Viral Breeding Ground

                             by David Bartholow

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Here's my newest Corp R&D, from memory.

David Bartholow

I've added some comments from Daniel "Beats" Schneider, as they helped to
understand the deck better. They are in italic. Thanks Beats! - Argi

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The Deck

   * Agenda
        o 2x Fetal AI
        o 2x Political Coup
        o 4x Viral Breeding Ground
   * Ice
        o 1x Asp
        o 1x Banpei
        o 1x Cinderella
        o 1x Crystal Wall
        o 3x Data Wall
        o 1x Data Naga
        o 1x Datacomb
        o 3x Filter
        o 1x Haunting Inquisition
        o 2x Marionette
        o 2x Quandary
        o 3x Shock.r
   * Operations
        o 4x Accounts Receivable
        o 1x Project Consultants
   * Nodes
        o 3x BBS Whispering Campaign
        o 1x Syd Meyer Superstores
   * Upgrades
        o 6x Bizarre Encryption Scheme
        o 2x Red Herrings

Theory

The basic idea is to play Viral Breeding Ground and Bizarre Encryption
Scheme behind a couple of cheap ice. It's generally very difficult for the
runner to get through twice. Basically everything else about the deck can
be tailored to individual tastes.

This is true. Worst breakers are BMI and Krash, because a runner could
theoretically run on the 1st or 2nd action, reinstall the necessary breaker
and run again in the same turn. Once the runner has discovered the core
strategy (VBG+BES), he might be able to play that way, if he is strong on
bits.

I played this deck in one tournament, but only one other player showed up
:-). He was playing a Mystery Box stack, which is basically what this deck
is designed to beat, so I won. Playing against my own runner stack, this
deck has been mediocre - it's mostly built for fun play, I guess.

Not really. I have a similar deck, it's called "Anti-Mystery Box", because
it's exactly that. Against no other deck (apart from daemon decks) is VBG
that strong and dangerous.

To proof that it is not only a fun deck, I can tell you that I won a
constructed tourney in Berlin with mine last year.

Ok, I played this deck a lot (yes, and lost a couple of friends :) here are
my experiences:

The main weakness is a vulnerability to R&D and HQ attack decks. 2 reasons:

  1. These runner decks don't even think about running your subsidiary data
     forts (and suffering), but normally concentrate solely on their
     target.
  2. VBG normally goes with lots of cheap to rez ice, and this ice is often
     not able to protect the central data forts enough. Your deck uses more
     big ice than mine (but still a few), and that might be good, if you
     are able to draw them early.

Then there are obviously two very popular countercards: Death From Above
and Mercenary Subcontract. At least DFA I?ve seen several times in tourney
class runner decks, and your deck cannot win against a junkyardable DFA.

Apart from that, this deck is easy to play and often a devilish experience
for the program-strong runner, who might rely on his Joan of Arc. The way I
play it (and probably you, too): "Prepare" a SDF with 2-3 cheap ice of
different type and a VBG+BES. Advance several times. Build the next SDF in
the same way. Don?t score the VBG unless runner has accessed it before. Try
to score a 3pt agenda as your first agenda, maybe via fast advancement out
of hand, when 2 SDFs are already "prepared". Then the game is almost over
for the runner. Try to hide the VBG+BES trap as long as possible.