The Azmari Flatline

"Azmari Edtech is not responsible for altered memories or reduced temporal lobe functionality." - Degree Mill

My first publish!

I've been messing around with reliable flatline decks since starting Netrunner late last year on J-net. Played both CTZ's Palana Foods and spags's Pretty Ragequit Machine before moved on to an Azmari variant and finally this. Pretty settled on this list at the moment. You may or may not agree with some of the choices here but I'll attempt to explain them.

At present, this deck is 79% of 524 games on J-net which may not mean anything at all but there it is.

44 card list

2x Economic Warfare - Would love for it to be a 3 off but slots are tight and early on saw me discarding these or wishing for something else. 2 copies gives you enough for a scary 1-2x play + HHN or Punitive combo

1x Hard-Hitting News - 1 was plenty with the CVs. Self explanatory and can even be played and recurred with Preemptive Action as a tempo play

3x Hedge Fund - Money card, play when you need money

2x Preemptive Action - Used to be a 3 off, same treatment as Economic Warfare

2x Punitive Counterstrike - 2 of these plus 2 CVs seem to be all you need to draw your combo early on. Used to be a 3 off

3x Scarcity of Resources - Used to counter geist/win current wars/activate News Hound. Play as you see fit. There are only 6 agendas in deck and bleeding them sometimes gives you your flatline wincon via Punitive/CVs combo. I didn't feel it was worth cutting given the power of News Hound + current

1x BOOM! - BOOM!

2x Consulting Visit - Use this to tutor anything you need. 2nd part of your combo/Scarcity/Save an agenda from archives/etc. It got the same treatment as Economic Warfare and Preemptive Action

1x Crisium Grid - Play this on HQ to mess with Maxwell Jones, or any other central if you're up against an apocalypse heavy meta. It does not feel good for the runner to smack into this with Indexing/Dirty Laundry. Also serves as the 6th card to make CVs free. If you're playing Archived Memories, drop this for an additional copy of Economic Warfare

1x Echo Chamber - Singleton to win from 6 points in your remote or even early on to threaten every double advanced card from 4. Could be swapped with 15 Minutes if you prefer that. I just played this to bring agenda density down

1x MCA Austerity Policy - Singleton might seem a bit odd but it can be used to score out the win or force a run before they are ready. Alternative influence splash could be Archived Memories but I really like the pressure this creates

2x NGO Front - Fantastic bluff card and even gives you money! Great position from 4 or even early on if you really need the money. Started with 3, now at 2

3x Rashida Jaheem - Rush deck needs rush cards. This lets you draw your flatline cards and gives you money to play em

1x Archangel - Singleton that I grew to like. Used to be an extra Tollbooth but I liked it firing enough and it's cheap to rez for what is usually expensive to break. Put it anywhere or even leave it in HQ if you like sometimes. 3 credits for 6 of theirs is a good bargain

2x Endless EULA - Rough with all the Laambs out there but it still does work on your taxing remote or making RND expensive. Preferably not outermost if they're running the turning wheel

2x Enigma, 2x Wraparound - Gearchecks for rushing. Wraparounds used to be Vanillas but Aumakua makes you a sad sad corp

2x News Hound - These go on RND and scoring remote. For the low cost of 2 credits, you get fairly good value more often than not especially in the current wars meta

1x Tollbooth - Still good. Scoring remote

3x Pop-up Window - It may appear counter productive to run these on your centrals with scarcity up but I've found that the 2 credit swing (1 with bad pub) really builds up towards your combo through punitive or HHN. You win when the runner runs and gets more than they can deal with. If they don't run, your 0 cost ice keeps them out. Win-win

1x IP Block - for Aumakua

3x Degree Mill - Great rushing agenda. Even if they nab a Degree Mill early while you had scarcity out, chances are they played expensive resources that are going to get shuffled back/progs they're going to have to draw and play again

3x SSL Endorsement - This agenda is obscene. Play it when you're flooded for tempo gain. If you have 2 when flooded, you can chuck them somewhere they can get for an early unexpected flatline. I know them being at game point is scary but the only point that matters is when you hit 7 or close out the game. Coming back to win from 0-6 is not unheard of

Other notes

You're not going to have a good time with film critic but you probably already knew that. Doesn't seem to be in the meta as much now

Don't be too worried about Employee Strike. Enables your news hound

If you're not keen on Scarcity and News Hound played with pop-up windows, switch one or the other for heavier taxing ice e.g. turnpikes for windows or vice versa

Single tech card like best defense might also be useful if you're seeing a lot of 0 cost cards you don't like like the shadow net, misdirection, find the truth, etc.

Azmari as an identity is absolutely ridiculous. I make an average of 10-20 credits and most of it early on. Name cards that the runner has to play to come out efficiently. 2 credits means a lot early game and if they're giving up efficiency early on to play around your identity, that's not a bad thing for the corp

No restricted cards here. Didn't find anything that really fit into my game plan

It can be hard for runners to identify when they're ready to steal even when they know you have at least half the combo and when to press you. In most cases (barring Freedom or Mad Dash), they'll need 3 agendas stolen to win while even one can be lethal, nevermind two and dying to a single punitive because you took 6 credits off the SSLs they stole

Credit to everyone I've played with on J-net for being patient and for all those turn 3 flatlines who weren't expecting it for being such a good sport ;)