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

Deck Archetypes
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I’ve had a lot of success with this archetype. I’ve taken it to ~10+ tournaments and it has lost 3 games in total (in a tournament setting, more in testing/octgn). It is one of the few runner decks where the corp is more worried about you than you are about them, and the only runner deck I’ve seen lock out a game at 0 points. The object of the deck is to set the opponent to 0 credits with nothing rezzed, at which point lamprey and keyhole end the game in short order. All that being said, I stopped playing it after Blue Sun’s release due to a bad matchup against blue sun glacier and architect powered hb decks (too much money to consistently fight). However with the release of O&C, I was able to free up card slots for tech against these matchups, and get it a little more powerful overall, so I no longer have reservations about playing the deck due to matchups.

The list

Reina Roja: Freedom Fighter (Mala Tempora)

Event (5)
3x Sure Gamble (Core Set)
2x Vamp (Trace Amount)

Hardware (6)
3x Clone Chip (Creation and Control) ••••• •
3x Logos (Honor and Profit) ••••• •

Resource (16)
3x Liberated Account (Trace Amount)
2x Scrubber (A Study in Static)
2x Xanadu (Humanity’s Shadow)
3x Kati Jones (Humanity’s Shadow)
3x Daily Casts (Creation and Control)
3x Earthrise Hotel (The Source)

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

Program (13)
3x Parasite (Core Set)
3x Crescentus (A Study in Static) •••
2x Keyhole (True Colors)
3x Lamprey (Upstalk)
2x D4v1d (The Spaces Between)

15 influence spent (maximum 15)
45 cards (min 45)
Cards up to Order and Chaos

2 clone chips can be a test run and hades shard should you feel the need, personally I prefer more recursion/slightly stronger parasites.

How to play: Don’t let them rez R&D ice unless you’re sure you can kill it. HQ ice is less important, although you will want it derezzed/parasited eventually. Keeping remote ice unrezzed can help you snipe agendas with vamp, but sometimes it’s a better play to force them to rez it to make them spend money. Econ assets are must kill unless it costs you more to get in than the asset will give (namely temporary assets like adonis). Pressure HQ with lamprey, derez anything you can’t parasite, then vamp for the win, keyhole ends the game but it’s best used when the corp is already out of the game, eater does allow you some keyhole pressure compared to the old crypsis builds, which is good to keep in mind

Card choices:
3x Eater
2x Knight
2x David
3x Parasite

This rig will let you get through most things for less than it costs the corp to rez. Yes, you can’t break a swordsman, just parasite it. I got hit with 3 swordsmen at tulsa’s store championship and it didn’t really slow my progress much, you can vamp through a swordsman if it comes down to it.

3x Crescentus
3x Lamprey
3x Clone Chip

These do a lot of the heavy lifting. Crescentus is all 3 silverware as far as you’re concerned, and it gets recurred by clone chip. Lamprey against a corp that can’t keep hq ice rezzed forces a purge, usually for a 1 cost program that already got value.

2x Keyhole
2x Vamp

The combo pieces, set them to nothing and then keyhole at no cost.

2x David
2x Scrubber

These are both metagame tech, against blue sun and asset spam decks respectively. They tend to always be somewhat relevant in other matchups, but if those decks aren’t in your metagame feel free to change them for other silver bullets. Yes, I know I listed david twice, it fits in both categories.

3x Logos
2x Xanadu

Logos has two main upsides: it allows you to find both your matchup specific silver bullets, and combo pieces should they not be necessary, and, the added handsize helps with the combo deck problem of dead hand slots until you’re ready to go off. Xanadu is actually pretty strong when they constantly have to rebuy their ice, also makes it so that the corp needs a 1 cost ice to protect hq when on 0 credits

3x Kati
3x Liberated
3x Sure Gamble
3x Daily Casts
3x Earthrise Hotel

I tried to stick with slower, higher powered econ cards. You don’t need much recurring money, you really just want to pull ahead of the corp for long enough to lock them out. Day job isn’t in because it doesn’t play well with kati, IHW isn’t in because you have a good matchup against kill decks already, and earthrise is better for pure click efficiency.

Try it out, tell me what you think. Just be warned that it really isn’t fun to play against.

16 Likes
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I admit I was suspicious when I saw you playing this against bootcamp glacier on the TC stream this weekend, but yesterday watched @moistloaf on stream totally crush a bootcamp opponent 8-0. Definitely gonna try this deck out.

1 Like
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I made a pretty big misplay in that match by not grabbing kati off the first logos trigger, couldn’t really find money until it was too late.

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similar goal, different approach, in case people want a read.

What was the choice between scrubber and imp?

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scrubber is easier on the memory, and I don’t really care about trashing ice/operations they won’t immediately play anyway. Also some games you’ll need several uses.

6

Awesome to see more Reina doing well!

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what’s your opinion on Xanadu versus Blue Sun? I ended up installing it, but @bblum suspects you shouldn’t in that match up.

Also, I personally think IHW is still valuable as card draw, you can’t really have too much of it as a Runner IMO. The Logos and additional Earthrise (from your original list I played last night) might alleviate the loss of IHW a bit.

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Xanadu is very good once they’re already poor, but I wouldn’t install it unless you think it’ll prevent them from rezzing an ice. Also I saw the vod but don’t remember making a list with vigil and lucky find. Where did you find that deck?

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I saw you playing this on the TC stream and I really liked it, but I feel like there is no way in hell Logos can be justified over Vigil. A deck like this keeps the Corp from playing their cards quickly because they have way less money than they’re used to. I imagine Vigil would draw something like 5 extra cards if you land it quickly, which is better than 1 specific card a couple of times. It also costs $2 less and no influence.

If you were to hard switch Logos for Vigil, what do you think would be the best splash replacement? Siphon, Lucky Find, and Legwork seem like they would probably be the best choices. Thoughts about any other cards and/or what to replace?

Also, there’s no IHW OR inject in this deck. What gives :smile:

6 Likes
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I think you could make a strong case for Desperado to help keep progressing your strategy, proccing lamprey, and fueling vamp runs.

1 Like
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Logos directly enables the corp shutdown part of the strategy, Desperado only really helps you once you’re there already.

(also, what exactly do you need money for once they’re at zero? You can’t really imagine how massively annoying Lamprey is in reality :D)

4 Likes
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I played against a similar deck out of quetzal with blue sun. It felt like old school netrunner - the corp getting absolutely owned while the runner sees R&D for days. Lamprey was very impressive.

1 Like
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I don’t think it’s hard to justify 2 Desperado over 3 Logos just because of raw power level, but I feel like this is the best Vigil deck that exists.

3 Likes
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I’m going to try this list tomorrow:

Suied Reina (45 cards)

Reina Roja: Freedom Fighter

Event (13)
3 I’ve Had Worse
1 Knifed
1 Legwork
2 Lucky Find
1 Queen’s Gambit
1 Spooned
3 Sure Gamble
1 Vamp

Hardware (5)
3 Clone Chip
2 Vigil

Resource (11)
3 Daily Casts
2 Earthrise Hotel
2 Kati Jones
1 Liberated Account
1 Scrubber
2 Xanadu

Icebreaker (4)
3 Eater
1 Knight

Program (12)
3 Crescentus
1 D4v1d
2 Keyhole
3 Lamprey
3 Parasite

2 Likes
15

Wouldn’t a single SoT make sense with so many one-of powerful events?

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found the list on @mediohxcore Meteor. I was very impressed with Vigil but I think it’s especially good versus Blue Sun (and on top of that Glacier). I am going to continue testing this version, maybe it was just Dan’s take on it after seeing you on TC

1 Like
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It was. Then I changed it after I watched you play it and sat with too much silverware in your hand. I don’t even play Netrunner I just rebuild decks and send lists to people :wink:

Almost. I really don’t like playing SOT without something SUPER good/necessary, (Account Siphon, Levy, Lucky with 2 PPVPs in play). I have liked it with Legwork in the Maxx deck but since you’re not self-milling I don’t think it’s necessary. All of the 1-of events in this are things you almost never want more than once a game anyway.

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nasty deck archetype. if it gets on top of you its soul crushing. right now noise and reina are tied for the anarch i least want to see across the table post O&C.

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That blind knife to steal corp war won the game though. I think it’s reasonable to spend maybe 2 deck slots on silverwares here, to thwart corps who plan to try to score behind ice walls/quandaries.

Knife is still good in any matchup. It’s not like corps are gonna stop playing eli.

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I can see vigil being strong, mostly just stuck with logos because it’s what I was using pre-O&C and I had spare influence. There isn’t really much I want from out of faction to be honest. Lucky Find is a slight upgrade over liberated or daily, but I can’t really think of anything else. Most likely go with a marginal upgrade or a metagame hoser. Donut might not be horrible in my list running 5 events.