Store Championship season is wrapping up. It is interesting to see what innovation is spurred by competition. Old standards are reevaluated, and new cards breathe life into old cards. That said, here are the decks I took to this championship.
Galaxy News - 54 cards
Identity: New Angeles Sol - Your News
Agenda - 23 points
AstroScript Pilot Program - 1 (-1 max influence)
Breaking News - 2
Explode-a-palooza - 3
Market Research - 3
Project Beale - 3
15 Minutes - 1
Ice
Caduceus - 2 (4 influence)
Data Raven - 3
News Hound - 3
Pop-up Window - 3
Tollbooth - 3
Wraparound - 3
Assets
Jackson Howard - 3
PAD Campaign - 3
Upgrades
Cyberdex Virus Suite - 1
Operations
Archived Memories - 2 (4 influence)
Cerebral Static - 3 (6 influence)
Hedge Fund - 3
Midseason Replacements -2
Predictive Algorithm - 3
Psychographics - 1
Sweeps Week - 3
The agenda suite is a bit of a mix. AstroScript is a one-of because I had one point of influence left over. Breaking News and 15 Minutes can both be rushed out for the last point. Explode-a-palooza can give a burst of economy to power a Midseason Replacements. Market Research can act as a 4 for 3 if you can keep the runner tagged. Project Beale is pretty standard.
Ice choice is something I didn't spend a great deal of time on. Caduceus can give you a burst of money early game. Data Raven can stop an early run and still apply pressure later. News Hound is a fantastic piece of ice in NA Sol. You'll almost always have a current up, plus its strength of 4 puts it just above Mimic, but just below D4v1d. Pop-up Window is more an economy card than an ice, but for the most part, it will tax the runner in some way. Tollbooth provides a bit more of a tax as well. Wraparound works for early game gear check, and still remains a little taxing later in game. Granted, there are a few problems. I've picked two pieces of ice with strength 4, which leaves me a little vulnerable to Atman. Plus, the ice is still more taxing than stopping, so the idea is not necessarily to keep the runner out, but to let them in when you want them in, and to make it as expensive as possible.
Assets and upgrades are simple. Jackson is pretty much staple in NBN decks. I've gone with PAD campaign despite the rise of Whizzard and Scrubber because it's still pretty reliable. Cyberdex is a one-of to stop Clot, Datasucker, and other viruses.
Operations are the main focus of the deck. Archived Memories can get back a card you need, such as the Cyberdex or a Psychographics. Cerebral Static is a really good current, and can severely mess up the runner's plans, as there are only 5 runners right now who are not affected by it: Andromeda, The Professor, Valencia, Adam, and Sunny. Your backup current is Predictive Algorithm, which I've chosen over Targeted Marketing because it will almost always be taxing to the runner. Midseason Replacements is in to land a large number of tags on the runner, enabling Psychographics. Hedge Fund and Sweeps week round out your economy.
This deck relies a lot on the ebb and flow of the game. Your goal is to open scoring windows by taxing out the runner when they run.
Smoke and Mirrors - 49 cards
Identity: Nasir Meidan - Cyber Explorer
Programs
Cloak - 2
Corroder - 2 (4 influence)
Dagger - 3
Datasucker - 2 (2 influence)
Refractor - 3
Hardware
Akamatsu Mem Chip - 2
Astrolabe - 3
Lockpick - 3
Silencer - 3 (9 influence)
The Personal Touch - 2
Resources
Film Critic - 3
Ghost Runner - 3
Order of Sol - 3
Same Old Thing - 3
Events
Diesel - 3
Net Celebrity - 3
Sure Gamble - 3
The Maker's Eye - 3
I was having difficulty in picking a runner. I was planning on going with a Stealth build, but not sure on whether to go as a Criminal or a Shaper. But I decided to pick Nasir in order to force the Corporation player to make tough decisions on rezzing ice. Cloak, Dagger, and Refractor make up the main part of the Stealth rig. Corroder is used as the fracter since it is fairly efficient. Datasucker rounds out the rig, potentially making ice cheaper to break. Akamatsu Mem chips and Astrolabe give enough memory to run everything, plus Astrolabe means that you can get extra card draw, especially if you see it early. Lockpick and Silencer add additional stealth credits for Dagger and Refractor. The Personal Touch can be placed on either a Dagger or a Refractor, which means that you can reduce the number of stealth credits you need to spend further. Film Critic is a choice against the numerous NBN decks to get around effects on access, as well as getting around Midseason Replacements. Ghost Runner gives you disposable stealth credits, which can be used as seen fit. Order of Sol gives out a credit the first time each turn your credit pool is empty, which can be used to squeeze an extra credit out of Sure Gamble, to get a credit back from installing a 1 cost program or hardware when you have 1 credit left, or to gain a credit or the Corporation's turn when your credit pool is empty. Same Old Thing is in to recur events. Diesel is in for some extra draw. Net Celebrity is a recurring credit that isn't affected by Nasir's ability. Sure Gamble helps your economy to install cards. The Maker's Eye is your one multiaccess card.
Your goal is to gain credits off of the Corporation rezzing ice, use that to install parts of your rig, and then get into R&D for digs, or to get into their scoring server once your rig is set up. Granted, there are a few problems. There's no recursion, so if you lose a key program, you'll have to dig through the deck for a replacement. Also, there's no tutoring, so digging through your deck could take a while. Finally, I haven't put Personal Workshop in, so there's no real way to utilize your credits before they are lost. Maybe Study Guide would be a better choice for a decoder, since you could then burn your credits boosting it.
With that out of the way, onto the tournament results.
Round 1: vs. Luke
Nasir Meidan vs. Near-Earth Hub: 2 - 7 L
New Angeles Sol vs. Hayley Kaplan: 5 - 7 W*
It's interesting to note that this makes the third time I've faced Luke in this Store Championship season, and each time we've ended up splitting the match. For the first game, I pushed pretty hard as Nasir. I managed to trash a Mumba Temple early on, which slowed his play a little, and then went on to trash a Daily Business Show and a Team Sponsorship. Unfortunately, it was not enough to stop his roll. Strangely, if I had just bothered to draw a few more cards, I would have gotten my Corroder, which would have gotten me through the one Resistor protecting HQ. Second game was unfortunate. Partway into the game, Luke found out that he had placed an additional copy of Scheherazade in his deck, bringing him over the influence limit. As such, he was forced to take a game loss. However, we played out the rest of the game, and he won, but it was still close. So it should have been a sweep for him, but wasn't because of a technicality.
Round 2: vs. Barry
Nasir Meidan vs. Engineering the Future: 2 - 7 L
New Angeles Sol vs. Reina Roha: 6 - 8 L
This one was kind of frustrating for me. I ended up letting an agenda through because I failed to take Ash 2X3ZB9CY into account. I then managed to miss twice on two separate Maker's Eye runs. Plus, this game seems to highlight another weakness of the deck: the inability to deal with traces. Maybe using Dyson Mem Chip instead of Akamatsu or The Toolbox instead of Astrolabe would be a good idea. I played about as well as I could in the second game. He managed to get Deep Red, Scheherazade, a Knight and a Rook out early, which made my servers expensive to defend. My currents helped a bit, but my scoring server still fell with the addition of D4v1D, Faust, and e3 Feedback Implants to his rig.
Round 3: vs. Jefferson
Nasir Meidan vs. Chronos Protocol: 7 - 4 W
New Angeles Sol vs. Valencia Estavez: 7 - 5 W
A pretty decent pair of games for me. I was able to get a Film Critic early. I found his Philotic Entanglement early, but put it on the Film Critic. Not sure exactly why I did that at the time. Was able to later put a Medical Breakthrough onto another Film Critic later, which does actually make sense. Nabbed a House of Knives, then pulled a Nisei MK II and another Medical Breakthrough off of a Maker's Eye run. Put the Philotic in my pile to win. Second game was close. I believe I kept getting Cerebral Static in the early game, which was useless in this match. I did eventually get a Predictive Algorithm up. But this game was pretty much won on the runner's mistakes. Had he remembered to use his Same Old Thing to recur Blackmail, he would have taken it.
Round 4: vs. Jordan
Nasir Meidan vs. Haarpsichord Studios: 4(6) - 7 L
New Angeles Sol vs. Leela Patel: 4 - 8 L
Jordan was kind of having a rough time this game. I was able to get out two Film Critics early, which allowed me to avoid accessing first a Project Beale. Then, in a run on Archives, I placed a Quantum Predictive Model on one, but still accessed another QPI and a Profiteering, which led to me scoring the second QPI. That let him play Midseasons, but he was out of it, so he paid an amount which let me spend enough to escape with one tag, preventing him from playing both the Scorched Earth and the Traffic Accident he had in his hand. He then thought that he had won at 6 agenda points. I was able to find an Explode-a-palooza and put it onto one of the Film Critics, which he had left up, but it wasn't enough, because he found one more Breaking News to win. Second game was stranger. Early game he managed to bounce two ice back before I was able to get out a Cerebral Static. I was able to push two agendas through, and he really started having it rough. He mistook Tollbooth for something else, because he thought he could break it with Mongoose. Still, he did managed to grab another agenda, which I then put out the Predictive Algorithm, but it wasn't quite enough to win.
So that was it. Played about as well as I could have, and ended up taking 12th out of 16. Also, that ends the Store Championship season for me, as I have plans which mean I can't go to the last one here. Still, I was able to get 6 copies of the alternate art Jackson Howard, so that was fairly decent.
Until next time, I'm Maleficious, your voice on the Net.
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