[Reina] Headlock: How to Make Sure Your Opponent Doesn't Get to Play Netrunner

pwreck · April 19, 2015, 8:10pm

Just played a long game against Blue Sun. Comp. employee is amazing in this matchup. I kept a hand of 2 and got the third about halfway through the game.

In this matchup parasite wasn’t a dead draw. I would instal it on an ice knowing they would have to pick it up, play it and then rerez for me. Costing him +2 and netting me 3 credits.

gumOnShoe · April 19, 2015, 8:38pm

Rooks are especially good in this matchup as it makes re-rezzing things so much worse; but xanadu and reina are good too.

I started here way before this became a thing and it rocked the meta for a while. Gotta say the deck is a lot more consistant these days: Econ Denial · NetrunnerDB

The lack of a lot of the current cards and even clone chips is probably a pretty clear oversight, but its a historical deck anyways. You needed to use account siphon back then. I took another run at reina about half a year ago now that did the compromised employee thing with crescentus, but I was way too focused on the supplier.

These decks are almost always good though because a lot of corps can’t be built to handle them and all the other threats they face.

Had a wonderful game yesterday with ETF that I can’t share cuz my list is all top secret and stuff, but I love this archetype in general. Not sure that there’s a best list, just a lot of really good options. My latest list doesn’t even run crescentus, though.

GhostLooper · April 20, 2015, 5:31am

Rooks are good in the Blue Sun matchup?

BJester · April 20, 2015, 6:25am

If they can’t rez, they can’t bounce

Camping · April 20, 2015, 8:17am

Here is what i’m testing, based on @SamRS list
Reina Roja: Freedom Fighter (Mala Tempora)

Event (7)
1x Déjà Vu (Core Set)
3x Sure Gamble (Core Set)
2x Vamp (Trace Amount)
1x Test Run (Cyber Exodus) •••

Hardware (5)
3x Clone Chip (Creation and Control) ••••• •
2x Vigil (Order and Chaos)

Resource (17)
3x Liberated Account (Trace Amount)
3x Compromised Employee (Trace Amount) •••
1x Scrubber (A Study in Static)
2x Xanadu (Humanity’s Shadow)
3x Kati Jones (Humanity’s Shadow)
3x Daily Casts (Creation and Control)
2x Symmetrical Visage (The Valley)

Icebreaker (5)
3x Knight (Mala Tempora)
2x Eater (Order and Chaos)

Program (11)
3x Parasite (Core Set)
3x Crescentus (A Study in Static) •••
1x Keyhole (True Colors)
3x Lamprey (Upstalk)
1x D4v1d (The Spaces Between)

15 influence spent (maximum 15)
45 cards (min 45)
Cards up to The Valley

ETF is a major pain in the ass, still trying to figure something more consistent and agressive, wanna switch to traditionnal breakers but i can’t find something consistent enough. Can’t trash those assets if you can’t access cards …

eric_c · April 20, 2015, 12:43pm

i played some more matches and proxied 2x Hactivist Meetings, and wow was that good. you would think it wouldn’t synergize with Vigil, but i found that some corps would not rez or play their asset econ, and click to gain credits instead, keeping more cards in hand. i almost want to to play 3x, just because some will fast advance or score a Breaking News quick to get rid of the Current. it seems so strong against HB, RP, and NBN, and punishes against them taking advantage of one of this deck’s biggest foes, asset econ.

i messed around too much with the econ and draw in the deck, though (3 sure gambles, 3 daily casts, 3 symmetrical visages, 2 kati jones, 2 liberated accounts, and 2 earthrise hotels), and found myself really behind against a Turtlebacks Scorch deck. i might ditch the baby bucks to add 1x each of kati, liberated, and hotel.

Camping · April 20, 2015, 1:17pm

Nice ! Since this current has been spoiled i’ve been hoping it is bonkers, can’t wait to sleeve this up !

kiv · April 20, 2015, 1:25pm

Took my version of the deck to a small GNK on the weekend where it went 3-0.

One poor guy with PE didn’t have a chance, I derezzed his HQ ICE and forced him to purge Lamprey 5 times and then whenever he’d try to Mushin something I’d Vamp him to zero and check it.

Other two were against standard RP Glacier and the deck was still able to headlock despite many, many Celebrity Gifts. I love the way you can cut through Psi bullshit by virtue of them having $0.

My thoughts on card choices so far:

I was happy to not have Visage, I find Kati is quite enough of “must use one per turn for maximum value”. A lot of headlock turns were “install Lamprey, run HQ twice, click Kati” or “run HQ 3 times, click Kati” and there’s just no room for Visage in that sequence.
I cut the Employees so I could play Lucky Find. Employee is just too slow for my tastes and the 2nd and 3rd copies are relatively weak. Lucky gives money right away which means I can install Liberated, or keep piling money on Kati for higher efficiency instead of being forced to take it. Every copy of Lucky Find is amazing.
Inject was great every time. Dumping a Crescentus is sad but more than compensated by on average drawing 2 economy cards and a useful hardware like Vigil or Clone Chip. I was tempted to play a 3rd Vigil but I think 2 Vigil is enough with 2 Inject. I did eventually burn through 100% of my recursion in both RP games so I think 3 Inject is too many.

In Breaker Bay I’ll be interested to test Career Fair as an economy option. Liberated, Casts, Earthrise, and Xanadu give enough targets that I don’t expect it to ever be dead, making it about as good as additional Sure Gambles at 1 influence each.

###[Reina Headlock - Inject][1] (45 cards)

[Reina Roja: Freedom Fighter][2]

Event (10)

2 [Inject][3]
3 [Lucky Find][4] ••••• •
3 [Sure Gamble][5]
2 [Vamp][6]

Hardware (5)

3 [Clone Chip][7] ••••• •
2 [Vigil][8]

Resource (14)

3 [Daily Casts][9]
3 [Earthrise Hotel][10]
3 [Kati Jones][11]
2 [Liberated Account][12]
1 [Scrubber][13]
2 [Xanadu][14]

Icebreaker (5)

2 [Eater][15]
3 [Knight][16]

Program (11)

3 [Crescentus][17] •••
1 [D4v1d][18]
1 [Keyhole][19]
3 [Lamprey][20]
3 [Parasite][21]

eric_c · April 20, 2015, 1:33pm

Awesome to see those results – as I mentioned above, I agree that Visage might not be the best in this. And the Compromised Employees are pretty strong in some matches if you can get them down early, but they’re dreadful to install when you’re playing from behind and low on cash.

Why play Inject instead of I’ve Had Worse? Sure, it’s one less card and no chance to gain credits, but you won’t dump your Crescentus, and it’s nice to have against Scorch / RP-net damage.

x3r0h0ur · April 20, 2015, 1:44pm

1 extra card is huge. I would prefer to have 2 deja though to get more lampreys, thats typically my limiting factor.

I’ve not had a ton of tests with comp emp. but it seems like with ash being everything, and both decks running low on econ, the pseudo link is super important, and being able to blank the second sub on caduceus seems pretty good (among other things). Also it amps up your blue sun match up quite a bit. I’m surprised to see people needing LF with casts, lib, kati, and SG.

Dragar · April 20, 2015, 1:45pm

Lukcy Find is important because Liberated is way better with an extra way to jumpstart your economy. Lucky Find into Liberated Accounts gives you a ton of cash.

Career Fair in Anarch looks really good for this reason. I think this might be a thing - and at 1 inf, I can easily imagine a 3 Clone Chip, 3 Crescentus, 3 Compromised Employee, 3 Career Fair influence plan. Those are a bunch of really strong Criminal cards (in this deck) at 1 inf each.

x3r0h0ur · April 20, 2015, 1:57pm

I love modded, so Career Fair screams to me. I agree it will be good.

Cory_Hockman · April 20, 2015, 1:59pm

A cheaper liberated seems soooooo good. Also, what cards did you chop for the upcoming current? Interested to see what went out. Kinda feel Scrubber might be one of those cuts.

kiv · April 20, 2015, 2:00pm

Right now in the deck there are plenty of tempo negative cards, and you also need to dive into any remotes and kill Adonis Campaign and Sundew at all costs. That’s where Lucky’s “+6 now so I can do things” is superior to Employee’s “-2 now, then a buck here and there”.

Career Fair is going to the same thing as Lucky - let you afford to get your Earthrises and Liberated rolling in the first place while being able to spend money trashing things as necessary.

I don’t think Compromised is a bad card, and it’s certainly relevant in the Blue Sun matchup. But I think the deck is tight for slots as-is and it’s not the best use of deck space.

For IHW, I haven’t had any trouble with damage decks since I usually have more money than them. I think IHW is reasonable but I’d rather get 1 card deeper with Inject and maximize my chance to find that crucial Vigil or Kati.

eric_c · April 20, 2015, 2:10pm

i was playing minus one Scrubber and with 46 cards just to test the 2x Hactivist Meeting. i really want to go with 3x, though, just because of how strong it seemed in initial testing. especially since players in my group are now mumbling about adding Enhanced Login Protocols and Lag Times to their decks. it’s even strong against bootcamp Blue Sun, deterring Adonis Campaign shenanigans.

Dragar · April 20, 2015, 2:17pm

I’m pretty excited by Hactivist Meeting too. Crisium Grid, Adonis, Bootcamp, NEH asset spam - that’s all pretty tough to rez if you lose a random HQ card.

Kingmaker · April 21, 2015, 5:15pm

Any advice playing this against blue sun? I’ve had good success against virtually everybody else, but the inability to deny them the minimum rezzing credits on an HQ ice is killing me.

SamRS · April 21, 2015, 5:24pm

You usually need 2 vamps to get them down, crescentus everything you can during/after the vamp. It’s a very complicated matchup.

eric_c · April 21, 2015, 5:25pm

blue sun is actually one of my best match-ups! they’re actually losing credits even if they return ice to hand, and you can Test Run or play a David when they decide to Oversight something big. since so much of their econ often depends on returning rezzed ICE to their hands, Crescentus can also be brutal.

if they have a huge credit lead, though, like Sam said, timing a good Vamp or two paired with Crescentus derezzes can put them in a position where they never recover.

Kingmaker · April 21, 2015, 6:01pm

Alright, I’ll keep trying, my only concern is that if they get a bit ahead, it can be tough to catch up, and of course the scorch threat remains if you’re using the non I’ve had worse version.