GOTTA GO FAST (2016 Store Championship, 1st Place)

thebigunit3000 2953

Hasty CI won the 2016 Store Championship at Curio Cavern. It went 5-1, along with a fairly standard Temujin Whizzard build that also went 5-1.

I'd like to give huge thanks to @foilflaws and @ellen (and Bruno!) for the deck idea and lots of testing, and @ion_fox for some post-tourney suggestions. I'd also like to thank my fiancee and our pet hedgehogs for giving me the inspiration to Just Go Fast.

Ghost the Hedgehog

Gameplan:

This deck is not 7-point Shutdown CI. It does not want to score all 7 points in one go. Instead, it aims to fast advance powerful agendas early, and snowball those agendas into scoring, usually, a Global Food for the win.

The fast advance strategy is pretty simple. Draw enough cards and make enough money until you have combo pieces in hand. You'll need 1 Hasty Relocation, 1 Accelerated Diagnostics, and a few click-compression cards. (Shipment from SanSan is the most essential, but Lateral Growth and Biotic Labor also qualify.) An ideal score goes something like:

Click 1: Play Hasty Relocation (Hasty), putting two Shipment from SanSan (SfSS) and Reclamation Order back on the deck. Click 2: Install an Efficiency Committee (EffComm). Click 3: Play Accelerated Diagnostics (AD). Play both Shipment from SanSans, and use Reclamation Order to get back the Shipment from SanSans.

Once you've got an EffComm scored, your scoring options are much more flexible. You can score a random 3/2 next turn with Click 1 Install, Click 2 Advance, Click 3 EffComm Take Two Clicks, Clicks 4 and 5 Shipment from San San. If you have two Shipments, you can score a Global Food from hand the same way, using two more EffComm counters. There are many ways to get there, and part of the fun of the deck is figuring out the tricks as you play!

Strategy:

Versus Regular Shapers (Nexus Kate, Smoke, etc): Keep centrals at bay early, and fast advance when you get the opportunity. Efficiency Committees are much more powerful than over-advanced Vitruviuses in this matchup, because they can allow you purge for free, or do other tricky things. One play that came up frequently in testing and once in real life is Hasty Relocation into a stack of Lateral Growth, SfSS, SfSS. If the Shaper does not play Clot after you Hasty, you can AD this pile and score EffComm from hand. (Side note: If you milled an agenda from Hasty, you can use Interns instead of Lateral to score the agenda from Archives.)

Versus Criminals: Protect HQ hard, and then worry about R&D. (Leela or Rebirth into Leela can strike at the most inopportune moments.) Generally it's not worth it to try to stuff Archives Temujin, you need everything that you can protecting your Agendas. EffComm is still the best score, but Vitruvius counters are useful as well.

Versus Regular Breakers Whizzard/Val: Keep them gearchecked while drawing towards your combos. Gearcheck ICE go where you need them, and usually Ichis go on R&D to impede Medium. Employee Strike is a pain from any identity but usually makes most of its appearances from RegWhizz. You've usually got some way to deal with it in hand, though, even if it isn't always the most economical.

Versus Damonfork (Faust Whizzard/Val): Same deal, but gearchecking doesn't really work versus Faust so you have to go a bit faster. Cyberdex Trial will help if you can draw it -- you can keep it / recur it to keep Medium digs in check.

Versus Siphon Anarch (Whizz/Quetzal/MinhMaxX): Lie down. Try not to cry. Cry a lot.

Card Choices:

ICE: Definitely something that's subject to a lot of change. In general, though, gearchecks are important, and Ichis slow down Medium. Mostly strength-0 ICE is questionable versus Atman, but it worked this time because people weren't quite sure what ICE I'd be playing. Definitely worth switching up in the future -- variable strengths help. Mother Goddess / Paper Wall also might be worth it. I'd contemplate switching a Quandary or two to Turing, as AIs can be a very large pain to the deck. Fairchild 3.0 is very powerful, but the 6-credit rez cost can really hurt.

Economy Operations: Most are pretty standard. Blue Level and Hedge Fund are essential. (Blue Level even more so, as you can stack it with Hasty to play it with AD. Just make sure to play it after your other two operations!) Restructure is okay, but the deck runs a bit lighter on credits than typical 7-point CI. Play the deck a few times and if you feel like you need more money and it won't get stuck in your hand, bump it up to 2x or even 3x. Lateral Growth is a decent econ card, but its trickiness is the main reason I played all three. It did get stuck in my hand occasionally later in the game. However, it's important to realize that many econ cards will be dead draws later, and they'll be just as good padding your hand whether they're a Lateral Growth or a Restructure. Cutting down to 2x Lateral Growth might be okay. Green Level is also a decent econ card, but it's the first I'd cut to make room for other cards.

Agendas: Pretty straightforward here. EffComm is your power agenda, Vitruvius keeps you flexible, Global Food is your finisher. Accelerated Beta Test is a blank 3/2, but sometimes that's just what you need. Plus it's got Accelerated in the name, so it'll help your deck go that much faster! If you're going to tinker, don't touch the EffComms, Vitruviuses, or Foods. I'm not sure what the ABT could change to, but there might be a reason to change it in the future.

Jackson Howard: Only two Jackson Howard?!? It's heresy, but you need every influence you can get, and Jackson Howard is the least valuable of your influence spends. It'll draw you cards and keep R&D fresh, but your combo isn't centered around him like the traditional CI deck.

Other Operations: Accelerated Diagnostics, Hasty Relocation, and Shipment from SanSan are linchpins of the deck -- you need three of each of them. Biotic Labor helps you remain flexible in the early game, and helps you close out the game with a Global Food. I think three would be too expensive, and one might be reasonable but would be inconsistent. Cyberdex Trial is great. It's much better than Cyberdex Virus Suite because it's free, and in Shaper matchups where it matters the most, you can recur it to economically tax their Clone Chips and Sacrificial Constructs. For recursion, I've chosen two Reclamation Orders and one Archived Memories. Archived Memories is better early when there's typically one combo piece (or milled agenda) that you want back into your hand. Reclamation Order has a much stronger late-game value, where it can get back multiple combo operations, often at the tail-end of a juicy AD stack, readying you to do it again quickly. Also, getting back multiples to your hand helps you pad HQ with non-agendas. Interns is there for Power Shutdown synergy, and helps you in some corner cases, but I'd say it is the weakest of your recursion. I could see adding another Archived Memories if you had a free slot.

What about...: There are a lot of potential changes to be made to the deck. Scarcity of Resources (or ELP) might be useful to remove Employee Strike, but generally you'll be able to get out of the strike on your own. Violet Level Clearance probably shows up in the deck when it comes out, replacing Green Level. If your meta is very Clot-heavy, one Ark Lockdown would be a spicy addition. I'm sure I've missed some options -- feel free to suggest some in the comments!

Fast Forward:

Bringing this to an event, I'd go -1 Power Shutdown, -1 Interns, -1 Quandary, +2 Crisium Grid, +1 Turing. The deck needs more legs against Anarch Siphon decks, so cutting the weakest part of the package (Power Shutdown, and Interns to potentially 2-pile combo to finish the game) makes sense.

This deck is a blast -- give it a spin at your local event and show everyone how fast you can go!

22 comments
14 Nov 2016 RTsa

I'm loving this. Credit neutral Effcom score seems super good. Especially when the cards spent are just Reclamation Order and Hasty.

Figured Hasty could be used in CI, but didn't think it could work that well. Thanks for sharing!

14 Nov 2016 Sindarin

<3 for the hedgehog picture.

Also, the deck is pretty neat.

14 Nov 2016 Heinrich

It's weird seeing such an old deck idea come back to life.

14 Nov 2016 RTsa

How do I delete my comment. :|

Not credit neutral and also takes an AD. Well, I guess it doesn't cost anything if you install EC with Lateral Growth..

14 Nov 2016 whirrun

Awesome deck! I'd wondered if someone would find a cool use for Hasty Relocation in C.I. Slightly confused by the rigshooting ices suite, but it's not like i have a better idea.

14 Nov 2016 whirrun

Looking at the deck more, have you considered fast track? With Lateral Growth instead of reclamation order you can score Eff Com out of the deck, which seems like it could be helpful. I might consider losing one of the econ ops or a biotic.

14 Nov 2016 IonFox

That hedgehog is adorable. I also agree that violet level will turn this deck into a monster as it is somewhat more reliant in having the necessary combo pieces in hand.

16 Nov 2016 benticurus
16 Nov 2016 jawZ

I'm having way more fun with this CI version, though in my case it surely comes down to CI not making my head explode anymore. I'm indeed having a blast playing this!

I like your suggested changes and I also added another Turing, cutting the Rototurret. Currently I'm also testing a second Cyberdex Trial instead of the Restructure. I just think that Shaper players will learn to Clot after seeing the Hasty, and why wouldn't they?

It's a bit sad that you can't VLC at the end of an AD stack, since it ends your Action Phase and you can't score in the midst of playing AD. Still, I guess it can be a nice addition to the deck, surely going to give it a try.

16 Nov 2016 ANRguybrush

@jawZ combo headaches are part of the fun of playing 7p shutdown.

16 Nov 2016 Grimwalker

"fun" ಠ_ಠ

16 Nov 2016 frost-duty

Love the idea, always nice to see a new take on an older idea.

But, my question for you is this: is this deck just a worse version of CI7?

I know many people will prefer it because it is a lot less complex (which is not a bad reason, especially at less competitive levels), but it seems to me that the combo is just as complex as the CI7 combo, but you struggle more with hate cards (vamp, siphon spam etc.) since you don't have the influence for crisium grids or reuse. Additionally, you take longer to score out so there are seemingly more chances for the runner to run and steal agendas/find their own ways to win the game. I'm struggling to see what advantages this version really brings.

18 Nov 2016 matthopkins

Would Targeted Marketing make more sense than Crisium? To me it seems more likely that they can get into HQ to trash the Crisium than steal an agenda or play a current to trash TM. Or maybe not, but I feel like runner decks are so rich and this deck doesn't tax, so crisium won't help for long

19 Nov 2016 ANRguybrush

@frost-duty advantages:

  • employee strike is easier to clear

  • you can score agendas quickly, preventing them from beeing stolen

  • Salsette slums doesn't ruin your day

  • Councilman does nothing.

  • Easier to play, less mental fatigue.

  • Clots are easier to get rid of if you can recur Cyberdex Trial.

  • You can score out very early.

Not sure yet if 7p CI is better, but this is a pretty cool deck.

By the way, I'm trying out Localized Product Line instead of Jacksons, it's pretty good so far. Also, Subliminal Messaging is amazing with AD, you definitely don't want to skip on that card.

AD->Lateral Growth, Shipment, Subliminal, then advance twice is a good way to score Vitruvius with a counter or EffCom if you only have one shipment.

19 Nov 2016 matthopkins

Subliminal sounds perfect, what would you suggest cutting for it? My guess would be restructure and...?

20 Nov 2016 RKruler14

... reminds me of my weyland deck i published a month ago... netrunnerdb.com

22 Nov 2016 quailman2101

Really cheap deck and very un-fun to play against. I was looking forward to the end of the AD combos with Jackson rotating out, but alas... Hasty Relocation isn't as bad because it doesn't take 5 minutes to pull of the combo, but it's also worse for being a lot easier to pull off and can be done again and again. The only really great plays against this deck are as follows: Play as Edward Kim or play with three copies of Information Sifting. Anyway, not a fan. It's a good deck just super cheap.

22 Nov 2016 quailman2101

Oh, and Employee Strike can work absolute wonders. However, you have to play it at just the right moment. After they have a lot of cards in hand but before they are ready to score. Honestly this window usually doesn't exist.

23 Nov 2016 matthopkins

From my games I've only found employee strike to be a problem in combination with clot, and even then you can get out of it. The one time I struggled and lost was when a shaper opponent skilfully didn't clot as I went to score to clear the employee strike because he had the second in hand, which then combined with clot to stop me in my tracks

25 Nov 2016 hsiale

@quailman2101 AD combos will stop with Jackson rotating out because AD will rotate too :P

25 Nov 2016 quailman2101

@hsiale Ha ha yeah! For some reason I was thinking AD was part of Creation and Control.

29 Nov 2016 TheTick

I'm curious about something. Your advice against criminals is to "Protect HQ hard". How do you do that with only 9 pieces of ICE in the deck, and most of them 0 str simple gear checks? Is the idea to get far enough ahead money wise that by the time they find the appropriate breakers, account siphon isn't a big deal?