R+ Kill, In This Economy? [8th & Undefeated @ EA Regional]

Through the beauty of wordless communication via Netrunner tournament I was convinced that R+ Kill is still real and can hurt you. I was sitting there in a lovely game shop in Nottingham, just manifesting Quetzal's meme potential when I looked over to the game next to me and saw @chonkyseal fighting something truly horrifying (see @jan tuno's delightful poetry for the original).

Now one of my thoughts (as a well adjusted adult) was "what if I could be the one playing the horrifying murder deck that forces my opponent to do all the thinking??". That said, @palmtree has also been trying to convince me to join Team Murder for awhile, but my objection was always that a well practiced opponent could play around the kill lines. Then I saw a bunch of incredibly talented Netrunners had lost to the deck in a tournament setting and it made me think of Captain Kirk:

It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose..

The rest of the quote betrays that it's intended to be a comfort when things are arrayed against us.. but (again well adjusted), what if I was the array?? And my opponent could be trapped by their own knowledge???

False Hybrid

This deck does have a scoring plan, but the secret is that it's to 4/5 points..

I've played this a decent amount online (sorry to all my opponents) and while a few games were won by scoring out, others by mistakes or someone getting unlucky, the majority were won by the threat of scoring out forcing my opponents to take risks they wouldn't have otherwise. Hence the funky agenda suite, hear me out..

If you've scored two 2-point agendas and a False Lead then you've probably already won even through tech pieces:

• Install Amaze Amusements with any scorable 2+ point agenda (advance as necessary)
• Choose additional spice
  • Protect with an unrezzed Ping or Tsarevna
  • The agenda is Tomorrow's Headline or Oracle (if on 6 points)
  • Use Oppo Research in the same turn
• If the runner steals it then you can forfeit False Lead and murder them, otherwise you can score it for the win

At 4 points any 2 unrezzed cards could also be Holoman + Degree Mill so need to be checked by the runner.

Similarly, any 2 unrezzed cards could be Orbital Superiority + Holoman, so they can't end the turn on 3 cards or you can score Orbital then send over your guy.

Except we run 3x Behold! so any card they check could also spell their doom. Multi-access is therefore also a bit dangerous..

Not to mention that all unrezzed ICE is also either 2 net damage or a tag until proven otherwise...

Then if you trash anything or find an agenda you're probably going to get Oppo Research-ed....

These are just some of the things the runner must consider. Unsurprising then that (given the available information) the runner can effectively make no mistakes and still lose.

In For The Kill

The kills are pretty rote, ideally you want 8c and the runner to end the turn with some tags. Sometimes you get them with Behold! (or they get unlucky accessing R&D/HQ), sometimes it's an Amaze server, often it's Oppo when they don't have the capacity to deal with it.

False Lead makes this all easier since as soon as they're on 2 clicks and some tags you can just forfeit it and attempt to do some harm:

• 3+ tags: Mindscaping -> 2x EotL
  • 11 damage! Kill a Shaper with Aniccam and 2x Stoneship
• 2 tags: same plan
  • Only 10 damage (still gets most runners)
• 1 tag: 2x Mindscaping -> 1x EotL
  • 6 damage, just enough! Gets any un-teched runner or teched runners that have hit some net damage or dared to use their cards

Pivot finds (and potentially plays) a piece of the kill as needed. Or finds you Oppo / Your Digital Life at a key moment, but is very much a backup. Probably quite cuttable. Typically you'd rather get Gaslight to do the thing or just draw into the pieces.

Sometimes you only need Mindscaping -> EotL; just consider what tech they may have. E.g. against Steelskin Scarring we can play the odds and use Mindscaping to reduce the chance of hitting one.

Odds aren't bad for some situations if you gotta gamble:

• Hand of 5 with 1 Steelskin: dealing 2 damage has a 60% chance of dodging it
• Hand of 4 with 1 Steelskin: dealing 1 damage has a 75% chance of dodging it
• Hand of 4 with 2 Steelskin: dealing 3 damage has a 58% chance of only hitting 1

Other odds aren't great (don't recommend).

Actually Playing

There's lots of room for antics in this deck (see below), but you have a few things you need to achieve relatively quickly:

1. Acquire credits, if you get through a Regolith you'll have a good game, otherwise improvise
   • Your Digital Life + Rashida / Spin Doctor should cover it fairly well
   • Don't be afraid to click for a few credits here and there
2. Score 4/5 points, setup those impossible forks
3. Score a False Lead, it makes everything easier

There's lots of ways to play, but I think having 1 "main" remote with Unsmiling Tsarevna in front of it to push things through works quite well. This is typically taxing enough that the runner won't hit it every turn giving you space to do the things you need to.

If they have ICE destruction or efficient ways in then it's time to fall back to a classic shell game where they still have to play around Behold!, Oppo, Amaze, and agendas that give them tags.

Shenanigan Section

• Put The Holo Man on a Behold!
• Install literally any 2 things on the same server
  • It might be The Holo Man on a Behold!
  • Could also be Amaze + an Agenda
    • That Agenda might also give them tags
  • Might just be cover to get Rashida to fire before installing the Behold! next turn
  • Bonus points if they have to say hi to Tsarevna to find out
• Install + Advance (x2?) an agenda in a server with unrezzed ICE
  • Is it Thinktank or Orbital?
  • Can they break Ping
  • Can they clear the tags afterwards?
  • What if it's Tsarevna?
• Install 3 cards in one turn:
  • 1 is Behold!
  • 1 is Tomorrow's Headline
  • 1 is Gaslight
  • You have Oppo in hand and just Kobayashi Maru-ed them

There's lots of silly things you can do; almost all your installs can very reasonably be one of a several different lines. HQ and R&D are in a quantum state of all Behold! or agendas that give you tags. If anyone asks, you always have the kill in hand (except when they have Burner).

Dismantling The Corporate Machine

If you too hate Capital then, here's some ways to dismantle it's power:

• Look after yourself (irl as well as in game)
  • It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not a weakness. That is life.
  • Run early in the turn so you have time to deal with unexpected tags
  • Keep a healthy credit pool to deal with Oppo
  • Double check a decision to trash something in the mid-late game to avoid a 4 tag Oppo
  • No Free Lunch / Flip Switch / Hannah are some of the ideal tech pieces to simply remove the tags even under threat of False Lead
• Deconstruct their systems of oppression (get rid of that guy with a gun and whatever is going on here)
  • Don't let them Gaslight you
  • Organise with your local Anarchists
  • Feed them to the Maw of their own machine
  • Embrace a little chaos
• Hit them where it hurts (the money)
  • Lots of games go near credit-perfect
  • Consider DoF, trash the Regolith, get Rashida fired
• Be anonymous (don't float tags)
• Maybe don't just use a Burner (I'm reaching), it seems like it would be great, but you also have to time it and clear out the Gaslights, plus not get duked by a Spin Doctor rez or Tsarevna fire
• (I've not a good one for these): Pinhole and Cupellation are pretty good
  • Avoid rude ICE early game
  • Disarm the Amaze
  • Put the guy with a gun in a cup

Shout Outs

Thanks to @cobrabubbles, @J0N4LD, and @not_yeti (plus anyone else I've missed) for organising a really great tournament.

@Bartimaeus for giving me a better name for this deck than "Do The Murder".

Thanks to all the players who made the event a really lovely day and who were really welcoming especially to newer players at their first tournament (thanks to my buddy @alex for agreeing to play despite only remembering Netrunner last week). Also our crew from Sheffield who got up waaaaay too early to drive down.

Special thanks to everyone who was very supportive and encouraging when I was a bit nervous about playing in the cut. Especially @cobalt who gave me a stern talking to about how I gotta belive in myself <3 I may have gone out in the first elimination but I still had a great time and it was by 2pts to 0 so I feel like I had a decent shot.

Final Thought

Be the impossible situation you want your opponent to be in.

^{I'm so sorry}