Let's make a pact - Faust discussion

Netrunner General
41

I absolutely understand why Stimhack’s in there, and how much value you can get off of your Peddlers.

For me, There were multiple reasons why I never played it. The main one was probably play skill; I knew things like that were possible, but I don’t know how many times I’ve been in a good Stimhack position.

Admittedly, my Peddlers haven’t been as great; I occasionally get Liberated, but the most common ones I’ve gotten involve Clone Chip, Parasite, or Daily Casts. That’s still not bad, but I don’t need Stimhack to play those cards. While I’ve had a couple really good ones, I usually had enough on Kati at that point.

The last reason is probably also play skill related, but I don’t like the idea of having a lower hand size when my only way to access is to lose cards in my hand. You also need to have enough cards in your hand to run AND survive Stamherk, and while that’s probably trivial to do I don’t want to deal with a 4 card hand. There’s heavy bias though since almost everyone in my meta plays Cybernetics Division and multiple styles of Killteki now.

42

The best time to play Stimhack is whenever you can use all 9 credits during a run, just using it as an econ card, not a surprise.

That being said, I’m also playing a copy of Brain Cage now, which helps with Stim damage, and acts as a preventative measure vs. Breaking News kills against Butcher. It also basically beats Cybernetics by itself, because Faust breaks Lab Dog and E3 ruins all the brain dmg Bioroids.

Earthrise wasn’t pointless, I agree it’s good in some matchups, but you already crush most slower decks via E3 and Quetzal efficiency. Something had to go to make the NEH match better.

I’ve yet to do much RP testing with this, but I’ve been very happy with every other matchup so far. Really interested to hear peoples results vs. RP if anyone has some games under their belts.

43

mmm, good one. especially with DS support (which nasir already likes) this could really have legs in nasir. He can be a terror to corps in many ways, but his inability to achieve perfect remote-lock has been a big detriment in the past.

one quick note, remember that clone chip or SMCing a parasite onto str 0 ICE can kill them before they drain your credits. food for though if you’re struggling with pop-up windows and pups as Nasir.

44

Event (12)

1x Career Fair •

1x Déjà Vu

3x I’ve Had Worse

2x Inject

1x Queen’s Gambit

1x Stimhack

3x Sure Gamble

Hardware (7)

2x Clone Chip ••••

2x Grimoire

2x Net-Ready Eyes ••••

1x Plascrete Carapace

Resource (9)

3x Daily Casts

2x Earthrise Hotel

2x Kati Jones

2x Liberated Account

Icebreaker (7)

1x Corroder

1x Faust

2x Mimic

1x Morning Star

2x Yog.0

Program (10)

2x D4v1d

2x Datasucker

2x Medium

2x Parasite

2x Self-modifying Code ••••• •

(Mobile acting weird, sorry for formatting)

This is the anarch shell I’ve been playing through the 2015 competitive season- by just adding 1 Faust I’ve opened up options considerably. Most notably, against RP, where an SMC is my ticket to an influence-free answer to Lotus Field until I find Yog+NRE. The 3 cost makes me not want to play it unless I have to, but it’s such a great card in-faction when Lotus Field exists, you’re crazy not to run at least one in any deck.

Slow econ start and program flooded? Faust turns your dumb variance draw into pressure via runs. Long game and economically close? Faust conserves credits, turning that Inject and second Mimic you drew into 2 recurring credits. It’s such a well designed card, and I’m sure when Trope is released that NRE will go to a one-of for most people who run Faust.

45

Yeah it’s the alternate pay option with him that seems interesting for a second, already rezzed ice, or when they Rez cheap ice. Not sure if it will work, but he is the first identity my mind went to with Faust.

Also thanks for the tip on parasite - the timing is a bit tricky still for me :smile:

46

Man, the more I think about it, the more excited I am for this card! Almost every faction and deck-type has a place for a powerful, easy-to-play remote threat. And the best part is that the deck that I think wants this least is probably Kate! (though, in fairness, it’s just because she’s already so good)

thinking of my central breakers only Iain/Keyhole deck that used to try to leverage overmind into an early remote threat (a tough row to hoe, to be sure), or high draw CT big-rig decks that just need something to get them through ice walls until they can cheat out Morningstar.

It’s hard to say without testing it, but I think we’re going to be seeing quite a few decks finding the deckspace for this highly flexible answer to so many runner issues.

47

yeah count me in on the zero stimhack in a deck with career fair resource econ package and like 2 programs
as a 1 of, i mean it won’t hurt, but it’s not anything this deck is needing or asking for

edit: sure it makes sense in an smc morningstar version

48

i guess the problem with stimhack in a deck that uses faust as its main breaker is that you’re limiting what you can achieve in later turns more than most other decks. It’s an odd beast Faust.

49

Managed to get a couple more games in. I’ve calmed down a bit more about Lotus Field; the turns where I’ve had 7-8 cards to start running makes it ultimately not matter. Even if they run double, that means they don’t have any anywhere else.

Playing the deck is a riot against Blue Sun; if you get your draw early against them they can’t protect ITD for very long. I’ve never had it last more than 3 turns, and Quetzal + E3 + D4v1D + Faust in some order means you’re getting in, no questions asked. Against RP, Medium works like it always should. I mean, you’re Anarch; Parasite the weak ICE, D4v1D Tollbooth and Susan, rack up Medium and don’t look back. It’s slightly more annoying if they have Batty, but the worst thing they can do is take your Medium, and you should normally have a Clone Chip accessible by the time you start running anyway. You can also get cute and run on a remote if they try to rush a Nisei; I ran with less than 3 credits, Peddled a Faust and broke through. Haven’t played against EtF yet, but it should be similar to the Bootcamp matchup with Bioroid + E3 bonuses.

This is the list I’ve been playing. It’s still basically @hhooo’s list, with some of the adjustments he suggested, minus the Stimhack:

Quetzal: Free Spirit

Event (7)
2x Career Fair ••
3x Inject
1x Knifed
1x Levy AR Lab Access •••

Hardware (7)
3x Clone Chip ••••• •
2x e3 Feedback Implants ••••
1x Grimoire
1x Plascrete Carapace

Resource (18)
3x Adjusted Chronotype
3x Daily Casts
2x Kati Jones
3x Liberated Account
1x Same Old Thing
3x Street Peddler
3x Wyldside

Icebreaker (4)
3x Faust
1x Mimic

Program (9)
2x D4v1d
2x Datasucker
2x Medium
3x Parasite

15 influence spent (max 15)
45 cards (min 45)
Cards up to The Underway

Deck built on http://netrunnerdb.com.

I’m not sure how much Brain Cage would do for this deck, but I still want to try it. I’ve played around 8 games with Knifed and only played it once; Quetzal already discourages Barrier rezzes, Knifed might never be played until I see the double Wraparound on R&D. Mimic isn’t just for Architect, apparently, as it saved me from using too many resources on Caduceus. I’m convinced 1 is correct now. The Knifed is the only card I’m changing practically every game.

1 Like
50

What is the reasoning behind Brain Cage over Public Sympathy? Is 1 credit really worth a damage and the risk of Power Shutdown?

51

I think it was because you could keep it even if you got Midseasoned to oblivion, and you can break Lab Dog with Faust. Or Parasite it. You could also get lucky and discard a Medium/Parasite right into Clone Chip territory.

2 Likes
52

Can’t be trashed after Midseason. That card is much more common than Shutdown. And still provides a bit of flatline protection against Butcher.

2 Likes
53

You think Butcher’s the hardest matchup, then? It almost goes into their plan of killing you when you have to slowly kill yourself to access. Also, how did you fit Brain Cage in? Is that the Knifed slot?

54

Butcher is probably the hardest match I’ve played so far, yes. But if we drop peddler and play IHW and keep the plas, it’s probably just a free win most of the time. Their ice doesn’t even require Faust to begin with, since David breaks Gutenberg, and Quetzal breaks wrap, and parasite deals with everything else. Charging a datasucker for Raven and building econ is probably the most important early game, then as soon as you get tagged, keep parasite up for information overload and it should be hard to lose with medium spam.

And yeah, brain cage is currently where knifed/stamherk would be.

1 Like
55

If we change the Peddlers into IHW, we can cut the SOT as well since we wouldn’t have to worry about it going away. Opens a tech slot I think. I’m just afraid you lose a little bit of reach by cutting them; I almost felt like a Shaper at times with some of the Peddlers I ended up getting.

56

I’m still trying to sort out an event version, but I feel like the whole Knifed/Spooned/Immolation/Wanton thing is just way better in Maxx. The Pancakes/Econ stuff just takes too many slots to fit all the fun gadgets in. It probably has to be a significantly different deck to make cutting Peddler worth it.

I’ve got a few ideas. I’ll post what I have tomorrow.

4 Likes
57

I think you’d still want some sort of recursion to deal with a potential snipe of Levy from your hand due to Fetal AI, Snare!, etc. Maybe run a Deja Vu or two? It’d get the Levy out of the heap, and has applications outside of that as well with Parasite and the like.

58

The problem with Deja Vu is that it can get sniped/peddled just as easily as Levy. SoT is still in the deck for now, but I’m really curious for the event version.

59

I played some games over the last two days and this deck is really fun to run. But in the last game I played against a PE deck and one of my Peddlers hit LARLA and two other events. Can I trash a Peddler with only events on it? I don’t think so, because I can’t “install” one of those events. So I lost the game because I ran out of cards.

I also tested with Turntable instead of Grimoire and while that was awesome in of my matches against Jinteki where I was able to steal two Nisei tokens, I really missed the stronger parasites/suckers/mediums.

60

Been playing the he’ll out of similar and having a lot of fun. Any thoughts on the lotus field problem?

Worth running spooned instead of knifed?