Argus I'll just kill you then...

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zithith 45

Yes, it's a bad pun. In case anyone missed it replace Argus in the deck name with "I guess".

DISCLAIMER: This deck is entirely untested and theoretical as aside from missing the O&C cards I'm behind on the whole lunar cycle in physical cards and lacking playtime, though I have tried to keep abreast of netrunner releases and metas.

So I'm not sure if this is a "standard" styling for Argus or not (I would have thought a DRT reliant style would be first on people's minds?), but the intention is just to flood the runner with bad options which eventually lead to a flatline victory.

Generally I like to keep agenda density down somewhat anyway but I think it helps this deck as you can hopefully hide the 7 agendas in obscurity. If one lands in HQ you should try and keep it there unless it's Glenn Station (or a GS has already been scored - in which case hide the agenda you just picked up there). One thing I like about GS is the pseudo-mindgame that can be played if you're threatening match point (in this case 2 GS scored) and bluff a 2 pointer or advanceable asset as a 3 pointer by hiding it on GS for a while in order to force a run which can end in a flatline.

The plan I'm going with is to create central defense and a single scoring remote, but not necessarily looking for impenetrable servers (though a quick advancement or two on some ice might change that in a pinch) as the intention is to play some more heavy-handed brinkermanship style mind-games with the runner. You'll be putting down undefended (or maybe Data Raven- or Guard-ed) assets such as DRT and The Root which are there to just cause the runner headache as there's no reason to not trash them, but it will cost. In the scoring remote there are 5 "traps" and 7 real agendas so the timing of scoring windows is important, however a successful run isn't necessarily a terrible thing for us.

There should be a range of tag sources down on the board for DRT to trigger from and to cost the runner time/money. We want the runner to feel like every time they make a run it's costing them more than us, while threatening the final blow constantly. The currents included are meant as a tax to make things harder, either by weakening their grip while they try to build the rig, making successful runs a source of income for us or being a tag-source.

The reason for the deck name comes from Midseason Replacements and the playsets of Punitive Counterstrike and Scorched Earth. Midseasons being high influence means only a 1-of and so it becomes a tutor target (which synergises with the Glenn Station feint mentioned earlier - pretend you tutored the winning agenda and host it on GS, but it's actualy Midseasons). The idea is that if you aren't in a position for a scoring victory (as is likely) you're more than likely to have PC and/or Scorched in hand so the go-to win con will be: make the scoring remote appear to be hard etr glacier but actually just taxing so when you place the obvious agenda down they go for it thinking they outsmarted you but at the end have to face the ID's effect, a possible DRT then a Punitive, Midseasons and a SE ;) - This fits with a security division theme: If you're running on our servers then you're not disrupting the rest of the business and we can give you marked data to find you and burn your house down!

Another fun play is 5 advance Plan B into The Cleaners for 3 points of meat damage or a tag. Or IAA a GRNDL Refinery and see how the runner faces the disappointment of having risked the ID effect only for an economic asset.

Some odd cards:

  1. I did have one of the Plan B's as a Sealed Vault, but realised that the ID has in-built AS defence/deterrant.

  2. Bad times, another form of tag punishment (and i just like the card) and a way of getting rid of programs but I'm not sure it would be effective. May replace for Aggressive Negotiations?

  3. Utopia Fragment - as it only affects agendas this might be a little counter-productive and may be worth switching to Hades for a small amount of decking defence or Eden to reduce server costs.

Thoughts?

3 comments
23 Dec 2014 GammaCodeX

I have to ask this every time I see that card in a decklist... Why Plan B? What does it do? Why not just put a "real" trap in, or place your agenda on the board? If they hit it before you reach 5 tokens on it (And that takes at LEAST 2 turns) it just does nothing, but coulda been a shattered for clonechip/plascrete/desperado destruction. If you get it without an agenda its just worthless. I think i'd run Hades Shard as one of the 3ptr, as it is pretty strong HQ defence; throwing away your few agendas one at a time and storing them the very best place you can: Bottom of RnD. If you don't score it then its just the same as the other 3ptr anyways. I like utopia so probably over cleaners though I get those too.

2 Taurus seems a bit much, but i guess you really want the plascrete detruction. Fact is though it only works in the period from plascrete hitting the table untill they get a killer, and its a bit pricy. I think again i like shattered remains better.

I think your influence could be spend better. I miss jackson, and manhunt isn't that big a tax without the coreset NBN ID. Considered ELP or Paywall? Ghost branch is also pretty cool weyland TnB as it looks like a big agenda and can easily win you the game when accessed. Junebug is also an option there, but would probably require sea source.

I like fast track in glen/GT, as you can use it to get GT hosted.

Despite all my input here, I like the deck, tried it out yet? Or is it just in the idea/planning?

PS your writeup says midseason is a fast track target. Fast track won't find mideason...

23 Dec 2014 zithith

Thanks for the suggestions.

As mentioned in the disclaimer, no this hasn't been tested yet I'm a bit behind the curve on datapacks (so can't test the majority of the non O&C cards) and the local meta is rather small so not many game opportunies. I might see if there's anyone online that might want to give it a go, or if someone is willing to try proxies.

As for Plan B. I'm not sure. You have good points that there's really no good arguement against. I've never used it and want to see if there is a way to make it work but I feel that the idea is a good one but is badly executed. That said, as with the rest of netrunner I think the card can be good if used at the right time. I find in a lot of my games (partly due to bad math and partly due to unexpected circumstance) I play agendas out in a scoring window yet need an extra turn to finish advancing for whatever reason. Thus using Plan B allows me to advance something in one of these "fragile" windows without risk.

That said it may not be worth it in this deck, as yes it does mean the runner has just run for basically nothing (at best to cost me the price of any advancements placed on it if there's nothing in hand to score) and will then suffer the consequences (tag/2MD at least) for it, but as with Utopia Fragment (see below) it seems by hiding agendas in HQ slightly counter-productive for the flatline victory expressed above where we almost prefer the runner to steal the agenda.

For the Fragments themselves, I too like Utopia (in fact all of them - hence them being limited!) but feel it kinda goes agains the Punitive/Scorch feel of the deck whereby we need the runner stealing agendas as much as we need to score them. I can see it working if we leave agendas on 1/2 advancements as the cost is still reasonable for the runner and severely reduces their credit pool for trace defence. Yet as I want Hades in the deck and feel the extra cleaners make them more likely to show up (and screw runner maths) personally I would swap utopia out I think. But both are plausible swaps I suppose.

Never used Taurus yet myself (reasons stated above) so I don't know. I think more ICE is needed here full stop, but maybe swapping what are 1-ofs/2-ofs/3-ofs might make the current layout more efficient. I also want to include Checkpoints which I can't believe I missed! (I shoulda put a v0.5 or something on the end of the deck name xD)

I'd like to try manhunt before writing it off. The intention isn't to score the tag from manhunt, but cause them to waste money so other tag sources later can catch them. If they leave the trace to let it tag them, I'll rez a DRT so they're looking at either 4MD,1 Tag or 2MD,2Tags at least at the end of the run. Pumping the trace by 1/2 if it can be afforded will still cause the runner a headache and if they want to beat it will cost more than just dropping the tag at the end of the run. In short, theoretically Manhunt works with Argus' effect almost as well as it does Core NBN - whether that holds out in play I don't know. ELPs I'm not sure of - yes I see (like False Lead if we want to bring more agendas in to the mix) that it synergises well that you reduce the amount of time the runner has to remove tags but I don't feel I've re-enforced that elsewhere in the deck. Might be a variant or an addition to Manhunt if influence can be shifted around elsewhere. PWI, I already have one and probably is the current I'm most unsure of, maybe tied with Accounting, would certainly be the card slot candidate for ELP (once inf. has been resovled). Frankly I can see an argus build which relies on all the currents to make the runners life hell just for doing what the game asks of them, that and this are sort of variants on a similar theme - which I like and may see this merging into if testing goes that way.

Hadn't thought of Ghost Branch, thanks! And yes, that was a mistake on my part for midseason/fast track. I'll keep FT in for Glenn/GT etc. but may try making space for an Aggressive Negotiation. I can see a strat of slow-advancing a Glenn until it's ready to score and you have it in hand so that at the beginning of the next turn you can AN midseasons ready to put down a cleaners or some such as bait. If the Glenn gets stolen, no biggy they got burned for it anyway more than likely and you can just try again. Seems like a combo-ey version whereas scrapping it all for ghost branches might be more reliable but that's just personal taste.

TLDR: Thanks for your ideas, will certainly help! Now I need to test :)

23 Dec 2014 GammaCodeX

Aggressie negotiation. Urgh that cad is so hard to use I forgot how it works. Though in a deck that doesn't run atlas (and shouldn't, that's a completely different agenda plan) it might be worth a slot. The fact you don't have to reveal is very nice.

Manhunt will only tax a single credit each turn they run (assuming 1 link), since you don't have recurring credits to sink. Saving 3 influence you could use paywall to get that credit (instead of them losing it) and paywall triggers each turn. Or saving one influence you could make them lose 1 click, which is worth more than a credit. Do notice that the innitial cost of these are also less than manhunt, so it seems like its just "strictly worse" than those two. Also you have no window to rez DRT after they get tagged. You have to rez it after they chose not to jack out after the last piece of ice, before successful run triggers.