Bag of Tricks VI - Back in Business - 2nd @ Sthlm Regionals

Elusive 1170

"Playing PE at a tournament is like a drug. You do it the first time because you think it might be a fun time, but you come back for the adrenaline fix." - Mahatma Gandhi


It had been a long time. Almost two years. The Chairman had seen the company grow in the double digits since. Since then the torishimariyakkai had had their way with the company, funding successful expansions in Africa, India and even on Mars. The business for clones was booming.. so why was he feeling like none of it mattered?

It was HIS company. He built it on proud principles that have now given way to... efficiency. The word left a bad taste in his mouth. It is like those that suggest the most important feature of ICE is the 'tax'. Not the fear. Traitors among the ranks. What happened to Zaibatsu principles?

Remembering the words of his mentor: 'If you are becoming the enemy, is he not already winning?' Indeed.

Little did it matter the Jinteki corporation had gotten better press than ever, investors flocking to the scraps of the Palana division and new types of clones being designed at the AgInfusion facilities. No surprise the Runners were flocking more than ever. Filthy vermin.

What did it matter as long as he allowed it all to continue and took a back seat? Traitors will not take long to sense weakness. They think he is old and breakable. That he will give way, step down. He needed to show them, all the doubters, that principles, not credits, were what mattered!

It was time to blow off some steam. He lifted the dusty cover of his deskjack, he had been idle for too long. Ignoring the safety precautions he booted with physlink directly to his cortex, it was the only way to minimize reaction-time, and he needed that now more than ever.

There should be plenty of bugs to squash. Hiro was back in business.


Recently got 2nd place in Stockholm regionals using this list. It is very much a new take, and iteration on, my old pre-rotation PE. The deck went 6-1 (5-0 in swiss) and really carried me as the run-based econ runner i brought did not perform as well against the many glaciers..

The tournament was 34 (?) people and represented a surprisingly broad amount of different opposition. After taking a hiatus from the game during the 'bad times' i still feel like i have a lot of attuning to do to the meta, but overall the game seems healthy and fair now with some very few exceptions.

The loss in the top 8 was due to my opponent playing a Sunny-deck with Guru Davinder and money. Against that kind of tech this deck does crumble as your outs quickly dissipate, so watch out.

Overall the changes are some good, some bad, but the basic principles still apply. The deck plays very differently from 'real' Netrunner, and is not for the faint-hearted, as you never win without taking huge risks.

ICE: Still experimenting, lots of interesting tools.

Operations: Enforced Curfew is a god-send. You kill them by building to a boarstate when you can empty their hand, this is a click-free damage for the kill-turn and clears E-strike. Genotyping is anti-Clanarch tech. When facing that you need to move your threats to advanced remotes. Punitive works extremely well with Obokata, but is still only a mid-game plan, not your main gameplan.

Assets: Nothing new really, some rebalancing. NGO is nice as leaving them out can trip off runner-maths. Especially for Punitive. Went down one Ronin due to Show of Force.

Agendas: Chronos Project wins you games in this meta, but in other metas go to three 'Show of Force' and Project Kusanagi instead. Obokata does not really compensate for the loss of Fetal AI, but it seems to work out relatively well. It makes it easier to execute some game-plans.

Thanks to all opponents! The Stockholm meta is a happy and friendly bunch :-) It was a fantastic and well-organized (although hot) tournament that was finished in the pub, due to the venue closing ;)

8 comments
16 Jul 2018 rumirumirumirumi

I'm glad to see this deck do well. I'm curious about the specific results of your match ups in the tournament. Punitive seems like a longshot since the deck runs rather low on money and doesn't have especially taxing ice.

16 Jul 2018 Elusive

Faced: 419 - Win - admittedly got a bit lucky here with all the expose Valencia - Win - Standard gameplan Hayley - Win - Standard gameplan Valencia - Win - Standard gameplan MaxX - Win - Sneaked out a Chronos, but standard gameplan worked. Valencia - Win - Standard gameplan Sunny - Loss - Missed the inclusion of Guru Davinder, and when it hit the table, match was over pretty much. If i had my senses i'd have rushed harder for the kill or score-out.

Punitive is not the main gameplan, it is a deterrent. This deck is weak to R&D single-access spam in the mid-game before the kill-combo can be assembled. Punitive saves your bacon those few precious rounds and sometimes nets surprise kills. If you look at my ICE you find nothing with a cost above 2 either.. =)

16 Jul 2018 Elusive

Faced: 419 - Win - admittedly got a bit lucky here with all the expose Valencia - Win - Standard gameplan Hayley - Win - Standard gameplan Valencia - Win - Standard gameplan MaxX - Win - Sneaked out a Chronos, but standard gameplan worked. Valencia - Win - Standard gameplan Sunny - Loss - Missed the inclusion of Guru Davinder, and when it hit the table, match was over pretty much. If i had my senses i'd have rushed harder for the kill or score-out.

Punitive is not the main gameplan, it is a deterrent. This deck is weak to R&D single-access spam in the mid-game before the kill-combo can be assembled. Punitive saves your bacon those few precious rounds and sometimes nets surprise kills. If you look at my ICE you find nothing with a cost above 3 either.. =)

17 Jul 2018 Vortilion

I tried this deck, but tbh I don’t really understand it. What’s the kill combo? How do you play this deck? Having my issues with PE ;(

17 Jul 2018 Vortilion

Otoroshi looks like a very obvious but weak ice, and how to use thimblerig?

17 Jul 2018 Elusive

I wrote an article here that explains most of it in depth.

stimhack.com

This refers to the original PE list i made, and the archetype is different from 'normal PE' where you see people squeeze in a bunch of 1 pointers to 'maximize the ability' and let the runner kill themselves. Pro tip: doesn't work ;)

The kill combo is very flexible, but the main component is that you need to leave agendas advanced out in the open, and you need to get away with it. Your objective is to assemble the ability to do 6 or more net-damage on the runner's turn.

17 Jul 2018 Elusive

Oh and Otoroshi is insanely powerful when you have a multitude of cards on the board. It is just up to you to dare to use it effectively (i.e. advancing ronins/agendas).

Thimblerig is just for the cheap gearcheck.

22 Jul 2018 Vortilion

But it seems way to cheap to ever be able to fire. I think that every runner would be able to pay the 3.

"The kill combo is very flexible, but the main component is that you need to leave agendas advanced out in the open, and you need to get away with it. Your objective is to assemble the ability to do 6 or more net-damage on the runner's turn" Doesnt sound like a kill combo to me. everytime I try this, the runner immediately runs on those remotes... :-(