Bandwidth RP (2nd pl. GNK - Green Lake Games)

CJFM 2270

Since there are a lot of resources going around, I decided to try something new-ish with RP. It only takes a few games to realize how great of an etr ice Raven is here, and how much damage it can actually do to a runner. Closed Accounts can seriously hinder non-Magnum Ops runners. Criminals take a huge beating from leaving any tags. It slows the game down to where I need it to be. Some play-choices and card choices:

PAD Campaign here instead of Mental Health Clinic does a few things. 1) slightly worse trash cost means that it somewhat taxes the Whizzard, which is what I'm going for here 2) it doesn't give the runner a bigger handsize, which plays into the Faustian Renaissance that is going on right now (there were three Faust decks in the top 4 including mine. 3) it sometimes gives the runner the impression that you're splashing for a single Scorched Earth, which can mindgame them, I suppose.

Closed Accounts is more an ongoing threat than an actual played card. I didn't play it the entire tournament, but the fact that people kept seeing it in my hand meant they had to clear tags and float minimal credits, which made my TFPs and the one NAPD more protected. (In the future, I think the 3x NAPD, 9 agenda version is much better here, cutting one interns.)

Gutenberg goes on RND, of course. It's a seriously annoying piece of ice that they WILL facecheck. Rarely will they have a way to break it the first time through, so it costs them at least 2 and a . They might even opt to run through a few times, or to do so on the last click (hah!) and you get to go to town on their resources.

Data Raven is the best etr ice in NBN, and you want to put one of these over HQ and another over the remote (or RND if you suspect Medium). Ravens will get parasited, and Interns can help here.

Bandwidth used to occupy more card-slots in this decktype (in previous versions), but I went down to 1 because it's awful to draw early, and I already have Excalibur (which is likewise horrible to draw early). Effectively, Bandwidth is just the second Excalibur that combos well with Caprice Nisei and Nisei MK II. Bandwidth can be broken, of course, but it costs you literally nothing, and nets the runner only click loss and credit loss. Also to note, for some reason, it causes the runner to opt to spend on average a higher numbers of credits in the psi game. That sounds weird, but the fact is that they really don't want to have to go through the Bandwidth again and get another tag tends to force runners to bid 2 more often (provided they have the money left to clear the tag. If they're short on credits (say 3, which can happen), you can likely bid 2 without worrying, because they'll probably get Closed Accountss and/or their Kati Jones trashed.

Things to change/think about:

Wall of static is fine, but you could put in the second Bako and be good. Though Ashigaru was good in practice games, I never rezzed it all tournament. I still think it's a decent late-game answer to Faust + Lady, so probably worth keeping.

The second Crick is probably unnecessary, Pup sometimes has archives covered. Susanoo-No-Mikoto got de-rezzed once in a game against a very aggressive Geist, but she's still phenomenal against Kate + Anarchs.

2nd Interns could easily be Batty or the 9th agenda. There are fewer good targets for Batty in this deck, but the chance to just ETR is nice. I'd opt for the NAPD suite (or NAPD + Chronos) before Batty.

Anyway, it's a nice (and fun!) change of pace from regular RP, and it still has the overall strength of regular RP. Sometimes the runner just can't beat Caprice.

3 comments
20 Jul 2015 linuxmaier

I love Bandwidth here! Closed Accounts combos nicely in with it and all together it's a scary mix to a tag-me Criminal.

21 Jul 2015 gumonshoe

I've played similar variants; including one where I went 3x caprice in NEH (don't do that). Needed to win something like 24 psigames vs @bblum. I did it, but only because I was somehow inside his head. In RP its a bit better and needing to clear that tag after losing the psi game is pretty cool. Ultimately, if your opponent isn't playing resources the strategy isn't as effective, though your deck looks a tad bit tigher than mine ever got.

Do you think a Bad Times might be a decent include for games where people go tagme? I think you might have the tag power to make it happen.

21 Jul 2015 CJFM

@gumonshoe I'd though up a version that went with Cortex Lock + Bad Times, but never really tried it. It could work if the plan is to ultimately blacklist the runner, but the problem with Bad Times (besides costing a million credits) is that the runner can just choose which breaker to lose, and they sometimes just lose SMC, Datasucker or their empty Lady, and so you do them a favor. It's worth testing, for sure, though I'd want to definitely add some Restructures, possibly going to 17 ice (adding the Cortexes) and taking out one Interns if I went that route. I think the cuts are 1 Crick and 1 pup for the Cortexes.

I've run up against a few Mopus builds with this (one CT in this tournament), and I've just managed to rush them out each time. RP bullshit is strong in general. If the Mopus player gets online, you almost certainly lose. On the other hand, if they do keep a tag, you're almost certainly able to score with a CC + Install + Advance play.