[Standard 24.03/Neo Liberation] Remoteless PD in Liberation

Summary

New in RwR we get our fancier Biotic Labor: Sudden Commandment + Subliminal Messaging. For the same cost it comes with the benefit of drawing 2 cards, but is only active past threat 3.

With central pressure at an all time high (Cataloguer, Burner, various multiaccess resources), it's a good time to revisit remoteless PD, focusing our defenses purely on centrals.

Deck is based on cros' list back in Borealis.

When Spark of Inspiration is everywhere no one runs Clot anymore right?

Deck idea

This deck is a race fuelled by burst econ from operations: defend centrals while the runner sets up - score agendas from hand - recur money operations - repeat 3 times.

Going remoteless means we are saving the credits and cards for building a remote at the cost of having to run expensive click-gaining operations for fast advance from hand. We are also conceding asset economy but on the upside, we can build a deck with fewer ICE and more operations.

Basics: The fourth click

To score 2 points from hand, say a Project Vitruvius or Luminal Transubstantiation, we need 4 clicks: 1 to install and 3 to advance. The classic way to gain the 4th click is through Biotic Labor, costing 4c to play and 3c more for the advancements.

At threat 3 or higher, playing Sudden Commandment and Subliminal Messaging also gives us the extra click. This is the same cost as Biotic Labor (you can always play Subliminal separately).

Ontological Dependence becomes a 3/2 if the runner takes at least 1 core damage. We can force this with double Mr. Hendrik and 4c, them taking damage from Nightmare Archive or face-checking into Jaguarundi.

Subliminal Messaging

This card is fantastic for 3 reasons:

• Combined with Sudden Commandment this is a Biotic Labor that draws 2 cards.
• As we focus our defenses on centrals, this is very likely to bounce back to our hand as a pseudo PAD Campaign. More econ is always nice.
• Enlarges HQ for Your Digital Life. More econ is always nice.

Balancing the costs

A breakdown of our costs (baseline estimates):

• Each 3/2 agenda is 7c, 3x to win = 21c
• Closing Élivágar Bifurcation = 2c
• 2 ICE each for R&D and HQ ~ 20c (flexible)
• 2x Hendrik for 1 core = 4c (optional)
• Total needed ~47c

Total income in the deck:

• Starting +5c
• ~4x Subliminal uses +4c
• 2x Greasing the Palm +4c
• 2x Corporate Hospitality +4c
• 3x Hedge Fund +12c
• 2x Your Digital Life +10c
• 1x Hansei Review +5c
• 3x Haas-Bioroid: Precision Design recursion +15c (5c operations)
• Total gainable ~60c

Unreliable income:

• Jaguarundi/Nightmare Archive saving Hendrik core (4c->0c)
• Double core damage/Greasing the Palm de-tag saving Biotic (7c->2c)

This means if we build only 2-tall remotes, then we need to draw around ~70% of our operations. Card draw is so important that sometimes I opt to recur Sudden Commandment or Corporate Hospitality over big credit operations.

Click compression

If we aim to close the game in 12 turns, 4 of which are spent to score agendas, then we only have 24 clicks to play operations/install cards/draw, where we need to draw ~35 cards and gain ~45c, which amounts to gaining ~3.3 resources per click.

This demands peak efficiency in the HB way and very little room to click for a credit or a card, making cards like Greasing the Palm, Corporate Hospitality and Sudden Commandment so much more important in this deck. Tributary is also a fantastic choice for persistent, clickless income if not broken by the runner.

Piloting the deck

For efficiency's sake we should strive to never click for credits and minimize clicking for cards. To keep the Operations in operation we should start by building a healthy credit pool, and only advance out agendas when there is a surplus of credits for rezzing ICE and affording future operation(s). The upside of PD is that each scoring of agenda refunds the best Operation, which is often equivalent to 5c. This helps prevent the credit pool from draining up.

Critique

Clot is obviously the nemesis against fast advance. A single Mavirus arguably does very little against Simulchips, and is too costly to recur with PD's ability. Instead of suggesting crutches like Scapenet, I'd suggest playing another deck altogether in a Clot-abundant meta.

That being said, this deck went 10-5 on jnet and never once did I face Clot. Instead many losses I feel are because Anarchs get their Turbine rig up by turn 5, when most ICE costs 2-3c to break and they can keep R&D locked down, which is probably a sign for the need for Spin Doctors.

Mr. Hendrik, while being guaranteed core damage, is ironically unreliable to find and slow to install. It is a good surprise when runners expected Manegarm Skunkworks but doesn't offer much in return. I have had more success landing core damage with Jaguarundi face check than Mr. Hendrik. It is worth considering replacing those by more Nightmare Archive and Jaguarundi.

The concept of going remoteless means it's impossible to bait unfavourable runs from the runner. An interesting dynamic to observe, given the original idea is to dedicate all defense to centrals to stop multiaccess, is that apparently so can the runner concentrate on centrals, as we appeased them for more time to lay back and charge for big multiaccess runs. At the end of the day it's still an exciting race to the finish line.