Surfing with Painted Knives (2nd @ RandomNet #2)

For the 2nd RandomNet, I was drawn Quetzal as a runner. Considering what I could do with the ID, my first (and only to be honest) thought was to leverage her “break 1 barrier sub” ability and try and build a breakerless runner. - not the Always Be Running Quetzal deck that was a popular a while back, but instead one that uses Paintbrush and Knifed so that all ice I either break with Quetzal and E3, or Paint and then knife so that other ice types don’t give me headaches.

General game plan is to assemble your breakerless rig as quick as possible while also getting some econ up and running (Liberated, Kati). Logos is here to help with grabbing some of these pieces so it’s ok for the Corp to score 1 or 2 - there is only 1 copy of Paintbrush so either rely on Logos if you install it early or hopefully see Paintbrush. Once the rig is assembled (Paintbrush, Keyhole, Surfer), keep hammering R&D using Knifed and Same Old Thing to remove ice that you’ve paintbrushed or Paint the outside ice and surf it all the way to the end of the R&D, bonus points for knifing this ice you’ve just surfed. The Corp will most likely install more ice to cover R&D so the Sacrificial Constructs are there for any horrible program trashing ice you may facecheck and Run Amok makes the Corp ask if it’s worth it when you have a loaded Medium. Also if it’s clear, feel free to Amp it Up and get all of those Keyhole runs happening. Medium is there as combo pressure with Keyhole (it gains counters on successful Keyhole runs) and so I’ve included Memstrips to make memory room for it. The deck did have an emergency Corroder in case the Corp stacks barriers but swapped it to Eater as it’s just as efficient. Even with Logos, there isn’t enough room for Paintbrush, Keyhole, Surfer and Eater so some revision needed. Street Peddler seems a good edit as this deck has no special draw and I didn’t like the idea of Inject binning my only copy of Paintbrush :(

The deck went 4-0 on the day and sadly I didn’t do much painting of ice and even sadlier didn’t do any surfing either. It turns out that Knifed in Quetzal with Keyhole is alright on it’s own without tricks. My Corp deck didn't do so good (2-2) but together it was enough to take 2nd on the day, only beaten by Kilby that went 5-1 + a bye, so the fact I played more games on the day means I have the true victory ;)

A shout out to Run Amok, a card I included to force a rez on R+D if the Corp was scared of a loaded Medium but proved more useful as an Inside Job style effect against the remote - especially devastating against the Corp that installs Oaktown, then ices and then advances it only for me to Run Amok for the easy steal (Sorry Mike!). Also a fun play to later in the same game, install SOT and Run Amok again after I correctly guessed they were trying to score in the same remote.