Geist: 1st Place London Regionals 2016 (Runner)

Brendan 571

This is a Geist deck. It's good against kill decks and Palana. It's not good against asset spam. If you play only kill decks and Palana, you will win games!

In Swiss I played Titan, Argus, Argus, HAARP, Palana (and IDd with two players playing IG). It won every game. In the cut it faced Palana (win) and NEH FA (loss).

35 comments
21 Jun 2016 CodeMarvelous

Have you considered cutting a Street Peddler and changing Gordian Blade for ZU.13 Key Master in order to get the The Source to deal with NEH. You already have the fall guys and the hostage.

21 Jun 2016 Brendan

I'd sooner cut a Levy. Street Peddler is extremely strong.

Frankly I'm not convinced you can salvage a good matchup versus NEH by including any number of The Source, but you could try!

21 Jun 2016 CodeMarvelous

@Brendanthats fair.

21 Jun 2016 The Broken Meeple

No Technical Writers? That's a new one for most Geist decks - didn't miss him then for the money?

21 Jun 2016 Brendan

They're basically inferior Tech Traders. I prefer to Hostage for them (with the added utility that brings) than run the Tech Writers.

21 Jun 2016 kwind

Interesting build. Looks like it would take a fair amount of practice to get good with it.

Do you levy pretty much every game? That's a lot of influence, but obviously you have a lot of disposable pieces so it makes sense.

21 Jun 2016 Brendan

I doubt this deck would function without Levy. You typically Levy against all but NEH FA decks, and that is a terrible matchup anyway.

21 Jun 2016 internet_potato

Love seeing geist make it happen. Do you find that with so many events your streepies wipe out the cards you want or get locked down with events (especially post-levy)?

I'm sure you've considered it, but I might drop a Drive By for another Same Old Thing as insurance and to reduce the odds of a total street peddler whiff. I played a similar deck for a while (using Off-Campus Apartment, before Spy Camera came out) and one time I street peddlered both levies and a siphon.

It was the worst feeling in the world.

21 Jun 2016 Brendan

9 events is as high as I'd go for those reasons. I don't mind the idea of SoT #2. But three events on a Peddler is pretty rare.

21 Jun 2016 karlakas

Is the upgrade removal enough vs palana? Have you thought about FTE against these 2 ponters GFI agenda suites? What is your thought about faust vs corroder in this deck?

21 Jun 2016 Brendan

Right now the upgrade removal is enough, but it might not be if you drop Drive By. FTE might be good; I just never got around to testing, likewise with Faust vs Corroder.

22 Jun 2016 GuyBuddyFriend

Can someone help a noob? Where is the money in this deck?

22 Jun 2016 Brendan

GuyBuddyFriend: With a single Tech Trader, almost every card is worth a credit. And they stack. Two two, almost every card in the deck will make a profit. Additionally, you have 9 disposable breakers that don't need money.

22 Jun 2016 Brendan

GuyBuddyFriend: With a single Tech Trader, almost every card is worth a credit. And they stack. With two, almost every card in the deck will make a profit. Additionally, you have 9 disposable breakers that don't need money.

22 Jun 2016 Tungsten

I have to say that this deck is a blast to play. After dropping my first game, I've won the last 7 (though there have been some close ones). Having three Tech Traders our and playing a Street Peddler to a Street Peddler to a Sports Hopper and going up 7 credits and 6 cards with 1 click is crazy. It's like shaper in criminal.

Also, in Geist, Sports Hopper is the only scorch protection you need, especially when you have Levys to back up the cards you might lose. And when you're not playing a kill deck, they provide you with so much card draw.

Anyway, congrats on the deck and keep up the good work!

(protip, mulligan for Hostage or Tech Trader. Also, if you're playing Jinteki, just be careful of your 2 Levy AR Lab Access's and your 1 Same Old Thing)

22 Jun 2016 manveruppd

The newly-released Black File might help against NEH. If you get lucky and get it on a Peddler, you can install it clicklessly like you would with a Clot play. Otherwise you'd have to hard-install it as soon as they get to 5 points, unless you're certain they're not holding the winning agenda in hand.

Also, Siphon really helps slow them down in the beginning, keeping them under the amount they need to score the first Astro. I know that Geist finds it hard to siphon against most decks, because of the amount of B&E breakers you need to install just to be able to threaten it, but against NEH most of their gearcheck ice is 0str, so a Spike or a Crowbar and you're in.

25 Jun 2016 Gerrark

@manveruppdGood idea with that Black File, and what makes it even better is that there doesn't need to be any luck. There's six spy cameras there, that makes the combo easy enough to set up imo, but admittedly I haven't tested enough to know if that's actually true.

25 Jun 2016 internet_potato

@manveruppd I installed The Black File from hand when the corp was on 6 the other day, but it kind of just delayed the inevitable. Unlike clot (which lets you swoop in and steal the agenda on your turn), they can still just score out and you end up losing a few turns later. I could see it working out in some cases, but at the moment I don't think it's worth a slot.

26 Jun 2016 Parzival

I've been using Zu over Gordian for two reasons. First, influence; one more helps a lot. Second, memory, which is huge - Crescentus has done a lot of work for me.

26 Jun 2016 torien7

Do you ever use Spy Camera for its click ability, or do you tend to just use the trash ability for the money/draw/card on R&D?

26 Jun 2016 Brendan

@Parziva: Zu is fine, but you will find good players will stack ice all of one type on a remote to tax Crowbar. If they do this with code gates, Zu simply isn't efficient enough to handle this.

@torien7: No, you should never use Spy Camera's click ability outside of exceptional circumstances.

27 Jun 2016 Swiftie

Where is the stupid picture to go with deck of the week? On a more serious not how often do you trash forger. With no other link you could loose a lot of programs.

27 Jun 2016 manveruppd

I never click the Spy Cameras either, it's terrible! :p The only situation in which I can see it being good is if you have 3+ on the table and a peddler in your hand, and you want to make sure your Levy doesn't end up on the peddler.

27 Jun 2016 Salem

@Swiftie : Sports Hopper gives 1

28 Jun 2016 internet_potato

re: the spy camera click ability-- unless you're on the Replicator train (ideally with a Bazaar caboose) they rarely pile up to the point where the click ability is useful.

It's a different deck, but with Replicator + Bazaar it's surprisingly relevant during setup (install 5 spy cams, use the click to put the cards you need up top, draw them, and then install the last spy cam to trigger another shuffle). If you get replicator early, it can accelerate finding Tech Traders and whatever breakers you need at the moment. At a minimum, it can help you keep Levy AR Lab Access in your stack rather than in your grip until you need it.

30 Jun 2016 ADHiDef

[Begin rant of praise] I just want to say...thank you. I have been tweaking and tinkering with Geist for several months, but @Brendan I gotta say, your deck is truly inspired. Netrunner is intentionally designed to prohibit decks from having all the answers, and your decisions around bolstering Geist's strengths as opposed to compensating for match-up weaknesses is a much broader deck building lesson by itself. No The Source. No Clot. Just go get the agendas. This deck is all about acceleration and that's what makes the deck choices sing. The second Levy AR Lab Access, Gordian Blade over ZU.13 Key Master, three Street Peddler, and two Hostage; "Freedom Through Equality" is a crutch that you don't need - the second Hostage is an essential piece of consistency that allows you to get your economy online and continue to accelerate.

@Brendan - I've played enough with the deck to know you've made the right choices, but I'd like your opinion on how to slot in an Inside Job. I find myself losing mainly because the corp was able to score first by rushing out an agenda.

2 Jul 2016 SHIEL

I'm curious why you say that Technical Writers are inferior Tech Traders, since the two cards synergize with one another. Tech Writer makes every non-resource install worth money, and the Traders give you an extra 3 on top of the Writers' payload when you fire them. I feel like you're missing out on a massive amount of econ without them, and am not clear on why you don't miss it.

5 Jul 2016 grimsleeper

Not Author, but play Geist a lot. My experience with Tech Writers is they give you money when are already setup and do not need it as much. With a full B&E suite, you can trash those to money up while making a run. Tech Writers are a dead draw later on as well, as become way worse fall guys. I would put in more siphons before getting tech writers.

31 Jul 2016 thebriarfox

I've been spinning this with -1 Legwork, +1 Siphon for a while now, and it makes plenty of dough. I don't miss the writers at all. In a Bazzar/Replicator build, where you're going to load them up like crazy in a single swing, sure, but this build is far more moderated in it's installs, and gets significantly less value.

24 Aug 2016 Brendan

@ADHiDefInside Job (or even more Account Siphons) are both good answers to corps rushing. A basic switch is to drop a Drive By and a Legwork for two of them. You could also try swapping Film Critic to upgrade Corroder into Paperclip now, and use the spare slot for something.

25 Aug 2016 KryptikRVR

@Brendan How do you think this deck would fair against the CTM matchup?

25 Aug 2016 Brendan

@KryptikRVR The CTM matchup is pretty terrible. You can try to add things like Temujin to boost up in credits early, or you can try to go tag-me with all the Siphons you can pack (and probably a Data Dealer to sell GFI). It's still awful.

15 Sep 2016 RvdH83

Ran this the last few days. Technical Writer seems indeed like an overkill. Once it runs, you have money to spare, although I had no heavy asset spam match-ups.

Changes: -1 Film Critic, -1 Drive By, -1 Fall Guy, +1 Employee Strike, +1 Same Old Thing, +1 Decoy.

23 Oct 2016 stimmyrobbins

This is why ID's need to be stricken from the books. This decks doesnt account at all for the current meta. Not trying to build to the meta and just IDing is straight lazy.

23 Oct 2016 stimmyrobbins

Where's @dydra, he would have trolled this deck with a comment like "nothing new here"