A pact with the devil won't save you now

Published at the request of Guy after a successful day at Eclectic Games in Reading.

The real stars of this deck are Hostile Infrastructure and Komainu. Hostile Infrastructure is a great card against Keyhole, Parasite, Whizzard in general, and anyone who doesn't want you to have Sundews and Melange. Komainu is great against any runner who wanted to have cards in hand. My favorite dialogue goes: 'How many cards do you have in hand?' Usually they have 5 or 6, but a glimpse of fear leaps into their eyes. Perfect. 'Not anymore. Do you want to continue?' Sadly, they jack out.

Contract Killer is a secret star in this deck. Not only can it trash Aesop's Pawn Shop or a loaded Kati Jones, but the two meat damage can be great against runners who pitch their Plascrete Carapace as soon as they see the white tree.

As for play style: I can't help you here. Everything is a Cerebral Overwriter / Project Junebug / Ronin as far as the runner is concerned. A fourth advancement after a Mushin No Shin is probably the best defence the card could have. Except a smile. Smiles are always lethal. Melange and Sundew can be defended by Hostile Infrastructure, because you don't have the ice to defend them otherwise.

As for cards that I'm less certain about: Global Food Initiative. Honestly, I had 1 influence point spare, no inspiration and I needed a 5/3. This could be a Hades Fragment and it would probably improve the deck.

Cards I delibrately didn't include: Caprice Nisei/Nisei Mk II. I don't want the run to end. Runners don't access my cards if the run ends. Where is the fun in that? Project Junebug. Runner's tend to imagine this threat already, so it doesn't need to take up space in my deck. Plus, Cerebral Overwriter is much more permanent and pleasing. Medical Breakthrough/Fast advance. I have an irrational attachment to advancement tokens and the fear they create in the Runner's eyes.

This deck played 5 rounds of Swiss at today's store tournament at Eclectic Games. 4 wins, through a mixture of scoring out and net damage. 1 loss, to Johno who was playing Leela (with a handsize of 1 thanks to an Overwriter) who kept bouncing my (lethal) Philotic.

That's all folks.