DARUDE SANDSTORM: A Mti Mwekundu Deck (13-5 @ regionals)

I teased a lot of people about this deck. I still think it's probably the best corp archetype right now. Here is the list. I'm sorry for unleashing this monster.

Three people played variations on this general list at the Chicago regionals today. I went 4-1, Trevor went 3-2, and Alex went 6-2 (playing it three times in the elims), for a combined 13-5.

I trust you already understand this deck's scoring patterns and general strategy, so I'll skip that discussion and cut to the chase (this is a joke, even I don't understand this deck's scoring patterns)

The assets and upgrades:

Some of these options are flexible. I talk about the more flexible ones lower in the guide.

Marilyn Campaign: If you don't play enough money cards you will lose. These are good because they only cost 1 influence and don't feel bad to trash.

MCA Austerity Policy: This was a flex slot.

NGO Front: You don't have to play this, but it's both money and a bluff, and your remotes are incredibly, incredibly taxing. Sometimes you want to just install and double-advance a card naked and force the runner to figure it out. Plus there's a fun trick you can do with it (see the bottom of this guide, discussing timing tricks).

Rashida Jaheem: You've got a scoring remote and need something to shove into it when you don't have an agenda. Also a good naked install early, so you can pretend you're asset spam.

Marcus Batty: Obviously.

The operations: None of these require further explanation. You know full well why each of them is included.

The ice: Super flexible. The locked slots imo are:

2 Envelope

2 DNA Tracker

2 Anansi

1 Excalibur

2 Sand Storm

We each played different ice mixes. Here's some thoughts on the ice we played:

Envelope: Better than you think. Better than Kakugo for this deck. The facecheck penalty is real and the money tax is better than the card tax.

IP Block: Pretty taxing, has a substantial facecheck penalty, and ETRs sometimes. Also nice to have versus Aumakua decks. However, a lot of runners people are playing right now have a link. So this is not a great ice to go all-in on.

Enigma: Costs basically nothing for a runner, which is a problem, but it's nice to have an ETR code gate and the facecheck penalty is decent.

Tollbooth: It's an ETR code gate with no cheap way through. Probably ends up being one too many 8 cost ice. But it's good.

Mind Game: Costs 0. The runner basically has to break it if you install it on the inside of a big remote. So that's what you do. Great rez-to-break ratio.

Cortex Lock: Keeps people off early aggression. Taxes runners pretty hard even when it's a known quantity. Fire this with Marcus Batty so runners can't steal Obokata. Nice.

News Hound: In this meta, this almost always has the second subroutine. Nothing makes you feel better than a runner playing Employee Strike and then running into a News Hound that was on the field.

Surveyor: Amazing on your scoring remote. Costs approx. infinite for MKUltra to break. Really the only question is if you play 1 or 2. It's not very good on centrals.

Special Offer: Don't play this.

Flex choices:

Celebrity Gift: This is fine but it could have been literally anything else. It sucks to give away a bad hand.

Navi Mumbai City Grid: This can be super good! It turns off SMC, D4v1d, Maxwell James, and probably some other bullshit too.

Bryan Stinson: This isn't as good, but one turn with him and your money problems are over for the game.

Cyberdex: Handles stupid turtles. Keeps Consume Freedom poor.

Fast Track: Gets you a Nisei to score.

MCA Austerity Policy: Scores you a Nisei.

Distract the Masses: Better than Preemptive against Clan Vengeance decks because it can also save you from HQ flood and the 2 credits is irrelevant. In retrospect Miraju would have served a similar role.

Matchups:

This is a good deck for most matchups, but it is especially good against decks that can't break a Sand Storm.

This is not necessarily a great choice vs Clan Vengance decks. I leave "why" as an exercise to the reader. It can beat basically anything though.

I mentioned a "timing trick" to people. There are two fun ones in Mti, one of which we elected not to use, but both of which are worth noting:

• The runner runs an NGO Front with no ice protecting it, and you have very few credits. You install a piece of ice in front of it, pop the NGO Front, and rez the ice with the NGO Front money.
• The runner runs a Signal Jamming or a server with a Signal Jamming. You install a card with Mti, and in the window where you can rez the ice, you pop Signal Jamming, preventing SMC/bin breakers.