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.
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