Patriot Games in Sheffield hosted an FFG Store Championship
for Android: Netrunner on 15th March 2014 and I was there along with
27 others. First off, let’s have a look at my decks and what I had planned with
them going in.
Runner Deck
ID
Andromeda: Dispossessed Ristie
Event (23)
Satellite Uplink x3
Inside Job x3
Easy Mark x3
Special Order x3
Running Interference x1
Infiltration x3
Sure Gamble x3
Dirty Laundry x1
Forged Activation Orders x3
Hardware (4)
Plascrete Carapace x1
Blackguard x3
Program (9)
Garrote x1
Gordian Blade*** x2
Deus X* x1
Corroder** x2
Snitch x1
Crescentus x1
Faerie x1
Resource (9)
Armitage Codebusting x1
Mr. Li x2
Raymond Flint x1
Liberated Account** x2
Bank Job x1
Kati Jones x1
Daily Casts x1
Total Cards: 45
Total Influence: 15
So this is a Blackguard deck only recently built. I won 3
straight games with it and found it to be great fun and highly affective. I
think it’s the best deck I’ve built so far. The bread and butter of this deck
is of course, Blackguard and the cards to take advantage of its ability –
Infiltration, Snitch, Satellite Uplink and Raymond Flint.
My plan is to keep the Corp as low on funds as possible,
while I get my icebreaker suite set up and then find those agendas. Inside Job
is there to bypass anything nasty or to make those early surprise runs. With
the expose abilities in this deck I rarely need to make runs without knowing
what I’ll be facing.
For this deck to work, I need a lot of money early to get
Blackguard as soon as possible – covered by Sure Gamble, Liberated Account,
Armitage Codebusting, Easy Mark and Kati Jones, with Bank Job and Dirty Laundry
if the timing is right and I can make the appropriate runs. Using Andromeda
gives me the best chance of getting that early money and Mr. Li allows me to
quickly work through my deck to find the cards I need.
Corporation Deck
ID
Jinteki: Replicating Perfection
Agenda (11)
False Lead x2
Corporate War x1
Braintrust x3
Nisei MK II x2
Fetal AI x3
Asset (13)
Cerebral Overwriter** x1
PAD Campaign x2
Melange Mining Corp x2
Thomas Haas* x1
Jackson Howard* x1
Sundew x1
Project Junebug x2
Snare x3
Ice (19)
Eli 1.0* x1
Chum x1
Ichi 1.0** x2
Wall of Static x3
Chimera x3
Wall of Thorns x1
Hourglass** x1
RSVP** x1
Enigma x3
Neural Katana x3
Operation (5)
Trick of Light x2
Hedge Fund x3
Upgrade (1)
Red Herrings** x1
Total Cards: 49
Total Influence: 15
Agenda Points: 20
After witnessing it first hand at my last tournament, I
wanted to try out Replicating Perfection myself. With help from fellow
Netrunner players on Twitter, I went into the tournament with the build you see
here. The main tactic of the deck is not to flatline or fast advance agendas,
but to waste the Runner’s time. The Identity does this by default, forcing a
run on a central server before he can move to a remote server, but there are a
few other cards in there equally aimed at using up the Runner’s clicks. People
tend to go after Jackson Howard, so having him out and rezzed, should ensure
the Runner uses up 2 clicks to run, perhaps leaving an agenda in place for me
to score next turn.
Thomas Haas can be advanced, perhaps prompting a run, then I
can just trash him and collect the money and PAD Campaign and Melange Mining
Corp equally have the effect of gaining me much needed credits, but also to
force the Runner to run on these instead of elsewhere.
I always find Ice the hardest part of deck building and here
even more so. If the Runner hits Neural Katana on his central server run, he
may think twice about running on a remote and Ice like Hourglass is there to
rob them of that choice entirely.
Match 1
Vs Kate
Against a new player, I scored Braintrust, Nisei, and
another Braintrust; keeping him out with Chimera most of the time. A False Lead
that I’d placed on the table near the start of the game gave me a surprise
score and win at the end.
Vs Weyland
I got Blackguard
out early and really put the pressure on. I scored 5 points of agendas and then
went digging in R&D. I could tell he was looking for the Scorched Earth
flatline, but my Plascrete Carapace was nowhere to be found and I didn’t find
that last agenda in time before he pulled it off.
Match 2
Vs Gabe
I scored a Braintrust, but ultimately lost. An early
Account Siphon put me on the back foot, though I did stop another by getting
rid of Same Old Thing when he left his tags in place.
Vs HB
A bad mulligan left me without the cash boost that
Andromeda is so great at providing which ultimately left me without Blackguard.
I tried to use my exposes to instead make for more informed runs, but I just
couldn’t get anything going and with a SanSan in play, it was over all too
quickly.
Match 3
Vs Gabe
An over eager run led my opponent into a Snare with 2
cards in hand. Not what I’d intended, but I’ll take it!
Vs Weyland
Andromeda ok, but again I didn’t get Plascrete in play
before getting the earth scorched from under me.
Match 4
Vs Noise
A very early flatline again from Snare, before I even laid out any remotes!
Vs HB
Blackguard working at first, but my opponent got through
it and by the end we were on 5 points each and he had a card advanced twice in
a remote server. Not only did he have a Swordsman and Enigma protecting it, but
an Off The Grid too, meaning I had to make a successful run on HQ first.
Protecting HQ? Only a Wotan, a Janus and another Swordsman!
It was do or die. With my full Icebreaker suite in play,
7 credits and 5 cards, I made a run on HQ on Click 1. I spent a credit to break
the net damage subroutine on Swordsman then proceeded to walk right through
Janus, taking 4 brain damage. I then did the same with Wotan – losing 2 clicks,
paying 3 credits, trashing Snitch and doing another brain damage.
The successful run trashed the Off the Grid, but found
nothing in HQ. With Click 4 I ran the remote, paying 2 of my 3 credits to break
the net damage subroutine on Swordsman and the end the run subroutine on
Enigma. The winning agenda was mine!
Match 5
Vs Chaos Theory
Great use of Blackmail from my opponent and hefty dose of
bad luck led to my loss here. Several agendas together in R&D. These things
happen.
Vs Jineki: RP
Blackguard came out in this game, but the Corp was
already happy with the Ice he had in place, so didn’t bother putting any more
out. I stole an agenda, but ultimately this was a loss at a more experienced
Replicating Perfection player than I.
I finished the tournament with 8 points and placed 20th out of 28. 2 draws, 2 losses and a win.
Conclusions
Runner
My Blackguard deck worked reasonably well throughout the
day with the exception of that second game where I mulliganed into a bad hand,
denying me the early money and so Blackguard never came out.
I found that if I didn’t run enough while the Corporation
was low on funds, they could eventually ride it out. In the late game all my
expose abilities have been used and the Corp starts to gain money again.
I think I will be taking Raymond Flint out of this deck
as I’m only using his expose ability.
Perhaps Same Old Thing would be a good addition so I can
bring a surprise late game expose back or Inside Job.
I’d like to try False Echo with this deck, putting more
pressure on the Corp’s Ice, but the problem is finding the Influence. Perhaps –
seen as I have 3 Special Orders in there I can afford to drop the back-up
copies of Gordian Blade and Corroder, but then should I add a copy of Crypsis
to be on the safe side?
My Tournament MVP:
Garrote – I was nervous about switching Femme Fatale for
this, but it has proven its worth.
Corporation
I wasn’t confident going in, but this deck surprised me.
I never once struggled for Ice like I had initially feared and the two
flatlines were unexpected but great to see.
I think Thomas Haas might be leaving us and I’d like to
experiment with fewer agendas – including 3 pointers that I can score in 2
turns or leave out like failed traps.
My Tournament MVP:
Chimera – Stopped several agendas from being stolen
during the day. Really effective if the Runner hasn’t got their full suite out
yet.
If you have any thoughts on my decks, please do comment
here or message me on Twitter @Dodd81. Any help or advice would be appreciated.
