KC's Masterpiece (aka Shriminal (aka Kate's Hole))

ElderMason 1237

Finished 22nd in Swiss at World's today and had a blast playing nearly 12 hours of Netrunner. Wanted to be (you'll have to fact check me) the first person to ever make top cut without a sentry breaker. Regardless, I loved seeing the shock on my opponent's face as I installed Magnum Opus and Rabbit Hole. Only dropped 2 games through 8 rounds, not many people saw it coming.

Had a great time meeting Australian National Champ Daryl Russell and taking him to Outback Steakhouse for some "Aussie-tizers" and "Steaks Cooked on the Barbie". Great guy, great player.

Credit goes out to Alex "Sasha aka The Shovel" Friedman, who actually crafted the initial deck, as well as all my KC home boys who couldn't make the trip.

Collectively, the KC meta helped find the biggest holes (pun intended) in this deck and helped me improve it for last 2 months. Thank you guys so much.

Also, big shout out to Conquest OCTGN League Overlord Sam "The Man" Mann for getting me up here, letting me sleep in his hotel room, and taking me home.

8 comments
8 Nov 2015 dr00

really cool deck. what's the Bookmark for? and what made you decide for 3x Earthrise / 2x Quality Time instead of the other way around?

8 Nov 2015 ElderMason

I'm just against the concept of more than one Plascrete Carapace. I figured I would see more Haarpsichord Studios: Entertainment Unleashed than I did so I wanted more protection but figures Bookmark was more versatile than 2nd Plascrete. Bookmark helped me win a friendly side match against PE after taking 2 brain damage they fired a Ronin and I quickly scooped up 3 more cards. In my 5th round of Swiss I put down my plascrete and hosted 3 on Bookmark vs Blue Sun: Powering the Future with Scorched Earth and he gave up on that plan entirely even with The Cleaners scored.

Earthrise Hotel vs. Quality Time: 4 creds for 6 cards over time or 3 creds for 5 cards now. They both have their places and time but often it's better to get just that 2 card drip to you can be running or taking money from Magnum Opus with your clicks.

8 Nov 2015 notrocketscience

Did you ever hit a Swordsman? Were you just planning to use Nexus on it?

8 Nov 2015 ElderMason

Never hit a Swordsman. I correctly anticipated a small number of RP and decided that if I had to face it I would use my Nexus on it or hammer other servers. In the future I would consider adding a Mimic.

9 Nov 2015 squash957

I'm kinda sad that I didn't get to be the first one to unleash this on a tournament, but I'm glad it was in such good hands. This deck is my baby. I'm really happy how it's developed and how fun it is to play. The influence is largely negotiable, and I think the archetype still has room for refinement.

This basically started when I gave up all hope for Criminal but still wanted to play a similar style to the Andysucker deck that carried me for years. I may do my own write-up in a bit about all the card choices, but it has been a pretty big collaboration between Netrunners from all over. Shoutout to Mason, Andrew, and Victor from KC and Jon from Cali who all repped it at worlds. Also the same group plus Kevin, Brodie, and the rest of the KC crew for their contributions to the deck.

9 Nov 2015 Anima

I played against this deck yesterday, and struggled massively against it. I managed to grind out a win only after baiting my runner opponent into some expensive sentries (archers) and code gates (archangels) when he had only faust to break with. In the end, he decked out and I scored freely, but the game was absolutely his if had any copies of Levy, or perhaps something like a sharpshooter to more efficiently break the big sentries.

Would you consider adding a levy to this list, and if so, what would you cut to do it? Is it even worth consideration, since the game was so nearly lost before he had quite decked out?

10 Nov 2015 squash957

@Anima Faust is really supposed to be a stop-gap measure rather than a go-to breaker in this deck. Besides for that purpose and as HP to avoid kill conditions, cards really stop mattering after you get set up for this deck. I wholeheartedly do not believe Levy is worth a slot in this deck. Stacked sentries can be an issue, but you cannot stack them on every server. That's also what Atman is for. I don't quite understand why your opponent was breaking Archangel as opposed to paying 1 credit with his/her 5 link, but I agree that stacking large code gates can also be annoying. Ultimately you need to do things that stop your opponent from making towers of ICE. Ideally this means inhibiting them financially early.

It sounds like you played very well. Personally, while I've been to the end of my deck multiple times I've never wanted Levy in it. I've also never lost a game because I ran out of cards for Faust. I think keeping an eye on your card count and being conservative with Faust use late is a skill with this deck that is better fixed with play changes than card changes.

That being said, I think a lot of the influence is malleable and some players may want a Mimic or GS Shrike M2 depending on what decks they are concerned with.

22 Nov 2015 Swiftie

How helpful was Imp?