Tax and Smash ft. Keegan Lane

Keegan took a sip of his coffee and stretched back. The proper stuff, none of that artificial garbage. Being one of the best Sysops on the NBN payroll had its perks, including executive level coffee. Eyes lazily flicking over the screens. All quiet in the remote tonite. Work on Project Beale was going nicely and the Launch Campaigns were almost finished. The new ICE they had brought in was doing the job, and Keegan's own Data Raven programs were there to alert him if anything went happened.

A ping on one of his screens caught his attention. He picked up his cup, took a big gulp of coffee and closed his eyes for two seconds, savoring the taste, before pressing a button to bring the remote up on the full screen. Yep, just as he thought, pests in the system. Some kid was running a Faust script was coming for Project Beale. It was a clever program, he had to admit, as it ran part of itself in its users brain allowing for thought-speed reactions. On the other hand, it did also require a particular frame of mind and left its user open to certain countermeasures.

He swiped, letting the runner past the Data Raven without a fight, as he cross referenced the information it had given him against his database of recent attacks. Within seconds he had a profile up of what they knew about the intruder. Some kind of thrill seeker who had leaked details of a breaking news story, before NBN could spin it the way they wanted it. More importantly they had run this server before and he could see how long it took them to move through the server.

Ahead were the Pop-Up windows and a Wraparound. Faust was very good at quickly and easily bypassing ICE, but Wraparound presented more of a problem. AI s couldn't process the loops of data without a fracter to break it down into usable bits. He ran a diagnostic program, and yep, it seemed like they were running a Corroder fracter program.

He booted up the Pop-Up windows, as he brought up a file on his other screen. Each one of these programs was designed specifically as a countermeasure to whatever hot new program runners were using. Each one grown on late nights, good coffee and single-minded determination.

In this situation he was probably better taking out the fracter. The Faust program on its own would eat up too much brainspace for them to break down the code into usable bits or run again tonite, and with the profile they were building up of the runner they could probably just send one of their troubleshooters over to sort it out. He booted up Electrogalvanizer, his answer to Corroder and waited.

A ping told him they had run a script to shut down all the pop ups and he executed the program. With no countermeasures built into the Console, the Electrogalvanizer was free to get to work as it began to systematically remove parts of the Corroder rendering it useless. Having a back-up copy was unlikely, as the NAPD had taken a large supply of illegal clone chips off the market. Keegan stretched back and watched as the Runner ran into the Wraparound and bounced off, unable to keep going. Keegan made a few keystrokes, passing on the data he had gathered on the runner to NBNs troubleshooters, watching the runner jack out of the system, before getting up and going to get another cup of coffee.

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So I wanted to do a write up for this deck and I wanted to talk about Keegan and it kind of turned into a short piece of fic. Nothing very dramatic, just an average day in the life of Keegan and my own head-canony interpretations of cards (I would love to write more about how Faust runs off your brain which is why Brain Cage/hand size increases work with it and the Faust element comes from it access subconscious desires etc).

This deck is based off Spark Despotism (http://netrunnerdb.com/en/decklist/30462/spark-despotism-king-beale) but I don't agree with all the choices.

I'm running Explode-a-palooza over TGTBT because, despite running a lot of advertisements, the deck isn't actually that rich. Explode-a-Palooze provides some free credits when accessed, as well as setting up Midseason Replacements and having some synergy with Red Herrings. As a 4/2 it also means you have 7 agendas which you only have to score 2-3 of to win.

I also cut a Wall of Static and a Special Offer for two Keegan Lane. Special Offer lacks the flexibility I want in my adverts and doesn't tax enough for its inclusion and I'm considering cutting a second. Wall of Static was just meh when AI breakers are a thing and once the fracters came out it was dead anyway.

Keegan on the other hand kills the fracter turning Wraparounds into big unpassable barriers again, as well as letting us snipe utility or credit gaining programs. Data Raven easily enables him. Generally my ideal Keegan server is Data Raven on the outside, Pop-Up Window in the middle and Wraparound on the inside so you can destroy their fracter after they have gained you credits from Pop-Up. You can also play a mind game with your 5 other upgrades.

The rest is fairly standard Spark. Tag them to force them to spend 2 credits and a click to remove it and if they go tag-me punish them with Keegan and Closed Account/All Seeing Eye. Lots of advertisements to rez to drain them. Try and rez Launch Campaign and Product Placement on your turn and protect them with a Pop-Up window. When they run to kill your economy they run into the pop up and it costs them 2 to get at the campaign/product placement and 2 to trash it either bankrupting them or forcing them to play weirdly.

I'm open to suggestions and tweaks. I'm considering adding something to deal with Nexus as Nexus generally laughs at stuff like Wraparound.