Drugged up Nasir

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Here is a Nasir deck I've been fiddling around with for a few weeks now. It's done surprisingly well, I think dropped two games in ten or fifteen, and one was my own stupid fault for hitting a Cortex Lock first turn, right after installing an Astrolabe if I remember right.

The deck is effectively a Parasite recursion deck. You can peel away the ice on RnD and start to hit it with your RDIs, locking the game down. It's very hard for the corp to build a server that can stop you for long, you'll often have 2 suckers up farming for tokens, an Atman at some appropriate strength, and either a Cyber-Cypher hitting RnD or multiple parasites, depending on your MU.

You can really threaten remotes and centrals from basically no cash, as you either have money 'off shore' in Ghost Runner, have several items on your Workshop at a single cred ready to hit the table, or are holding onto your Stimhack, Nasir's secret weapon. Having all your things on PW at a single credit is a great place to be, lets you hold on to those Atmans until right when you need them and decide what strength they are on the fly, and means you can drop a Parasite at the end of the Corp's turn for an instant -1 str.

It's not hugely different from many previous Nasir decks, but I feel Drug Dealer and Film Critic have added enough to it that it's become relatively competitive.

Drug Dealer is in where I have previously had Earthrise. I was finding climbing up even to 4 to be a big ask for Nasir as I was playing it, especially as it wasn't something I was able to host on the Workshop. Drug Dealer is cheaper, lasts longer, gives a steadier stream, and the 'downside' can easily be juggled by paying credits into your workshop at the end of the Corp's turn.

Film Critic ups your competitive game by giving you a realistic chance to steal agendas like NAPD or The Future Perfect. It also gives you some game against corps that play cards heavy on the runner's actual econ, namely Midseason Replacements and Punitive Counterstrike. You are still vulnerable to Snatch and Grab, but hopefully a second FC can step into the breach.

Stimhack is often the ace in the deck, in combination with Personal Workshop and Nasir's ability I've had runs where I've started with no money and ended up spending 20+ credits over the course of it. Don't be afraid to blast this off early to get a bunch of stuff installed off a Workshop!

You're mildly susceptible to a SEA Source/trash/kill, or to Elizabeth Mills, but remember you can ditch things off your workshop after either of those cards have been played. And you've also got a single old-school Plascrete lurking in there for some meat damage protection.

While it's good at what it does, it would suffer considerably, I would imagine, against PE or even Jinteki in general. HB is a mixed match up as NEXT ice usually dissolves before you, but you are faced with Architect in faction. Rush is a good matchup as you have Atman to tackle any ice, and parasite to kill it, and Fast Advance should theoretically suffer once you've established an RnD lock.

Changes I would potentially make would be to include SOME KIND of HQ pressure, maybe HQI to work with PW, or maybe a Utopia Shard. With the Drug Dealers I feel like you might burn through your deck quickly, so a Levy might not go amiss. Also, it suffers considerably against small Sentries at the moment, considering the Datasuckers I feel like Mimic would be a good call; Deus Ex could easily go in too.

Remember the Nasir rule; the timing chart is your friend. Memorise it, laminate it, carry it around to present to opponents who doubt your knowledge of how he works. If anyone starts talking the ID down, pull out a deck like this and give them a run for their money!

2 comments
16 Sep 2015 dinkzilla

I built this exactly as is and played two games last night. I lost both games, but i also made a lot of mistakes. Nasir takes some getting used to, but this deck is a blast to play.

I did mill myself and die both times, but I was playing against a Chronos Protocol deck. I agree that a Levy would come in handy, but I'm still holding off on adding it. When playing damage decks, don't play all 3 drug dealers is what I learned. I had six points when I died, so a little better piloting I may have been ok. Plus with Chronos specifically they'd have sniped my Levy anyway long before it was useful.

I am adding Order of Sol in place of Kati Jones. If you're already playing to stay at 0 credits, that seems like it should be a no-brainer and I like Armitage for it's flexibility better than Kati's slowness and forward planning.

I'm also going to try Toolbox instead of Astrolab. It will sit on my Personal Workshop and be a sponge for removed tokens. I hit two many places in my games where I had to remove tokens and didn't want to because I wasn't ready to decide what Atman, Parasite or Cyber Cypher where going to do. This will get even worse with Order of Sol needing somewhere to put the credits from your opponent's turn before Nasir spends them on drugs. Having something expensive sit there and soak up those tokens is great. And once it comes out will be awesome for this deck.

Again, only played two games against one deck, so these opinions may be match-up specific, but this deck was a blast to play, good job! I'll let you know if my changes work out or suck.

17 Sep 2015 unitled

Glad you enjoyed it! I've found the deck surprisingly efficient, my main strategy is to continually parasite the RnD ice until the corp has no more ice there (or left in their deck...) and I have a total RnD lock!

I like Kati here as she is money in your pocket that isn't taken away by Nasir's ability, much like Ghost Runner is. She's like a 2-click Stimhack when she's loaded! But Order of Sol is an interesting call, I'd be curious to hear how you get on. I'm not sure as it requires more credit juggling with your Drug Dealers, and is more reliant on drawing something good to host on your Workshop.

Toolbox is also interesting, Nasir loves his recurring creds, and having that out takes some MU pressure off. I think I'd rather have those RDIs sitting there as money sponges though, but of course that is dependent on drawing them!

I feel net damage is a tough matchup for the deck, so I wouldn't be too disheartened in that match up; I've even considered Net Shield a couple of times!