Prepaid Aggro Pad

esutter479 322

This is my stupid idea for the month!

I built this on the premise that I want a strong econ engine for my (tied for) favorite Runner in the game. I know this looks odd, and it may not work, but I'm testing it tonight at a small local store tournament. At the very least, I'll know what changes to make at the end of it all. As of now, I'm pondering removing the Crash Spaces for Plascretes and possibly taking out the Stimhack in favor of a Film Critic.

It's fairly standard Criminal B.S. for the most part. Pressure Headquarters, divert to R&D and eyeball remotes when applicable. It's kinda sorta janky, but not really. If you like it or think it really sucks, drop some feedback...I ain't scurred! :P

7 comments
8 Sep 2015 FarCryFromHuman

I definitely wouldn't replace Crash Space with Plascrete Carapace what with D&D around the corner... now is the time to get used to living with tag removal.

I'd be worried about program trashing more than anything else. Your only backups are for sentries, and your only recursion is LARLA. Silhouette can play a little more cautiously, but Marcus Batty is on the rise.

8 Sep 2015 esutter479

Mk, so keep Crash Space in...but what about Film Critic in place of Stimhack? Do you think that'll be viable? Or is Stimhack too good for combating Glacier style setups?

8 Sep 2015 FarCryFromHuman

Both Film Critic and Stimhack fulfill the same role in this deck, namely getting you points unexpectedly. You have Same Old Thing, so you are getting around the same number of uses from both. One costs you momentum, the other costs you hand-size. I think corps in the current meta are gearing to counter FC, but really it comes down to whichever you feel fits your playstyle better.

9 Sep 2015 esutter479

This deck, be it my luck of the draw or just functionality/build in general, really disappointed tonight. It managed to snipe 2 Hollywood Renovations from a Titan deck, and that helped me win easily...but MAN was it ever slow on the whole. Maybe I wasn't aggressive enough in facechecking? I dunno. You got any recommendations, FarCry? :P

9 Sep 2015 FarCryFromHuman

Silhouette is really hard to build to... I can't ever say I've built a deck with her that has satisfied me. I've tried Blackguard Snitch, Notorious Quester, and an ice removal/R&D dig build I called Grindcore, but nothing has ever felt right. My point is, I am probably the wrong person to ask about her specifically. That said, let me give you my tips.

If your deck feels slow, it's typically due to a combination of three factors: not enough breakers/access to breakers, not enough econ/card draw, and not enough access to your win condition. I'll tackle each point here, but I'd also like to mention that if the corp is playing very defensively, your deck can seem slow, but you seem experienced enough that I don't think that's your issue.

Breakers

You've essentially got 6 breakers. Sentries so rarely end the run that I tend to view Faerie as a tempo/protection tool more than a breaker. One of each copy of breaker + 3x Special Order = 6. In a 40 card deck these are decent but not great odds. I'd consider going up to two copies of each type of breaker, or 3x Express Delivery. The first option gives you the best chances to apply early aggression as well as offering some redundancy (huge in a meta with Marcus Batty et al), while the second lets you set up faster in general and also helps with the following issue: card draw.

I'd also like to discuss briefly the breakers themselves:

Garrote: This killer is a huge tempo hit but it's efficient as hell. If you want to be safer with your aggro, run a cheaper breaker, but you can always just run (again, sentries don't really stop you), and once you have the money to install it this card nearly blanks all the corp's sentries.

Corroder: This is the right fracter for this deck, hands down.

Peacock: I'm going to make this personal. What a horrible little monster you are. You are not that cheap to install, and you are awkward to use. You should probably be ZU.13 Key Master. He is better than you in basically every way, and is a reference to a cult classic to boot.

Money and Cards

You are sporting an aggressive prepaid economy package. I think you have a handle on your money. You might even have too much money; in a 40 card deck you probably don't need 3 each of every econ card (looking at you, 2 influence Lucky Find...), and you might be able to get away with 2 or fewer PADs. Season to taste, I guess.

As for card draw, you've got 3x draw quality and 3x draw quantity. Express Delivery helps with the first, so as it helps you with two categories I'm leaning towards it. Quantity is hard, but you've only got 40 cards so it also isn't as important. Earthrise Hotel is a popular option, but Drug Dealer has been crushing it in and out of faction. I'd suggest you give it a shot if you just want more cards.

Win Condition

It's different for any deck, but as a runner even more so than a corp, you have to have an endgame in mind. For this deck it seems like a combination of agenda flooding via Fisk Investment Seminar paired with HQ strangling, or the ever popular and effective Medium dig. Let's start with the first combo.

Silhouette loves HQ accesses, so Gang Sign feels like a great card for her. It causes you basically no tempo hit to install, and forces the corp to play a horrible hand maintenance minigame, making the creation of scoring windows difficult. This alone isn't a win condition. Once you add in the overdraw from Fisk and the multi-access from HQI, you've got a two-pronged attack that forces a steady stream of agendas through HQ. You've got great odds of hitting an agenda regardless of whether you are attacking HQ or a remote, and thanks to your expose ability, you just always attack HQ first. The only drawback to this strategy is the 4 install cost of HQI, but your to ratio is pretty damn good with all your event econ. This is a really compelling win condition, and sets up naturally over the course of the game.

Then we get to Medium, the darling of the core set. It is so wonderful in so many ways. It's a single card that says, "You've got three options: destroy me, sacrifice several turns, or lose." However, it is a single card, it's difficult to impossible to tutor in , and it costs 3 influence. In a deck like this, I'd call that inconsistent. I'd also say that in a 40 card deck, you don't have room for subtlety. Your game is about doing something fast and consistently, and Medium doesn't support that. You need to get into HQ, period. Luckily, Sneakdoor Beta exists and is a wonderful singleton.

TL;DR: Try Express Delivery, Sneakdoor Beta, Drug Dealer and ZU.13 Key Master. Get rid of Medium and whatever else you can cut, probably some econ (Kati Jones seems excessive, especially two copies). I hope this helps!

9 Sep 2015 esutter479

I hear you, man...loud and clear. :) I WANT Sil to work...so badly. Expose literally only has TWO cards that shut it down - Psychic Field and Underway Grid...and really, how many people actually RUN those cards? I have yet to see 'em.

I actually had a Sil deck that ran fairly quickly and attacked efficiently. It's here - netrunnerdb.com - and I actually used it when Eater first came out. It wasn't all that bad, but then I started getting all crazy about MaxX and Reina stuff and never went back to concentrating on Sil again. Most of my card choices are explained, and I took out the Infiltrations in favor of Inside Jobs after some discussion on OCTGN with another player. As it stands right now, there are probably a few other things I could do to further modify and bring the deck up to current.

I completely agree with you about the Icebreakers. In my previous build, as you can see, I ran 10+3 Special Orders, giving me enough pressure cards when I wanted them. Interesting about the Express Deliveries...and if I run Gang Sign/HQI, would it be viable to slot in Fisk Investment Seminar instead of the Deliveries?

Medium was kind of a last second, desperation slot-in, as I had convinced myself that I absolutely NEEDED some kind of multi-R&D access. I'm starting to see that as less of a thing now, though, the more we discuss this deck and the cards we want to see in it. I was sorta silently kicking myself last night for not having a Sneakdoor in the deck, as that woulda helped bring more central pressure. Sil, I suppose, can be happy with single R&D pulls, heh.

I will most certainly attempt to slot in those changes you suggested above! Once again, I appreciate the helping hand...always cool to have a 2nd opinion about this stuff.

10 Sep 2015 FarCryFromHuman

Yeah let me know how it goes. I think Express Delivery is a criminally (har har) underplayed card, but that's just my opinion. I see it as a Street Peddler without the downsides or the efficiency/paid ability, but in a slim, shaper-bullshit-free deck I'd honestly rather have the latter. This is the nearly-exclusive shaper player in me coming out, but it is what it is.