Bristol Blue Sun - 1st at Bristol SC

Nemamiah 3914

This deck is dedicated in loving memory to the Netrunner career of Dr. Tagore Nakornchai, 2013 to 2018. May your head always have a prize mat to shelter under, my friend. Another win.

I was going in to Bristol pretty cold, having not played at all in four months and with a brand new meta to interpret. In my flailing fumblings to find a Corp I liked (apologies to all those people I've incessantly bugged and forced to play test games on my behalf for the past week) we came up with a dubious Mirrormorph concoction that might one day be good, a CtM list that only made me yearn for better times, an EoI Azmari deck that was beguiling but probably bad, and then finally this. The reasons for ending up with Blue Sun were partly out of a spirit of experimentation, partly so that we could test new cards but mostly because we ran out of time before the event.

Anyway, the theory behind playing this is that my early guess is that Reduced Servers and Daily Quest are probably the best two Corp cards in downfall. Sandstone (at least in Blue Sun) and Afshar are reasonable pieces of ice, and all these cards fit well in Blue Sun. Daily Quest can be picked up when you need the remote and then put back once you're done, and Reduced Service can be reset when you need to. Crisium Grid has synergy with both those cards and also felt like a strong inclusion in in an anticipated meta full of Apocalypse Anarchs and Criminal (this, at least, was correct), and Border Control combined with Reduced Service presents a late game scoring server that is extremely hard to crack.

The upshot is a deck that I think is extremely hard to play optimally and is moderately strong when you do so. If you want to save yourself a headache you can probably play Mti with a similar level of success, but this is more interesting and still has some potential to be improved.

If you're looking for changes I would recommend starting with the ice. I asked Seamus, who in theory is knowledgeable about Weyland stuff, for advice but his reply was to tell me about a Netrunner related dream he'd had. You also might want to consider a Preemptive Action, because if something happens to your Border Controls and Reduced Services you're left looking a bit silly.

In general you want to rush the first few points, before using defensive tricks to finish up. Try to leave yourself needing two points instead of three to win, as it's much easier when you can install Reduced Service and the agenda on the same turn.

You have to be extremely careful with ice placement. You can't overcommit ice to centrals, and just have to make them moderately taxing enough to discourage too many runs. The first Border Control should go on the remote, but consider using the second one for R&D to prevent Turning Wheel deep digs. Veritas is best as the outer ice on HQ and R&D. Sandstone (of which you probably want only two in the deck) is good as the only ice on Archives (bonus points if there's a Cyberdex Virus Suite in the bin) or on the scoring server, but should never be the outer ice on HQ or R&D.

Reduced Service and Daily Quest did prove to be very good cards and if you want to experiment with Downfall Corps I'd suggest that's a good place to start, in this or other ID's.

Shout outs to all the people kind enough to talk theory with me over the last few days. That's the best bit of Netrunner.

13 comments
24 Mar 2019 Seamus

Excellent deck name. Thanks for not telling everyone about my weird dream.

24 Mar 2019 bigfleet

Does Adonis Campaign do the same job as Daily Quest except perhaps a bit better? What would this deck do with more influence?

24 Mar 2019 Nemamiah

@bigfleet Adonis does do something very similar but requires you to bounce it more often (or accept a lesser payoff), which means I think it's a fair chunk worse.

If you can free up some influence then it probably goes on ice slots first and foremost.

24 Mar 2019 Yukon

This is basically a SOCR deck, just need to pick between fast track or gfi. Do you think it works without 1 of them?

24 Mar 2019 Nemamiah

@Conphas yeah, you can definitely play without Fast Track

24 Mar 2019 emilyspine

@SeamusI heard about the dream. Chris and I were swapping netrunner dream stories before the cut, have you had the one where you turn up for worlds and your deck isn't ready?

25 Mar 2019 spags

‘I asked Seamus, who in theory is knowledgeable about Weyland stuff, for advice but his reply was to tell me about a Netrunner related dream he'd had.’

Yes. This.

25 Mar 2019 5N00P1

You are not running the usual suspects like Oversight AI or Building Blocks and in conjunction not the beefy ICE like Chiyashi or Orion. Do you rate them as not good enough?

25 Mar 2019 Nemamiah

@5N00P1 so there's a few things that go in to that. I don't think Building Blocks or, to a lesser extent, Oversight AI really justify their slots in this deck. They're click intensive and suit a slower, more grindy style than I really wanted.

Linked to that is my dislike of really expensive ice in a meta where ice destruction is reasonably common, especially when you're kind of counting on it for econ.

Finally, the influence in the deck is pretty tight because of Daily Quest, so I don't think you can justify splashing out on Chiyashi. If I was going to spend more influence on ice it would be multiple low cost but taxing pieces.

25 Mar 2019 stoppableforce

What are some decent, low-cast, taxing pieces of ice you would splash for if fiddling with the influence?

26 Mar 2019 tomdidiot

I absolutely repudiate this deck and feel it is a grevious affront to nature and my name. I refuse to have any association with any sort of VEGAN Weyland deck.

On a more positive note, I'm doing the Cambridge SC in April...

26 Mar 2019 emilyspine

@tomdidiotTAGORE <3

26 Mar 2019 Sixtyten

I came for the name, I got a seamus dream story. Have a like, Chris.