Android Netrunner: Whizzard ''Rook''

For today's Netrunner deck, I'm going to show my Whizzard ''Rook'', an anarchs economic-warfare deck that wants to put some early aggression and win the game quickly while making sure the corp can't defend itself properly.

If you're the type of guy that like their games to end quickly or to watch defenseless opponents, then this deck could interest you.

Originally created around Andromeda to increase my chances of having ''Rook'' in my opening hand as well as benefiting from ''Account Syphon'', I made this second ''Rook'' deck to use the other Caisa ''Pawn'' as well as get ''Xanadu''.

The Goal of the deck is to wage an economic warfare against the corp and slow it down, you can do this by:

-Making sure the Ice cost more to get raised (''Xanadu'' and ''Rook'') 

-Trashing unprotected assets (with Whizzards' recurring credits to help ease the thing)

-Empty the corp's bank account with ''Vamp''

And as they struggle to protect their main servers and get an economy going, just attack R&D or low protected assets.

Here's the decklist for Whizzard ''Rook''

-Identity: Whizzard 'Master Gamer'

 

 

---Credit-Makers:

-3x Sure Gamble
-3x Dirty Laundry

-3x Daily Casts

-3x Scheherazade

-2x Kati Jones

Note on Credit-Makers:

The classic ''Sure Gamble'' is a must for most (all?) runner decks, now with another must-have: ''Dirty Laundry'' which is quite the vicious card as you still get to access cards (ie: how about I check what you have in archives AND make 5 credits?).

Daily Casts is a card I've yet to try (but I faced it), it looks good.

Kati Jones, another must have, makes a runner richer than a corp.

Scheherazade...They say ''don't put all your eggs in the same basket'', but when that basket brings money back for each eggs....I've yet to try it, but it is here for the early game, hopefully helping a little money-wise, I don't have much expectations for it though.
If we have to wage an economic warfare and trash corp cards, better have though credits. I think with 14 cards generating credits that this deck should be fine.

 

---Icebreakers:

-1x Darwin
-1x Yog.0

-1x Mimic

-1x Morning Star

Note on Icebreakers:

There isn't a lot of Icebreakers as you can see, reason being that, hopefully, we won't encounter much raised ice.
Darwin, while expensive, can be fecthed by Djinn (its a Virus). Careful though, the new Jinteki Ice (Swordsman) is immune to it as it is also an AI.
''Morning Star'', ''Yog.0'' and ''Mimic'' all benefit from ''Datasucker'', a card I realized as I'm writing this, I've left out of the deck. It could be a very good idea to replace 2-3 cards with ''Datasuckers'' as they benefit from the early aggression playstyle of the deck while enabling these three Icebreakers to deal with bigger Ice.

 

---Drawing and Searching:
-3x Djinn

-3x Quality Time

Note on Drawing and Searching:

''Djinn'', the perfect toolbox, allows us to look for icebreakers (''Darwin''), utility cards (''Medium'', ''Imp'') AND can store up to 3 memory worth of non-icebreaker programs? I love that card!

''Quality Time'', a card I could see replaced by others in this deck, is there to make for the lack of Andromeda's advantage in this deck. Drawing is never bad for the Runner.

 

 

---Other Programs and Resources:
-1x Imp

-2x Medium

-3x Xanadu
-3x Rook

-3x Pawn

Note on Other Programs and Resources:

Here is the real core of the deck! I find that every Runner archetype has a specialty: Criminals are best for their events, Shapers are known for their icebreakers and mods/hardware and Anarchs are best for their utility programs.

''Rook'', giving its name to the deck, is a central piece and can prove itself to be devastating to the corporation. Knowledge being half the battle, I must tell my corporate friends that you can deal with ''Rook''...All you need is sacrificing the Ice it is hosted on.

But is that the right choice?

As for my runner friends, maybe check into putting ''Retrieval Run'' or ''Clone Chip'' as backups. Currently I'm going with the full Caisa theme by playing ''Pawn''. Only time will tell if Pawn is worth it or not.

''Xanadu'', three might seem a lot for a card you can only have once at a time installed, but, like ''Rook'', it is a card central to our plan of 'increasing the rez cost of corporate ice'. In addition, it is a resource and as such is easier to trash if the corp can tag you.

Medium is here to make sure you can attack R&D and find agendas while the corp still struggle to rez ice.
Imp is there to help you trash cards and asset in the 'economic warfare' plan.

 

---Other Events:

3x Forged Activation Orders
3x Emergency Shutdown
3x Vamp

Note on Other Events:
''Forged Activation Orders'' has got to be one of my favorite cards: you force the corp to rez and ice...or trash it. Of course, you might do this on a server you won't attack so that the corp has less credits to rez the ice where it is needed.
And with ''Rook'' and ''Xanadu'' in the mix, most ice will get trashed.

''Emergency Shutdown'' will force the corp to protect their HQ (thus leaving less ice on R&D, to our ''Medium'' s joy) or see their credits spent to rez ice be wasted.
''Vamp'' is a card I don't like too much, but it seems like a good way to prevent the corp from affording any ''Rook''ed ice.

How to Upgrade this deck?

I personally think that ''Datasucker'' wouldn't hurt, maybe a good card like ''Professional Contacts'' could be good. ''Retrieval Run'' and ''Clone Chip'' are options in case ''Pawn'' doesn't prove efficient enough.

Of course, if you have advice, card changes or any comment, I'm always happy to read them and see your point of view on things.

So, how would you work with ''Rook''? What are your decks using it?