CI: Shipment Panic

Decklists
1

I got the idea for this deck from the Panic Button -> Reuse -> Scorch you deck that I’m sure all of you know about by now.

I didn’t like that the runner installing 3 Plascretes made the game much harder to win. Decoy also hard counters it, as does NACH. I also dislike how the alternate plan of scoring out was basically impossible, and prevents you from pursuing the full Panic -> Scorch plan if an opportunity presents itself later on.

However, the Panic Button -> Reuse combo is pretty degenerate. Drawing your whole deck allows a whole host of combo plays that shouldn’t just be restricted to blowing up apartment blocks.

So I put together a list that uses the same combo to win via agenda points. Here’s the list:

Identity: Haas-Bioroid: Cerebral Imaging

Cards: 49 / 45
Agenda points: undefined / 20
Influence: 15 / 15

Agenda (11)
3x Accelerated Beta Test
2x Bifrost Array
3x Efficiency Committee
3x Project Vitruvius

Ice (11)
3x Eli 1.0
2x Lotus Field ●●
3x NEXT Bronze
3x NEXT Silver

Operation (25)
2x Archived Memories
3x Biotic Labor
3x Blue Level Clearance
3x Celebrity Gift ●●●●●●●●●
3x Hedge Fund
3x Reclamation Order
3x Restructure
1x Reuse ●
3x Shipment from Kaguya ●●●
1x Shipment from Mirrormorph

Upgrade (2)
2x Panic Button

There a couple of different avenues to victory, as it will depend on which agendas the runner has stolen.

The basic combo is this:

Panic Button to draw most of your deck until you have all the pieces
Reuse
Triple Biotic
Reclamation Order
Triple Biotic
Reclamation Order
Triple Biotic

This should put you on 6 clicks, so you can proceed with the following

Shipment to Mirrormorph (EC, Bifrost, ABT/Vitruvius)
Triple Shipment from Kaguya the EC and Bifrost
Advance EC once, score EC, then Bifrost.
Use the tokens to go up to 7 clicks
Reclamation Order for Shipment from Kaguya
Play the last ABT/Vitruvius and triple Shipment from Kaguya

The whole combo requires 41 creds after Reuse,

If the runner has scored both Bifrost, you will need to score EC with double Biotic first. Then you can score another EC and 2 3/2s in the same turn.

If the runner has scored 2 ECs and both Bifrost, you can still double Biotic EC, then use it to score 2 3/2s in a turn. You will need to finish the last 2 points with Biotic.

If all 3 ECs are stolen, you’re back to the usual Biotic 4 times game plan.

As you can see, scoring EC is crucial, so if you have a window to do so, you should take it. Having EC scored means you no longer need to Biotic to start your combo with 6 clicks, which makes scoring the remaining points much easier on your credit total. I have not had to use Panic Button to go off so far because everyone I have been playing automatically assumes that it is Panic Button and never runs HQ with an unrezzed upgrade. However this has not been an issue as this has given me more than enough time to draw into the full combo naturally.

One advantage of Panic Button is that it protects HQ if they play around it, which is great because HQ is CI’s most important server. Even if they decide to hail mary HQ with Legwork or Nerve Agent, Panic Button drawing your deck gives them a pretty good chance at missing the agendas.

As for weaknesses, Noise is a nightmare match-up. You have no Jackson, and you need all 3 Reclamation Orders to go off. Archived Memories should be used exclusively on retrieving combo pieces such as Shipments or Bifrost. Again, scoring EC before going off makes it much easier to win, so if there is a window take it. I have also included the 2 Lotus Fields in the 2 inf in free card slots specifically to combat Noise. It is not unreasonable to just score EC behind a single Lotus Field in a remote to make the game easier.

This deck can be completely shut out if the runner scores the right agendas while getting their early accesses. Early game is basically drawing cards to find ICE or money to rez them. I only have 11 ice in the deck due to deck space considerations which is definitely on the low side. However so far, I have been able to find ice in time to stop bleeding too many accesses.

All in all this deck is a blast to play, and the look on your opponent’s face when you score out all 7 points in a single turn is priceless :stuck_out_tongue:

8 Likes
2

Yay, another person running Shipment from Kaguya jank! :smiley: There are few moments in Netrunner that compare to pulling out those one-turn 7-point wins (and doing so without Accelerated Diagnostics silliness).

Out of curiosity, have you played with the Doran’s Blades combo deck before (original list and most recent list), and if so, how would you compare the two?

It looks like a 13-card, 41-credit combo vs. an 11-card, 13-credit combo, but that doesn’t account for the credits that Reuse brings in. I include a couple more pieces of ice and am slightly less susceptible to Noise (it’s still practically an auto-lose match-up), but your deck may make up for that with a much better economy… Those Celeb Gifts are huge, but I just can’t import them into my deck with the influence that the combo pieces take up. I’m going to have to play around with this and see how they compare, but I like a lot of what you’re doing here. :smile:

2 Likes
3

To go off with Panic Button, you typically need around 20+ creds to make sure you can draw your deck if necessary. Reuse will give you the rest of the money you need.

If you can draw all the pieces, it’s functionally an 11 card combo that costs you 14 credits, and doesn’t require a HQ run.

Comparing it to Doran’s Blades, this deck is more fragile in that combo pieces getting milled is tough. However there are a few advantages I can see with this version.

  1. Much better econ
  2. Can run better taxing ice that actually stops the runner
  3. More resilient to Siphon/Vamp due to 1
  4. Requires 4 agenda steals as opposed to 3
  5. Panic Button protects HQ

It’s also worth pointing out that the runner doesn’t really know what you’re doing until they see the Kaguyas. From their side it looks like Scorched CI, right up until the first Celebrity Gift. With Doran’s Blades, you’re advancing an Ice Wall, so that does tend to give away the plan.

1 Like
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I think I have a new favourite deck. You sure you don’t want AD in there ;-)? I’m still hoping to find a reliable net damage combo, possibly involving Ronin fast advance. The ones I’ve seen so far are way too janky to do anything.

5

I tried the panic button death approach at a local tourney, but it seemed like all the decent-to-good players knew to avoid the panic button when I had serious cash, even if they didn’t know what exactly I was up to with it.

Had luck quadruple scorching folks, but never via panic button => reuse.

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A couple things:

I would be hesitant to play the NEXT suite in such an ICE light deck as Parasite will own you pretty hard.

You could probably trade a couple 3/2s for NAPDs which would improve your defence.

Sneakdoor, a card which has become popular in Andromeda due to the popularity of NEH, bypasses Panic Button.

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I believe you can still use Panic Button when they Sneakdoor. There is a paid ability window after the run is successful but before access. So Sneakdoor works its magic and makes the run a successful run on HQ, at which point you rez Panic Button and go off.

As for Next ICE being weak to Parasite, this is certainly the case but there aren’t a whole lot of options. Rototurrent and Quandary are just as weak to Parasite, IQ is often too expensive. I suppose there is Wall of Static and Enigma, but they also die to Parasite, so I would prefer the Next Ice anyway.

NAPD does make it tougher to steal agendas but the 3/2s are there for a reason - to be scored. Assuming you can go off with Panic Button every game this wouldn’t be an issue as you simply draw your deck. However there are a lot of games where you draw into the combo naturally without Panic Button. In those games, the last thing you want is to not be able to win because you have NAPD over a 3/2.

@hypomodern
That is the exact reason I didn’t like the Scorch approach. By changing the plan to scoring 7 points however, they are unable to just never run HQ because that’s where the agendas are. The more time they give you, the more likely you will be able to score out even without Panic Button.

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This is simply incorrect. Final paid ability window is at 4.3 and run is successful at 4.4. There is a paid ability window after the last opportunity to jack out, but there is none post successful run.

I’d prefer the bioroids due to their high strength.

3 Likes
9

Interesting, I guess Sneakdoor is a bigger problem than I thought it was.

As for the bioroids, I am already running Eli. I suppose you’re suggesting to add Viktor 1 or Viktor 2 in those slots? Obviously Markus is a good fit.

The only problem I see is that this makes you softer to Atman, so it wouldn’t be a strict upgrade.

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Viktor and Ichi (Heimdall is also notable, though expensive). Markus has a poor strength to cost ratio which is bad in the face of Parasites, so I would be a little hesitant about him, but worth testing at least.

Decks with Atman almost universally run Parasite. Bioroids offer more resistance vs Atman than NEXT do vs a recurring Parasite.

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Ichi really isn’t an option. As there are only 11 ice in the deck, every single one of them needs to be usable in your opening hand and in the early game. This means they need to end the run. Ichi can be completely ignored, which isn’t what you want.

If we’re talking about standard Shaper with Atman that recurs a single Parasite, I am certain that the runner will much prefer slapping down Atman at 3 and 4 to break all of your ice than finding a Parasite/Clone Chip for every Next ice you draw.

Obviously against Anarch with recurring Parasites, Next ice is a lot weaker. That’s a trade-off I am willing to make to make sure a single Atman can’t walk through all my ice.

12

Older CI Scorch decks ran only 8-9 pieces of ICE that weren’t some version of Ichi. True, the trace is a little more relevant when you have Scorch, but it was still near impossible to land early game. Nevertheless, they managed while being ICE light (though NAPD helps, indirectly).

If you strictly mulligan for ICE that’s not Ichi and factor a possible first turn BLC there’s only an 11% chance that you have no practical first turn defence with 8 ICE and 7% for 9. I would consider that acceptably low enough risk when you factor odds of the runner having an appropriate threat card and having it pay off.

I have to disagree. And the reasons are a bit complicated, but mostly factor due to the threshold of entry. Spending 1-3 credits to begin attacking a server is a lower threshold of entry than 5-9 credits to install Atman (plus ongoing break costs). Generally speaking, the faster you can generate an attack, the more that advantage compounds over the length of the game as your opponent is forced to spend clicks and credits defending rather than advancing their game plan.

Also, I’d like to point out that there are only six pieces of NEXT ICE. While not every Kate deck plays Test Run, it’s not that far-fetched to match each NEXT install with a Parasite, especially considering that you have to defend two servers until you can pull off the Panic Button combo.

From experience, I’d like to add that I’ve tried NEXT in CI and it always gets minced by Parasites.

1 Like
13

Three Regionals kills before turn 4 with an Ichi 2.0-powered tag suggest that “nearly impposible to land early game” might not be a completely accurate statement :stuck_out_tongue:

(1.0 tags just don’t happen though, I’ll give you that… reason why I swapped in the first place back then)

1 Like
14

Very interesting deck. What do you do if Reuse is in your bottom 2 or 3 cards? Would you consider adding one copy of Accelerated Diagnostics as your insurance?

And how does this deck deal with Utopia Shard? (Say the runner triggers it after you play Shipment from Mirrormorph)

15

You can just draw everything and leave one card to draw for mandatory. It’s really only a problem if the last card in RnD is an agenda which they can score, or if your opponent is Noise.

Utopia Shard is extremely irritating and pretty much stops you from the full 7 pt combo. You’ll need to score EC with double Biotic and score the rest with the EC counters. This can still be disrupted with Utopia Shard, but at least you won’t automatically lose if Shard hits.

16

Sorry to necro, but couldn’t Off The Grid force an HQ run in most scenarios (still doesn’t stop Sneak Door)

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Off the Grid costs influence, and doesn’t really do a whole lot. HQ is never completely shut off so you won’t even be able to score with the Grid.

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Right, but if you’ve amassed some credits and really just need panic button to go off to do your combo next turn, then you just lay down Grid and start advancing an agenda. If they try to steal it, you win next turn. If they don’t, you just scored an agenda. Obviously assumes you have not lost ECs to access and whatnot.

Probably a whole different deck though, perhaps even out of Weyland, where you bait lose-lose situations with Grid. (but not the standard Crisim-Grid combo).

1 Like
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Sure, that’s a specific situation in which you are already winning. Another line of play would be using excess credits on protecting RnD or drawing cards. Against any runner but Noise, you have inevitability because you can and will draw the combo pieces eventually, Panic Button or not. The agendas are in HQ so either they come get them (and lose to Panic Button) or they go for RnD which should tax them and not give very much.

Personally I don’t think it’s worth spending additional influence on a card that’s only live when you’re winning.

20

Very fair analysis and conclusion.