Scotch, Cigars & Weyland (80% Win-rate on Jnet)

For a long time I bemoaned the loss of Blue Sun. It was a powerful, fun glacier deck that got splendidly rich and could either score out or kill with Punitive. It also simply "clicked" with me, which is a feeling I believe many Netrunner players are familiar with. When it rotated nothing could bring me the feel of Blue Sun, but PD got close. PD was leaner, faster and overall a better deck, but it lacked the "skateboard trick" plays that the Blue Sun ID enabled.

What if there was a deck that could rush like PD while maintaining a strong mid-to-late game, AND pull of splashy Blue Sun-esque tricks? Additionally, a deck that's easy to pilot especially for Start-Up PD players looking to try standard? Sounds good? Try this list.

I love this deck for a multitude of reasons. The topmost being that it's an Ob list that's easy to pilot. Simply play it like a rushy glacier deck. With three Offworld office, two Seamless Launch and two Manegarm Skunkworks, any Start-Up player familiar with PD will get the idea. But we're not PD, and here's where the things get interesting.

ZATO City Grid. Holy cow what an Ob card. There is a good reason there are no less than three Ice Walls in here. They are best played as the inner-layer ice on the remote as a cheap gear check early game, then become Border Control's late game with ZATO. Not only that, trashing one triggers Ob to fetch you a Spin Doctor or Rashida, two of the best cards in the deck. Drew Afshar instead of Ice Wall? Don't feel bad about putting it on the remote. ZATO the Afshar to ETR while fetching a Skunkworks or Marilyn. And of course no list with ZATO would be complete without the Stavka threat. Finally, ZATO is a great counter to Trojan shaper decks. Arissana want's to use Inversificator and Pichacao to ride an Ice Wall down your remote and gain clicks for Skunkworks? Nah, ZATO that trojan'ed Ice Wall to ETR, trash the trojan and get a Rashida to boot.

Formicary. This trick isn't new, but in case you haven't seen it before, here's how it works. If you have Skunkworks installed and unrezzed Formicary installed somewhere, as the runner apporaches the Skunk'ed remote, Skunk and Formicary trigger at once. Choose Skunk to resolve first, forcing the runner to pay, then rez and reposition the Formicary. The Runner now needs to break Formicary and Skunk triggers AGAIN! Once the Formicary is used up, Extract it to fetch an Ice Wall as ZATO fuel or a Wall-to-Wall if you need the cards and credits.

Envelopment. We all know this is a bad-ass Ob card that will keep your server locked up tight for a few turns, then can be Extracted for a Border Control or Hortum (in case you'd rather fetch a Code Gate). If you get BC, don't forget you can fetch ZATO when you pop it and the faster you get your ZATO-Skunk remote set up the better. This is all well-and-good, but there is one card from Automata that elevated Envelopment to a stone-cold killer: Bankhar. Anarchs will think twice before "Bankhar and Run" if they'll suffer five damage for their recklessness.

And that's a wrap! In conclusion, this is a strong rush glacier deck like PD but has a fantastic mid-to-late game if things drag, is rarely broke like Blue Sun, is filled with "fun surprises" for the runner, has "hidden" tech cards like Envelopment countering Bankhar and ZATO countering Trojans, has a plethora of cards that enable Ob's ID on both player's turns, all while feeling easy to pilot and familiar for Start-Up players.

Excited to jam some games?