Date: Mon, 1 Jul 1996 15:56:09 -0700 Reply-To: Netrunner Discussion List Sender: Netrunner Discussion List From: "David R. Liu" Subject: Hey! That's my deck (The Domino Deck) Joe writes: ====== The abusive deck IMHO was bartmoss/NGfilter/Joan. Too fast and too powerful. I couldn't score a single agenda against it in the finals, and the game before, I had to end up placing things outside my data fort to score them. What's a poor little corp to do? ====== Hey! That was my deck! (Hey all you guys.) Now that someone has forced my deck out of hiding, here's the basic structure (the deck is at home, so this is from memory): "The Domino Deck" (David Liu) The core: 4 x Short Circuit 1 x Bartmoss 1 x Joan of Arc 1 x Newsgroup Filters 1 x Mouse 3 x Imp 1 x Clown The goodies: 4 x Inside Job 2 x Forged Activation Orders 2 x Romp Through HQ 1 x Executive Wiretaps 1 x Custodial Position 1 x Anonymous Tip 1 x NETO 1 x Junkyard 1 x MIT West Tier 2 x Fall Guy 2 x Access to Kirabati 4 x Score! 2 x Livewire's Contacts 2 x Lucidrine Booster Drug The rest is seasoning for flavor and is less critical. THE POINT OF THIS DECK is ABSOLUTE EFFICIENCY! Efficiency in bits, actions, and cards. Notice, to this end: 1) No icebreakers save one card 2) No moneymakers, excluding free preps, save one card 3) Very few actions / bits wasted as a result Here's how I play the Domino Deck (so named because once you get one Short Circuit, the rest of the game unfolds over exactly 13 actions until you can break through essentially all ice, and into nearly all data forts in one turn). Domino Deck Setup Priority of program installion BEFORE drawing Short Circuit: 1) Newsgroup Filter 2) Bartmoss Memorial Icebreaker 3) Joan of Arc 4) Mouse Once Short Circuit is in hand Action# Cost Bits Left MU left 1 Inst SC 1 4 4 2 Bit -1 4 4 3 Bit -1 5 4 4 Use SC-NGF 1 3 4 5 Inst NGF 5 0 2 6 Use NGF -2 2 2 7 Use NGF -2 4 2 Start runs 8 Use NGF -2 6 2 9 Use SC-BMI 1 5 2 10 Inst BMI 5 0 1 11 Use NGF -2 2 1 12 Use SC-JOA 1 1 1 13 Inst JOA 0 1 0 BMI safe As soon as NGF is installed, you get 6 bits per turn, plus one action to make runs or to play Inside Job. For the runs which you MUST make but for which you don't have enough money, use Lucidrine Booster Drug. So now the issue is to get Short Circuit. First, there are 4 in the deck, which is a testament to its importance since three of them are useless once the first is installed. Second, there is NETO, which once installed for 1 bit, lets you VERY quickly find SC. Finally, I won one game at manafest without short circuit, and simply ran and installed the Domino's core programs as I got them. Still, it was more difficult :) How the deck performs: In four matches at Manafest 96, the Domino deck won 3 scoring 7 (or more) agenda points, and lost one scoring 6 points to the corp's 7. This runner deck is fast enough to beat the fastest corp decks (tycho and corp war decks), and after manafest went undefeated through 3 rounds in a local tournament. It is very efficient, fun to play with, and best of all, does not use the Misc-For-Sale JOA combo. The MIT West Tier is in their because very rarely (but it has happened), you will be in a situation where either JOA or Bartmoss enters your trash and Junkyard is not yet installed. In that case, use MIT West Tier (drawing or NETO'ing like crazy until you get it) to "reset" the deck. An important variant on the core installation is to install IMP before using all MU's, then installing Mouse or clown (or another imp) on top of the first Imp. This will guarantee that you never hit an ambush in a sub. data fort, although it takes 4 more actions to install. My experience has been that 75% of the games can be won by doing the minimal installation detailed above. If SC is drawn quickly (which is very likely), the corp is often STILL IN PHASE ONE by the fourth turn, when the entire Domino Deck is setup; this has always resulted in a win for me. Obviously, be sure to put your JOA or NGF on the Imp, not Bartmoss. Well, that's all folks. Happy running, David I forgot to point out: Once the Domino Deck's core is installed, you only need to draw a card to protect yourself. In my complete deck, I added a cheap way to protect against meat, net, and brain damage; these 3 cards have rarely been used however. The fact that I often stop drawing at turn 4 means that City Surveillance is useless against my deck. Still, for anti-ulcer reasons I like to keep 5 cards in my hand, even if I have to do a couple draws to get there following the domino setup. Finally, one really nice feature of the domino deck is that, like a good line of dominos, it relies very little on random chance and good draws to win. Get Short Circuit, and your need for luck is largely done. Run often, using lots of inside jobs, even before installing Bartmoss, and keep the corp broke at (almost) all costs. This is pretty easy to do since your barrage of runs (I run about 1.5 times a turn using this deck) will cost the corp plenty in rez costs. David