"I'm taking over the government, and I want you to be a part

Cliquil 1226

I love the little box when one is publishing a decklist that asks if a deck placed high in a tournament (Store Championship or better). When I am publishing decklists it cannot fail to look at me at least a little sarcastically.

What is Netrunner? Well the corp needs to look for scoring windows. Or at least, that's the way the game was taught to me. But what if, instead of looking for more than 1 scoring window, you basically looked for one really important one.

Enter this deck. Your aim is to score a Government Takeover and hope that it is either the last points you need to win the game, or that you can squeeze out the last one. If you can't, well then that's on you.

Within the narrative of the game world I am presuming that Weyland simply announces it is taking over the government (Government Takeover) and in so doing announces that it is looking for people to play the role of "President" (Casting Call) and when it does so it is going to have a huge ceremony to thrill it (Dedication Ceremony)...twice.

Back with the person sitting at the table, playing Netrunner. You have just done this. Your opponent knows that you think you have a scoring window. You have just demonstrated that in quite dramatic fashion. WHY do you think this?

Perhaps your scoring server is just too expensive to get through after the runner's last runs at R&D, or expensive install? A Curtain Wall in front of a Hive can be expensive, as can an Archer. Certainly if they don't have the right breakers, perhaps your only Enigma is in there? WHO KNOWS?! Especially since your opponent has been using an AI breaker.

But why would we assume your opponent is using an AI breaker? Because otherwise, of course, you'd be on Plan A. Mother Goddess. When it is the only Ice rezzed, as it often can be in Blue Sun, then unless you have an AI breaker then it CANNOT BE BROKEN. Those aren't words we read much in Netrunner. We are so used to the narrative that runners can go where they want, it is just taxing. In this deck there is a piece of Ice that some runner decks simply cannot break.

Of course it can only be in one place at at time. So make it count.

"But Guy, they can bypass the Ice" . Let us hope they do, us hope they try and Inside Job or Femme Fatale. We stuck an Underway Grid in there, just to be on the safe side. They thought it was just a normal little bait to make them break through one of my many expensive peices of Ice. They were wrong.

"But Guy what if you don't draw X" I have used over advanced Project Atlas, Localized Product Line,drawing & Levy University to find the pieces I need. Oddly the only thing I rarely used was Fast Track.

"But Guy what if your opponent has Turntable after you score the Government Takeover but you have no other agendas scored?" OK sure what are the odds of that happening? "That happened to you." Fair.

"But Guy what if your opponent is a Professor who Rebirths into Nasir and Femmes the Mother Goddess and you forgot to put an Underway Grid in" What are the... "Again, happened to you." Fine.

"But Guy what if your opponent is playing Caissa Brahman Whizzard" I know where this is going... "It crushed you" It did.

Man I do turn up to some janky tourmanents sometimes.

This deck is fun. Play. Have fun.

Maybe ditch the Punitive, it isn't going to fire and is no fun if it does. Put in a 3rd Hostile. I found that I really wanted it.

17 comments
10 Oct 2016 Fentonizer

Oh, Guy <3

10 Oct 2016 yosempai

Fun idea, might piss off a few friends though! XD

10 Oct 2016 laneford

"What if your opponent is playing Caissa Brahman Whizzard?"

Sorry guy!

11 Oct 2016 DatLo

Deck's hilarious. 10/10. Have you thought about using Paper Wall to put in front of Mother Goddess/early gear check? Or perhaps a Turing / Wraparound for AI hate?

11 Oct 2016 Cliquil

Thank you for the kind comments.

In response to @DatLo: I did toy around with all of those cards and they did have their appeal.

Paper Wall's ability I found though I could replicate with an Oversighted piece of Ice (Curtain Wall or Hive) - if they broke that then the Mother Goddess behind would, as with Paper Wall, return to being nothing. Plus Paper Wall didn't allow me to play the Blue Sun popping Ice back to hand game and didn't help me make centrals expensive. If I wanted it for a genuine early gear check Blue Sun allows me to go down to 0 credits and still score whatever agenda is behind the gear check because of its ability.

Wraparound and Turing fell foul of the very high influence I was forced to pay to get this combo together. I could possibly have switched out the Targetted Marketing for a Wraparound but I like having at least one of them around; it is a card I like slotting in corp decks generally.

The rest of the influence spend I would treat as essential; both the Jacksons and the Global Food help you not lose in R&D/HQ whilst you put together your scoring window and cards in hand and without them you're are likely doomed to fail off even a single legwork. You need 3 Cating Calls to have any hope of getting one when you need - and the Localised product Line was also essential in nearly every game for finding a piece I needed.

Hope the explanation is satisfactory and thanks for asking! :)

11 Oct 2016 Popeye09

Genius of the highest order. I assume that Excalibur goes in front of Mummy G, so that run, bounce, install AI, run again and steal no longer works?

I would be sorely tempted to find the influence for a single Swordsman, but then when I troll people, I like to really troll them!

11 Oct 2016 emilyspine

Professor rebirth into Nasir. I've seen it all now. Really enjoyed the write up, Guy. Those were some epic games!

11 Oct 2016 Cliquil

@emilyspine Thanks!

@Popeye09This was a play I hadn't considered to be honest; generally I used the Excalibur on centrals to try and stop some of the other outs that were on offer to people. If the remote Ice was unrezzed a Leela could in theory run R&D for multi access and bounce the ice, or Siphon me to 0 and then run the G. Takeover to steal it. Excalibur on centrals helped in both of those scenarios (obviously it is unique so it had to be carefully used). It was also useful just as Ice to annoy Temujins, Mediums, Turning Wheels etc.

13 Oct 2016 Swiftie

Sad I missed a chance to play against this at Aldershot, going to give it a play later, looks like a fun deck.

14 Oct 2016 FragSpider

This looks wonderfully bold and janky! Almost seems to be thematically opposed of your Beale-or-No-Beale deck I had the pleasure of playing against a while back!

There is however another matchup you've not considered... Apex: Invasive Predator, or more specifically; Endless Hunger. Although, that being said; the likelyhood of encountering a wild Apex player is rare.

I had toyed with a deck design like this a while back but using also Kitsune and forcing the runner to enjoy either taking Snares, or possibly me handing the Government Takeover to them for a Punitive kill next turn. Unfortunately, this idea was just before Wyldside-Faust popped up everywhere, so it kinda rendered the whole thing pointless! But you've inspired me to look at it again...

Thanks for sharing!

14 Oct 2016 Cliquil

Thanks @Swiftie

Thanks @FragSpider - funnily enough one of the early iterations of the deck was a "Beale or..no its definitely a Beale" version of the deck.

It is true, Apex does pose a potential problem; if I saw an Apex and suspect Endless Hunger I would probably hope I could stack enough Hives around the place to make hitting me too taxing along with hoping a surprise few excaliburs ideally on more than 1 central took out the apoc. play. That said, if somebody turns up with Apex and beat me with it then fair play to them.

I looked at Kitsunes/Snares and suchlike but, again, influence became the thing that held me back. Was determined to run ALL the Casting Calls.

17 Oct 2016 Troubleshooter

Blackmail?

17 Oct 2016 Troubleshooter

Ah, OAI, nevermind me.

22 Oct 2016 saracenus

First time I played the deck I lived the dream. Got credits, installed Government Takeover face up behind a Mother Goddess, hit it with a single Dedication Ceremony. Oponent had no bypass or AI breakers. Spent the next two rounds cursing. Next round drew and scored Hostile Takeover for the win. Feels good man, feels good.

24 Oct 2016 Cliquil

@Damien StarkThere are lots of things that can defeat this deck, Blackmail sometimes being one of them if unexpected (though you're right than an OAI can help)

@saracenusGlad you enioyed! Hope yor opponent was cursing in a good jest! :O

25 Oct 2016 saracenus

@CliquilYes and no... Played a second game with the deck and had the game on lock (again, playing without an AI breaker is really, really dumb). Lost because, I be stupid...

I scored a Project Atlas with two agenda tokens on it behind a Mother Goddess. Have 2 Dedication Ceremony and Casting Call in hand. I have Excalibur installed on R&D. Runner realizes he is toast unless he can score a lot of agendas quick, makes a Maker's Eye run and hits Government Takeover... DOH!

I think about the game some more and realized that after he ran through Excalibur I could have burned a token off Atlas to pull GT in to HQ where it would be safe. Runner would have only two rounds to find 7 agenda points with two separate Maker's Eye runs with the remaining agendas in a very full R&D... Now I cry about what could have been...

25 Oct 2016 Cliquil

Every single Netrunner has their "almost"s of glory. This particular deck, I imagine, is pretty prone to this!