Quetzal The CriminArch v3.0

BTrain 2971

Run early. Run often.

Quetzal's ability lets us play Anarchs like we would Criminals, so get that early pressure on those servers using any number of nasty tricks, and run them again as soon as you can with Same Old Thing. The hallmark Anarch disruption cards are in here in the form of Keyhole, Parasite, and Demo Run, and we can pressure across the board with Knight/Overmind/D4v1d all comboed with e3. A notable omission is Datasucker, but this deck doesn't have too much trouble dealing with middling ice (those pesky 4 strengthers), so I've always found it best to just plop down a Parasite and wait for it to tick away. Worst case scenario, you'll force the corp to cede tempo with a virus wipe.

Hades Shard has been a bone of contention for this deck, and I'm still torn as to whether it needs to run in here. For now though, it's in because of how darn well it synergizes with Keyhole. The trade-off here is that e3 is down to only two copies, but I've had success with this deck even when you see the e3's late, so I'd rather leave that 2 influence for the Hades and a Net Celebrity (Cerebral Static is a nightmare for this deck).

D4v1d is down to two copies to allow room for two Plascretes. Weyland's coming back in a big way, and it's time to start suiting up against the Scorched again. Overall, I think this is a tighter build that should start netting more consistent results.

Give it a try, and tell me how it works for you!

14 comments
16 Sep 2014 SlySquid

NAILED IT!

16 Sep 2014 BTrain

@SlySquidOh you. :3

16 Sep 2014 Onarian

Going to run it tomorrow night and see how things go.

I'd really like to find room for an Aesop's Pawnshop or two to feed the used up D4v1d, Armitage Codebusting and Overmind to. Any ideas?

16 Sep 2014 BTrain

@OnarianAesop's makes for an awkward one-off, and putting it in would neuter the pressure this deck can lay on. I think you'll be surprised how easily you can get into servers in the early game. After all, you get to break a barrier sub for free. FREE! The idea is to capitalize on that pressure and get the corp on the back foot ASAP. Aesop's would likely take away one Planned Assault, and this deck is built around that run pressure. It doesn't present a passive threat like Noise (especially Noise of the hot new Cacheshop variety; effective but slow - blech!) that just waits until you're bled dry. That's also why Kati is in. She allows an aggressive style of running and last-clicking her either a) sets you up for a power play in a turn or two or b) makes the corp think you're setting up for a power play in a turn or two. Neither is a bad thing.

That being said, if you can find the space for the Aesop's and put it to good use, I'm all ears!

16 Sep 2014 Onarian

@BTrain Fair points all. I'll give your build a try as well as try -1 Inside Job and -1 Hades Shard in exchange for 2x Aesop's. I'll let you know how it goes.

16 Sep 2014 BTrain

@OnarianI do like that idea. The Inside Job has been a lifesaver in plenty of situations, but I can see throwing in the Aesop's and then maybe adding in a Retrieval Run or two to get things back out of the heap. You clever dog, you ;)

16 Sep 2014 BTrain

You could even make the case for swapping the 2 Keyholes out for 2 Retrieval Runs at that point because it would take pressure off the corp to ice archives (in this case a benefit), and the extra MU would be good news for recurring those Overminds. The Keyhole role is slightly overlapped with a Demo Run on a heavily loaded Medium (though that combo is slightly less efficient), so it might not hurt to just axe Keyhole altogether. Let me know how it goes, because it sounds like both styles could be pretty viable.

16 Sep 2014 SlySquid

LOL @Onarian I'm totally the guy to try and jam Aesop's Pawnshop in to almost every deck but i have to side with @BTrainon this one, you'd lose the aggression that this deck can generate

16 Sep 2014 Onarian

Ooh, I like the retrieval run idea @BTrain. Yes, it loses a bit of the aggression but gains a lot in staying power when you've got that bit of recursion and the extra Aesop's cash.

16 Sep 2014 Onarian

I feel a bit silly, but I want to publish the derived deck and can't figure out how to set that it was inspired by this one. How do I give you your proper attribution?

16 Sep 2014 botounami

Just drop the shard! I've been trying to justify it for a while, but any "1 per deck" card just isn't consistent enough to count on. One of every three games gets a little better, and that's it. Between it and Net Celebrity you can add a Maker's Eye and make full use of those Planned Assaults!

Agree on Keyhole. Keyhole and Overmind just never play well together. It's an awkward balance between console, breakers, and multi-access that rarely works out in an ideal way. That frees up even more room - perhaps for some Dirty Laundry? Or a few Datasuckers...

16 Sep 2014 Exo

What about Nerve Agent over Keyhole or Medium? Could help break those powerful operation like Biotic Labor(NEH FA), Schorch, etc with Demo Run.

17 Sep 2014 xWZRDx

If you are going to run Keyhole, I don't think that Medium needs to be there, it's a bit too redundant. And if you are going to run Demo Run, don't run Keyhole, it will just be a dead draw if you have Keyhole out and aren't running Nerve Agent.

Also, in terms of the Overmind+Deep Red combo for Q, I don't know how I feel about it. I honestly think you would save money just running regular breakers. it will take up more card space, yes, but having to pay to get up to strength on each piece of ice every time, and then using E3 to break multiple subroutine ice. Why not just play regular breakers that have a base strength? It doesn't have counters and you spend less money to get up to strength.

Fair point, you do have to build your rig then, Overmind can break anything. but you can drop some of the splashed events and put in special order's. Recurring Inside job and legwork makes sense, but it will cost a lot of clicks and actions to do so between SOT and Planned Assault, it won't be reliable, and recurring stimhack isn't ideal if you aren't running any hand size increase.

Sorry about the rant, I was just tried out a Quetzal deck tonight and had a long talk with my play group about it, and these are some of the conclusions we came too(most of which I think are quite valid). I think that she can be a great identity, so I wanna get my experiences and thoughts out there. I think that people are too caught up with the idea of being able to break through anything with the Over+DR or Darwin.

17 Sep 2014 BTrain

Everyone: these have been GREAT suggestions. I've sharpened the deck based on what a lot of you have said, and you can now check out the new CriminArchy Redefined build.

As a sidenote, I think this is why we ALL value NetrunnerDB so much. Without you guys and everyone else on here, our decks wouldn't get this kind of creative scrutiny from a worldwide community. So here's to hoping it all lasts.

Cheers.