Xandorius Wu

Diogene 3864

I modified the deck : +1 Boomerang, +1 The Gauntlet, -1 Hunting Ground, -1 R&D Interface, -1 HQ Interface.

This is the result of a nice discussion on Xandorius amazing Kabonesa deck.

Here is how it goes.

  1. Get to 9 creds.

  2. Get either Flame-out, Spec Work or Rejig in your hand.

  3. At the start of the turn, use Kabonesa ablity to install Black Orchestra, install MKUltra (trash BO), install Paperclip (trash MKU) and do one of the following. Run and use Flame-out (only 1 cred needed, even against a iceless server) OR use Spec Work and trash Paperclip OR Rejig Paperclip (making it permanent). You can also install Chameleon with Kabonesa to trash Paperclip. Once this is done, the big part of your setup is done. You can run any server in peace.

This use the idea from the Anarch engine which use Patchwork amd Aesop. Aesop to trash the bin breaker. Cybertrooper to get the bin breaker with increased strenght. Flame-out to run ice for free. Here you will use Rejig to regenerate Flame-out.

The rest are tech for diverse situation. Misdirection against HHN (if there is none, you can feed it to Aesop). DreamNet will get you cred and draw. Hunting Ground will save you from nasty ices (Data Raven, Engram Flush), Citadel Sanctuary will give you some protection from punitive and single tags. One side note about Kabonesa and HHN. With Kabonesa, HHN is almost useless, since you can get Misdirection next turn in a pinch. If you have Rejig, you'll be able to keep it there after.

The interfaces will allow you to make multiple runs to dig in centrals. The single Boomerang will give you a tool for glacier and early aggression (if you are very lucky).

Finally, Takobi will allow you to run super strenght ice for cheap.

With this, you can expect to make runs pretty early for a Shaper. Also, you won't be rich, but you should not lack creds (Sure Gamble, Spec Work, Flame-out, Beth, Aesop, Daily Casts, Data Folding, Rejig).

This is one of the rare Shaper without Rezeki.

I am floating the idea to put 3x Harmony AR Therapy, to get Sure Gamble, Daily Casts, Flame-out, Spec Work and Harbinger back. Also, it give protection against grinder deck. But that would give me a 49 cards deck. Also, maybe have a Rebirth to become Akiko Nisei or Jesminder Sareen, after the setup is done. Food for thoughts.

Thanks again to Xandorius. His idea is amazing and gave me a novel gameplay with Shaper. Also, Shaper is now super fast, unreal!

16 comments
26 Oct 2020 FreqKing

Nice build. You might also want to consider Test Run and/or Compile to optimize the value on your Flame-outs.

26 Oct 2020 Diogene

@FreqKing I feel that Compile and Test Run would work better if the ID choice was something other than Kabonesa. With Kabonesa, those even do not matter so much, since you can install anything for one click. The trick here is to always trash the breaker after use. This allow you to get it back with boosted strenght. Sometime, it is worth it to let Paperclip stay on the board. And you can feed it to Aesop later if you need 3 creds in a pinch. But you are right, normally, Compile and Test Run are excellent uses to get the best value out of Flame-outs. There is an idea to push around here. Like using Compile to get expensive breakers to run cheap, like using Ankusa, Inversificator and the like. This could be a pretty fun trick, allowing you to use expensive Shaper program for pretty much free. Thank you for the comment, it just gave me something else to use :-)

27 Oct 2020 Sir Janksalot

Huh, did not realize Flame-out would work with the installation cost of conspiracy breakers. Nice find!

One recommendation I'd have is using The Gauntlet instead of HQ Interface. It has roughly the same cost, an arguably bigger effect, and will allow you to be able to use Rezekis in this deck which synergize with Wu's ability as well as Spec Work

27 Oct 2020 Diogene

@Sir Janksalot This is a very good idea. For one influence less and one cred more, I get 2 MU and more multiaccess. I will look into it. Rezeki could be nice here, but slots are tights. There are experiments to be done here. Thank you for the suggestion.

On a side note, Harbinger has a super synergy with Kabonesa and Spec Work. Put Harbinger down with Kabonesa, Spec Work it (it will remain trashed for Aesop later) and get 4 creds and 2 cards, all in 2 clicks.

Cheers.

27 Oct 2020 rngnsb

I agree with how fun this type of deck works with Wu. I played it to fair success at World's ( netrunnerdb.com ). I found that without serious disruption to the corp's plan, Palana and ASA could out-maneuver and/or out-tempo the efficiencies of this deck. I filled in that disruption with two copies of Apocalypse. Fast advance is very difficult for this without the help of Stargate or Imp to get rid of Audacity/Biotics/Archived. Also, Cold Read was immensely helpful in helping me get early Rezeki off Wu'd in SMC's, extra credits for runs where programs are going to be trashed from Flame-Out anyway, or trashing Jeeves or other high-value assets.

27 Oct 2020 Diogene

@rngnsb I commented you deck. It is excellent. Apocalypse is a great way to equalize the field. Our version here leverage Data Folding instead of Rezeki.

You are right, this deck is not good at putting pressure by trashing cards on the board. Shaper is usually bad at this. I was on the fence between Boomerang and Miss Bones, but Boomerang is a better fit. The big attraction of this deck is the ability to pressure the corp early, which is very unusual for a Shaper deck. To make it work, we had to include cards that would give draw for free, hence DreamNet. But Apocalypse could be worked in there, as a tech card against asset spam acceleration.

I'll experiment with it, after I try your deck. While we cannot have everything, something could be arranged to make this Kabonesa much better. Thanks for the comment.

29 Oct 2020 Diogene

@Sir Janksalot I modified the deck : +1 Boomerang, +1 The Gauntlet, -1 Hunting Ground, -1 R&D Interface.

1 Nov 2020 Xandorius

``@Diogene` Thanks for the shout out! It's cool to see my name on the Deck of the Week!

I think this deck is now 90% there and is in the final stages of refinement. I did find that The Gauntlet is usually better than HQ Interface in most cases, and the extra provides some use. With The Gauntlet the inclusion of Rezeki over Data Folding is also worth considering since Rezeki turns a profit faster. On the other hand, you can't fit all three Rezeki once you're fully set up. However, Rezeki can also be used in a pinch if you need to get your breakers down fast and don't have a Spec Work or other saving card in hand. Using Wu's ability 4x for the three breakers and a sacrificial Rezeki is 7 to get everything set up. Rejig is primarily used on Flame-out since that makes it a 9 econ card; I avoid using it to save breakers whenever I can.

I've also been playing around with the inclusion of Stimhack as that can enable some huge burst runs.

Ultimately the goal of this deck is to put serious pressure on R&D and HQ; you can eventually lock down both while still having some burst potential to challenge a remote.

For asset spam decks, this deck is weak to trashing assets because Flame-out doesn't give you trash money. For rush decks, throwing down a early Cybertrooper Talut and Chameleon with guessing barrier can get you past single ICE gearcheck servers quickly. For FA, you're again weak because of a lack of things like Imp or other ways to trash Biotic Labor etc. However, if you can get an early Gauntlet or R&D Interface down you can hopefully dig past their combo pieces and snipe the agendas anyway.

I think there might be benefit in considering Rebirth as well... Since you only really use Wu to accelerate your setup, once that's done you can Rebirth into someone that helps that particular matchup or board-state.

This deck is pulling 100+ a match, often 2-3x the corp, and usually draws its deck by turn 15. With the speed and efficiency of setup, I think the last bit to refine is smoothing out the econ/draw curve and really solidifying the win condition. Thanks for your testing and thoughts and I'm excited to see where this deck can go!

2 Nov 2020 Diogene

@Xandorius I found the same weakness to asset spam. This deck, with the modifications mentionned (2x Boomerang, The Gauntlet) will allow for a really fast and aggressive shaper. By putting pressure on the corp very early, you can avoid the problem of dealing with asset spam, up to a point.

I am toying with the idea of changing the 2 Boomerang for 1x Apocalypse and 1x Rebirth. @rngnsb used Apocalypse with good success in his Got Milk deck (https://netrunnerdb.com/en/decklist/62131/got-milk-65th-world-s-2020-). But doing that will cost this deck its ability to pressure the corp and it is not sure when you can get Apocalypse.

Another possible solution would be to replace the 2x Boomerang by 2x Miss Bones. This will allow you to deal with asset spam, but at the cost of pressure. Boomerang really make a lot of difficult runs much easier.

I decided against Rezeki, even with The Gauntlet, because I only take one copy of the Gauntlet. This mean that it is difficult to guarantee the MU for Rezeki.

I will probably slot 1x Artist Colony and take out 1x Aesop, to have a tech cards against iceless decks and negative agendas. And it can be fed to Aesop if it is not needed, so that is still worth 3 creds.

All in all, I think we cannot get everything. This deck deal well with any ice and can setup faster, and with more certainty, than most runner of any factions. Asset spam will be an issue, but the trade of being able to run early and consistently is a good trade. This is a really fast Shaper which can run as fast as Criminal and with the consistency of Sunny. Criminals and Anarch will always be better against asset spam and at slowing the corp. Shaper is better at everything else :-)

Let me know if your experiments gives better success. It is a lot of fun to tweak this deck.

2 Nov 2020 postis

@Sir Janksalot What do you mean with flame-out working with the install cost of conspiracy breakers? Flame-out can only be used to pay for using hosted programs.

2 Nov 2020 Diogene

For everyone, it might not have been expressed clearly, but the initial idea of the deck comes from @Xandorius You can see his initial tests :

netrunnerdb.com

netrunnerdb.com

I encountered @Xandorius while I was playing the corp side, and was beaten twice by his deck. This led to a discussion about his deck, the result of which is published here. Thanks again for the great discussion @Xandorius, it is what makes Netrunner is so much fun. Deck building is so much fun.

5 Nov 2020 ctz

Gotta give it up for this list. Good work

6 Nov 2020 Diogene

@ctz Thanks! It is appreciated.

7 Nov 2020 I_AM_G:\ROOT

How much utility does rebirth provide? Seems like the only one link runners are lat and nisei - otherwise everything else turns off dreamnet. Which might be ok in the right situation. Is nisei’s ability to force the Corp to pay to avoid extra accesses worth it? Might be? Not sure.

7 Nov 2020 Diogene

@Mr_Console Rebirth, which would be useful only by midgame, after all the bin breaker are in the heap, would allow you to become Nisei (the best for this, IMO). For free, you get +1 link and either you get multiaccess or cost 1 cred to the corp everytime you run R&D. This is great! For the cost, it is awesome.

But influence is tight, after the bin breaker and Harbinger. So. there few cards you can get for it.

Other use of the influence are : The Turning Wheel, for extra multiaccess. Hunting Ground for protection and additional card to feed to Aesop. The extra Boomerang (mentionned in the description).

10 Dec 2020 Xandorius

If you like the looks of this list you can see my writeup on the refined 2.0 version over here:

netrunnerdb.com

I've been really enjoying this archetype!