[Pālanā Foods] Soylent Red (It's Made of Runners)

Decklists
61

As others have mentioned, I consider Palana strictly worse than ETF for 2 reasons. The first is that the Runner controls when you get your credit. I will not argue the fact that Palana will fire nearly every Runner turn of every game you play; however, the turns where it doesn’t fire will be those in which the Runner decided they didn’t want to give you a credit. I consider this strictly worse than ETF. The second reason was that it is currently much harder to double-dip with Palana than ETF. Some have said this is an unfair criticism, but I don’t think so.

I have to agree with @hhooo (big surprise) that Jinteki’s card pool is much weaker than HB’s. Jinteki ICE isn’t great, particularly in an Anarch meta. Jinteki scoring strategies have leaned nearly 100% on Caprice since she was released. It makes sense; she’s an incredible card, and Jinteki’s ICE has a harder time keeping a Runner out without an upgrade than HB’s does, or even Weyland, honestly.

It should be recognized by now that I am a naysayer, in nearly all things, and this carries to Netrunner. I will be happy if Palana sees success and gets some support, but with our current information I will remain a skeptic. RP is a really strong identity, and Jinteki glacier hasn’t been winning with credits since they were forced to (all but) abandon Ash in RP Glacier.

One more note: I think part of the strength of RP is the asset economy. The Sundew and MHC pressure in RP alleviates the tendency of at least 2 agendas to pool in HQ moving into the mid-game. What I mean is these assets are threats that require the Runner to deal with them, and they take some of the attention off of HQ. Granted, the Corp can always Jackson flush, but it’s still common to have 2 agendas in HQ before RP starts scoring. Without assets, I have found Jinteki glacier to suffer from the Runner being able to hammer HQ in the early and mid-game. I have run into this in Tennin, specifically, when going for operation economy. I can easily see Palana suffering from the same problem, in builds that forego asset economy. Once you are playing asset economy in Palana, I see it tough to justify over playing standard RP glacier.

62

I am 100% in favor of this. Gotta have somewhere else to go once I get tired of this PaneraBread Beach Party :wink:

63

I don’t see this ID as a glacier ID. I think considering this ID for glacier, like ETF, will make it a worse ETF.

Jinteki is a whole different faction, so don’t think of using this ID like you would use ETF.

I think this ID will shine in Cambridge-style decks that focus on dealing repeated net damage, with the threat of net damage on every run. Running against ETF and hitting unexpected ICE, worst case is ETR, program trash, and/or a few brain damage.

Running against unknown Jinteki ICE usually results in net damage. Similarly, many runs on Jinteki centrals hit Snare or other net damage traps. Advanced cards in remotes are often Junebugs. So the forecast for running against Jinteki is net damage, net damage, and more net damage. This can cost the runner the game very abruptly. Even if the runner doesn’t flatline from net damage, if they refuse to draw up at the end of their turn to deny the corp 1c, then they risk a flatline on the corp turn from Ronin, Neural EMP, or a Philotic score (or a combination of these).

These are all staples of Jinteki play, and drawing against it is the only answer. You are correct that many runners run Levy and SoT. Many of them wait until they are near the end of their stack to play levy for maximum effect. If the corp has the option to deal net damage in this situation, they can sometimes trash the Levy and leave the runner stuck with no means or recursion.

I see the potential advantage of Palana over PE to be additional economy, and more consistent economy. A serious struggle in many PE decks is few credits, but with a steady drip econ, some deck slots may free up, or more expensive ICE may be find some use in these decks.

It all has to be tested, certainly, but there is a lot of potential.

2 Likes
64

My first thought with Palana was, I can gain three card slots by removing Hedge Fund! :smile:

1 Like
65

I’m all seriousness I would say there’s about a 2% chance that Cambridge-style strategies are better in Palana than PE or Biotech. Money isn’t really an issue in these decks with good play.

4 Likes
66

It really matters the support cards that Planta get’s.

If Planta get’s something that causes the runner to draw cards on your turns, or get’s something to punish discarding (Which I assume is what Harvester is supposed to synergise with.) then it will be competitive simply how disruptive that will end up being to the current Wyldeside decks.

If Planta doesn’t get support to basically overfeed the runner and it’s just drip then it will be a worst RP. The Fantasy is that it plays as an odd rush deck, where you get Econ but the runner get’s cards and if the runner doesn’t play his cards he’s punished (Either through money or the cards being removed from the game, etc) So the runner has to make tough choices on what to install and where to run so he can keep his econ up.

67

So Palana definitely got some support in Business First.

#31 - Palana Agroplex

Jinteki Asset - Facility. Rez 1 Trash 5 Influence 2

When your turn begins, each player draws a card.

This is pretty damn good. It’s basically Mental Health Clinic, but only for Palana and with a massive trash cost. It also speeds both sides up a good bit. You could combo it with DBS for even more fun.

There might be something here if we look more towards rush with Caprice/gearchecks rather than full-on glacier. All this draw and money could lead to some Weyland rush-esque speed with more consistency. I dig it.

1 Like
68

I didn’t notice that this is nonunique. This is going to become insane if you are trying to kill the runner.

3 Likes
69

I feel like I’d rather have multiple out but only rez one until they finally pony up the cash to trash it, then rez another in response. You don’t get a cred for each draw and you don’t want to risk getting flooded.

That being said it’s a hell of a way to draw into a combo if you just rez them all.

1 Like
70

How does it combo with DBS? You’re already getting the mandatory draw as corp.

71

I think trying to play a couple scorches and a SEA source wouldn’t be awful; flood the runner with cards for a few turns and the try to kill the recursion/levy they’re bound to have in their hands.

EDIT: I think cerebral casts would be a better card that SEA source; I just forgot that it exists…

72

You’re getting two cards and you have a bit more choice with DBS. It’s not anything fancy, but it’s low inf and nice to have.

73

I think each draw is a separate instance so it’s mandatory draw+DBS then the extra draws without DBS.

74

I believe this draw will trigger first, so this proc’d draw will get the DBS effect, then the corp’s mandatory draw will fire as a single card.

With so much draw taking place, the corp will need to play very quickly to win, or come up with some way to trash their own asset when it’s hurting them more than its helping.

1 Like
75

Agroplex is interesting but it seems particularly poorly positioned in The Faust Meta. If Wyldcakes isn’t set up yet, this helps the runner draw into their pieces. If it is, then they just got another card to fuel Faust. And attrition just doesn’t seem like a strong corp strategy when nearly ever runner deck (even the Criminals now!) runs Levy. On the other hand, runner mill decks are still pretty strong and this helps them flood your hand.

76

That’s the order, yes. If you’re going to pull two cards at the start of each turn you may as well have some card selection. Burying one of your two TFPs (or whatever you don’t want) always feels good.

77

I think this a strategy that would want Hostile Infrastructures and Museums of History to make both trashing extra painful for the runner and to give the corp a way to ‘extend’ their deck.

1 Like
78

Museums and Hostiles are both cards that are a little slow to setup, I’d worry about HQ flooding with agendas in that time.

I guess with all of the card draw, the corp will have ample opportunity for discards, but it seems like a risky way to play in the current meta, or against any meta with a lot of Whizzard.

1 Like
79

I like it! If you’re including this (if you want to maximize the Palana Foods ability you probably should) you probably need to have a game plan that involves lots of playing cards from your hand, either installations or operations. You could go pretty heavily into glacier by stacking a nice scoring server with tons of installs and operations, or just use the extra card per turn to make an even more frustrating shell game. I’m really glad to see this is being released in the same pack as the ID. I think it’s going to be a strong ID right out of the gate.

Another thought is that Agroplex lets you be picky with what you show the runner using Celebrity Gift. If you start your turn with 5 cards, you’ll go up to 7 then a Celebrity Gift reveals only 5 of the 6 remaining cards. Up 8 credits on the turn, and you still have a click left.

Also I’m sure that the card has use in IG. Get extra draws to dig for your scary things, force the runner to burn through their deck faster…

4 Likes
80

Regass foodshop with coat and extra food but no pancake and faust.
Huh,still too short for my Palana Glacier name.

1 Like