Turtles All The Way Down (tournament report)

Johnny Polite 387

I took this deck to the Snakes and Lattes store tournament, where it went undefeated in 5 rounds (four flatlines). Unfortunately my runner deck collapsed and only won one game (prepaid Kate could not find her money), so I think I wound up top third of about 30 players.

The idea behind the deck was that I wanted Turtlebacks to be threatening. With Snare! and Psychic Field it is. I spend many turns installing 2 or 3 undefended remotes. The runner has to decide what is most important, turtlebacks or the new remotes? Once they hit a trap they are generally hesitant to run. I frequently install naked agendas.

Neural EMP is a superstar in this deck. You would be surprised how often it pulls off Psychic Field or Snare! to neural or double neural for the win.

The deck also has the usual agenda suite and three SanSan City Grid which makes the astro train threat real. The runner has hard choices checking your remotes.

I think order and chaos will hurt this deck a lot, but it has been swell. I am typing this by mobile, apologize for any mistakes.

9 comments
30 Jan 2015 jerklin

While not as flashy, wouldn't the third Pad Campaign be better than the first Turtlebacks? It costs no influence, has the same rez/trash, and gains you a credit every turn without doing anything.

30 Jan 2015 Johnny Polite

@jerklin Honestly I do not think so. The drip of pad is nice, but with turtlebacks I can install 3 remotes and gain credits for my troubles, which can be the difference between having credits to actively threaten or not.

30 Jan 2015 Johnny Polite

I want to add that in this deck Turtlebacks is not a worse pad campaign, it is actually the opposite case. With a rezzed pad campaign I get one credit in a turn. With a rezzed turtlebacks I can get 2 to 3 easily. It puts more pressure on the runner because I make money faster, AND it rewards me for developing the horizontal board state that I want.

30 Jan 2015 Ragnarook

Looks nice! I'm surprised that you won 4/5 games via flatlines though. A careful runner should always have >2 cards at the end of their turn. I guess you put too much pressure on them so they are forced into making unsafe plays?

What makes you say O&C will hurt this deck? I still have no idea what the O&C meta is going to look like, other than "more Anarch". I've Had Worse hurts the flatline plan a bit, but are you thinking of something else?

30 Jan 2015 Fjord

Yeah that's a little bizarre. I'd be expecting DRT as the runner and therefore keep 5 in hand when checking remotes. Might lead to some nasty Psychic Fields but don't think I'd flatline.

30 Jan 2015 Johnny Polite

@Ragnarook I think people do not hesitate to check a remote last or second last click against NEH, and if it is a psychic field or snare then they are openingb themselves for a neural kill. If it is a snare I notice people prioritize dropping the tag to drawing up. Also, when you are installing lots of remotes that also include San San and agendas runners are under pressure to run when maybe they should not.

30 Jan 2015 Johnny Polite

I should add that Order and Chaos is scary because of I've Had Worse and Wanton Destruction. My HQ is typically lightly defended, and my kill pieces are no good in the garbage.

14 Feb 2015 Fl3xbyts

What are your thoughts on the comparison between your deck and this one: netrunnerdb.com

I am new to the game, and trying to understand this identity. I like cards in both of your decks, and thus trying to understand the choices and strategy of each one.

Thank you. I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

14 Feb 2015 Johnny Polite

``@Fl3xbyts` I think both decks are similar in that they aim to create a lot of remotes while simultaneously punishing the runner for checking them all. I chose a net damage approach where NEARPAD uses primarily tags and meat damage. I find that runners do not tend to expect neural emp, but if they see snare they probably expect scorched earth and so may play plascrete. They also differ in that while NEARPAD discourages running assets by using encryption protocols, in this deck I splash psychic field to discourage with damage threats.