclude TGTBT?

2) did you play against Clot at all, and if yes, did it effect you at all?

3) did you play against Hacktivist Meeting, and if so, what's the plan to combat it?

25 May 2015 GentlemanGamer

Not to put words into MikeJS's mouth, but I think the answer to #1 is the answer to 2 and 3.

Breaking News can be scored in one turn to turn off Hactivist. Chronos Project can flush Clot out of the game if they get greedy and discard it from an overdraw (with a clone chip on the table). Blacklist and Cyberdex help as well.

25 May 2015 MikeJS

@Toomin Thanks for checking it out. I still remember my first game against a N.E.A.R.P.A.D deck on OCTGN... the demoralizing feeling of starting a turn with 1 credit, but 3 rezzed City Surveillance - it was really hard to cut them.

@Glitch, TGTBT was certainly a consideration, but ultimately I decided against it for exactly the reasons that @GentlemanGamer mentions. Kate was the most prevalent runner at our Regionals (and accounted for 1/2 of the top 8). Chronos Project at the right time is great against Kate, and even better against MaxX.

In the end I didn't play against Hacktivist Meeting but it was enough of a consideration that I almost slotted in Manhunt for 1 copy of SanSan. Breaking News is certainly the plan there.

Clot was very much present and something to be played around. In my first match against PP Kate I placed a few agendas on the table to score next turn. This is a cheeky play, but often works because people fear Snare!/Psychic Field. In a later game I started a turn by taking 4 credits from PAD/Marked, flipping Blacklist, then rezzing/trashing CVS to destroy the clot, then rezzing SanSan before finally IAA an Astroscript. Those cards did serious work for me on the day. In that same game 2 Jacksons shuffled in Blacklist/CVS to threaten that combo again. 1 CVS killed Clot 3 times in what was undoubtedly my hardest Corp game of the day.

26 May 2015 lolpaca

This looks great! How has Psychic Field worked out for you so far? My first thought would be Encryption Protocol too, but I like the way PF makes them a bit more nervous about remote-checking. Another possibility for that influence slot could be Kitsune.

Does it ever have money problems? I'm always a bit nervous of relying completely on an asset economy.

26 May 2015 MikeJS

Thanks for checking it out @lolpaca!

Psychic Field may have won me a game against PP Kate. I hit 5 cards in hand, and if I remember correctly each and every card was a huge score. It immediately gives the runner pause as well. Later on in that game I won because of DRTs that remained unchecked when the runner hit a Snare!

Kitsune is indeed a great option. It's very unlikely to be broken, and if you keep 1 Snare! in hand (always advisable) then DRTs become deadly.

Encryption Protocol is a tough one to gauge. Only one opponent regularly trashed my assets, and one other just trashed any rezzed SanSans. I think EP is vital if you're running City Surveillance however.

Yes, this deck had money problems in 1 match, and it was the only one I lost. The runner had Imp and MOpus and didn't hesitate to trash my asset economy. I thought long and hard about 3x Sweeps Vs 2x Marked +1 floating asset, but my logic was that 3x assets would help to draw and with Diversified Portfolio money. I've never gained less than 5 credits from that card, and on the day, the average gain was about 9, 13 being the record.

26 May 2015 dodgepong

I switched from Encryption Protocol to Psychic Field in my NEARPAD deck and never looked back. It's awesome. The deck is weak if they are checking all remotes to find the DRTs, and if you can punish that, it makes the deck that much stronger.

27 May 2015 MikeJS

Hi @dodgepong, thanks for stopping by. I'm a fan of PeachHack :)

Checked out your latest deck... talk to me about License Acquisition? Did it do good work for you? I certainly considered it as a tax through free rezzed SanSans, but think BN and Chronos were the right pairing on the day for my meta, both of which were scored to good effect.

27 May 2015 PaxCecilia

Face much/any Noise: Hacker Extraordinaire? This looks powerful against a very Kate scene, but a few Noise with Imp... D:

27 May 2015 dodgepong

License Acquisition is great for getting back trashed assets and upgrades. Free DRTs, SanSans, DBS, PADs, even Blacklist...there are almost always good options when scoring that agenda. I'm a big fan.

27 May 2015 MikeJS

@PaxCecilia, I only faced 1 Anarch on the day, and that was MaxX deck that of course ran Imp... and then to make asset trashing even easier, he also used MOpus as his economy engine. Yes, I did lose that match! Noise matchup could certainly be difficult, but I haven't had the opportunity to test it on OCTGN yet.

@dodgepong I might try one out... Do you think License Acquisition or TGTBT was more useful overall?

27 May 2015 dodgepong

They both have different uses, but I like using them both. License Acquisition helps me toward my goal of taxing them out with too many things to run/trash, plus having an assload of servers for Diversified Portfolio. TGTBT is a great way to land an unexpected tag for free, almost like a mini-Snare for DRT purposes. Fun fact: TGTBT triggers from archives! As far as I know, it's the only card that can give you a tag when accessed from archives.

28 May 2015 Glitch

I'm going to second @dodgepong on his suggestion of Psychic Field. I've used both Encryption Protocol and Turtlebacks in my rendition of NEARPAD before switching to Psychic Field and never looked back. They're especially great for those occasions where you want to hold Snare! in HQ, but want to also threaten constant remote checks. Kitsune was also suggested, but AI breakers are abundant now, and that Ice will almost surely be broken at crucial times.