HB:EtF variants in the SanSan Cycle

Netrunner General
41

sec test last click then?

42

That would indeed be the best move, but I don’t mind “fixing” a runner’s clicks to a certain order. If they seem to be on board with that plan, any other piece of cheap ICE is a great add in front.

43

Doesn’t this just die to parasite recursion like any other NEXT deck?

44

Typically only the Silver get parasited and they Yog.0 the bronze. It’s pretty easy to get 3-4 NEXT/MG rezzed and that’s enough to make Batty Gold really really good.

45

The deck is weak to parasite, no doubt. It’s better against shapers and criminals though, given attrition. It looks a lot weaker on paper. I always look at it and go “oh this just auto loses to anarchs recurring clone chip”. That couldn’t be further from the truth. It’s a pretty good deck. Try it.

46

I hear this is what all the other Jinteki Sysops call him.

4 Likes
47

How many times do you find that Corporate Troubleshooter would do the same job as well or better? This was my impression watching someone play a similar deck.

1 Like
48

Yes, but a lot of anarchs play D4V1D and Batty can also be used when they decide to continue the run after breaking next gold but before encountering the next piece of ice, possibly landing even more nasty subroutines (or draining 3 credits with Tollbooth).

49

If they’re running on a server with a destroyer and you Batty them, the first thing you’re going to blow up is their loaded Datasucker on approach. Now they’re encountering the destroyer without any suckers, which means neither Parasite or Mimic are going to do squat and you might get additional trashes from the encounter.

Parasite recursion is strong against basically everyone except Blue Sun so it’s not a big thing.

Rarely - Shapers are going to just Clone Sharpshooter and you’re paying $2 to their $1 to land your thing. Criminals you’re paying $1 to $1 against Faerie. Anarchs are just going to have or Clone D4V1D and make Troubleshooter irrelevant. It’s a shame because the alt-art from Regionals is gorgeous but I don’t think the card has a home here.

8 Likes
50

Do you have strong feelings for or against Batty? I think he’s cool, but I can imagine getting pretty sad if I get rekt by a trash 3-4 program sub. This does look like a troll deck. I kind of hope it’s not too strong. Don’t make me want an archives interface… Next Gold is the only Ice I’m worried about Batty in combination with, and it was pretty terrible pre Batty.

1 Like
51

+1. The first thing I tried when Gold dropped was HB Hybrid with Caprice, Ash and Troubleshooter. I got some gold wipes, hit, but as kiv mentions, it was pretty rare that it worked well… rezzing the gold AND then troubleshooting it out of range frequently required too much effort… and when it wasn’t useful, it just got trashed.

Batty however, is still useful even in a non rig wiping context… he’d be a playable card even if he was trash → psi game → end the run. The janktastic rig wiping is just added bonus.

Haven’t tried it against Kate yet though…

He’s currently 4-0, with 2 flatlines.

2 Likes
52

Have you found 2x Recruiting Trip to be worth it just as “spend a click and a credit, draw Batty”? It seems pretty narrow, though if it’s just for ensuring a Batty in hand for testing (or if he’s really that insane) then maybe it’s fine.

1 Like
53

I’m curious at the usage of Archived Memories here instead of Interns. It seems like the only target is Recruiting Trip. Have you found the archives-target flexibility it offers to be better than the “extra credit”/“no tempo loss” on outer ice installation (with parasite recursion being such an issue against NEXT) ?

54

Interns is a great card too but normally you’ll Interns a faceup card and that tells them exactly what you put where.

Being able to bluff with Archived is handy. For example Archived for Batty, then install a 3/2 in your remote at a time where they don’t want to tango with Batty. Later on they see a Crisium on top of R&D, you draw it and install the Batty on R&D, that sort of thing.

Another key play is install Beta Test, advance it (representing NAPD). Then the next turn advance twice, fire the Beta Test, and fish out the agenda you dumped into Archives for last action. Interns can’t do that.

Sometimes you also just really need some money in a hurry and you Archived for Hedge which is like clicking for $2 twice.

14 Likes
55

Interns is also a double, so “archive, install” is better than “interns” because of the ability to bluff (interns batty, install agenda), unless you’re using it to interns an ice into a tower, which is pretty much the only case where interns is better than archived memories. (Accelerated diagnostics is the only other scenario I can think of)

56

I tried interns in my HBFA deck for a couple of games because I felt I needed a bit of economy boost. The lack of flexibility had me switching back pretty quickly. AM is a really great card to have in faction.

57

I was able to make a similar deck work very well in Cambridge Regionals against players at the top tables, this was with Caprice instead of Batty (only 1 Tollbooth, and 1 Corporate Troubleshooter to fire off the Gold). Parasite was good in against it but rarely a problem. The CT rarely hit, yes, but it did land against good players who didn’t have the right answer available at the time (didn’t have instant access to sharpshooter, etc), plus it had a lot of bluff value (people holding off on Maker’s Eye thinking it’s a Crisium, people not bothering to run a remote thinking it’s Ash or Caprice). I also got a ton of mileage out of Chronos Protocol-ing away Atmans people had tossed, so it’s hard for me to convince myself to drop down to 8 agendas, even though that’s appealing. Here’s that deck modified for Batty. Compared to regionals, I added 1 Biotic to help against remote locks, added another Ash, dropped both IQs (which were excellent, but I suspect Turing may be better for the Anarch matchup and, c’mon, it’s Tollbooth) for a Tollbooth and a Turing, and dropped a Cyberdex and Blue Level Clearance I wasn’t happy with. I will have to test to see if just the 3 ABTs are enough to turn on Biotic. The NAPDs have just saved me so many times that I’m loathe to drop them.

I find that 2 Breaker Bay Grids and 2 Eves are enough, especially with the super-flexible 2x AM for all the reasons people already talked about. The best part of 2x AM is that if they have you RD locked and trash your Caprice/Batty off the top, you can pull it back and use it to score or protect RD, which really helps this deck break an RD lock. The main way it used to lose when I first built it was having the scoring tools trashed off the top. It has a really good record.

If I were to drop the remaining Corporate Troubleshooter now that I have Batty, what should I put in its place? I consider the deck influence-locked.

NEXT Upgrade

Haas-Bioroid: Engineering the Future

Agenda (9)
3x Accelerated Beta Test
1x Chronos Project
1x Eden Fragment
1x Hades Fragment
2x NAPD Contract
1x Priority Requisition

Asset (8)
3x Adonis Campaign
2x Eve Campaign
3x Jackson Howard •••

Upgrade (9)
2x Ash 2X3ZB9CY
2x Breaker Bay Grid
1x Corporate Troubleshooter
2x Crisium Grid ••
2x Marcus Batty ••••• •

Operation (6)
2x Archived Memories
1x Biotic Labor
3x Hedge Fund

Barrier (6)
3x Eli 1.0
3x NEXT Silver

Code Gate (6)
3x NEXT Bronze
2x Tollbooth ••••
1x Turing

Sentry (4)
2x Architect
2x NEXT Gold

Other (1)
1x Mother Goddess

15 influence spent (max 15)
20 agenda points (between 20 and 21)
49 cards (min 45)
Cards up to The Underway

Deck built on http://netrunnerdb.com.

1 Like
58

Easy, cut the troubleshooter for another Turing or Archticet. More consistent Ice has to be better than the potential for troubleshooter plays.

4 Likes
59

Here’s my current build. It has done extremely well in initial testing. It’s all about setting up the Battys. One on R&D, one on the scoring remote, and an extra for whichever is getting the most pressure. But you end up accidently scoring out about half the time. I’ve had a few flatlines and few people just concede after a late game rig wipe. Two surprises so far are I haven’t missed the extra tollbooth and I’ve gotten almost no value out of Ash (although I love that card) besides just an extra upgrade in the remote. I think the worst matchup for this deck is probably a really good Val player (@zolend) where you would wish you had caprice pretty quickly.

Haas-Bioroid: Engineering the Future (Core Set)

Agenda (9)
3x Accelerated Beta Test (Core Set)
1x Eden Fragment (The Spaces Between)
3x NAPD Contract (Double Time)
1x Priority Requisition (Core Set)
1x Project Vitruvius (Cyber Exodus)

Asset (9)
3x Adonis Campaign (Core Set)
3x Eve Campaign (Humanity’s Shadow)
3x Jackson Howard (Opening Moves) [color=#FF8C00]•••[/color]

Upgrade (8)
2x Ash 2X3ZB9CY (What Lies Ahead)
2x Breaker Bay Grid (Breaker Bay)
1x Cyberdex Virus Suite (Order and Chaos)
3x Marcus Batty (The Underway) [color=#DC143C]••••• ••••[/color]

Operation (5)
2x Archived Memories (Core Set)
3x Hedge Fund (Core Set)

Barrier (7)
3x Eli 1.0 (Future Proof)
3x NEXT Silver i[/i]
1x Wraparound (Fear and Loathing) [color=#FF8C00]•[/color]

Code Gate (4)
3x NEXT Bronze (Opening Moves)
1x Tollbooth (Core Set) [color=#FF8C00]••[/color]

Sentry (6)
3x Architect (Up and Over)
3x NEXT Gold (The Valley)

Other (1)
1x Mother Goddess i[/i]
15 influence spent (max 15)
20 agenda points (between 20 and 21)
49 cards (min 45)
Cards up to The Underway

Decklist published on NetrunnerDB.

1 Like
60

EtF is undeniably good, but what is the consensus on using the Foundry for this list instead?

I can see how a normal Caprice NEXT deck would want EtF, but now that you’re wanting to set up for Batty, it seems you’d want all that NEXT ASAP.

Rather, when would one generally use the Foundry over EtF?