"None shall pass"

Think Blacklist is just a tool for keeping Clot in the bin? Reckon Shaper Bullshit means you can never build a safe remote without Ash and/or Caprice? Don't think you can possibly win a game with 5+ BP? Think again.

I've always enjoyed decks that include program trashing as a big part of their gameplan, I love tearing down the rig a runner has carefully constructed and making previously porous servers strong again. While I've worked on Weyland trashing decks on and off ever since the release of Power Shutdown, it was only the addition of Grail ice that has brought them up to genuine competitive consideration (outside of a meta composed of nothing but recursion free criminals)

The SanSan cycle added some key cards in the form of Blacklist and Oaktown Renovation, and as it stands the deck has serious game against any faction. Even recursion heavy shapers can find themselves locked out of your servers these days.

Card breakdown:

ID

It has to be Blue Sun. You don't have any fancy OAI/Curtain Wall tricks, but you still have virtual immunity to parasites. Don't underestimate this, anyone playing heavy parasite recursion would flatten this deck out of any other ID and it's just not worth it. Being able to move your dangerous ice around, pull back grails to support ones in more relevant places and more easily hit Restructure money are also nice bonuses, but it's Parasites that keep you here.

AGENDAS

This agenda suite is ideal for this style of play. Every single one either funds you to score the next one, or searches it up for you. Oaktown was a massive boost, it's amazing being able to score an agenda on turn 2 or 3 without completely destroying your tempo, Fracking provides a massive burst of econ, HTs are trivial to score, give you a bit of a cash boost and obviously provide the ideal Archer food and Atlas fetches up the next agenda.

The ideal scoring pattern is Oaktown, Fracking, Atlas, with a counter to fetch the winning Hostile, but you can and should try to score everything you draw pretty much straight away.

ASSETS

Blacklist is the key to beating Shapers, they have far too much recursion for a deck like this to function while they have free access to it. I'll discuss the matchups in more detail below.

Jackson Howard is Jackson Howard, but deserves specific mention for the awesome synergy with Power Shutdown. There's no better feeling than safely shutting down a Grimoire.

The bootcamp is generally used for one or the other of these and is largely included to free up the influence that would otherwise be a 3rd Blacklist, and there's a 1-of Private Contracts for the times you can't find any op econ or push an agenda out quickly enough to stabilise your economy.

UPGRADES

Just the Crisiums, for Siphon/Keyhole hate. You hate econ denial and these are the best counter in the game.

OPERATIONS

Hedge and Restructure are your bread and butter economy, you will definitely need one of these if you can't score an Oaktown or Hostile first up.

Power Shutdown is obviously pretty central to the deck, and you should try to use it at every opportunity. Even if it's not a key component you're hitting, if there's something 0-1 cost out just go for it, you have more and they are the first thing you shuffle back in with Jackson every time.

Subliminal Messaging is a fantastic backup econ option, people often have to dig pretty hard to find all the answers to your ice which can give you a lot of turns where you can pull it back, and there's always the cute play of fetching it with Atlas to score an agenda they thought you were too poor for.

Patch is possibly the weakest card in the current list and may get replaced, but it's pretty great for stealth matchups where putting it on any of your codegates adds an extra stealth credit tax and should definitely stay if you're expecting to see a lot of these.

ICE

Grails/Grim/Archer - These are how you win. Kill stuff. Kill it again. Pull the ice back and move it around so they never know what server might be about to make them lose yet another thing. Don't be afraid to pick up Grim sometimes, bad pub doesn't matter if they can't get in and not knowing where it is can be very powerful.

Enigma is vanilla but clearly better than the pisspoor in-faction options for a Code Gate. Gets the nod over Ice Wall as it can't be insta-parasited with Grimoire out.

Changeling is wonderful for it's non-destroyer strength 4 sentry option forcing an extra gear check against anyone relying on Mimic. With Datasuckers being prime Shutdown targets, it's often the ice that you lean on most heavily if the runner has managed to get an otherwise full rig out.

Swordsman was a recent addition but has proved invaluable, if Noise gets rich and drops a Crypsis it's your one way out and it's worth it's weight in gold in any Eater matchup.

MATCHUPS

Pre-Paid Kate

It's all about the Blacklist timing. The three key cards you want to cut off their access to are Datasucker, Sharpshooter and Atman. You're unlikely to catch them with all 3 in the bin, but if you can pick up 1 or 2 you can often trash the others later as they have a hard time dealing with all your ice without this trio. You can generally leave HQ open all game unless you're particularly flooded, and just focus on R&D and a remote. Don't be afraid of dropping blacklist in what was previously your main remote and building a second one, you can always move some of the ice around if need be. Forget about competing economically, don't bother rezzing ice just to make her spend money, only do it if it'll hit something or keep her out, and never, EVER rez if she has an SMC out and you have a Power Shutdown in hand. You won't win every Kate game, sometimes they do just shit out an entire rig including a sucker with 'Labe and Clone Chips for Datasucker Shutdown protection too quickly for you, but with careful play it's much more winnable than you might think.

Noise

Rush. Rush like you've never rushed before. Drop agendas behind single ice. Anything with an ETR sub. Rez anything that trashes a program even if it's an empty Cache, you want to keep them off the board so your Shutdowns will hit Suckers or Clone Chips. Always pull back your low strength ice at every opportunity so he has no chance to parasucker them to death. It's an extremely favourable matchup and you should win most games where he doesn't get too lucky with mills. Weird thing about the Noise matchup: You actually want them to find Aesop! He helpfully clears out the Caches that are getting in the way of your Power Shutdowns.

Reg-ass MaxX

LOL Blacklist. Both Zu and NRE versions are extremely vulnerable to Power Shutdown, and they lean heavily on Parasite which is fine by you. Don't let a Sucker live for long and you'll be fine.

Siphon/Keyhole MaxX

Blacklist is still great but you need both it and a Crisium ASAP, plus the money to defend HQ, R&D and at least 1 remote, which is tough unless you can score a very fast Fracking. Given how hard it is to defend everywhere in time it may well be less than 50/50 for you but luckily this archetype seems to be largely dying out. If it's big where you are, squeeze some cheaper ice in so that you can defend more servers for less cash. Ice Wall would be incredible here.

Other Anarchs

Even with their improved draw, they still have #Anarchproblems and without being able to lean on Parasite will struggle to find all the answers to your ice quickly enough, so score quickly and Shutdown those suckers! (have I mentioned enough times how you REALLY HATE DATASUCKER yet?)

Leela/Classic Andy

You got this one. They're just too fragile to trashing and don't have enough Faerie uses to get them through the game, especially when it's such an easy Shutdown target. Barring a bad start giving Leela a chance to do her stupid 'score off R&D, bounce HQ ice, siphon' turn one nonsense they're in a rough spot. The only variant that might give you bother is an Andy running Clone Chips and surprising you with them, but they aren't common and still pretty vulnerable to Shutdowns.

Stealth, either Andy or the new Hayley breeds

Shutdown the cloaks and stealth chips, and tax out the Ghost Runners. You have a lot of ice that eats stealth credits, you can usually tax them enough that they run out or can't find the last Ghost Runner in time. Interestingly, Dagger is far more effective against you than Switchblade due to needing less stealth so hope it's a blade version! Archer makes a nice surprise at the bottom of a server vs Dagger though, and combined with Blacklist can often hand you the full lock.

Edit - Forgot Headlock matchup: Score Fracking. Win. Don't fail to find a single ETR ice all game like I did last time I played one and lose to random pokes at R&D with no programs left. That sucked.