Rockafeller Skunk (5-2 @ Worlds Standard 2022)

mathewkumar 75

Haven't played or thought about Netrunner since 2018 and was just going to use formerteen's excellent list after he e-mailed me two weeks ago about a t-shirt design and mentioned Worlds was happening off-handedly. But then in the morning with the guy literally shouting last call for decklists I decided entirely on a whim to try and jam in the Formicary/Manegarm interaction to try and make HHNs stick to rich-ass runners even at the cost of being able to slot in the third HHN because I thought the deck name I came up with in ten seconds was funny.

Well, after getting swept twice in the morning I was feeling like I'd made a horrible mistake, but then I won every game with it after that which you can put down to a deep-dive submarine or good luck or whatever but I'm going to say the deck... basically actually works?

(like formerteen, my runner deck ate shit, but what was I going to do, not play Apoc? etc.)

Anyway, you know the deal with this. Increased Drop Rates lets you keep archives open (or with an unrezzed Formicary on it) until they put a boat down, hit one or two and get annoyed and/or have to read what the card is. You rush agendas while setting up a Manegarm remote and if possible Manegarm the likely central target as well. Then based on whichever one they hit you make them spend the clicks then 5 or 10 credits of Formicary rotation to get through as well as your taxing ice, without that much bad pub to help them. You can then Wake Up Call their boat when they trash the Manegarm and score, flood them with tags to score, or flood them with tags to kill them at a later date. You've got Audacity there for when it all fails?

(Which it might. I can't say this is the perfect iteration; I felt the lack of that third HHN and I couldn't fit in 1x Best Defense as anti-Misdirection tech as much as I desperately wanted to... without dropping both Increased Drop Rates. However, "fuck it, let's be legends" is a valid deckbuilding strategy.)

Anyway. This deck got me to 52nd at Worlds for the second time in a row (last time 2016) which I think is neat. Please tell the attendant to unfreeze me when the boat and boring-ass Drago prison decks are not a thing anymore.

Love,

Mathew

3 comments
12 Oct 2022 formerteen

wish i could have seen your opponents' reactions when you pulled the manegarm-formicary combo on them out of the outfit. i'm looking forward to seeing what else you come up with next time you're unfrozen!

12 Oct 2022 ayyyliens

thougts on pharos? It seems a little slow without dedication to advance it and tithonium seems like a better facecheck?

12 Oct 2022 mathewkumar

@ayyyliensPharos is just "cost two boat counters and give a tag" basically. I love Tithonium but I didn't trust not facing Paperclips which it is horrible against and you're already playing the expensive Bulwark. If you have to, you can spend the turn to advance it to tax the clip but I never had to. I actually did struggle between a 1x Tithonium and the 1x Archer but the Archer is there to make them respect the need to get a killer down. Tithonium might be better in this list though.