It's been about a week and a half since the last store championship I attended. I'd like to think I've been spending the time since then reflecting on my performance, but instead I've been distracting myself with other pursuits. That said, let's go over what I came up with and how it performed.
Economic Strategy - 45 cards
Identity: Laramy Fisk - Savvy Investor
Programs
Alias - 3
Breach - 3
Passport - 3
Sneakdoor Beta - 2
Hardware
Dyson Mem Chip - 3
Resources
Kati Jones - 3
Same Old Thing - 3
Temüjin Contract - 2
Events
Account Siphon - 2
Easy Mark - 3
Fisk Investment Seminar - 3
Legwork - 3
Notoriety - 3 (3 influence)
Quest Completed - 3 (6 influence)
Sure Gamble - 3
The Maker's Eye - 3 (6 influence)
I really would like Laramy Fisk to be a good identity. I suppose the issue is that almost every other Criminal identity has what seems to be a more useful ability. Anyway, the main idea is to attack core servers to set up for using Notoriety to score extra points or Quest Completed to access agendas. Quest Completed is particularly interesting, because it can get around cards that would otherwise hinder a run on a remote server, such as Ash 2X3ZB9CY or Caprice Nisei. Granted, a better solution might be Unregistered S&W '35 or Drive By. Another big issue is that the deck has very little recursion, so once you've gone through everything once, you're done. Plus, there's no Inside Job, which means you can't really pressure servers with just one piece of ice. Also, it would probably be a good idea to throw in some copies of Emergency Shutdown as well.
Still, the idea could work. Right now, I'm thinking of rebuilding this deck using Ken "Express" Tenma as the identity.
Low-Cost Operation - 54 cards
Identity: Near-Earth Hub - Broadcast Center
Agendas (24 points)
15 Minutes - 1
AstroScript Pilot Program - 1
Breaking News - 2 (-2 max influence)
Chronos Project - 1
Global Food Initiative - 3 (3 influence)
License Acquisition - 3
Project Beale - 3
Ice
Data Raven - 3
Data Ward - 3
Pop-up Window - 3
Tollbooth - 3
Vanilla - 3
Assets
Blacklist - 3
Daily Business Show - 3
Jackson Howard - 3
Mumba Temple - 3 (-3 max influence)
Museum of History - 3
PAD Campaign - 3
The Root - 3 (9 influence)
Upgrades
Breaker Bay Grid - 3
Operations
Shipment from SanSan - 3
Sweeps Week - 3
To be honest, I thought there would be a lot more instances of Account Siphon and Beth Kilrain-Chang in this tournament, so I wanted to come up with a deck idea that could operate while maintaining a low credit pool. Granted, I didn't seem to encounter these cards that often. On the surface, it's pretty much a standard asset spam deck. I guess the really big issue is that the deck isn't geared for fast advance, meaning that you have to assemble a decent remote server in order to score anything out, unless you are good at bluffing the runner.
Now onto the matches.
Round 1: vs. Natalie
NEH vs. Adam: 9 - 6 W
Fisk vs. Blue Sun: 2 - 8 L
Kind of off to a promising start. I opened the corp game holding a Vanilla and a Pop-Up Window, which I used to protect the centrals. I was able to get The Root up early as well. I ended up losing a few agendas early on due to not protecting them against Always Be Running. Still, I was able to slow roll out the rest of the agendas eventually. Second game was not so great. I couldn't get my rig up as fast as I would have liked, and it would seem the deck idea doesn't perform as well against glacier style decks.
Round 2: vs. Eden
NEH vs. Ele "Smoke" Scovak: 5 - 7 L
Fisk vs. Chronos Protocol: 7 - 5 W
And now things start going downhill for my corporation concept. I was able to get The Root up early again, and put a Tollbooth on R&D and a Vanilla on HQ. Still, I took too much time and he was able to get his rig setup, which let him win. Second game, it took me some time to get setup as Fisk. Although, I was able to steal a copy of The Future Perfect with Quest Completed, so that worked out well. Later on, at 6 points, I made my last few runs intending to win with Notoriety, but he had dumped agendas into Archives, which meant I had won before I could do so.
Round 3: vs. Jefferson
NEH vs. Valencia: 3 - 8 L
Fisk vs. Potential Unleashed: 9 - 4 W
Another not so great corp game. I was able to sneak through a Beale, scoring it on turn 2. He got out a Nerve Agent, and was using it to try and lock down HQ, but fortunately I had no agendas there. I wiped the virus counters, but he was then able to get out a Medium and used DDoS and Blackmail to build up a bunch of counters on it, snagging 6 points off of the deck in the process. So that left me with a difficult choice: either score out the agenda I had in a server, or clear virus tokens. I decided to score out, since there was a chance the deck wouldn't give anything. Clearly, that didn't happen. Second game, I was able to get a Temüjin contract in my opening hand, so I used that to gain 12 credits on the first turn. After that, I was able to build up my rig and snag agendas out of R&D and HQ. I then took his Philotic Entanglement through Quest Completed. At the end, I managed to drain him, then made a glory run onto a remote server. It turned out the piece of ice protecting it was not the one he thought it was, and I was able to snag the last agenda for the game.
Round 4: vs. Aaron W.
NEH vs. Kate: 6 - 8 L
Fisk vs. NEXT Design: 4 - 7 L
Game one, I was able to sneak through Astrocript, which I then used to score a Beale. I was also able to sneak through a License Acquisition, but he was able to hammer my deck afterwards, taking 5 points. I put another Beale behind a Data Raven & 2 Data Wards, but he used Stimhack to get enough money to break through and steal it. Game two, he was able to get 3 pieces of ice for his ability, defending HQ, R&D and a remote. He then used Biotic Labor to score an Accelerated Beta Test, which gave him 2 copies of NEXT Bronze. I was able to snag a GFI and a Project Vitruvius, but he scored another ABT and then another GFI. Once again, not much I could do against a glacier deck.
And so that was it. Out of 18 or 19 players (one person had to drop out partway through,) I placed 14th. The odd thing was the corp deck I thought would do well performed poorly, while the runner deck which I thought wouldn't do well did okay. I guess I still need to work on my ideas.
Until next time, watch out for social engineering.
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