A Certain Relaxed Contempt for the Flesh

Wint3rmut3 20

First time building a proper deck that has worked for me.

Focus on icing up HQ and R&D first. If you have 3 ice in hand, put one in a remote server.

Prioritise on scoring The Cleaners as fast as possible - this makes the Builder of Nations ability far more potent. Do this even at the expense of some tempo - it's ok to go very low on credits if it means scoring this, as you can bounce back but they can't undo it.

Whether you are able to or not, using City Works Project together with Contract Killer and Dedication Ceremony is a must. Make sure you have a remote server with a single adv token on it (best to use Masvingo), ideally with a Prisec or two on it. Once you manage to get 2 Dedication Ceremonies, a City Works Project and a Contract Killer in hand, you've pretty much won the game. Most runners cannot resist the urge to take 7+2 (or more if you've got a prisec) just to nab that agenda. However, the chances they will end their turn with more than 2 cards is highly unlikely. This primes an easy kill with Contract Killer + Dedication Ceremony.

You want to prioritise your ice on centrals since there isn't much of it and econ is tight. Use Hostile Takeovers liberally if at risk of theft or your econ is low - once you score The Cleaners, the main cost of your ice is in cards, not cash.

Use Kakugo to your advantage - it doesn't use up the once-per-turn functionality of BoN so it synergises well. Note that both of these damage effects are immune to bypass effects, so this is still strong against Security Nexus etc. In addition, since the deck is so fast, and SN decks are generally slower, you can have everything scored by the time they're set up. Run hard and run fast.

Low agenda density means you can sacrifice some time putting ICE on R&D in order to get The Cleaners scored.

Film Critic is a pain, but often not as bad as it may seem. I've found that this tends to breed overconfidence - they can't take the absurd amount of damage from the City Works Project any more! However, this gives a false sense of security. If you ice up your scoring remote with Kakugo and Masvingo (assuming The Cleaners is scored), that's 3 damage right there. If you add a Prisec, that's 5 and a tag. Again, even if this doesn't kill them, it's unlikely they'll have properly prepared for it. Just make sure you have Contract Killer + Dedication Ceremony handy to deal that last 2 damage out of hand.

The pure meat milling potential of this deck is phenomenal. Continual damage makes sure that their plans are nearly always disrupted. In addition, if the game takes a little longer than expected, continual R&D runs which burn through 1-3 cards at a time will quickly drain the runner of options.

The Breached Dome should dissuade from R&D attempts somewhat. It's good to keep this in archives - if they are using it to charge something that requires a number of successful runs (e.g. Aumakua) they will quickly learn not to.

It's phenomenal how many runners can't resist the agenda bait despite the damage it gives. If you can't get all the cards together for the winning combination, and the runner doesn't have many points, it's ok to pop the install + Dedication Ceremony + advance sooner rather than later. Despite giving it up, the tempo hit will leave them struggling to regain cards. They will generally leave you alone for a couple of turns if this is the case.

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