Shark Tank v1.22

dodgepong 1796

Previous version

This deck is my own variation on Toomin's N.E.A.R.P.A.D deck.

This deck went 5-1 at the Wasteland Store Championships on February 8th, 2015 in Duluth, GA. It was undefeated in Swiss (the only undefeated corp in Swiss that tournament), and lost in the cut due to a silly mistake I made scoring a Beale from hand instead of a TGTBT on the board. If I had scored them in reverse order, I would have won, but by leaving the TGTBT on the field, the runner stole it before I could score, and I didn't have any DRTs to punish him at the time.

2 changes from my previous version:

  • Trade the Bastion for a second Wraparound to deal with Eater bollocks
  • Trade Mother Goddess for Information Overload. Mother Goddess wasn't really doing much work, and IO is another on-encounter potential tag, as well as super punishing if they decide to become perma-tagged. Also good behind a Data Raven, and good against Forked if they are floating tags as well. I still kind of consider this ICE slot a flex slot, though.

I recommend reading the previous versions to understand how to pilot the deck, but here are the main points:

  • This is a horizontal NEH deck. Install assets and try to use the NEH ability every turn.
  • The primary interaction of this deck uses Dedicated Response Teams. Hide them until they commit to accessing a Snare, TGTBT, or took a Data Raven tag during a run. Probably a third of my wins with this deck are from DRT+Snare dealing 5-9 damage.
  • Data Raven and Snare are pretty standard for tagging, but the unique one here is City Surveillance. Wait until they are poor, and rez as many as you can at the end of your turn.
  • Use License Acquisition to get back trashed assets, as well as Interns.
  • Use Closed Accounts and Reversed Accounts to open up City Surveillance windows
  • Psychographics can fast-advance the Astro-train or win with Beale outright
  • Diversified Portfolio is MVP. It gets me 7-8 credits on average, though I've gotten 16 before with it.
  • You have to score agendas unprotected unless you have an Astro Scored and can FA. Don't worry about it. They can hide in a sea of unrezzed cards. Are they agendas? Are they Snares? Who knows! Why don't you run and find out...
  • A Data Raven remote server can be a lot of fun. Install and advance an NAPD or Reversed Accounts or TGTBT behind it, and watch them squirm when you rez the Data Raven...do they want a tag in exchange for maybe an agenda? (Pro-tip: don't do this with a real agenda if they are at game point...)
  • The most fun part about this deck is simultaneously incentivizing them to run all the remotes looking for Agendas, and to run no remotes in fear of Snares.

I tried Hostile Infrastructure to counter things that are good at trashing, but I found it was too expensive. I would rather spend that influence on the extra Snare which can get the win. If they are afraid to run remotes, then perhaps they won't run to trash at all...

12 comments
14 Feb 2015 Oisin

I used to play this deck, and it was very fun. I preferred Ghost Branch to Reversed Accounts only because it can be triggered on the run and provided another kill option for DRT

14 Feb 2015 Dydra

Good deck, congratz , looks interesting

15 Feb 2015 WhackedMaki

What do you think about Manhunt in this deck? It can take the spot of City Surveillance and punish you even on a run to trash DRT. I'm also running Dracō in place of Data Raven with Primary Transmission Dish to fuel tags for both of them. Might be things worth testing.

15 Feb 2015 dodgepong

Manhunt and Draco make sense in a Making News variant of this deck, but I like City Surveillance because it puts pressure on the runner even if they don't run, while Manhunt only fires if they run.

16 Feb 2015 Toomin

Congrats on the good score! This deck is definitively better than the original. Have you found the Jackson + DBS drawing power helps? In a revision I reduced Jacksons and added DBS and found that it was enough most of the time, but didn't have as many as you. Have you had Melange stay for more than one turn? I guess it could be a pretty good off turn, after a turn of mass installs.

16 Feb 2015 dodgepong

@Toomin Thanks!

DBS helps a ton, and I still like 3 Jacksons to deal with matchups that do a lot of trashing (Whizzard, Noise) so I can get my stuff back. I don't use Jackson to draw that often, mostly just to recur. In one memorable game in a Store Championship (another 5-0 for the deck, placed 4th of 29), the runner had trashed DRT 5 times and I still had all 3 on the board by the end of the game due to my various forms of recurral (Interns, License Acquisition, Jackson).

Melange has only stayed for more than 1 turn once, but sometimes that one turn of +6 credits is enough to get me out of a tight spot. And with Encryption Protocols, it feels good to make them pay twice or thrice the trash cost. It's most helpful early game to get me into potential City Surveillance territory, and keep me floating so I can rez multiple DRTs when needed, or fire a Snare without going broke.

Perhaps the biggest divergence from the original deck is the inclusion of a third Snare. This is mostly in response to the people who run every server and try to trash everything. I don't care if you're Whizzard if you face-check a Snare. It's particularly fun when you begin to learn their server-checking pattern (for example, always running oldest to newest) so you can make sure you place down a DRT after a Snare, knowing they will nit the Snare before the DRT.

17 Feb 2015 akonnick

This is the best version yet (or worst since I have to play against it). I like the mother goddess and bastion swaps. Wraparound and information overload are better fits in the deck.

18 Feb 2015 licoricemaniac

My group an I have been testing this deck (we are no beginners!) and so far it has been undefeated. Mind you we didn't try Whizzard or early agression crims yet. The tollbooth I am not convinced about. We never got to rez it. Either your economy is not strong enough yet and you can"t afoord the rez, or you are swimming in money, which usually means tons of remotes and the win around the corner... how about a third wraparound? maxx is popular around here.

18 Feb 2015 dodgepong

@licoricemaniac Sure, it's good to make your own changes based on your local meta. Personally. I don't want to drop the Tollbooth because it's nice to have a taxing ICE over my most-pressured central that doesn't get turned off with a Corroder/Lady install. Sure, Data Raven is nice for that, too, but once they get perma-tagged, Data Raven is a blank ICE (I suppose Information Overload would be more appropriate in that case). It's a mid-late game ICE, because you won't have enough money until later to rez it (probably not until you have at least 1-2 PAD Campaigns up and running, as well as at least 1 Diversified Portfolio landed) so it's not always that you will be to use it, but then again, it's not always that you will need to use it. This deck relies a lot of learning your opponent's patterns and adapting (Are they running remotes or not? What order are they checking new remotes? Or are they ignoring them and focusing on centrals? Which is the most threatened central? etc.).

2 Mar 2015 Karnek

I went with a variation of this deck to the store championship and aside from then I was agenda flooded (4 agendas in hand, 3 pulled from the top of R&D by the runner in turn 1) it didn't lose any other games. I have made a few modifications as well to deal with "The Leela problem". When you score that first agenda she is making you pick up ice or a remote server basically stalling you into early game. I have moved to 1 snare, and 1 shipment from mirrormorph and 1 cerebral static. I found that just one shipment was all I needed to get ahead of anyone running and trashing remotes and it allows for up to 5 installs that one turn, or 4 and a diversified portfolio. The cerebral static is a new include to deal with Maxx, Runless (Mill) Noise, and Leela.

2 Mar 2015 dodgepong

Shipment from Mirrormorph is a fun include! Leela is certainly a touch matchup, as is Whizzard, so Cerebral Static makes sense, though I feel bad sacrificing Snare for it.

A more recent build of this replaces the Melange with Cyberdex Virus Suite to deal with Noise/Virus shenanigans, which came in handy at my last Store Champs.

Glad it worked out for you!

3 Mar 2015 Karnek

It's funny you mention the melange -> cyberdex as I made the same change myself. I figured melange was kind of out of place since you want to spend your turn installing rather than clicking for credits. My newest version cut the encryption protocols so I could have 2 snares still, and so far I haven't lost with it.