The Yellow King May 2016 GNK Report

Summer is upon us, and with that, another tournament season.  With the regional tournament for Colorado coming up soon, now is a great time to test deck ideas for that event.  And what better place to test those ideas in a semi-casual Game Night Kit tournament?  At any rate, here are the decks I took to this event:

Swap Meet - 49 cards
Identity: Hayley Kaplan - Universal Scholar

Programs
Garrote - 1 (3 influence)
Self-modifying Code - 3
Snowball - 1
Torch - 1

Hardware
NetChip - 6
Ramujan-reliant 550 BMI - 6 (6 influence)
Replicator - 3
Spy Camera - 6
The Toolbox - 1

Resources
Aesop's Pawnshop - 3
Bazaar - 3
Inside Man - 3
Technical Writer - 3

Events
Diesel - 3
Levy AR Lab Access - 1
Test Run - 3
Trade-In - 2

While I'd like to say that this is a completely original design, much of the inspiration for this came from looking at other decks using Hayley and Consumer-Grade hardware.  The core of the idea is to use Replicator to fill your hand with NetChips, Ramujan-relient 550 BMIs or Spy Cameras, then install them all simultaneously using Bazaar, placing lots of credits onto your Technical Writers in the process, then selling the hardware using Aesop's Pawnshop.  Inside Man helps mitigate the cost of this process.  Because you should be making money every turn, I've gone with more expensive and efficient breakers: Garrote, Snowball, and Torch.  Self-Modifying Code can work as either a tutor or can be sold for money.  I've picked The Toolbox as my console because Comet doesn't work in this deck due to having so few events.  Maya is a possible replacement, but the effect may not trigger frequently.  Astrolabe could also be good, as it might accelerate your installation of hardware.  But for the most part, The Toolbox is there mostly for the recurring credits.  As for events, Diesel is for additional card draw, Test Run can get a program out of your deck or, more importantly, out of your discard pile, Trade-In allows you to pull a specific piece of hardware, say, a different type of Consumer-Grade, and Levy AR Lab Access lets you reinstall all the hardware after you've sold it all.

The basic idea is that you should be able to pressure any scoring remote.  If the corp is playing fast advance, the setup should give you enough money to potentially lock down R&D.  At least, that's the theory.

Political Games - 49 cards
Identity: NEXT Design - Guarding the Net

Agendas - 21 points
Efficiency Committee - 3
Project Vitruvius - 3
Voting Machine Initiative - 3

Ice
Little Engine - 3 (6 influence)
Mother Goddess   - 1
NEXT Bronze - 3
NEXT Gold - 3
NEXT Silver - 3

Assets
Clone Suffrage Movement - 3
Jeeves Model Bioroids - 3
Melange Mining Corp. - 2
Team Sponsorship - 3

Operations
Biotic Labor - 3
Enhanced Login Protocol - 3
Green Level Clearance - 3
Hedge Fund - 3
Localized Product Line - 1 (3 influence)
Shipment from SanSan - 3 (3 influence)

To be honest, I had no real idea what kind of corp I wanted to play going into this.  As such, I kind of slapped this idea together.  The main idea is to get maximum efficiency out of clicks using Jeeves Model Bioroids to gain extra clicks for using the same action repeatedly.  Efficiency Committee gives you extra clicks, which can be combined with Shipment from SanSan to fast advance another agenda.  Plus, using it three times in the same turn triggers Jeeves, so you could have a turn with 7 or more clicks.  Project Vitruvius allows you to get cards back from your archives, or you can just fast advance it out.  Although, thanks to Jeeves, if you installed it the turn before, you could advance it 4 times in one turn.  Voting Machine Initiative is interesting.  With it, you could shorten a runner's turn, forcing them to make bad decisions.  Ideally, you'll want to use the counter on the turn when you've installed and double advanced an agenda.

The ice suite for this deck is fairly light, which is not great for NEXT Design.  The full suite of NEXT ice is included, as well as a copy of Mother Goddess.  Rounding it out is Little Engine, which has the potential to be costly.

Assets are kind of the main draw.  Clone Suffrage Movement will allow you to reuse at least one operation.  Ideally, it should be something big, like Biotic Labor, Enhanced Login Protocol, or Shipment from SanSan.  Jeeves Model Bioroids can give you additional time.  Just be aware that it is a unique card.  Melange Mining Corp provides a large burst of money and triggers Jeeves if one is active.  Team Sponsorship allows you to get back one of your important assets, or even ice if you are up against ice destruction.

The deck idea is pretty much fast advance, and the operations are built around that.  Biotic Labor means you can rush out an agenda.  Enhanced Login Protocol means that it'll take the runner even more time to make their runs, which if combined with Voting Machine Intiative, might mean the runner might not be able to access your cards.  Green Level Clearance adds some economy into your card draw.  Hedge Fund is basic economy.  Localized Product Line lets you get up to 3 copies of what you need, which could be Hedge Fund, or Biotic Labor, or Shipment from SanSan, or anything.  Shipment from SanSan allows you to advance your agendas even if you have no money.

The deck still has problems.  There's obviously no real recursion due to the lack of Jackson Howard, making the deck vulnerable to milling.  The deck is also vulnerable to ice destruction because of the lack of recursion, though Team Sponsorship may help with that slightly.

So with that out of the way, on to the matches.

Round 1: vs. Natalie
Hayley Kaplan vs. Argus Security: 5 - 4 L (flatline)
NEXT Design vs. Hayley Kaplan: 2 - 7 L

Not a great opening to this tournament.  I was able to get the Hayley combo working in short order.  Unfortunately, I made a slight misplay in my final turn.  I snatched a Vanity Project off of R&D, which left me open to 2 Punitive Counterstrike.  However, I might have gotten away with it if I had used my last click to pull money off of the Technical Writer I had up.  As for the corp, I ended up losing an Efficiency Committe and a Voting Machine Initiative early, which lead to her being able to win by using Out of the Ashes to make free runs on Archives, HQ, and R&D, then using 2 copies of Notoriety to win the game.

Round 2: vs. Mykle
Hayley Kaplan vs. Personal Evolution: 7 - 6 W
NEXT Design vs. Leela Pattel: 6 - 2 timed W

Both games were pretty close.  In the first game, he was able to score 2 copies of House of Knives and a Nisei MK II before I had my rig set up.  After that, I was able to pressure R&D as well as some attempts to score out.  He did manage to score another Nisei, but still I managed to persevere.  Game two was intriguing.  He left one of my Clone Suffrage Movements up, so I was able to recur Hedge Fund repeatedly for a while.  Ultimately, this game went to time, and I wasn't quite able to push my score up to 7 points.

Round 3: vs. Mark
Hayley Kaplan vs. Palana Foods: 2 - 6 L (flatline)
NEXT Design vs. Chaos Theory: 2 - 7 L

I genuinely don't know how I could have played better on these two games.  I was able to get my rig setup, but he scored an early Dedicated Neural Net, which sealed off HQ.  I was able to snag a Global Food Initiative, but it ended up not helping, as he was able to use An Offer You Can't Refuse to force me into HQ, then forcing me into a Snare!, and while I survived that thanks to Ramujan-reliant BMI, I was blindsided by his Scorched Earth.  Game two saw a horrible setup for me.  First hand had the only piece of ice be a NEXT Gold, so that hand was replaced with a hand that had no ice.  It pretty much went downhill from there.

Round 4: vs. Brian
Hayley Kaplan vs. Blue Sun: 6 - 4 L (flatline)
NEXT Design vs. Adam: 6 - 7 L

Again, a pair of frustrating games.  I could maybe have been more aggressive as Hayley, but he ended up generating far too much money for me to attempt to bankrupt him.  Still, it might have meant getting an early agenda.  As such, it was done because he was advancing out Government Takeover in the open, so of course I took it, which lead to another Punitive Counterstrike that I could do nothing about.  Game two was horrible.  For most of the game, I was agenda flooded, to the point where if he had just run on my hand he would have won early.  Instead, I was able to score out three Project Vitruvius, but it wasn't good enough, as he finally went after my hand with an Efficiency Committe, a Voting Machine Initiative, and a Shipment from SanSan in it, while he still had Always Be Running in play.

Post-Game Analysis
So that was it.  At that point, I was so on tilt I didn't even want to know how badly out of the 12 people I had placed.  But what can I pull from these games?  Well, all my losses as Hayley came from meat damage, which may mean that the local meta is shifting slightly more towards kill decks.  As such, this particular deck would probably benefit greatly from the addition of Plascrete Carapace, which combines nicely with Inside Man, Replicator, and Bazaar.  As for the corporation deck, while I like the idea of Voting Machine Initiative, I was unable to score a single copy of it.  So the big thing will be upping the amount of ice in the deck.  I could slap in 3 copies of something along the lines of Viktor 1.0 or Viktor 2.0 then throw in a copy of Director Haas' Pet Project and another card, bringing the deck size to 54.  I could also remove the Localized Product Line and the Clone Suffrage Movements to bring in Jackson Howard, which gives me a bit more control over the recursion.

Well, until next time, ablate your refrigerators.

Nothing to Hide

About two months ago, I talked about a deck that made use of Off the Grid and Breaker Bay Grid.  In the time since then, I've experimented with a build that goes a bit farther with the concept.  After all, why not put your plans out in the open where your opponent can see them, but can't do anything about them?

Here at Gagarin Deep Space, we have nothing to hide.

Nothing to Hide - 54 cards
Identity: Gagarin Deep Space - Expanding the Horizons

Agendas - 22 points
Hollywood Renovation - 3
New Construction - 3
Oaktown Renovation - 3
Underway Renovation - 1

Ice
Enigma - 3
Excalibur - 1
Hadrian's Wall - 2
Ice Wall - 3
Orion - 1
Shadow - 3
Wormhole - 2

Assets
Jackson Howard - 3 (3 influence)
Mumba Temple - 3 (6 influence, reduced to 0)
Museum of History - 3 (6 influence, reduced to 0)
PAD Campaign - 3

Upgrades
Breaker Bay Grid - 3
Caprice Nisei - 3 (12 influence)
Crisium Grid - 3
Off the Grid - 3

Operations
Hedge Fund - 3
Interns - 2

The major difference between this deck and the previous version of the Off the Grid/Breaker Bay Grid deck is that this one is a lot more dependent on asset spam.  Gagarin help to make that a bit more viable by upping the cost to access the cards.  Plus, it makes it a bit more expensive for them to steal agendas in your scoring server.

The amount of ice has been lowered a bit to allow for Mumba Temple.  Both Ice Wall and Enigma let your protect your servers quickly.  Hadrian's Wall and Wormhole provide big, expensive to break blockers.  Shadow is mostly taxing, potentially getting you some money back as well.  Orion works as another big blocker.  Excalibur is interesting.  Ideally, it should probably be placed on HQ, to keep your opponent from making a run on your scoring remote if they take out Off the Grid.

Agenda suite is entirely made out of Public agendas.  Oaktown Renovation makes a good amount of money, especially if you can press your luck.  Hollywood Renovation can make Ice Wall, Hadrian's Wall, and Shadow stronger, or make Wormhole and Orion cheaper.  New Construction let's you set up your assets a bit faster, and if you can get it up to 5, you could install and rez an Off the Grid for free.  Underway Construction rounds out the suite, and possibly lets you destroy your opponent's deck.

For assets, Jackson is standard, both for recursion and also for drawing.  Mumba Temple makes it cheaper to rez your ice, assets, or upgrades.  Museum of History gives some additional recursion.  PAD Campaign provides for some cheap drip economy.

Your main combo, of course, is Breaker Bay Grid and Off the Grid.  This keeps one remote from the runner until they get into HQ.  Caprice helps keep them out, so she should probably be on HQ.  Crisium Grid should definitely be on HQ, and also possibly Archives.  Depending on your matchup, you might want the third one on R&D.

Rounding out the deck are the operations.  Hedge Fund provides a nice burst of economy.  Interns lets you get back whatever you need, be it a piece of ice, an asset, or an upgrade.

The main problem I can see with this deck is the recent release of Salsette Slums.  With this, the runner can remove the pieces of your combo from the game, making it impossible to recur them.  The only solution I can think of that would be reasonable in this deck would be Elizabeth Mills, but since I can't think of anything to remove, it would likely involve adding 2 copies of Underway Renovation and 3 copies of Elizabeth.

Still, this deck has done quite well for me so far.  I have a 66% win rate with it, but my statistical sample is 9 games, so take that with a grain of salt.

Until next time, remember to wear protective gear while in a construction zone.