Runner infinite clicks proof of concept (Eternal)

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CelestialSpark 321

While there already existed a few ways that a runner could potentially form an Exodia combo for infinite credits, I believe The Automata Initiative has finally given us our first combo for infinite clicks. Amusingly, the only card that is actually necessary which brings this out of standard-playable is Surfer. Everything else is just a draw engine or an attempt to be more consistent.

The actual combo is as follows:
1) Have a server with at least two rezzed barriers on it. Egret/Tinkering cover the barrier aspect of this.
2) Play Diana's Hunt. Yes, this godawful card is actually required. No other card in all of Netrunner works. Beautiful irony.
3) Pass ICE with Pichação twice to gain clicks. After the second click, Pichação starts adding itself to your grip, allowing you to install it on each ICE with Diana's Hunt until the run ends.
4) Encounter an arbitrarily high number of ICE during that run, installing Pichação on an arbitrarily high number of them. This is where Surfer is required, short of the corp helping you with their own jank. It is the only way you can engineer an endless run by moving yourself backwards one place after each encounter.

There are a few other card choices here that enable this run to be credit-neutral or better. For example, Euler is used because it costs no influence and attempts to break most ICE for 0 or close. Turbine is used to make Euler more likely to not need to boost. (I selected it over other options because Wu can tutor it.) In the Groove refunds a credit for every ICE passed (thanks to Diana's Hunt and Pichação giving an install every time) without using MU; Kyuban refunds 2 on every other ICE but requires MU.

You can probably stop reading here. The rest of this pretends that you're trying to win by playing this deck, and that making it better would matter.

While the combo can be entirely pre-installed, gaining extra clicks protects against the corp trashing their ICE, since you generally need the Egrets and Kyubans to stick. Wu can be used without restriction on this turn, since there is never an end of turn. Diana's Hunt can also be used to install some of the programs needed if they are in your grip (in order: Euler + Egrets, Surfer, Turbine if useful, Kyuban, Pichação); Pichação is not needed until after the run is at least credit neutral.

I am not sure of the best way to make this deck resilient against losing Diana's Hunt from hand. Harmony AR Therapy is ideally used to recur programs you discarded so Wu can get them on your combo turn, without losing Diana's Hunt from hand as with Levy AR Lab Access. I'm sure anyone who has played competitive combo shaper will find a better answer if it something ever makes this good or standard-playable. I included Amped Up to be able to use Wu more on the combo turn, but this is possibly wrong since it can hit Diana's Hunt or an important program.

Anyway, I hope this is fun. I haven't been as amused by a conceptual deck in Netrunner since the time I used TL;DR, Wormhole, and Batty + Cell Portal to give an ICE more subroutines than exist atoms in the universe without the use of an infinite.

10 comments
4 Aug 2023 Jai

Absolutely beautiful.

4 Aug 2023 Hyperbolic_Mess

If you can tutor with wu for everything you need except Diana's hunt then why not have 3 copies of it?

4 Aug 2023 CelestialSpark

`@Hyperbolic_Mess More than one copy is probably correct, but you do need to either get enough Kyubans + In the Groove in your grip that Diana's Hunt can establish the infinite mid-run, or play enough cards to gain extra clicks that you can complete your tutoring in one turn. You also need most to all of the MU hardware in the deck installed even after trashing the Origamis. Since that requires drawing a lot, I'm not enthusiastic about three copies either. This is just a proof of concept; you cannot realistically win in Eternal with a combo that needs this many pieces AND requires a server with two rezzed ICE to work (which can just never occur for the entire game in Eternal).

4 Aug 2023 jeffn2001

Get some Data Link Reversal in there and insta-win

4 Aug 2023 CelestialSpark

There are probably a lot of ways to win with infinite clicks. DLR is definitely an option that works, though it needs influence unlike Equivocation (which I used over Conduit because Conduit is more likely to die to net damage accidentally, in the rare event that it matters).

Upon thinking about it more, I think ditching Amped Up for more draw is probably correct, and running T400 Memory Diamond over Akamatsu Mem Chip might actually be correct because it makes back its extra cost with an extra Game Day draw plus makes you more flexible with your cards in hand. The downside of ditching Amped Up is you will need two Hyperdrivers installed on your combo turn, meaning you can't burn them for setup as aggressively. Still uncertain about Bookmark; it is valuable into Jinteki, but slows you down a lot to use over the "pitch and later mass recur programs" approach if just used for hand management.

4 Aug 2023 CelestialSpark

There are probably a lot of ways to win with infinite clicks. DLR is definitely an option that works, though it needs influence unlike Equivocation/Conduit, as well as a way to tag yourself on your combo turn.

Upon thinking about it more, I think ditching Amped Up for more draw is probably correct, and running T400 Memory Diamond over Akamatsu Mem Chip might actually be correct because it makes back its extra cost with an extra Game Day draw plus makes you more flexible with your cards in hand. The downside of ditching Amped Up is you will need two Hyperdrivers installed on your combo turn, meaning you can't burn them for setup as aggressively. I think Bookmark is probably also correct over Harmony and VRcation, because while the clicking to store cards is slow, the fact that Game Day will draw the same number of extra cards probably makes up for that and then some, and it's Jinteki protection.

4 Aug 2023 Zerothmaxima

Bravo

4 Aug 2023 callforjudgement

Quite some time before The Automata Initiative was released, I seriously tried to play a deck using this basic combo, although for infinite credits rather than infinite clicks because Pichação hadn't been released yet. It won quite a lot of casual games, although it had an unfortunate tendency to win even before I managed to set the combo up. I never tried it in a tournament, though.

One serious card suggestion I have is System Seizure (which is within the current Standard rotation, but which is banned due to being a current). It's generally safe to play the turn before the combo, because it looks like it's being used as a counter-current rather than something that's actually key to the strategy and it won't generally inspire a Corp to clear the current. However, it allows Euler to break ICE of any strength; combined with Tinkering and/or Egret (I used Tinkering), you can pull off the combo on almost any server with two or more ICE on it.

One other serious suggestion I have is Simulchip. This was by far the most valuable card for me in my testing of the deck, because it acted as a clickless way to help set the combo up (typically by installing the Kyubans. I was playing the deck using Hayley Kaplan: Universal Scholar in order to save clicks on the critical turn (and because Hayley is just a really solid ID in general), which made Simulchip particularly good for me because I could use it to get a double-install at the end of the Corp turn. This sort of click-saving technology meant that the Hyperdrivers weren't actually required (I think it may have been banned in the Standard environment I was testing in, forcing me to find a different method of setting up the combo fast enough).

(It's also worth noting that I tried a number of other icebreakers in the combo. I pulled it off in casual games using Odore and even Baba Yaga. Euler was indeed the best choice for a breaker, though.)

5 Aug 2023 CelestialSpark

Hayley is definitely a solid choice, but I imagine you have to ditch the Game Day/Origami package in favor of either Laguna or just a bunch of draw events if you're not using Wu. Not sure which works out to be faster.

22 May 2024 Gyro88

Legendary