Prime Time (Top 8 Cambridge Regionals, undefeated Swiss)

Veste 424

This deck was undefeated on Saturday in Swiss; three flatlines one timed win.

I clearly did not choose this deck for the meta.

This deck was the result of a few months of testing a deck that won the Vienna SC (credit to @shadowhawk).

Notable changes:

  1. I dumped Shi.Kyū, too much Artist Colony and Data Dealer.

  2. Added Ronin and Cerebral Overwriter for more cards with useful advances and Trick of Light factories.

  3. Added a second Chronos Project to help with the Shaper matchup, and maybe mess up a few of those Anarch Levy decks.

  4. Dropped a 24/7 which gave me the influence flexibility to add in Wraparound for more AI hate, and added an EtR.

  5. Neural EMP to get those convenient flatlines.

Overall a very fun day in Boston, my MaxX deck that carried me through SC season (only dropping 2 games in 3 tournaments) failed me and lost to a very good RP deck and player at time in first round of elimination. Subsequently, PE dropped its first game of the day to Whizzard in the Loser's bracket; a Turntable and Employee Strike in the first couple of turns spelled a rough game for the deck.

This deck is fun to play in a tournament setting, and I suppose the only thing I will add is that online practice with this deck only goes so far. If you intend to play this deck at a tournament, play as many face-to-face games as possible.

13 comments
11 Apr 2016 Myriad

Very cool deck.

Do you think Political Dealings will have a slot in decks like this? As you are running Psychic Field, it could be something you bluff out or even hide behind a remote.

Seems like it might be able to save you four influence. Although I have no idea what you might spend that influence on.

Great job and thanks for keeping the PE fires burning.

11 Apr 2016 HolyMackerel

If you're thinking about cutting the Biotic Labour, Contract Killer is an amazing card in PE. They rarely if ever run advanced remotes, and having a tiny Ronin is super-valuable.

11 Apr 2016 lolpaca

Thoughts on Bio-Ethics Association as a 1-of in PE? With a view to plopping it down and forgetting about it until you need it.

I'm a fairly recent PE convert, but the number of games I could have won with just 1 more net damage...

11 Apr 2016 Veste

@Myriad Thanks! Political Dealings could have a slot, the thing I like about Biotic Labor is that it can't be trashed normally and gives you a lot of options play wise, where as Political Dealings you are pigeon-holed into using it for just scoring.

One of the coolest plays I've ever made with the deck was using Biotic on a Cerebral Overwriter from hand when I knew my Shaper opponent could Clot. I got them to spend their only installed Clone Chip to pop Clot (I needed to stop the Deus X recursion), and then of course they ran the Overwriter. You can't pull that off with Political Dealings.

@pang4 I probably wouldn't cut Biotic, but Contract Killer is a great card for many things, Film Critic coming to mind first. It might be worth testing, but I would cut elsewhere (Pop-up Window/Wraparound) before I drop Biotic or 24/7. The problem that Contract Killer has that Ronin also shares is that it is weak to Political Operative and Councilman, and both can be trashed out of R&D, and with the amount of Bad Pub this deck often takes, it basically just makes R&D weaker.

@lolpaca Bio-Ethics Association is a great card, but not in this deck, the trash cost is an issue, so if it is trashed out of your hand or R&D (easy with all that Bad Pub) it has done thing for you. The great part about this deck is that you don't always need to care about the amount of net damage you're dealing. You can make scoring out a priority and if they are in a bad position you might be able to finish them off with Philotic or Ronin or a couple of Neural EMPs.

23 Apr 2016 burzum51

Played this deck a few times and lost by r&d lock against carefull runner. How you play to avoid this situations ?

6 May 2016 Veste

@burzum51 R&D lock could be an issue, and I've only suffered losses that way a few times, but I've also won those games because of multi-access and snares. If I am concerned about R&D I dump more ICE there, Crisium and CVS are good to at least slow down the Medium threat. If they are using Interfaces then your best bet is to overdraw past what they've seen and look for answers. There are 15 operations and 14 assets/upgrades so R&D tends to be fairly resilient and most people aren't looking to multiaccess more than 2 or 3 cards on R&D against PE. Indexing just murders this deck, for obvious reasons, and there isn't much you can do about that short of having a Jackson already on the table.

Other than trying to shore up R&D more I would say just pressure them with scoring or kill threats as best as you can, because knowing the possibility of a Ronin and the ability to just FA agendas out really makes the runner have to consider if using their time on R&D is always the best use of their turn.

The problem with PE and Argus to the same extent has always been that if the runner is careful and doesn't play too aggressively (exception econ denial strategies), and realizes all of the threats presented, they are an easier ID to beat. I would say with the influx of Indexing that I have seen, as well as the continued popularity of Turntable this deck has become a much worse meta call. Shapers are slotting in some net damage defense to deal with IG as well, so that is also a consideration.

The deck is still fun, it continues to have a great win rate for me online, and has a great scoring out threat, but I can't recommend bringing this to any major tournaments currently :-(

13 May 2016 scd

What were your biggest 24/7 targets? I love 24/7 but have only ever used it in convenience shop. Is it worth trying to find influence for 2?

26 May 2016 Veste

@scd Probably the biggest target is Profiteering. You need money to pay for traps and in general just do things and you don't really care about the bad pub at all. Philotic is the next biggest target. The original list had two actually, but I found I wasn't using it as much as I had expected, or couldn't get myself in a position to use it on Philotic for the kill enough. What you would have to cut to get to two would be your defenses against a lot of the Anarch shenanigans; but it is worth testing again for sure, I just found in all the games I played that one was enough. That influence was my flex for the meta.

26 May 2016 scd

So, I have found myself playing this a lot and I'm often scoring a Chronos way early, like turn 3, just so I can 24/7 it again later once a Levy us in the bin. Has worked great. Occasionally I'll do that with Philotic -- the 24/7 allows for so much more control of when you drop these "when scored" effects, but you have to set it up earlier. I wish I could find room for two.

26 May 2016 Veste

@scd Haha I love that you mentioned the Chronos; I've made that play exactly one time, but it really crushed my opponent when I did. Try dumping the Wraparound, Crisium Grid, and Pop-up Window. I think there is ICE you can substitute that will fill similar roles. 24/7 News Cycle is strong, so a second copy is worth trying again.

7 Dec 2016 DonCheadle

Hey man, not sure if you're still on here, just wanted to let you know that I've been playing a slight modification of this deck and honestly it has become my go-to, as in , 90% of my games are probably with that deck.

So thanks for creating this masterpiece and have a nice day.

29 Dec 2016 Veste

@DonCheadle Thanks for the kind words! Glad you are enjoying it - do you mind me asking what kinda changes you are working with currently? Are you finding success in this runner meta?

20 Apr 2017 OdaNobunigga

Hey @Veste, DonCheadle here, this is 4 months later and the deck still runs as smoothely as day one haha. Rich runner meta makes Profiteering an even better play.

netrunnerdb.com

This is my current iteration, haven't changed much in a while. No crisium is sad but I wouldn't know what to drop, Plan B for those times where the runner feels safe because they're on Siphon/Damage protection.