Card Analysis - Core NBN

From Jinteki we now turn to the next corporation, NBN.  The world's largest media conglomerate, which has been known as Network Broadcast News, Net Broadcast Network, and Near-Earth Broadcast Network.  Today, it headquarters itself in Broadcast Square, New Angeles, as well as maintaining facilities along the length of the New Angeles Space Elevator, particularly in Midway Station and the Castle.  If it has to do with entertainment, advertising, or marketing, odds are good that NBN is behind it.  With this massive presence, it is no wonder that almost all data passes through NBN at some point.  So let us take a look at the core cards behind NBN.

NBN: Making News

NBN is the news.  With numerous subsidiaries across the Earth, Moon, and Mars, practically any event can be covered from any perspective.  I'm not exactly sure how to tie that into the ability, though.  Having two recurring credits to use during trace attempts means that you'll want to make at least one trace every turn, either on your turn or the runner's turn.  There are plenty of ways to do so, and these credits mean your credit pool can be saved for other costs, such as rezzing ice or playing operations.  Still, it is not exactly the strongest identity NBN has.

Pair cards: Manhunt, Door to Door, Broadcast Square, anything that traces

AstroScript Pilot Program

A card so good, it had to be changed through errata.  You'll get two of these in your core, but now can only have one in a deck.  The was because the card was used so frequently in NBN decks, and because its ability is so powerful.  Scoring one means you could install another copy, advance the new copy twice, then use the token to score out the second copy.  You could do that again with the third copy, and then finish off with another 3 for 2.  Even with the new restriction, there's very little reason to not run a copy of this in your NBN deck.

Pair cards: Biotic Labor, 24/7 News Cycle

Breaking News

A 2 for 1 is pretty good on its own, as it can be used to score out if you only need one more point.  But the effect on it is really good as well.  If you wait to score this, you can land two tags on the runner, provided they have no way to remove or avoid those tags.  Even if they can dodge one of the tags, there's still a lot of cards that can be activated off of that.  Still, thanks to the Most Wanted List, each copy of this card reduces your maximum influence by 1 point, so slotting in 3 of these means that with Making News, you will only have 12 of influence to work with.

Pair cards: Closed Accounts, Scorched Earth, Freelancer, Bad Times, Traffic Accident, 24/7 News Cycle, The All-Seeing I, BOOM!

Anonymous Tip

This card is pretty much as it looks.  If you need 3 cards, then getting them in exchange for one click is really good deal.  Granted, I tend not to see this card played often, but that might just be my meta at work.  If you find you need more cards in hand, whether you are playing them or the runner is hitting your hand hard, this could be a decent way to get those cards.

Trivia: It is a reprint.  The original card from the CCG was called Annual Reviews.

Pair cards: Shipment from MirrorMorph

Closed Accounts

A major problem for the corporation is when the runner has massive piles of credits.  With lots of credits, the runner is able to do pretty much anything: install and play cards, make runs, trash cards, and so on.  This card is the answer to that.  For 1 credit, you can force the runner to lose all their money, potentially opening a scoring window for you in the time it takes them to rebuild their credit pool.  Of course, you do need to tag them first, but that should be easy for NBN.

Trivia: Another reprint, even down to the name Closed Accounts.

Pair cards: Breaking News, SEA Source, TGTBT, Prisec, City Surveillance

Psychographics

According to Wikipedia, psychographics is the study of personality, values, opinions, attitudes, interests, and lifestyles.  Considering that each tag on the runner represents a piece of information you have about them, you can kind of understand where this card is going.  The more you know about the runner, the more you can get out of them, translating into being able to place multiple advancement tokens on a card.  Of course, to get maximum benefit out of this, it would be ideal to place a large number of tags on the runner at once.

Pair cards: Midseason Replacements, Hard-Hitting News

SEA Source

Being able to land a tag on the runner is a big thing.  Even more so if you can do it on your turn.  At the cost of 2 credits, you can initiate a trace against the runner.  If that trace is successful, you give them one tag.  Of course, in order to play this card, the runner must have made a successful run on the previous turn.  So if they got stopped by some ice, or voluntarily jacked out, you won't be able to use this.  Of course, if they can not make successful runs, then you are probably going to win the game.

Trivia: SEA is an acronym for Space Elevator Authority, the organization that oversees the operation and security of the New Angeles Space Elevator.  Security officers of the SEA are sometimes called 'yellow coats,' a reference to their yellow uniforms.  Although, you'll sometimes hear NAPD officers refer to them as 'elevator mercs,' or 'rent-a-cops.'

Pair cards: Closed Accounts, Scorched Earth, Freelancer, Bad Times, 24/7 News Cycle, The All-Seeing I

Ghost Branch

The ambush card for NBN, and it's a really good one.  Each advancement counter on it becomes a tag you give to the runner.  Even better, it activates without having to pay anything for it.  So you install and advance this twice behind a piece of ice.  The runner may be forced to spend significant resource to reach it, with the result being needing to spend more resources to remove the tags.  Or say they hit you with an Account Siphon before running on this.  Unlike other traps, you can still use this on them, even with your credit pool drained.

Pair cards: Trick of Light, Mushin no Shin, Back Channels

Data Raven

A porous ice, but still one that could stop a run.  If the runner is unable to deal with this ice or the tag it gives, they can choose to end the run on encountering it, possibly buying you the time you need.  Even with that tag, the runner will still need to break it, or risk giving it a counter, allowing you to tag the runner at practically any time.  A very good piece of ice.

Trivia: A reprint, sort of.  There is a card from the Netrunner CCG called Data Raven, but it functions differently.  It has a rez cost and a strength of five, does not automatically give the runner a tag, and its subroutine instead can give the runner a counter which does give a tag at the start of their turn, but the counter can be removed at the cost of an action and a credit.

Pair cards: Improved Tracers

Matrix Analyzer

Another porous piece of ice, but a potentially useful one.  On encounter, you can spend a credit to place an advancement token on a card that can be advanced.  So, you could advance a trap the runner is heading toward, or an agenda you have in play, or even a piece of ice that can be advanced.  Aside from that ability, there's not much to this card.  It has a low cost and low strength, and the one subroutine has a fairly low strength trace.  Granted, it could still be fairly useful.

Pair cards: Improved Tracers

Tollbooth

The largest piece of ice NBN has in the core, and it is an exceptional one.  An 8 credit rez cost for a strength 5 piece of ice makes this similar to the Wall of Thorns from Jinteki.  However, instead of doing damage, this card drains the runner's credits.  Plus, if they do not have enough credits to pay the toll, then the run automatically ends.  So this card will either tax the runner significantly, or will stop them cold.  Just watch out for Femme Fatale, as once you bring this card online, it becomes a very tempting target for the bypass ability, since it means they get past this card for just 1 credit.

Pair cards: Akitaro Watanabe

Red Herrings

Again, not a card that commonly sees play, but one that could have some decent application.  With this installed, if the runner accesses an agenda, they will have to pay 5 extra credits in order to steal it, even if they trash the Red Herrings on that run.  The low trash cost makes that easy to do, so you want to place this somewhere it will be expensive for the runner to reach.  This will probably be best in a subsidiary fortress, as you can place your agendas in there, and the runner will probably have to make 2 runs in order to steal the agenda.  Placing this on R&D or HQ feels less useful, due to the random nature of accesses off of R&D and HQ.  This maybe could be good on Archives, if a lot of agendas end up in there, but would still probably be of more use elsewhere.

Trivia: It is another reprint.  The original Red Herrings is pretty much exactly the same as this one, although it does have some nice artwork of fish on it.

Pair cards: TGTBT, Explode-a-palooza, Award Bait

SanSan City Grid

NBN's one-off in the core is so good, you will likely want to purchase at least one more core to get another copy of it.  Or maybe not, as the 2016 world championship deck uses 2 copies of this card, so it may be better to wait until that is released.  But you can easily see why.  Lowering the advancement requirement of agendas in the same server means you could install a 3 for 2 and score it on the same turn, or you could install an agenda with an advancement requirement of 4 and still score it on the same turn with a Biotic Labor or an AstroScript Pilot Program counter.  The investment on the rez cost is pretty high, but the high trash cost means that the runner has to invest significant resources to get rid of this, and they may have to make a hard choice in that regard.  But be aware, this card is also on the Most Wanted List, so each copy will lower your maximum influence by 1.

Trivia: This one is pretty close to a reprint.  Washington, D.C., City Grid from the Netrunner CCG has the same effect, but has a rez cost of 7 and a trash cost of 6 instead.

Pair cards: Interns, License Acquisition, Team Sponsorship, Friends in High Places

And that is all for the NBN core set.  In the next analysis article, we move on to Weyland Consortium.  Prepare to blow stuff up.

Card Analysis - Core Jinteki

Moving on to the next set of corporation cards in the core set, we reach Jinteki.  Known primarily for its lines of clones, which it markets as organic androids available for cheap labor, Jinteki also has divisions engaged in developing biotechnology, cloned organs, pharmacology, agriculture, and medicine.  From the old headquarters in Tokyo, to the new headquarters in New Angeles; from the Biotech Valley in SanSan, to the agroplexes in Mumbad, and even all the way to Mars, Jinteki has many options available to it.  However, with just the core set, those options are fairly limited.

Jinteki: Personal Evolution

Each of the corporation identities out of the core are Megacorp, which represent the corporation as a whole and act as a guiding philosophy.  Haas-Bioroid: Engineering the Future exemplified the corporation's dedication to efficiency, gaining the most out of every click.  Personal Evolution goes in a different direction.  Every time an agenda is scored or stolen, the runner takes a point of net damage.  This could be dangerous for the runner if they get too greedy, taking too many agendas at once, and could potentially flatline them, or set up for a flatline.  However, with just the core, this identity does not have the agendas available to it in order to take advantage of this ability very well.  Ideally, you'll want a mix of low value and easy to score agendas with some high value agendas that have complementary abilities.

Pair cards: Fetal AI, House of Knives, Clone Retirement, Philotic Entanglement, Project Kusanagi

Nisei MK II

The Nisei line of clones are a prototype of psychic clones, with potential applications ranging from investigation to espionage.  Of course, the line is not fully active yet, and could be scrapped if it performs poorly.  Scoring this agenda gives you the ability to stop a run once.  This could be used to keep the runner out of your scoring server, opening the window to score an agenda.  This can also be used to shut down a critical run event the runner plays, such as The Maker's Eye, Account Siphon, or Stimhack.  As such, you'll want to be careful as to when you use this.

Trivia: It turns out this is actually a reprint.  From the Classic expansion of the Netrunner CCG, we have Data Fort Remapping, which has the exact same statistics and abilities.

Pair cards: Genetic Resequencing

 Project Junebug

The first of two ambush cards for Jinteki in the core set.  This one has the potential to do large amounts of net damage to the runner, and only costs one click to use.  The downside is it has to be installed, so it is vulnerable in R&D and HQ, and you have to spend time and money advancing it, so if the runner chooses not to run into it or exposes it, you may have lost your investment.  Still, with some additional cards, this could be beneficial in other ways.

Trivia: It turns out there is a card fairly close to this one in the Netrunner CCG.  Virus Test Site does 2 net damage per advancement counter, but can do 1 net damage if accessed while it has no counters on it, even if accessed out of HQ or R&D.

Pair cards: Trick of Light, Mushin No Shin, Back Channels

 Snare!

And now the second ambush card for Jinteki.  This time, the card can be activated when the runner accesses it (except in the Archives,) making it useful in R&D and HQ, but the downside is that it costs 4 credits.  Still, it does 3 net damage and even gives the runner a tag, which can be especially dangerous if the runner chose to make a run on their last click.

Trivia: Another reprint.  This time, the original card was called TRAP!, and functioned exactly like Snare!

Pair cards: Scorched Earth, Hostile Infrastructure, Dedicated Neural Net

 Zaibatsu Loyalty

One of the two one-off cards Jinteki has in the core, this card is one that has not seen a lot of play.  Still, it does have applications.  For 1 credit or trashing it, you can prevent a card from being exposed, denying the runner a piece of information.  This can disrupt the runner's plans, especially if they used a Drive By or planned to use Blackguard.  Still, the choice to use this will usually depend on how much expose in in your meta.

Trivia: Remarkably, it is a reprint.  From the Proteus expansion to the CCG, we have Department of Misinformation, which is almost identical to this card, but can't trash itself to prevent a card from being exposed.

Pair cards: Turtlebacks, Executive Boot Camp, Tech Startup, Diversified Portfolio

 Neural EMP

A card that could potentially win the game for you, and its existence will likely force the runner to draw cards to avoid that situation.  For 2 credits, you can do a point of net damage to the runner.  This could allow you to pick off a card from their hand, or it could be fatal when combined with other damage cards.  Still, this card is dependent on the runner having made a run on their previous turn, so you may not be able to use it when you want to.

Pair cards: Archived Memories, Chronos Protocol: Selective Mind-mapping

 Precognition

Knowing what will come ahead is always beneficial.  With this, you could rearrange your cards around to move agendas deeper into the deck or move traps closer to the surface.  You could move a card you want to the top and then draw it.  The potential applications of this are great.

Trivia: Another reprint.  This time, the card was called Planning Consultants, and its flavor text, "Chance favors the prepared mind," is highly appropriate.

Pair cards: Mutate, Accelerated Diagnostics

Cell Portal

The first piece of Jinteki ice shows the tricky nature of the faction.  It is a remarkably high strength piece of ice, but that strength comes with another cost.  The one subroutine on this returns the runner to the outermost piece of ice on the server, and then Cell Portal derezes itself.  This can be a problem if Cell Portal is the only piece of ice on the server.  Also, it can be expensive to use this over and over.  Still, Jinteki does have some ways to possibly make this work.

Trivia: There doesn't seem to be a direct correlation of this card to an older card, although there are a series of Deflector ice from the Classic expansion.  However, most of them required you to spend money to deflect the runner onto another server.

Pair cards: Sunset, Tenma Line, Akitaro Watanabe

Chum

Another porous code gate, and another one that requires good positioning.  If the runner can't break this, then the next piece of ice they encounter becomes stronger and they will take damage if they don't break all the subroutines on that piece of ice.  This card will likely force the runner to spend more money to break this, although they may just ignore the Chum if breaking the next piece of ice would be cheaper, even with the extra strength.  Also, if the runner triggers this effect and bypasses the next piece of ice, they will take the damage since they didn't break all the subroutines.

Pair cards: Sunset, Tenma Line

Data Mine

Another interesting piece of ice.  Note that this doesn't have a barrier, code gate, or sentry subtype, which means that most icebreakers will be unable to deal with it.  Still, you'll have to decide if it is worth it to possibly guarantee a point of net damage on the runner.

Pair cards: Chum, Chief Slee

Neural Katana

Another piece of porous ice, but this one has a potential threat.  Unless the runner can deal with a sentry, this could do 3 net damage, which could force a runner to jack out prematurely.  Still, most killers can deal with this fairly efficiently, with Mimic breaking it for 1 credit.  As such, it's not a commonly used piece of ice.

Trivia: This doesn't appear to be a direct reprint of anything, though there is a card from the original game called Neural Blade.  Also, the designation Ak.wa in the flavor text is probably a reference to Akitaro Watanabe, who we will be meeting soon enough.

Pair cards: Chum, Patch, Sub Boost

Wall of Thorns

The only piece of Jinteki ice in the core that actually has an EtR subroutine.  It's fairly expensive to bring online, but could potentially do some damage to the runner as well.  Plus, it could be fairly expensive for the runner to deal with.

Trivia: Another reprint, actually.  The original card was Shotgun Wire, and also Razor Wire has the same subroutines, but cost 6 to rez and has 3 strength.

Pair cards: Akitaro Watanabe

Akitaro Watanabe

Time to meet the man behind Neural Katana, as well as the other one-off card for Jinteki.  His ability is very useful, as lowering the cost of ice means you need fewer credits to protect your servers.  Of course, since he is unique, you can only have him on one server at a time.  Still, if all of the ice on that server is rezzed, you could rez him on another server, thus overwriting the old copy.

Trivia: At the time of this writing, this is the only Unorthodox subtype card in the game.  Perhaps more were meant to be included, or some sort of synergy was planned, but it has yet to come to fruition.

Pair cards: Recruiting Trip, Isabel McGuire, Restoring Face

And that is all for the core Jinteki cards.  Next time, we move on to NBN.

Until then, they are always watching.

Card Analysis - Core Haas-Bioroid

Moving from the core runner cards to the core corporation cards, I'm starting with the first cards in order that you get to.  Haas-Bioroid is known for the production of bioroids, a form of android which can be used for cheap, efficient labor.  Efficiency pervades most of this faction, as your goal will be to get the most out of every click you can.

Haas-Bioroid: Engineering the Future

The quintessential HB identity.  All other HB identities will be compared to this one, with good reason.  The ability is incredibly powerful, as it essentially gives you a click once per turn.  Granted, it forces you to use that click to gain a credit, but the credits do add up.  Plus, since it functions on each turn, if you have the opportunity to install a card on the runner's turn, you'll gain a click for that as well.  This powerful ability means that many of the best HB decks will be using this identity.

Pair cards: Architect, Advanced Assembly Lines

Accelerated Beta Test

This agenda would be good alone as just a 3 for 2, but its ability can also be very beneficial.  If you choose to activate it, you get to look at the top 3 cards of your deck.  If any of those are ice, you can install and rez them anywhere, ignoring all costs.  So with this, you could get a very expensive piece of ice for free.  Of course, you have to trash any non-ice cards that are there, which can be bad if you end up tossing three agendas.  Still, there are ways to hedge your bets on this one.

Trivia:  We have a pretty close reprint here.  There's an agenda in the classic Netrunner called Security Purge which does pretty much the exact same effect and has the same statistics as this card.  The downside is that you actually show all the cards off of R&D to the runner, so they would know if you had dumped an agenda.

Pair cards: Precognition, Hasty Relocation, Jackson Howard, lots of ice

And yes, I realize the irony of recommending Jinteki cards to pair with an HB card.

Adonis Campaign

HB also gives a fairly efficient economy.  This could be worth at least 8 credits more than you pay for it, assuming the runner doesn't destroy it immediately.  Granted, those credits will be coming in slowly, so you may want to protect this with at least one piece of ice.

Trivia: There's not exactly a direct copy of this one, but both Holovid Campaign and Braindance Campaign start with 12 credits on them, and you slowly take credits off of them.

Pair cards: Breaker Bay Grid, Worlds Plaza, Full Immersion RecStudio

Aggressive Secretary

A very good trap to use against the runner.  Each advancement token on this allows you to trash one of the runner's programs when they access it.  Granted, you have to be able to pay 2 credits to use it, and it is fairly vulnerable while in R&D and HQ, but this card could open up a scoring window if the runner has to scramble to replace key programs in their rig.

Trivia: Another reprint.  The original name of this card in the CCG was Experimental AI.  Oddly, it has a rez cost of 2, but otherwise works exactly the same.

Pair cards: Trick of Light, Mushin No Shin, Back Channels

 Archived Memories

This card is pretty easy to overlook.  You may wonder why you would need to add a card from Archives to HQ.  However, there are a lot of reasons.  In a way, this card functions as a copy of any card in your discard pile.  So if the runner trashes an asset or upgrade you need, you can get it back into your hand with this.  Or you could play an operation, use Archived Memories to get it back, and then play it again.

Trivia: Another reprint.  Originally, this card was called Off-Site Backups.

Pair cards: potentially anything, really

Biotic Labor

And now we get into where HB really shines.  For the cost of 4 credits, you can gain one extra click.  Typically, this card will be used on a turn when you intend to install a 3 for 2 agenda and score it in the same turn.  However, that doesn't mean you have to use this card only for rushing out agendas.  If you have some plan that requires an extra click, then go for it.

Trivia: And again we have a reprint.  This time, the card was called Overtime Incentives.

Pair cards: any 3 cost agenda

 Shipment from MirrorMorph

Another example of click efficiency gained through this faction.  For one credit, you get up to 3 clicks worth of installs.  Ideally, you'd want to install 3 cards with this, but even installing 2 cards means you come out ahead.  Plus, if you are playing Engineering the Future and this is your first time installing cards this turn, you even get your credit back.

Trivia: HB seems to be the faction of reprints so far.  This time, the card was called Edgerunner, Inc., Temps, but it was worded slightly differently.  Instead of installing the cards as part of playing the cards, you immediately gained 3 actions (clicks) which had to be used for installing cards, and had to be used immediately.

Pair cards: Anonymous Tip, Jackson Howard, Blue Level Clearance

Heimdall 1.0

Here's the other part of the HB faction: bioroids being used as ice.  They tend to be fairly powerful for their cost.  However, almost all bioroid ice has the ability where the runner can spend clicks to break subroutines.  This is both good and bad for you, because if the runner spends clicks to get through, they have fewer clicks to use on their turn, but it means your ice is more porous, and you'll need more ice to defend your servers.  Still, this incarnation of Heimdall is fairly decent for its cost.  Plus, it has the potential to do a brain damage, which can be big.

Trivia: Heimdall is a god in Norse mythology known for possessing foreknowledge, keen eyesight and hearing.  From his home near the Bifrost he keeps watch for Ragnarok.

Pair cards: Bioroid Efficiency Research, Project Wotan, Tyr's Hand, Brain-Taping Warehouse

Ichi 1.0

Another bioroid, so again, this piece of ice can be porous.  However, if the runner can't break this, it can swing the game in your favor.  This can destroy up to 2 programs, and could potentially give the runner a tag and a point of brain damage.  Granted, you'll probably have to pour a lot of money into the trace to get that point of brain damage.

 Trivia: Ichi is a Japanese word meaning one or first.  Considering the card's artwork makes the model look like a samurai, it feels appropriate.

Pair cards:  Project Wotan, Tyr's Hand, Brain-Taping Warehouse

Viktor 1.0

Another bioroid, this time a code gate.  Still fairly porous, but it does have the potential to deal a point of brain damage, which means running into this last click is dangerous for the runner.  Sadly, it is at the threshold where Yog.0 breaks it for free, but otherwise it is fairly good for its cost.

Trivia: The flavor text is possibly a reference to the movie WarGames, where the supercomputer WOPR/Joshua asks the question, "Shall we play a game?"

Pair cards: Project Wotan, Tyr's Hand, Brain-Taping Warehouse

Rototurret

This can potentially be a nasty surprise for your opponent.  If they try running without a killer in place, this could destroy one of their programs.  However, you probably won't get much use out of this, as it dies immediately to Parasite, and is still easily dealt with by all killers.  Still, it can be somewhat taxing for that reason.

Trivia: Wouldn't you know it, another reprint.  Originally, the piece of ice was named Banpei.

Pair cards: Akitaro Watanabe

Corporate Troubleshooter

It's the card this blog is named for, at last.  Sadly, it's HB's one-of card in the core.  Still, it's effect is remarkable.  It allows you to spend any amount of credits to give a piece of ice on the same server that much extra strength.  This can push a piece of ice up beyond the point where your opponent can deal with it, forcing them to resolve it.  Sadly, it does not play well with Şifr, which lowers the strength of a piece of ice to 0 for the remainder of the encounter, so I don't think you could counteract that by rezzing this and using it.  Still, while not widely used, it could stop a runner cold.  Plus, it isn't unique.

Pair cards: any ice

Experiential Data

Again, not something that is commonly used.  Still, for 2 credits, giving all ice protecting the same server an extra point of strength could throw off the runner's calculations and potentially force them to abandon a run partway through.  The low trash cost means that you'll want to invest some decent protection into whatever server this is helping.  Also, if it is boosting bioroids, they can still usually be clicked through, so watch out for that.

Trivia: Another reprint, of sorts.  This time, the original card was Antiquated Interface Routines, except it had a trash cost of 1.

Pair cards: Encryption Protocol, Hostile Infrastructure, Breaker Bay Grid

And that does it for the core Haas-Biorid cards.  Next time, we look at the core Jinteki cards.

Until next time, remember the Three Directives are in place.  Bioroids are your friends.

Petrie's Family Games 2017 Store Championship

So while there is still one more store championship left in Colorado, I doubt I will be in attendance, meaning that this past store championship was the last one this season for me.  As such, here are the decks I came up with for this event:

Homewrecker - 45 cards
Identity: Edward Kim - Humanity's Hammer

Programs
Black Orchestra - 1
Corroder - 2
Crypsis - 1
Datasucker - 1
Djinn - 2
Imp - 2
Medium - 1
Mimic - 2
Nerve Agent - 1
Parasite - 3 (-3 maximum influence)
Savoir-faire - 2 (6 influence)

Hardware
Cyberfeeder - 3
Şifr - 3

Resources
Armitage Codebusting - 3
Eden Shard - 1 (1 influence)
Scrubber - 3

Operations
Day Job - 3
Déjà Vu - 2
I've Had Worse - 3
Levy AR Lab Access - 1 (3 influence)
Sure Gamble - 3

I guess this time I just wanted to try smashing everything.  The combination of Şifr and Savior-faire seems a little odd, but it means that a Parasite can be installed on a piece of ice during a run immediately after it was rezzed.  Also, I know the obvious choice to do this is Clone Chip, which takes up as much influence as Savoir-faire without being a program, but between Chronos Project and Ark Lockdown, I feel that cards are more vulnerable in the discard pile than in the hand.  A variety of viruses helps diversify options, and Djinn allows for them to be tutored, while Cyberfeeders can offset the costs of installing them.  However, the deck played very slow.  With I've Had Worse as the only form of card draw, a lot of time is spent digging for key cards, especially Şifr.  Plus, I wasn't certain what I wanted to do with the last point of influence, so it went into Eden Shard.  Also, there's no drip economy, which is a problem considering there's very little recursion.

Task Force Alpha - 49 cards
Identity: Argus Security - Protection Guaranteed

Agendas (20 points)
Crisis Management - 1
Global Food Initiative - 3 (3 influence)
Hostile Takeover - 3
Oaktown Renovation - 3
Posted Bounty - 1

Ice
Archer - 2
Data Raven - 3 (6 influence)
Enigma - 3
Fire Wall - 3
Ice Wall - 3
Shadow - 3

Assets
Elizabeth Mills - 3
Jackson Howard - 3 (3 influence)
PAD Campaign - 3

Upgrades
Prisec - 3

Operations
Beanstalk Royalties - 3
Closed Accounts - 2 (2 influence)
Scorched Earth - 3
The All-Seeing I - 1 (1 influence)

I suppose I wanted to give Argus a shot.  Agenda suite feels fairly standard for this strategy.  Crisis Management is interesting, because it can do damage if the runner can't remove all their tags.  GFI can help push me into scoring out.  Hostile Takeover and Oaktown help prop up the somewhat weak economy.  Posted Bounty as a one off can give me a tag in preparation to Scorch or use another form of tag punishment.

Ice is geared mostly around keeping the runner out, but should also be taxing if the runner wants in.  Archer works really well as a surprise, but is a big target for ice destruction.  Data Raven can force a tag if the runner doesn't have Hunting Grounds.  Enigma and Ice Wall are cheap EtR ice.  Fire Wall is slightly more expensive EtR, and can be more taxing to the runner.  Shadow could possibly land a tag, though it's more likely the runner will try to break that or match the trace.

Assets are also kind of standard.  Elizabeth Mills can remove bad publicity from Hostile Takeovers, but can also blow up locations.  Jackson provides card draw and recursion.  PAD Campaign provides drip economy.

The only upgrade is Prisec, but I feel that it is really good.  For 2 credits, you do a meat damage and give the runner a tag, which can force them to spend a click removing the tag, meaning having one fewer click for whatever they had planned.  As such, a surprise Prisec can throw off the runners calculations on how much money they will need for the run.

As for operations, I've gone with Beanstalk Royalties over Hedge Fund mostly because Beanstalk can be played from 0 credits, and Scorched Earth costs exactly 3 credits.  So if I get hit with an Account Siphon, and the runner somehow doesn't clear all the tags they take, I could in theory land a Scorch from nothing.  The rest of the operations are just tag punishment, and I've picked these in particular because they all only require one tag, as opposed to Traffic Accident or BOOM!, which both require at least 2, since I've not invested any influence into massively landing tags, such as Hard-Hitting News or Midseason Replacements.  Still, Closed Accounts is good in that I can drain massive amounts of credits and All-Seeing I can destroy a lot of resources, or possibly remove one bad publicity.

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

Round 1: vs. Joshua 
Edward Kim vs. Palana Foods: 6 - 7 L
Argus Security vs. Chaos Theory: 0 - 1 W (flatline)

Apparently, I managed to get a decent economy early as the runner.  But I was unable to find a copy of Şifr, negating my primary strategy.  I did get out Corroder and Yog.0, but he scored 2 copies of Medical Breakthrough and then put another agenda into his scoring server.  I think he also played "Clones Are Not People" at this point, meaning I had to steal that agenda to stop him from winning.  I was able to get in and beat both Marcus Batty and Caprice Nisei to steal a Nisei MK II.  After that, I grabbed 2 copies of GFI, but he scored a Clone Retirement and pulled the third copy of Medical Breakthrough.  Second game I used my mulligan and drew into 2 copies of Scorched Earth.  I set up some defenses, but he set up a Film Critic, Aaron Marrón, and The Source.  I forgot about that, and tried scoring out a Hostile, which didn't work.  He then picked that up, but put it on Film Critic instead of stealing it, bypassing The Source, but also not getting the counters on Arron.  So instead, I lured him into a Prisec, and breaking in left him without enough credits to remove the tag, so I Scorched him.

Round 2: vs. Aaron W.
Argus Security vs. Kate "Mac" McCaffrey: 8 - 0 W
Edward Kim vs. NEXT Design: 4 - 5 L (timed loss)

Another rematch against Aaron, but this time went slightly better for me.  I started with 2 copies of Oaktown, a Data Raven, an Archer and a Hostile, which I decided to keep.  I scored out the Hostile, and on turn 2, set up an Oaktown behind the Archer, which I scored on turn 3.  I then set up another Archer on the remote and installed the second Oaktown.  However, he put a Femme Fatale on one of the Archers, so I rezzed the other one.  He could have broken all but one subroutine, but it would have cost him all of his money, so he chose to do nothing, which let me destroy his Femme and a Self-modifying Code, I think.  I scored the Oaktown on the turn after that.  I was then able to put some ice on HQ and R&D, and was able to use Elizabeth to blow up his London Library twice, which slowed his strategy down.  I was able to score out another Hostile and the Crisis Management before setting up a GFI in the remote, which now had a Data Raven on the outside of it as well.  He then used his Comet to play two copies of Test Run to install the two copies of Femme Fatale that were in his discard pile.  Fortunately for me, he put them on the rezzed Archer and the Data Raven, so when he ran, I brought the second Archer online.  Again, he chose not to break, so this time I destroyed another SMC and the Cyber-Cypher he had out.  That allowed me to score out.  Second game was rushed because the first game took most of the time in the round.  Most of the time I had was spent towards setting up.  We each managed to score a copy of GFI and a copy of Project Vitruvius.  However, time was called on my turn, and I couldn't snag the agenda that was in his hand, so he was able to win on time.

Round 3: vs. Marty
Edward Kim vs. Cerebral Imaging: 0 - 7 L
Argus Security vs. Nasir Meidan: 3 - 2 W (flatline)

Unfortunately for me, he was playing a super combination CI deck, and I wasn't able to break the combo, nor was I able to draw my Eden Shard, which could have stopped it.  Most of that game was spent with a handful of Parasites, and no good way to use them.  Second game, I used my mulligan and drew into an Enigma and an Oaktown, so I set them up in a remote.  I scored that out on the next turn.  Unfortunately, he was able to set up his rig in that time.  I scored a Hostile, and used Elizabeth to blow up his Order of Sol.  I got another Elizabeth, which I used to clear that bad publicity.  I gave up a GFI after that, but scored Crisis Management afterwards.  He then made a run on R&D, taking tags from both Data Raven and Prisec, and he was unable to clear both.  Two turns afterwards, I drew into a second copy of Scorched Earth, which let me blow him up.

Round 4: vs. Grant
Argus Security vs. Armand "Geist" Walker: 1 - 7 L
Edward Kim vs. Engineering the Future: 2 - 7 L

This was probably the worst match-up I could have had as the corporation.  His ability gives massive card draw, which can negate blowing him up.  I tried scoring an early Oaktown, but he was able to install a Crowbar off of a Street Peddler, which let him get through my Enigma.  He also got out Aaron Marrón early, negating my corporation's ability.  I gave up a Posted Bounty and another Oaktown, but was able to score a pointless Crisis Management.  He was then able to install a Şifr, which let him Legwork through the Fire Wall on HQ to steal a GFI, which I was holding two of.  Second game, I was unable to get my economy in place.  I was able to steal a GFI, but he then put up Enhanced Login Protocol, making it harder for me to run.  He scored out a Domestic Sleepers and used Biotic Labor to score out 2 copies of Project Vitruvius and an Accelerated Beta Test, which gave him the game.

And that was it.  My above average performance as corp was hampered by my abysmal performance as runner.  Out of 15 players, I ended up in 13th place.

So post season analysis.  My best runner deck was the Adam deck I took to the first store championship at The Yellow King and my best corporation deck was the Argus deck I took to the last store championship.  I'm still trying to determine exactly where I went right with these decks, but seeing as I've dismantled the Argus deck for now and am considering how to improve it, further analysis will have to wait.  Still, league play has started up again at Petrie's so I'll have opportunities to try out new ideas.

Until next time, watch out for the Prisec.

Chaos Games & More 2017 Store Championship

Store championship season is coming to a close.  Well, at least for me, as this upcoming weekend will be the last one I will be attending this season.  At any rate, this past weekend there was another store championship down in Pueblo.  So I spent my time actually testing my decks for this one.  How did that turn out?  As usual, I will go over the decks first, and then get into how they did.

Return to the Nexus - 46 cards
Identity: Kate "Mac" McCaffrey

Programs
Battering Ram - 2
Garrote - 2 (6 influence)
Gordian Blade - 2
Magnum Opus - 2
Self-modifying Code - 3

Hardware
Akamatsu Mem Chip - 2
Dyson Mem Chip - 3
Rabbit Hole - 2
Security Nexus - 3 (9 influence)

Resources
Access to Globalsec - 3
Earthrise Hotel - 3
Same Old Thing - 3
Underworld Contact - 3

Events
Diesel - 3
Levy AR Lab Access - 2
Modded - 2
Sure Gamble - 3
The Maker's Eye - 3

So, I really wanted to try out Nexus Kate.  Ideally, Security Nexus allows me to deal with troublesome pieces of large ice, by either bypassing them or making them fail to go off.  Breaker suite is efficient, but expensive and takes up a lot of space, which is why I have Akamatsu chips as well as Dyson chips.  Rabbit Hole and Access to Globalsec add some cheap link strength.  Earthrise Hotel and Diesel are the main drawing engines, and SMC grants some program tutoring.  Underworld Contact for some drip economy with Sure Gamble and Magnum Opus for burst, plus Modded helps offset the cost of Garrote and Security Nexus.  The Maker's Eye for some multi-access, and 2 copies of LARLA for recursion.  Should be solid enough.  And yes, I don't have the obvious Vamp in, because I would have to remove either a copy of Nexus or a copy of Garrote, both of which could be trouble.

I Will Lie to You - 59 cards
Identity: Jinteki Biotech - Life Imagined

Agendas (24 points)
Braintrust - 3
Chronos Project - 2
Clone Retirement - 2
Corporate Sales Team - 3
Fetal AI - 3
Philotic Entanglement - 1

Ice
Ice Wall - 3 (3 influence)
Komainu - 1
Lotus Field - 3
Pup - 3
Tollbooth - 3 (6 influence)
Wall of Static - 2

Assets
Jackson Howard - 3 (3 influence)
Project Junebug - 3
Shock! - 3
Snare! - 3
Thomas Haas - 3 (3 influence)

Upgrades
Cyberdex Virus Suite - 1

Operations
Celebrity Gift - 3
Cerebral Static - 2
Hedge Fund - 3
Mushin No Shin - 3
Trick of Light - 3

I really would like for Jinteki Biotech to be a good identity, so I tried coming up with a deck build that could make good use of any of the three potential identities it could be.  Braintrust is a standard 3 for 2 agenda.  Chronos Project could disrupt any runner dependent on recurring their discard pile, or possibly for stopping the breakers that can be installed from the discard pile (Paperclip, Black Orchestra, and MKUltra.)  Clone Retirement can be used to score that final point or to remove bad publicity, in case that comes up.  Corporate Sales Team adds some drip economy.  Fetal AI is in solely to work as both a trap and an agenda.  Philotic is mostly there to be a 3 for 2, but could inflict some damage.

Ice is kind of weak, but the idea of the deck is not necessarily to keep the runner out, but to allow them in at the right time.  Ice Wall and Wall of Static provide some cheap EtR, plus Ice Wall can be advanced and used with Trick of Light.  Lotus Field kind of works as a counter to Şifr, which just came out.  Tollbooth should be taxing, but again, the previously mentioned console has kind of disrupted that.  Komainu could be potentially devastating, and combined with The Brewery, could land a kill.  Pup is cheap and should tax the runner slightly, either in cards or credits.  I was considering using Cobra in place of Pup, but was not sure I'd have enough money to consistently rez it.

Jackson is in to provide some card draw and recursion if I'm not using The Tank.  Junebug is a decent target for Mushin no Shin, and can be used as a token bank for Trick of Light.  Shock! and Snare! are both good traps, plus Shock! can be dumped into Archives to stop runs on that server.  Thomas Haas adds some burst economy, but I'm thinking it may need to be removed, as my plan of utilizing it with Mushin no Shin is not good, since Mushin forbids it being rezzed until the next corp turn, so if the runner calls that bluff, I lose the potential.

Celebrity Gift and Hedge fund provide more burst economy.  Cerebral Static can hurt most runner, or can be used just to clear the runner's current.  Mushin is there to speed up scoring of agendas or to set up traps.  Trick of Light gives some fast advance possibilities to score either 3 for 2 or 4 for 2 agendas.

So that's the ideas.  Time to see how well they paid off.

Round 1: vs. Alexis
Kate vs. Blue Sun: 6 - 5 L (flatline)
Biotech (The Greenhouse) vs. Kate: 4 - 8 L

Not a very promising start.  First game, it took me some time to get my rig setup, and in that time, my opponent was able to score a Hostile Takeover and 2 copies of Project Atlas.  However, once setup, I was able to snag 2 copies of Oaktown Renovation and a Global Food Initiative.  Unfortunately, that GFI allowed her to run a Midseason Replacements on me, which resulted in me taking 24 tags (I had a link strength of 8 at the time, so she boosted the trace to 32.)  Sadly, I was not able to find another agenda in time before she used a Consulting Visit to kill me with a BOOM!  Second game, my opponent got Şifr and a 0 strength Atman early, negating the ice I had up.  I was unable to land any of my traps and was unable to really do much due to R&D being locked down.

Round 2: vs. Jefferson 
Kate vs. Potential Unleashed: 8 - 6 W 
Biotech (The Tank) vs. Valencia Estevez: 1 - 5 W (flatline)

Kind of interesting playing against Jefferson again.  Once again, it took me time to get setup.  He was able to score 2 copies of House of Knives in that time, making future runs dangerous.  However, once setup, I was able to steal his Philotic and 2 copies of Fetal AI.  He then used An Offer You Can't Refuse, which I gave to him, since the alternative would have been a lot of net damage.  He also scored out a copy of The Future Perfect since I was worried it was a Junebug.  But after that, I pulled a Braintrust off of his deck.  Second game, I used my mulligan and was lucky enough to pull a Clone Retirement, which I then scored.  However, that move left me so vulnerable that he pulled 5 points of agendas off of my deck.  I think it was on turn 3 that I drew a Project Junebug, so I used that turn to Mushin no Shin the Junebug and advanced it once.  He was only able to draw until he had 7 cards before he ran it, which he did because he thought it could have given him the game.  Unfortunately for him, that was not enough to soak up all the damage.

At this point was the break for lunch.  I was feeling a bit up from my win in the second round, but it would still be an uphill battle to get into the cut to top 4.

Round 3: vs. Aaron W. 
Kate vs. NEXT Design: 4 - 7 L
Biotech (The Greenhouse) vs. Kate: 6 - 8 L

Another rematch, and unfortunately, with the same results as the last time I faced Aaron.  Once again, he was able to install 3 pieces of ice with NEXT's ability, and I couldn't setup fast enough against his rush strategy.  I was able to take a Project Vitruvius and a GFI off of the deck, but he was still too fast for me.  Second game I was able to sneak a Chronos Project through with Mushin.  I also used Mushin on a Junebug, but when that trap failed, I used Trick of Light on it to score out a Braintrust.  I was able to score a Clone Retirement and did 2 damage when I scored my Philotic, as he had two 2 point agendas.  Unfortunately, a gave up a Fetal after that and couldn't pull any more of my agendas.  I lost when he used The Maker's Eye, in spite of my using Jackson Howard.

Round 4: vs. Tim 
Biotech (The Brewery) vs. Andromeda: 1 - 8 L
Kate vs. Personal Evolution: 1 - 7 L

So at this point, I was pretty on tilt going into the last round.  I went with The Tank in the first game since I pulled a Snare! in my opening hand, and though I might be able to get a kill.  Unfortunately, he got out On the Lam, which negated the damage from Snare!  He then installed an HQ Interface, which could have killed him, as I had 2 Fetal AI in my had at that time.  Unfortunately, he took a Fetal and a Corporate Sales Team instead.  Second game was frustrating.  I spent too much time setting up & didn't bother checking things, which allowed him to score out.

And that was it.  Out of the 16 people who showed up, I placed 14th with that performance.  However, I didn't leave entirely empty handed, as I received a prize for being the best of shapers who weren't in the top 4.  But considering that there were only 5 shapers, and I think 3 of them were in the top 4, (as you can see in my stats, I played 2 of them,) that's not much of an accomplishment.  It's especially frustrating considering I put more time and effort into testing these decks than most other deck I've brought to tournaments.  Still, I did what I could with what I had, and it just wasn't in the cards.  Well, there's one more store championship I'll be attending, so we'll see how that turns out.

Until next time, oppose the takeover of the government.