Water Monopoly

We apologize…

Zoe cranked the tap open and held her bottle under the spout. A solitary drip leaked from the faucet, then nothing. She looked up and down the water ration rows, and others were having the same difficulty.

“Hey Penny, you know what’s up?”

Penny George, the transit inspector’s daughter, shook slowly. “Nope, the taps were working this morning.”

Just then, a broadcast took over the nearby screens, and an AgInfusion logo appeared everywhere Zoe looked.

“We apologize for the break in service, but due to several recent clan actions, water supplies have been compromised…”

Tech tech tech

In the right meta, Water Monopoly would be pretty cool. Like this current one where people go tag-me and drop a bunch of resources protected by Wireless Net Pavilion and Jarogniew.

So we’re doubling down with Scarcity of Resources, and we’ve got two copies of the All-Seeing I. The only way we can tag is through Snare, so All Seeing I is really only there to deal with tag-me decks.

This is definitely a shell game deck. If it’s advanced, it could be an agenda, an Overwriter, or a Junebug. Or it could’ve been Mushin’d. If it isn’t advanced, it could be an agenda, a Marilyn, or a Snare. The ICE is light, just enough to make centrals annoying. We also Preemptive our dead traps and Mushin No Shins back in.

Otherwise, this card doesn’t get me too excited. Good tech, I guess, but not sexy cool.

Water Fight PE (Water Monopoly)

Jinteki: Personal Evolution

 

Agenda (10)

3x Medical Breakthrough

3x Obokata Protocol

1x Philotic Entanglement

3x Water Monopoly

 

Asset (13)

2x Cerebral Overwriter  ●●●●

3x Jackson Howard  ●●●

3x Marilyn Campaign  ●●●

2x Project Junebug

3x Snare!

 

Operation (13)

3x Hedge Fund

3x Mushin No Shin

3x Preemptive Action

2x Scarcity of Resources

2x The All-Seeing I  ●●

 

Barrier (6)

3x Eli 1.0  ●●●

3x Kakugo

 

Code Gate (2)

2x DNA Tracker

 

Sentry (5)

2x Komainu

2x Pup

1x Swordsman

 

15 influence spent (max 15, available 0)

20 agenda points (between 20 and 21)

49 cards (min 45)

Cards up to Terminal Directive

 

Deck built on https://netrunnerdb.com.

Rip Deal

Multi Tasking

Tenma leapt from his Qianju as it slammed into the traffic barricade. He turned his momentum into a roll in the air, turning head over heels, and landed in a crouch on the concourse.

The wail of sirens behind him spurred him to more speed, and Tenma sprinted into the arcology. His console banged heavily against his back, and his AR goggles kept him plugged in. It was a precarious balance—his enhanced senses helped him evade capture in meatspace, but he still had to continue the run in cyberspace.

Pre-pay Inside

I love Ken. I’ve always loved Ken Tenma. Mostly for his art, not so much for his ability. Which is still cool.

Rip Deal gives us a way to play Steve Cambridge—sort of—in Ken. But what’s the worth for that? I mean, you could double down on Cambridge’s ability and put Rip Deal in there with some HQ Interfaces or Gauntlet for when you really need something back.

But that’s no fun. Let’s do a Pre-Paid Ken.

Obviously we need a ton of events to recur. So we’ve gone with 13 run events, including Rip Deal. Same Old Thing recurs them regularly, and Rip Deal can bring back a few more. Or it can bring back Temujins.

Otherwise the deck is pretty standard Criminal. Special Order for breakers, a bunch of breakers and backup breakers, some weak card draw, and Desperado. Probably be fun to play, but definitely not top tier. I wish I could’ve fit another Lucky Find, but even 17 influence goes away quickly.

Rip Ken (Rip Deal)

Ken “Express” Tenma: Disappeared Clone

 

Event (21)

3x Account Siphon

3x Dirty Laundry

3x Inside Job

2x Lucky Find  ●●●●

2x Rip Deal

3x Special Order

3x Sure Gamble

2x The Maker’s Eye  ●●●●

 

Hardware (8)

3x Desperado

2x HQ Interface

3x Prepaid VoicePAD

 

Resource (9)

1x Aaron Marrón

3x Same Old Thing

2x Symmetrical Visage

3x Temüjin Contract ★★★

 

Icebreaker (7)

1x Abagnale

1x Demara

1x Femme Fatale

1x Gordian Blade  ●●●

2x Mongoose

1x Paperclip  ●●●

 

17 influence spent (max 17, available 0)

45 cards (min 45)

Cards up to Terminal Directive

 

Deck built on https://netrunnerdb.com.

Mandatory Seed Replacement

Unorthodox

Akitaro was in heaven. He could feel the frustration, the frantic measures of the intruder in every line of code they inputted and bypassed.

“I have you now,” Akitaro gloated, as he deployed another deflector.

“You say something Watanabe?” asked Clarice, Akitaro’s station mate.

“Only that I am mighty and runners are laughable.”

Clarice looked a little confused for a moment, then she shrugged and went back to her screen.

Akitaro cackled.

So… maybe?

I’m not a fan of this agenda. A 4/2 that has an ability that is extremely situational. This’d probably be better as a 2/1 or 2/0 that let you swap two pieces of ICE rather than any number.

But, to make it work, we’ve gone with a bunch of positional ICE as well as some derezzing ICE so we can keep AgInfusion’s ability firing. Chimera, TMI, and Miraju all have ways of going offline and turning on Ag’s ability, and Akitaro makes potential future re-rezzes cheaper.

We’re running Shock to make archives a jerk and Port Anson Grid because it’s awesome to slam someone into a Chiyashi or whatever.

We’ve also got Rototurret and Grim to make some other runs nasty and Chum because we went positional. You can install your Chums immediately and use them for AgInfusion’s ability, or save them for a Seed Replacement rework later.

Still. This deck is not amazing. I’m not super pumped about it. Other ideas included Sensei, Bloom, and Replanting, but I figured it’d be fun to focus on Chimera instead.

GMO AgInfusion (Mandatory Seed Replacement)

AgInfusion: New Miracles for a New World

 

Agenda (9)

3x Mandatory Seed Replacement

3x Nisei MK II

2x Obokata Protocol

1x Philotic Entanglement

 

Asset (6)

3x Jackson Howard  ●●●

3x Shock!

 

Upgrade (4)

2x Akitaro Watanabe

2x Port Anson Grid

 

Operation (9)

3x Hedge Fund

3x IPO

3x Medical Research Fundraiser

 

Barrier (5)

2x Chiyashi

3x TMI  ●●●

 

Code Gate (8)

3x Chum

1x DNA Tracker

2x Lotus Field

2x Mirāju

 

Sentry (5)

2x Grim

3x Rototurret  ●●●

 

Other (3)

3x Chimera

 

9 influence spent (max 17, available 8)

20 agenda points (between 20 and 21)

49 cards (min 45)

Cards up to Terminal Directive

 

Deck built on https://netrunnerdb.com.

Leave No Trace

That’s not the job

McGuire had been taking payoffs from at least a half dozen executives both within the Weyland Consortium and without. On its own, that wasn’t much of a surprise—but put together with what Khan had discovered on McGuire’s PAD, it painted a picture of a grand conspiracy.

Khan didn’t care. She handed all of the data over, lump sum, to her employer, and kept her suppositions to herself.

Ever Closer

The latest version of this deck has Leave No Trace! This card is such gold with Keros and Hernando, I love it. It’s a super Inside Job in the right hands.

After a few more play throughs with Khan’s various builds here, I’ve decided to go with Datasucker over LLDS Processor. The LLDS only really works against stacked ICE types, and if your opponent is savvy, they weave their ICE against this deck. Then LLDS does nothing. Plus, Khan’s ability only triggers on the first piece of ICE you pass each turn, so if you want to derezz a second or third piece of ICE (because the trade is better), then LLDS does nothing for you that turn.

Datasucker will shore up the odd strength numbers on our birds all through a run. Plus we like to run R&D lots. Plus we have Sneakdoor, so we like to run Archives/HQ a lot too.

Also, do not underestimate Tracker. It’s amazing. It’s the first subroutine that would resolve, so  you can break a bunch of things and then not break the single-sub ICE that is the most taxing. In my best case, I used it to “break” an Excalibur for 2 credits each time. Then I could keep running.

Also also, Bloo Moose is the bomb. THE BOMB.

This deck is really getting close to something nasty.

Seeker Khan (Leave No Trace)

Khan: Savvy Skiptracer

 

Event (7)

3x Dirty Laundry

2x Forged Activation Orders

2x Leave No Trace

 

Hardware (3)

1x Autoscripter

2x Desperado

 

Resource (12)

1x Bloo Moose

3x Daily Casts

1x Hernando Cortez

3x Ice Analyzer  ●●●

2x Keros Mcintyre

2x Rosetta 2.0

 

Icebreaker (6)

2x Golden

2x Peregrine

2x Saker

 

Program (12)

3x Cache

2x Datasucker  ●●

1x Dhegdheer  ●●

1x Equivocation  ●●●

1x Magnum Opus  ●●

2x Sneakdoor Beta

2x Tracker

 

12 influence spent (max 12, available 0)

40 cards (min 40)

Cards up to Terminal Directive

 

Deck built on https://netrunnerdb.com.

Helheim Servers

A New Prison

Caprice walked through the warehouse-like server room and marveled at the economy in design.

“The servers are operational?” she asked, cognizant of the answer as it formed in her companion’s mind.

“They are, Nisei-san,” the tech replied. “The Haas-Bioroid technology has been interlaced with our neural networks, and the synergy is breathtaking.”

Raspberry Jam

Once again. I’m sorry.

Fetal AI, Obokata, and Philotic. That wouldn’t be that bad, except that we’ve also got Jeeves and Medical Breakthrough. The runner needs to check every single installed card. If they don’t, agendas get scored.

They want to just run R&D? Helheim them through a Komainu. That’ll be unfortunate.

Remember, Helheim cards go face down, so they make IG trash costs higher. Then we Museum or Preemptive or Jackson back the ones we want. Bio-Ethics stays out forever, Hostile stays out forever. They have to trash your Bio-Ethics and your Hostiles, and you get to Friends them back. They won’t have time to trash Jeeves or Museum. So how do you win?

Well, if you don’t get the Bio-Ethics kill (as set up by a Helheim Komainu, Katana, or DNA Tracker), then your path to victory is to install a single piece of ICE, and drop agendas, snares, shocks, and Junebugs behind it. I like a DNA Tracker for this. But if you’ve got the cards to spare, a Helheim can turn a Komainu or Neural Katana into a strong enough deterrent as well.

Just keep jamming cards. They’ll do what they can, and I don’t think it’ll be enough.

Hell IG (Helheim Servers)

Industrial Genomics: Growing Solutions

 

Agenda (10)

3x Fetal AI

3x Medical Breakthrough

3x Obokata Protocol

1x Philotic Entanglement

 

Asset (23)

3x Bio-Ethics Association ★★★

2x Hostile Infrastructure

3x Jackson Howard  ●●●

3x Jeeves Model Bioroids  ○○○○○ ○○○○

2x Museum of History  ○○○○

2x Project Junebug

3x Shock!

2x Snare!

3x Turtlebacks

 

Upgrade (3)

3x Helheim Servers  ●●●

 

Operation (5)

3x Friends in High Places  ●●●

2x Preemptive Action

 

Barrier (1)

1x Kakugo

 

Code Gate (6)

2x Crick

2x DNA Tracker

2x Lotus Field

 

Sentry (6)

3x Komainu

2x Neural Katana

1x Swordsman

 

12 influence spent (max 15, available 3)

23 agenda points (between 22 and 23)

54 cards (min 45)

Cards up to Free Mars

 

Deck built on https://netrunnerdb.com.

Mars for Martians/God of War

New Paradigm

It had been a long few months for Edward Kim. When his work in New Angeles had gone sideways and Dadiana Chacon’s goons had come calling, he’d skipped the well and gone out to Mars.

Luckily, he’d found some like-minded liberators here.

The clans of Mars welcomed Kim’s mind, strength, and temperament easily. And he found something for the Martians he hadn’t expected—respect. They too had lost their livelihoods to android labour, but they also had suffered under an android war.

There was work to be done.

Dusty Blood

This is another take on Adam’s Counter Surveillance/Jarogniew deck. This time, we’re getting all the tools together with God of War for additional tags and Mars for Martians for quick rebounds after Closed Accounts or Booms. With Obelus, we’re expecting to have a massive hand size, and with Jarogniew and Clan Vengeance, we’re hoping to draw two to three cards with Mars for Martians.

Of course, we probably want to save the Counter Surveillances until we plan to land them, and Mars for Martians is a priority.

The one major downside is Icebreaker strength. God of War is a 2 for +1, and of course MKUltra and Black Orchestra are 3 for +2. That’s why we have three Datasuckers and three Parasites. Déjà vu and Levy to recur those viruses, and Counter Surveillance to close the game out with a big punch.

Plus it’s Eddie Kim, so his R&D hammer is strong.

Red War Kim (Mars for Martians, God of War)

Edward Kim: Humanity’s Hammer

 

Event (10)

3x Day Job

3x Déjà Vu

1x Levy AR Lab Access  ●●●

3x Mars for Martians

 

Hardware (3)

3x Obelus

 

Resource (21)

3x Clan Vengeance

3x Counter Surveillance

3x Fall Guy  ●●●

3x Jarogniew Mercs

3x Joshua B.

3x Stim Dealer

3x Wireless Net Pavilion

 

Icebreaker (6)

1x Black Orchestra

3x God of War

1x MKUltra

1x Paperclip

 

Program (6)

3x Datasucker

3x Parasite ★★★

 

9 influence spent (max 15, available 6)

46 cards (min 45)

Cards up to Free Mars

 

Deck built on https://netrunnerdb.com.

O2 Shortage

For Your Safety

Reina had tracked some of the money back to holding accounts in Breaker Bay, but it had taken time. Time that she couldn’t afford to waste. HB was cutting some sort of deal with Jinteki, and—so far—hell hadn’t frozen over, so it had to be bad.

One of her side systems started to beep, but Reina was focused on her run. The Bioroid countermeasures that were protecting this server were hard to pin down. They changed, and each puzzle they threw at her took up more time. Always more time.

That’s when Reina started to pant.

She looked to her side and her eyes bulged. The dome was being evacuated?

Time to Tax

Sorry, this post is a day late. Yesterday was a potty training day for my 3yo! He did great.

It’s for reasons like this that I try to pre-write a bunch of posts, but I haven’t been able to pre-write anything more than a week in advance, and this week ended up being busier than expected. Who knew getting a mechanic to look at two cars while your wife is working and you’re home with three kids could be so complicated? Ha!

Anywho, this deck. O2 Shortage is a cool card. A Biotic Labor alternative, but also something that can enable a kill. I strongly considered putting this in a spiky Tennin Institute deck, but decided I would stick with HB so I could have five fast advance cards in one deck. The flip side is that I brought Snare into the deck. Which is something I think you need to do if you’re running O2 Shortage natively.

They have to be afraid of running with few cards. So they spend their clicks drawing. But then they lose their clicks to Turing and the Bioroids. Also Enhanced Login Protocol.

It’s another ETF Glacier. Maybe I should’ve gone Tennin, eh?

Gasping ETF (O2 Shortage)

Haas-Bioroid: Engineering the Future

 

Agenda (9)

3x Accelerated Beta Test

3x Global Food Initiative  ●●●

3x Project Vitruvius

 

Asset (12)

3x Adonis Campaign

3x Jackson Howard  ●●●

3x Marilyn Campaign

3x Snare!  ●●●●● ●

 

Upgrade (3)

3x Breaker Bay Grid

 

Operation (10)

2x Biotic Labor

2x Enhanced Login Protocol

3x Hedge Fund

3x O₂ Shortage

 

Barrier (4)

3x Eli 1.0

1x Seidr Adaptive Barrier

 

Code Gate (5)

1x Fairchild

2x Fairchild 3.0

2x Turing

 

Sentry (5)

3x Architect ★★★

2x Ichi 1.0

 

Other (1)

1x Loki

 

15 influence spent (max 15, available 0)

21 agenda points (between 20 and 21)

49 cards (min 45)

Cards up to Terminal Directive

 

Deck built on https://netrunnerdb.com.

Mass Commercialization

The Best at What he Does

Anson’s fingers played across his console frantically. Every swipe, every press was a piece of efficiency squeezed out of an unwieldy system. To Anson, everything moved with glacial slowness, but each command he prompted nudged that glacier minutely, shaving off microseconds that added into milliseconds and milliseconds that added into seconds.

And each second made money.

Binder Digger

Nobody likes Because We Built It. It’s just not effective enough, even when all of your ICE (except 1x Archer) is advanceable. It just takes so much time.

But then again, now we’re advancing ICE for things better than just +1 strength. Now we can turn on our Hortums, Mausoli, and Colossi. We’re making Nebula and Orion cheaper, and everywhere we’re setting up for a big Mass Commercialization. I see Mass Commercialization—in this deck—as equivalent to an IPO that you can play for 0. That’s pretty amazing.

The deck wants to Glacier up and then score three agendas to win. If you go for a Hollywood, you’re also setting up your Mass/Commercialization plays later. If you’re going for a GFI, you’re only putting two points at risk.

And if they’re getting in too well? Well, we’ve got Midseasons or SEA Source off a Consulting Visit to try and burn them down into the ground with good old Scorched Earth.

Plus SPACE CAMP. Because you know. SPACE CAMP.

Fire Sale BWBI (Mass Commercialization)

Weyland Consortium: Because We Built It

 

Agenda (8)

3x Global Food Initiative  ●●●

3x Hollywood Renovation

2x Hostile Takeover

 

Asset (7)

2x Anson Rose

3x Jackson Howard  ●●●

2x Space Camp

 

Operation (19)

2x Commercialization

2x Consulting Visit

2x Dedication Ceremony

3x Hedge Fund

3x Mass Commercialization

1x Midseason Replacements  ●●●●

2x Preemptive Action

3x Scorched Earth

1x SEA Source  ●●

 

Barrier (5)

2x Fire Wall

3x Ice Wall

 

Code Gate (4)

2x Hortum

2x Mausolus

 

Sentry (5)

1x Archer

3x Colossus

1x Nebula

 

Multi (1)

1x Orion

 

12 influence spent (max 15, available 3)

20 agenda points (between 20 and 21)

49 cards (min 45)

Cards up to Terminal Directive

 

Deck built on https://netrunnerdb.com.

Whampoa Reclamation

Incarceration

Whizzard mapped the server cluster. Then he mapped it again. It seemed to mutate and multiply as he watched, and then the offensive measures noticed him.

“Oh shit.”

Ugh…

I’m sorry. I used Whampoa to make a prison deck. If you want to score agendas, you’re probably in the wrong place—but at least you could try with Mushin.

You’re going to have Bio-Ethics and Hostile Infrastructure. You’re going to make money with Sundews, Marilyns, and Turtlebacks. Unadvanced cards might be Psychic Fields. Advanced cards might be Junebugs, Obokatas, or Fetals.

Got agendas piling up in hand? Who needs Jackson Howard. Let’s Whampoa them away.

They ran Archives to make trashing things easier? Recur some of those discarded cards with Whampoa and throw your Shocks and an Obokata down there.

It’s not a nice deck. It’s a grindy, mean, cruel, stupid deck.

TurtleShock IG (Whampoa Reclamation)

Industrial Genomics: Growing Solutions

 

Agenda (8)

2x Fetal AI

3x Obokata Protocol

3x The Future Perfect

 

Asset (33)

3x Bio-Ethics Association ★★★

1x Chairman Hiro

3x Hostile Infrastructure

3x Marilyn Campaign  ●●●

3x Project Junebug

3x Psychic Field

3x Ronin

3x Shock!

3x Sundew

2x Tech Startup

3x Turtlebacks

3x Whampoa Reclamation  ●●●●● ●

 

Operation (8)

3x Friends in High Places  ●●●

3x Mushin No Shin

2x Preemptive Action

 

Other (5)

2x Excalibur

3x Mother Goddess

 

15 influence spent (max 15, available 0)

22 agenda points (between 22 and 23)

54 cards (min 45)

Cards up to Terminal Directive

 

Deck built on https://netrunnerdb.com.

Success

Step One: Pacify

Detective Inspector Creedy at the NAPD was having a rough day.

“I understand that you’re not responsible for every story that NBN puts out.” Creedy tried hard not to cringe as he saw the anger appear in Elizabeth Mills’ eyes. “But you see… our image…”

“The ends, Mr. Creedy, will justify these means.” Mills seemed to lose interest in the exchange as soon as Creedy faltered. The call went down hill from there.

Step Five: Success

I’m in my new house! I’m now writing blog posts from my old desk in my new computer room. I’ve got three posts for this week to finish off Blood and Water, then we go into Free Mars next week! Exclamation!!

This deck is pretty cool. Success is a game-ender if ever there was one, though as most Jemison decks seem to work for me, I wonder why I’m sacrificing agendas to score points… Darn combos.

This is pretty straightforward though. As long as you’ve seen the ruling! You see, Success goes on the advancement requirement, not the printed advancement requirement.

That means you can score an NAPD as a 4/2 then take two Bad Publicity—either by scoring a Geothermal Fracking and clicking it twice or by scoring two Hostile Takeovers.

With two Bad Publicity, the NAPD is now a 6/2. So you can Biotic, install a Government Takeover, and play Success. You sacrifice your NAPD to gain 6 advancements plus another 3 from Jemison. That gets you to 9 advancements and a scored Government Takeover!

Step Six? Profit.

Personal Success Jemison (Success)

Jemison Astronautics: Sacrifice. Audacity. Success.

 

Agenda (11)

3x Firmware Updates

1x Geothermal Fracking

1x Government Takeover

3x Hostile Takeover

3x NAPD Contract ★★★

 

Operation (22)

3x Biotic Labor  ●●●●● ●●●●● ●●

1x Consulting Visit

2x Fast Track

3x Hedge Fund

3x IPO

2x Mass Commercialization

2x Punitive Counterstrike

3x Restructure

3x Success

 

Barrier (6)

3x Fire Wall

3x Ice Wall

 

Code Gate (5)

3x Hortum

2x Mausolus

 

Sentry (5)

2x Archer

3x Colossus

 

15 influence spent (max 15, available 0)

20 agenda points (between 20 and 21)

49 cards (min 45)

Cards up to Terminal Directive

 

Deck built on https://netrunnerdb.com.