The Flies Have It

DoomRat 2370

This deck came out of a collaboration between NetDad and me, trying to find a deck that performed well against the Seamless Launch PD deck from the Early Bird tournament. We tried a lot of things, and while some of the decks were pretty cool, none of them held up to the sheer speed of PD. One thing we did note was that if runner could not contest a turn two no advance play, PD ran away with the game very quickly. So we set out to build a deck that could do that.

How Does it Work

The basic game plan is to establish an early remote lock with Mayfly plus money, then punch the corp out on centrals. Kabonesa Wu: Netspace Thrillseeker means we can pull out a fly for a click whenever we need one. Then we can recur them with Simulchip and Compile. Note that since compile and mayfly share a trigger, you can actually put the fly on the bottom of your deck instead of trashing it. Value! That said, with three flies, three simulchip and two compile, we still only have ten total flies. Only ten. So we have to run judiciously. Use Falsified Credentials to verify that the card in the remote, is, in fact, a juicy agenda, and not an NGO Front. Use legwork and Contaminate + Conduit to attack centrals instead of single accessing. If you do that, you should be able to last the game on your ten flies.

Why is this good vs PD

The PD deck is good because it can score on turn three pretty easily using gear check + never advance, and if it does it very quickly snowballs. Since its going to be real hard to make an early remote that this deck doesn't get into with ease, that plan gets a lot worse. Which is not to say PD can't win, but a win by PD is going to involve playing netrunner well, convincing the runner to make bad runs, instead of just steam rolling with speed.

How is it vs the Field

I've played a lot of games with this, and I don't think its particularly bad vs. anything, though decks that play very few agendas or have very slow game plans can be problematic. Decks like palana should eventually be able to build remotes you can't get into, so if they hide their agendas well you may get locked out. That said, you still have puncher's chance, as connecting on a few big Contaminate/Conduit runs can still end the game.

Other Notes

  • Most of the AI-Hate floating around right now is barrier, so I've included one Gauss to help with IP Block, Hagen and Wraparound.
  • Macrophage is everywhere, but we have link and money, so it should be feasible to trace through it. If your trying to connect a conduit hit on R&D, make sure you've brought enough money to deal with it.
  • I haven't been running out of flies on ten copies, but if your concerned you can add the third compile or a copy of Harmony AR Therapy, which gives four additional flies, plus an extra copy of Legwork and Contaminate.
  • If you want to tune this for a slower meta, I'd add two Aniccam and an Engolo. You'll get significantly worse vs. PD, but your non PD matchups should improve. Thanks to ErrantMage for this suggestion, which I think does work well.
  • I'm not currently running Apocalypse, but this deck totally can. If you want that, swap out the Bravado.

Bonus Deck Lists

I mentioned earlier that while looking at deck I had a few others that I really liked but didn't quite cut it. I feel like a lot of times when I'm testing decks like this kind of go to waste, so I've included them here:

Fast Engolo Freedom: Based to tf34s worlds Freedom, I tried to add new cards, and improve the speed, but it couldn't keep up with PD. Still a fun, scrappy deck though, and I like it a lot. Decklist

Tag-Me Zahyaa: Zahya, as the worst smuggler ever, goes hyper tag-me and tries to win with counter surveillance. This deck is pretty fun, and will surprise people, but you also just die to HPT. Decklist

13 comments
13 Apr 2021 Rek

I am so happy to see a good Wu deck that utilizes Flameout and Compile. I've been trying for so long, but I end up always trying to transition into a late game. My last attempts were trying for cheap burst runs with Euler, Talut and Pelangi with Chameleon as backup, but it fell apart pretty quickly to even a three ICE server.

13 Apr 2021 Saan

This deck is an amalgamation of a couple Shaper decks I've been trying to get to work, and Mayfly is the answer I've been looking for. I super dig using it in Wu, and the balls to use it as your primary breaker is inspired.

14 Apr 2021 IonFox

Going to quickly throw out Firefly Wu as an alternative deckname, since Flamout + Mayfly. Very cool list, do you find yourself having trouble in longer games with such a transient/dynamic rig?

Also Rejig could have potential here to refill flameouts or dodge Wu triggers on programs.

14 Apr 2021 DoomRat

@IonFox That is a better name! I rarely find that I'm actually out of flies. What does sometimes happen is that I need a compile/simul and haven't drawn one yet. I think this is fixable with better planning (i.e. being aware I'm down to one available fly and drawing hard before I run out). As for rejig, the use cases are sporadic enough that I'd rather just have more money, but I think a version of this playing one or two more programs would likely want it.

16 Apr 2021 Odol

That is one amazing deck! How would you find an idea of DJ Fenris to get you the Steve ability to recur a couple Flies and econ?

16 Apr 2021 DoomRat

@Odol DJ Steve would let you make a couple of extra runs on HQ, but since you probably have to spend a fly to get in, it doesn't actually increase the number of runs you can make anywhere else. I think that's probably not worth it, but maybe worth trying.

16 Apr 2021 Odol

@DoomRatFair point, I rest my case.

So just one more thing - would you say Cold Read would be worth some slots? As we are breaking with Mayfly anyway, the downside of this card becomes irrelevant, so it effectively gets the same net value as Overclock, only at 0-cost?

17 Apr 2021 aruzan

I really want to find a good way to get a Cybertrooper in here. Since the Flies have such poor base str, but you are almost always installed them the turn you use them, I think getting a trooper down is often worth at least 5-10 credits if you get it down early. I've been testing with cutting a couple laundries for them, since I find it's hard to get value with laundry when you also have compile / overclock / conduit / legwork competing for your run trigger, and you'd be spending a fly going for singles on centrals. Trooper also gives a link, which is really nice in certain match-ups, and lets you run through ip blocks / turnpikes / macrophages more easily without having a fly installed at all.

17 Apr 2021 Odol

@aruzan Our good Trooper ain't working with no AIs, though :|

17 Apr 2021 aruzan

Ah, totally missed that.

18 Apr 2021 LSTM

I was working on something similar but this is way more polished. One card I was looking at (extra points for Wu flavor) was Lean and Mean, since it doesn't have the AI restriction. 2 credits to save basically 2 credits per 3+ strength ice, so at the third ice I guess it basically does the work of Overclock.

21 Apr 2021 CyberClick

Wow, you guys are real deckbuild artists. Shaper is usually not my thing, but this sounds amazing. Thanks for the write up!

19 May 2021 dasher

I would be scared of hitting a Chiyashi with this deck.

Also how does an extra Compile and Harmony AR Therapy give 4 extra Mayflies? Wouldn't it give 2 extra?