You Only Run Twice (2nd Place Helsinki GNK)

GooberMan 128

3-0 at GNK. My first Top 3 placing. Feels good man.

Weirdrunner is here... and Hank Scorpio is feeling fiiiiiiine.

You keep doing your thing there, Hank, you're doing a great job.

I was running with the Axeidents Happen deck for a bit before rotation. tl;dr of the deck plan - Only run Barrier ice, and snipe their tools when they try to use them. I haven't had a chance to try out new deck ideas, so I set on adapting an old one. And oh wow has dropping Our Lord And Savior and GFI made this deck even more fun. Look at all them there influences I can spends!

Playing the original deck made one thing clear - as soon as you break a runner's toys, the game grinds to a halt while they work out how to get them back. The original deck was almost passive, waiting for the runner to run before attacking. What needs to happen is that you need to pressure the runner. And to do that, you need to speed the game up yourself and keep flashing juicy agendas at them.

I was originally considering Illegal Arms Factory, but after running with Daily Business Show I'm convinced that's the right option. This deck doesn't need extra credits; and with all the AI breakers floating about having cards you can't throw back in R&D easily is just a liability.

MCA Informant is specific tech against Film Critic, who still seems to be a popular splash. Never had to play it once in my matches though. Eh. I'd regret not having it. Two Consulting Visits also mean I don't feel bad for only having two copies of all my other operations.

The true stars of the show, however, are Tithonium and Wraparound. You don't even need as many operations to snipe their rig if they're unprepared for a Tithonium; and hearing a runner groan as you rez that third Wraparound is well worth it.

Unexpected star is the Utopia Fragment. I was expecting it would only ever be used as bait. Scored it in two games. Those Oaktowns suddenly became NAPD Contracts after I installed them. Delicious.

Feels like it's about time to discuss the games, yeah?

Game 1 - vs Apex

Ah, Apex. This deck was piloted by the Helsinki Regionals champ. Always a pleasure to play against him and watch him play.

I played against his Apex in the old meta, a very close game where he won with a Mad Dash. I was a bit fearful of the Apocalypse coming late enough to ruin my game plan, but it was not to be for Apex today. For he ran at an agenda and faceplanted my Tithonium guarding it. Having only scored an Oaktown by that point, I spent the 9 credits to rez it. Out goes his Reaver and his game plan slows right down. I score out that Utopia and another Oaktown for a surprisingly quick game.

Game 2 - vs Laramy Fisk

I encountered a Fisk deck during my recent trip home to Australia at a casual night in the Melbourne meta. I didn't know what to expect. I got dominated. But now that my game plan is all about drawing cards and making the game quick, Fisk just helped me out there quite a bit instead. He was running all the spicy tech too - HQ Interface and Gang Sign. HQ was clearly not the safest place for my agendas.

Baiting archives with Hostile Takeovers wasn't working though, so I eventually Preemptive'd them back in to R&D. A bit of hilarity happened when I Hatchet Job'd his Aumakua back to Salem only to discover he had a second one in hand at the time. Eventually he got a Mammon on board and started to be a threat. It was getting pretty hairy, I was getting close to being decked and no one was winning.

And then he dropped a surprise Black File. Spicy. I pushed out a Hostile Takeover to bring me to 7 and let him know he has a time limit on the game. He's convinced I have agendas in HQ though and keeps hammering with Mammon. Every time a Fisk fires, I keep pulling operations in and returning any agendas I find thanks to the Daily Business Show I had rezzed. And he keeps getting multi access... and on the last possible access he could make, he still manages to not hit the Oaktown I've had in there for several turns. That's some bad luck right there. GG. Fisk seems like a power player these days though. Keep an eye on that slippery crim.

Game 3 - vs Sunny

First time facing Sunny. Only lasted ten minutes thanks to the marathon CI game I played (check my Smoke deck for that story). My Wraparounds were as good as Vanillas to her Sherman, but it didn't matter. I pulled Hostile Takeovers, scored them as I pulled them, and he kept coming up blank on his runs. 2 points after ten minutes to me and I win the game on time.

Overall

This deck still has teeth. Correction. This deck is like our man Jaws from James Bond. His teeth are sharper, pointier, and have more comedic value in the sequel. Cheers to @podoboyz99 and you other crazy bastards involved in making the original deck.

7 comments
14 Oct 2017 RvdH83

I'm running a similar list, but without any 3-pointers. 3x Wraparound is indeed fantastic, not only against AI, but also against Kit.

16 Oct 2017 awisnesk

How does this do against Kit decks? I have always found that Skorpios has the most trouble with her.

16 Oct 2017 GooberMan

@awisnesk: I've not run it against a Kit deck yet. I'd assume she'd have the same trouble as every other deck - who cares what tricks you're running, if your toys are gone then you're done for.

@RvdH83 could fill in more there for sure, as this is all essentially theory on my part. But that Wraparound is just an expensive code gate for Kit that only costs 2 to rez. And so is that Tithonium realistically, Hostile Takeovers are simple enough to score and still leave you on top if you sacrifice them. Wraparounds and Tithoniums (and that Utopia if you've managed to score it) serve to tax the runner to get at your agendas. And assuming you've got your DBS out, you've already churned your deck through looking for a Salem Hatchet combo that looks really nice after you've taxed the runner to 0 credits.

I'd honestly expect a Smoke deck to be the trickier proposition, since the stealth economy is still strong. I'd also expect the meta to drift back to mandatory Employee Strike thanks to CI still being ridiculously strong, which will damage this deck and its lack of currents.

16 Oct 2017 Starscream87

Love the reference to the best Simpsons episode ever made. Deck seems cool too, gonna try it asap! ;)

19 Oct 2017 LazerDoofus

@GooberManwhat is the utility of Hollywood Renovation in this list? Can't seem to find the synergy. Wouldn't Graft just be better?

19 Oct 2017 GooberMan

@LazerDoofus - Possibly. I don't often find myself wishing I had a certain card in this deck, but there are very definitely situations where the extra search would be handy. The reveal wouldn't hurt much at all with this deck either.

I was trying out a spot of jank though, explicitly tempting the runner with 3 pointers. You can also IAA an Oaktown one turn, IAA the Hollywood next turn and score out the Oaktown while you're at it if you don't value those extra credits. Even jankier - if you've got a Utopia scored, advance it five times and leave it to the domain of the very rich runners to steal. The value of leaving it out though is obviously very minimal at that point in the game, since a single Hostile will get you the win. But who doesn't love a spot of delicious jank?

12 Mar 2018 sekoku

I think I've only scored Hades Fragment like once in the 10 or so games I've used this in. Being "passive" and baiting Agenda scores to take out their AI and/or Barrier breakers (depending on the set-up/RIG) has been hilarious to do. Becuase once you've broken their gameplan, it's nothing but a quick concede.

People have told me it's a "scary" deck, but if the Runner has something like Paperclip or another Barrier breaker along with Magnum Opus it's basically "GG" if they don't hit your three Hostile Takeover in the process and/or don't have multiple of said barrier breaker/AI's to get around it.

Been told I'm a monster for breaking peoples RIGs at the FLGS. So #AchievementUnlocked?