Bags were Bitten, Masses were Feared

pj20 1593

MASSES, FEARED

This has been my pet project the past few weeks, trying to come up with a new take on Fear the Masses, which is one of my favorite cards in Netrunner. It was too easy to just stuff it in Gnat or Quetzal (I tried those too lol) and get your Paige Pipers and Beach Partys and blah blah...no. I wanted this to be in Crim, so here we are.

The Set-up

Mulligan for Kati and/or Hostage. Money at the start is not ideal.

Ideally you want to immediately install Kati and start loading it up. Easy Marks are great early, and if you find your self with too much money, install Gang Signs or breakers.

Once you have a loaded Kati (or 2x Easy Mark), you play your Bagbiter and then pop the Kati.

While you wait

Ideally, you want to have all 6 Fear the Masses in hand before you make a single run. The longer the game goes without losing, the better chance you have to win by milling 18.

Gang Sign gets you accesses & Turtle counters, and more importantly hopefully a Leela bounce or 2. Unless they are threatening game point, you always just want to bounce the HQ ice.

In the mid game, just Fisk as many times as possible, force them into decisions of not wanting to score because they just drew into agendas. The Source is great for delaying an extra turn, and also a Hostage target late game.

When they actually are threatening game point, you put down that Black File. One turn should be making sure you get the Hades and/or breakers down (depending on how stacked HQ ice is) and the the last turn should be for Fear the Masses.

Conclusion

This was a blast to make, fun to practice and it even won me a GNK this past weekend (not recommended for super competitive events). The funny thing is that I was so focused on getting the combo off most games, I forgot that I had a ton of money, a giant hand size and tools to actually PLAY NETRUNNER. But that's not as fun.

I'm also sure this could be made much more efficient, I never really loved the breaker suite. Always wished I could fit in a Game Day. Let me know your thoughts on how we can play Mill-runner as Criminals!

10 comments
4 Dec 2019 Cluster Fox

Hahaha PJ this looks hilarious :joy:

4 Dec 2019 PineppleBush

Great deck and write up! Love how you solved the PE match up with Bagbiter hand size. No more forcing the score - gang sign with snare in hand combo kill.

5 Dec 2019 yucaBEAN

'Tis a thing of beauty, and unsettling to play against. Bagbiter FTW.

7 Dec 2019 infinitejester00

I just played this and returned to find it up as DotW! Super fun. I did take out the Source and Shard to add in a Game Day because I like drawing my entire deck :)

7 Dec 2019 I_AM_G:\ROOT

My jank lord testing partner and I tried for so long to make a working FTM deck. So happy to see this one that does!

7 Dec 2019 pj20

@infinitejester00 man I really wanted to jam that Game Day... switched to Ken for a bit just to have the extra 2 inf... was not nearly as good because you need the Leela bounces. I also wish I could find a way to get Turntable in there

@Mr_Console The key to a good FtM deck is hand size.... I think Bag/Kati is way more fun than Origami stuff. Have fun w this and let me know how you change it! I think you could easily get rid of the Daily Casts, and maybe even 1x of each breaker (risky)

7 Dec 2019 I_AM_G:\ROOT

@pj20 - How do you handle rush or Argus decks?

7 Dec 2019 meta4

I think Dr. Lovegood would be amazing in this deck (blank The Black File until they get to 7, and you already play hostage).

Is the game plan to deck the corp or to run Archives to get to 7?

9 Dec 2019 Yukon

So I took this to ECC at PaxU with a couple modifications (-3 Falsified +3 Blueberry Diesel) Results were mixed. Deck functioned as expected in all but 1 game, but I went 2-3 with it.

Game 1, lost to NEH. Every agenda got bottomed by DBS early, and NEH loves Fisk Investment. It was close but didnt make it.

Game 2, lost to RP. I accessed an Obokata early, but could afford to steal. After 2nd Obo I was able to FTM but couldnt make it into archives. and the 3 agendas were Preemptived back.

Game 3, won on time against D2D making news. We had about 10 minutes for the game. He got a QPM scored early, but I was able to FTM for 9 cards when time was called and got 6 points.

Game 4 was a silly one against Kill Tennin. Bagbiter/hostage didnt show up until late. Corp got all the House of Knives scored, and I had to abandon FTM plan. I finally tried to get some mojo going by hitting what I thought was a flooded HQ. 3 Fisks landed when on max hand size, and archives was clean. Instead he rezzed Mwanza City Grid and I hit 3 snares.

Game 5 was against Blue Sun who turn 1 Building Blocks a Chiyashi on HQ and never lifted it. It took some magic and luck, but I was able to win off of R&D, delaying the corp win using the Source and Black File.

Had fun with the deck, thanks for post it!

12 Dec 2019 Vortilion

Interesting idea, but in all my test games it was waaaaaay to slow. .;-(