Red Level Jemison (1st, 3-1 Indy GNK)

I had been playing a bit of Mushin Jemison, but was finding that slots were very tight and the deck ran a bit poor. This deck was my attempt at making it less poor and including a kill package to encourage runners to hang back while all the pieces came together.

My favorite bits of this deck are including Dedication Ceremony without the Reconstruction Contracts that you normally see, and the inclusion of Red Level Clearance. The Dedication Ceremonies felt like pieces that you'd either land on City Works, use on Contract Killer for a kill, or possibly land on advanceable ice to strengthen your servers a bit. Reconstruction Contracts, in the context of this deck, would have crowded out econ (IPO) or kill pieces (Hard-Hitting News, High-Profile Target), neither of which I was willing to give up. I love Red Level Clearance in Titan, and it serves many of the same purposes here.

The day went roughly as follows:

R1 vs. Smoke. My opponent couldn't find any breakers, but I couldn't find any agendas to score to take advantage of that, save a City Works that I Dedicated out. Eventually I install-advanced an Overwriter and an Oberth, which my opponent ran, only to face five brain damage on a full hand. I finished things off next turn with a Dedicated Contract Killer. I heard about this game for the rest of the day as my opponent was more used to playing this sort of jank (cf. their normal Cybernetics Division decks) than having it sprung on them.

R2 vs. Swift/Wanton Destruction Val. I Dedicated a City Works behind an Archer, which my opponent ran, only to notice that the City Works would do 7 damage instead of the expected 5, thanks to the forfeited Hostile. They broke just enough with MKUltra to jack out, draw up, and then come back in...and still wound up with a full hand, thanks to I've Had Worse, a stolen agenda, and 10 credits in the bank. Needless to say, I lost that game after Stargate chucked some agendas in the bin.

R3 vs. Freedom. My opponent found all of the credit economy they needed, but no breakers, and I was able to work to five points. Breakers started coming online around then, and I tried to threaten HHN/HPT, but they had too much money to make that reasonable. After surviving some R&D digging, made easier by Hippo'ing several pieces of ice, I was able to get an Atlas out for the win.

R4 vs. Val (same player as R2). I was fully expecting to lose this matchup, but I had won R2 and R4 on the Runner side due to some agenda flood, and my opponent was a little bit tilted. I got Mining Accident'd early, scored out a City Works and a Hostile, and then watched my opponent start Eater'ing through my ice and Embezzle'ing away my ineffective kill pieces due to the credit differential. Somewhere in the midst of the Stargate runs starting, I Oberth'd out an Atlas, and that enabled an Audacity'd Atlas for the win next turn.

If I played this again, I think I'd trade out the HHN/HPT/Data Ravens for another Red Level and...something else, maybe a Biotic + Ark Lockdown. Mother Goddess also seems like a nice fit for a unicorn, and maybe an Excalibur instead of Oduduwa.