Murder EA Wrote - 5th at SW Regional and 1st at Exeter CO

Nemamiah 3996

Look, ABR is making me publish this, even though the changes definitely don't warrant it. Let's talk about those (relatively) briefly.

When I went through this deck to look for possible changes I quickly decided 34 of the 40 cards are absolutely nailed on and don't even need to be considered. The second Attitude Adjustment, three Piranhas and the second and third Tsarvenas are the only cards I think it's worth even looking at, and even then the arguments to change them are very marginal.

In the end we changed Piranhas because too many runners have a way to cheat through it with clickless draws, even though it's deeply painful if you have to actually pay to break it. Mest is a hard end the run and will often force a breaker and has a relevant credit exchange that supports the rest of the deck. I swapped two and kept one Piranha, Johno and Alex switched all three. Is the deck definitely better? Absolutely not, but it's probably not worse either.

3-1 at Bristol and 5-0 at Exeter. If you have doubts about this deck then don't; it's an absolute monster.

Since this is barely worth publishing, let's throw in some tips to play against this as a freebie.

The deck is a bit more fragile than it looks; a lot of the cards are trashable, it really doesn't want to actually rez ice, and there's not actually much econ in it. Three cards in the remote and 12 credits will potentially kill you, but you should always challenge the first such attempt as hard as possible, even if it means opening yourself up to Punitive; the more credits you have the better but being aggressive and forcing them to have the Punitives is better than abandoning the remote and trying to win off centrals.

On the other hand, if you get past that point your concern on the second steal is primarily to dodge the Punitive. They will likely have the cards they need by then, so don't go broke at this point to clear out the remote unless you think you can't get back in ever again. Never ever try and steal six points in one turn unless it also wins you the game.

The best way to prolong your lifespan is actually to force ice rezzes to drop their credit total. Every Pinhole or Burner you can play probably buys you one turn, but it's likely that their turns are quicker to rebuild than yours so you need to use that time wisely. Think extremely hard before giving them credits for the Azmari ability; each time you do that can wipe a whole turn off the game clock.

It's tempting to trash Holo Man as a priority but there are three in the deck and it's not essential to the combo; on the other hand Djupstad is not a replaceable effect in the combo and there are only two in the deck. That should be your priority to find and clear whenever possible.

All credit to EA Sports for this list; getting a deck banned is really the pinnacle of Netrunner achievements.

EDIT - I had two Mest, not three. Playing this deck at 41 cards would be extremely inadvisable.

2 comments
30 Jul 2024 somefish

Did you three ever advance the Mestnichestvo? Seems like an expensive action to do in this deck

30 Jul 2024 Nemamiah

Golly gosh no; as you say your clicks and credits are far too valuable