No Brakes Express Train v1.0

Card draw simulator
Odds: 0% – 0% – 0% more
Repartition by Cost
Repartition by Strength
Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
No Brakes Express Train v1.1
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Pikeman 288

This is probably the meanest, craziest, balls to the wall speed deck I've ever made. It sacrifices any late-game potential for unadulterated early rushing of any and all centrals. This is, in my mind, the epitome of the Criminal faction, and is not to be played by the faint of heart.

You will float any and all tags. You'll often be within range of Scorched Earth with nothing other than I've Had Worse to cover your back, but you'll probably end up playing that on the next turn too. Archer might pop up and trash your breakers, if the Corp weren't broke all the time. But no matter what, you cannot slow down, for the express train has no brakes.

Emergency Shutdown, Inside Job, and Account Siphon are the bread and butter of keeping the corp poor while you just laugh at their unrezzed ice. Eli 1.0 costing you clicks? Early Bird just landed some droppings on his head. But the real thing that keeps this deck going is draw power; Diesel, I've Had Worse, and Quality Time keep the events flowing even faster than the Corp's tears as they look at the state of their centrals.

All the while the cash will flow in from Ken's ability along with your from Prepaid VoicePAD and Public Terminal, and maybe even a Desperado if you feel so inclined. Yes, HQ Interface is expensive, and you'll usually prefer a Legwork over it, but when you're 1 point short of victory, it can prove invaluable, particularly with an Inside Job.

Comments, criticism, and feedback appreciated. Lastly, this does require 2x Core thanks to Desperado & Account Siphon, but that's what proxies are for, right?

5 comments
26 Oct 2015 Bigguyforyou518

With only 6 breakers, I feel like a third copy of Special Order would be pretty important for consistency.

Also for a deck that's running so hard and fast, finding an early killer is absolutely crucial - right now 4 cards in your 45 card deck are (or could become) a killer. Faerie seems like a perfect match for your early aggression, while HQ Interface decidedly does not, so those would be easy slot swaps for me.

I would consider trying to squish in a Same Old Thing or two (or three) just to extend your burst multi-access into the mid game if you haven't won yet. I know you're running tags, but you can still drop-and-play it the same turn for a game-winning The Maker's Eye or Legwork (or even an Account Siphon, although that seems to be delaying the inevitable).

I think I'm actually going to slot all that up on Jinteki.net and test it, because this deck looks extremely fun.

26 Oct 2015 PapaBear

I concur with @Bigguyforyou518 about pretty much everything. I run a Ken deck with 26 events that is almost this exact list, but with Mimic, Datasucker, Faerie, Same Old Thing, Mimic and Datasucker (since you are running centrals). I found all of them worthy additions. I will give yours a try as is, though, because it's fun to pressure corps like an old-school crim.

26 Oct 2015 bubbathegoat

I think the 3x Prepaid VoicePAD are not well suited for this deck. At a minimum, you should consider swapping one for a third Public Terminal. There are only 3 targets for Prepaid VoicePAD that cannot also be targeted by Public Terminal: I've Had Worse, Quality Time and Special Order. Do note that I am very surprised to see Prepaid VoicePAD without any Sure Gamble or Lucky Find.

These 3 slots can probably be better served with Same Old Thing (as @Bigguyforyou518 suggested), which can recur an Account Siphon to keep the corp poor enough to not flatline you or trash your rig.

I'm also not crazy about Quality Time, the credit cost and tempo hit to play or toss cards in your deck really slows down pressure on a turn. If you at least have Same Old Thing, then you have the possibility or using an event from your heap, but I'm just not crazy about Quality Time. John Masanori is almost certainly a better fit for continuous card draw and 'who cares' tags on unsuccessful runs.

Lots of people are going to tell you to use Datasucker, including me. You're already hitting centrals to fuel Datasucker, if you pair it up with Yog.0 and Mimic (look at how little influence they cost!) then you'll find your way into many servers for a few credits and a couple virus tokens that you're already getting for free. Mixing in Anarch fixed breakers with Datasucker makes runs effortless and almost free. If you want to showoff how badass you are, toss in a Morning Star (note, unlike the other anarch cads, this one costs way too much influence and money).

27 Oct 2015 Pikeman

@Bigguyforyou518 - Thanks for the sage advice. In practice though, I haven't found the need for more an additional Special Order, mostly because the draw power if this is quite good. Faerie does sound like a good idea, but more often than not I need to repeatedly hit through sentries. I think I'll drop a HQ Interface for one, as if I need it at all, it's quite late in the game.

Same Old Thing also is a great idea, but again, I don't think I want many. It takes just to play the event, so that alone is a huge hit that you can probably only take when you need to find that last point to finish the game.

@PapaBear / @bubbathegoat - Well, you will basically never get all 3 Prepaid VoicePADs out, but having even one out is great when you want to play Quality Time (which I would argue isn't worth including without the PPVPs). The problem with swapping for John Masanori is with tag float, he doesn't last long at all.

Lucky Find costs a lot of influence, and I'm not sure I can justify it. Also, I think I'd probably go for Easy Mark over Sure Gamble, especially with Spark Agency having arrived.

Now Datasucker and Mimic, that's a great idea, as I always have at least one or two unused with nothing to spend it on. Yog.0 I'm not so sure about, as 5 to install hurts a lot, and there's no Net-Ready Eyes, The Personal Touch, or Dinosaurus to really give it the boost it needs.

Definitely going to make some changes now and tweak things a bit. Thanks for all the advice!

28 Oct 2015 bubbathegoat

If nothing else, Datasucker in otherwise unused MU can at least provide a little econ in saving on bossing icebreakers, especially in criminal with the fixed-increment breakers.

Your card draw is so strong that I really want to find a way to squeeze Faust in to spring some surprise remote pressure at the end-game to score the 7th point. If you have a loaded datasucker sitting on 5 points, with central-only breakers, the corp may think he has you figured out and IAA an agenda in a secure remote. Faust is a single addition that can ruin such a corp's day.

The problem is fitting both cards in will cost the very card draw abilities they want to feed off of.