Neal's Last Words

by Byron "Neal" Massey

Deal with PurgeTech(tm)

This week I am proud to present a very modern Tag and Bag deck designed by Karl de Veres. Karl and I have been working together for some time now, and I can assure you that his Corporate intuition is nearly infallible. I hope you have a lot of fun blowing up TagMe Runners and generally wreaking havoc in netspace. So, without further ado, I present Karl's new startup company.

The rarity distribution is Rares/Uncommons/Vitals/Commons: 7/16/0/22

Welcome to PurgeTech(tm), the corporation dedicated to cleansing the city of criminal runners. Our new technologies allow us to pinpoint a runner anywhere in the city, and sometimes even before his first break-in. Lemme give you the inside scoop on our plan:

ICE (6) Operations (27) Nodes (6) Agenda (6)

Agenda (6):
3 Bioweapons Engineering
3 Corporate Headhunters

These agenda increase the efficiency of your meat damage. The Bioweapons Engineering allows the Scorched Earths to do 5 meat damage and the Corporate Headhunters to do 2 meat. The Headhunters also have the neat little ability of reducing the Runner's hand size. You have to score 3 if you wanna process out, but that's a small price to pay for these gems.

Bits (11):
11 Accounts Receivable

With 11 Accounts Receivables, money shouldn't be a problem. Just ice HQ and beware of the Taxman and other nasty runner tricks.

ICE (6):
3 Filter
3 Data Wall

There are only 6 ICE in this deck, as your money is better spent elsewhere, and it's always useful to tempt prospective Runners. Finding society's true enemies will allow you to do a valuable service for the community. Icing HQ and 1 other fort are usually a good idea, and later R&D.

Tag (8):
4 City Surveillance
2 Schlaghund Pointers
2 Underworld Mole

The hardest part about tagging the runner is waiting till he runs so you can nail him. Decks like Bozomatic, Short Stack, and any Top Runner's Conference deck, all wait until they are completely set up to run, and when they do, you can expect the game to be over right then and there. That is the main problem with Manhunt decks.

The 4 City Surveillance are useful against any Runner that relies on Bodyweight or Jack'n'Joe to get their supplies. If they don't take the tags, they at least will be spending an awful lot of money, and that will inevitably slow them down.

Use the 2 Schlaghund Pointers to put a tag on a Runner that has run in the past. It's a little more expensive than a Chance Observation, but at least you can get it later, and not have it be a total waste.

The 2 Underworld Moles are especially useful against any Loan from Chiba deck, and are really fun to use when somebody pops out their link without enough bits to use it successfully.

Tags are very important. I think that you can tag a Runner in almost any situation: when he is drawing, running, installing resources. The only situation not covered is a runner that is not doing any of the above three activities. A Blood Cat is the only way to get this runner, but if he is doing that little, you can probably fast advance your way to victory.

Bag (6):
6 Scorched Earth

This doesn't seem like much, but if this isn't enough, the world's Corporations have some pretty big problems. If a runner has an ESC on the table, bag him anyway. He'll be down to three actions (that'll screw up Bozomatic and many other Runners who rely on having 4 actions per turn) and have a hand size of one less. Full Body Conversion will give you some trouble. Try to use the Corporate Headhunters early, while he only has 1 or 2 FBC's out, and reduce his hand size a bit. You can then save up for a big hit later; watch his hand size.

Identity Donor is probably the single biggest problem for this deck. Tagging him shouldn't be hard, but doing any lasting meat damage will be nearly impossible; Use caution, we don't want to get a bad rep!

Special (4):
2 Closed Accounts
2 Corprunner's Shattered Remains

These are especially useful against Tagme decks. They usually rely on Full Body Conversion or Armored Fridge, and many others increase their hand size using the MRAM Chip or the Militech MRAM Chip. A Runner lured into one of these babies can find his hardware in a real state. It might be hard to lure the Runner into the trap, but try using Namatoki Plaza and Siren. I couldn't find the room in this deck, but maybe you can. Closed Accounts can be an affective tool against a Tagme deck, and is probably your only recourse against the Identity Donor. A well-timed Closed Accounts can bring an end to many Runners' plans.

Fast Advancement (4):
4 Project Consultants

Our Corporation is out for blood, but it's not stupid. It knows that the sick and devious Runner has evil forces plotting against the Corporations in ways not yet imagined. We put a back door clause into our mission statement. Don't be afraid to process your information and leave the Runner nothing to discover. The 4 Project Consultants should get you out of a jam, or give you a boost early in the game by putting those Headhunters to work.

Some key things to remember when playing this deck are:

1) Get the tags on the runner. Tag me decks will do this for you. Loan decks could prove difficult as they usually use Access through Alpha, though the City Surveillances should help. Your Schlaghund Pointers can put down decks that run early. City Surveillance is your key to nailing decks that draw like crazy, but don't run. The hardest deck to get a tag on is one that single draws, lays out Fall Guys, uses a good link and picks runs carefully; These decks are very slow, but are cautious enough to protect themselves against our plot. Look for openings, they're out there.

2) Use the tags. Bag any runner that you can. Save money for FBC, or use the Shattered Remains to get rid of it. Bag a runner even if he has an ESC out, it'll still hurt. Be careful when trying to bag an Identity Donor, they usually carry around a Scaldan or two with them. Look for opportunities. And, even if you can't bag the Runner, take away his allowance! That'll shut him up for a while!

3) Know when to quit. If there just isn't any way to bag the perp, Process your data and close up shop. It may be the coward's way out, but it beats going down in flames.

I hope that you can employ these new technologies and aid us in the struggle to eradicate criminal break-ins everywhere.

-Karl De Veres