Haas Deck 1.2 - killer?

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tilphor 1

This is my second attempt at a HB flatline deck. Thanks for all of the advice given to me on my previous edition. This time I'm using Haas-Bioroid: Engineering the Future for the extra money instead of NEXT Design: Guarding the Net. I also lowered the cost of all of my ice and included quite a few traps like Howler and Data Mine.

My concern: I don't have any meat damage. Since meat and net damage are essentially the same, is that a problem? I suppose if the Runner had defences up against net damage, like Net Shield, that would be a problem.

I would use my Archived Memories to replay either my Howlers, Hedge Funds, or Neural EMPs.

There seem to be enough combinations to flatline a runner, whether via traps, or with combinations such as Neural Katana and then Neural EMP. Am I missing anything major?

As with my previous version, any and all comments are welcome. I'm excited to get this where I want it for play wither on OCTGN or live. Thanks everyone!

For reference, here are the sets I own: 1x Core set Creation and Control Cyber Exodus A Study in Static

4 comments
19 Dec 2015 FarCryFromHuman

As a follow-up on your last post on the previous iteration of the deck, I felt I should more clearly explain what you named the "damage hierarchy" (great name BTW). I mentioned that for flatlining, meat damage > net > brain. More explicitly, I was referring to the fact that with the current card pool, it is easiest to flatline the runner with meat damage over net, and lastly brain.

Meat damage kills are most commonly achieved by some combination of Scorched Earth, Traffic Accident and/or Punitive Counterstrike. The first two require the runner to be tagged, and so are usually played with SEA Source and/or Midseason Replacements. PC is typically seen in decks running fewer, larger agendas (especially Government Takeover). This flatline strategy is extremely powerful because it is almost entirely in the corp's control. The only prerequisites are enough money to stick the trace(s) and waiting until the runner makes a successful run/steals an agenda. This strategy is a hallmark of both Weyland and NBN decks (specifically the archetype known as "Butchershop," typically out of NEH or Haarpsichord). Keep in mind this is only one way to flatline via meat damage; there are many others (Contract Killer, Dedicated Response Team, etc).

Net damage kills are significantly rarer, and typically rely on one of two strategies: the accumulation of several smaller sources of damage to wear the runner down to the point that something like a Neural EMP will finish them off, or one or two massive but unexpected sources of damage hitting at once (like Ronin, Komainu and/or Project Junebug). Common net damage flatline decks are able to employ both strategies to leverage kills when the runner least expects it. The weakness of net damage kills is that they are harder to achieve; these cards are expensive and require extra support (versus operations that can just be played from hand and are normally untrashable). Net damage kill decks are almost always run out of Jinteki, with the notable exception being HB decks running Marcus Batty and NEXT Gold. Net damage is often better viewed as a "taxing of cards," with the potential to kill the reckless/unlucky runner.

Brain damage kills are far and away the hardest to land. Brain damage is usually the runner's choice. In almost all cases, the runner can play around or outright ignore a source of brain damage. There are some successful brain damage decks (most recently out of Cybernetics Division), but they rarely, if ever, win by landing a single source of brain damage. This is the advantage of brain damage though; it's permanent. A kill can come once the runner has been reduced to a max hand size of 1-2.

There is a final strategy. You can of course mix and match damage types. You are doing that here, and I think it's a great strategy that's really annoying for the runner. I like to call it having a "prickly" deck. It can definitely leverage meat and/or net damage into a more efficient kill after 1-2 brain damage have landed.

Regardless, "kill" decks are better thought of as decks that use damage as the threat to keep the runner in line as they score out. As a corp player you should keep your eye on the ball: getting to 7 points. Kills happen, but runners are wily and cautious. No kill deck is complete without a viable means of scoring out.

19 Dec 2015 Crashdown

Viktor 1.0 is your only bioroid.

Either pack more bioroids or drop these two cards. One's a useless waste of click&credits and the other one depends on you having one of only two other cards in HQ or Archives. That won't happen too often...

19 Dec 2015 tilphor

Wow! Thank you for that information. I really appreciate it. Even though I'm just getting started with this game, I'm living the complexity that is inherent in the combinations. You've given me a lot to think about.

I'm going to pay this deck for a bit and see if there are any changes I feel I need to make. Also, I should have the first 2 packs of Genesis early next week, so I'm going to start looking at those cards now for inspiration.

19 Dec 2015 tilphor

@Crashdown, Thank you for pointing that out. I'll make that change. Those were a hold over from the earlier deck, and I failed to pay attention.