Fast Break

johno 593

Fast Break

An undefeated day for SPORTS! England won their Rugby World Cup semi-final, Reading's match against Forest was postponed (a surefire, if shortsighted, way to avoid defeat), probably some other stuff happened, and this SportsMetal deck went 4-0 at a GNK.

Not a huge accomplishment perhaps, but this is the same deck that I also piloted 4-0 to 5th out of 23 at the Bristol regional. That's EIGHT whole games without loss! It has also won BOTH friendly games that I've played with it. Pretty incredible.

Anyway, the deck: It's a Jinja Sports deck that kind of speeds up and slows down to suit the gamestate. No 1- or 0-pointers in sight here, this isn't a combo deck, nor does it fall back on Game Changer and the like. The Sports ability is only fired to keep the tempo up.

When you're on the defensive, get a Jinja down, play a VLC and build a remote, stick an Ash in it. When you're ready, it's time to break! Jam an agenda in the remote and force the runner to respond. If they have tricks and can stretch their resources to get in, you've just earned a window for the next agenda.

Trigger Sports for draw if you're looking for the next agenda, or want ICE for Jinja.

Punitive provides a great line if you can force the Runner to expend cards and money stretching for an agenda they probably should have left alone.

A quick note about Jinja: it's a trap. Do not snap-install ICE you draw on the remote, but think carefully about where you want your ICE (this applies to all games really, but it's easy to forget with a rezzed Jinja). You probably want Architects and Slot Machines on centrals, so don't Jinja-install them except in exceptional circumstances. Surveyors, Seidrs and the first Fairchild belong on the remote ideally.

A small note about Vitruvius too: Unless it's going to win you the game, try to always score Vitruvius with at least one counter. Vitruvius counters go a long way with the likes of Punitive and Biotic in a deck, or more general recursion in a pinch.

Shout outs to: Rotage (it is essentially his deck) and Catherine (who lent me 40+ cards to play it in Bristol)

11 comments
27 Oct 2019 ilksvorbern

Shame I didn’t get to play you yesterday Johno! Think I’ll give this a try. Is the reason for CST over SSL simple because they score faster for the drip economy benefit?

27 Oct 2019 johno

@ilksvorbern Primarily it's to not have real 3-pointers in the deck, and force the Runner to steal four agendas. SSL is certainly on the cusp of being a pick, the econ swing after a score or steal is obviously great. If this deck wanted another unicorn enough, the GFIs would probably swap for SSLs.

27 Oct 2019 rotage

As Johno said you want to make them steal 4 agendas to win, if you switch to SSL then you probably want to go to 8 agendas (so another 5/3) to at least reduce the amount of agendas in the deck

28 Oct 2019 Sixtyten

strong gif game

28 Oct 2019 emilyspine

npm8

30 Oct 2019 .wil

Johno you've called this deck Fast Break and yet…

1 Nov 2019 johno

I don't know what you're talking about

3 Dec 2019 CryptoGraham

How useful is Punitive with only 33% of your agendas as 3 pointers? Is it just for tempo? Have you ever secured a kill with it?

4 Dec 2019 ilksvorbern

I played this at uk Nats and didn’t use punitive once for exactly that reason. The only time I used it, I used two in one turn. So I think it could get cut, but since better players than me put it in... perhaps there’s a good reason for it I can’t see.

7 Dec 2019 rotage

Looking at it, the agenda suite makes no sense for Punitive, but it works more often then it should do, although it can be hit and miss at times, and once people know u have it then its not as useful

17 Apr 2024 aemond2

Really impressive run with the SportsMetal deck! It's fascinating to see how adaptable the strategy is, especially with the Jinja and Punitive combo. Managing the tempo and knowing when to push or pull back seems key to how you’ve piloted this deck to such success. The strategic placement of ICE with Jinja is a solid tip—definitely something that can be overlooked in the heat of the game. Thanks for sharing your insights and shoutout to Rotage for the foundational strategy. Looking forward to seeing how this deck evolves and performs in future games! Keep up the great work. retro bowl