It's been almost a week since the Colorado Regional Tournament for Netrunner, and I feel I'm still working through what happened. While I don't go into tournaments expecting to crush everyone, I would at least like to see my ideas work. At any rate, here's what I came up with this time:
Consume All Data - 46 cards
Identity: Apex - Invasive Predator
Programs
D4v1d - 2 (8 influence)
Endless Hunger - 3
Harbinger - 3
Mimic - 2 (2 influence)
Hardware
Clone Chip - 1 (2 influence, -1 max influence)
Dyson Mem Chip - 3
e3 Feedback Implants - 2 (4 influence)
Heartbeat - 3
Plascrete Carapace - 3
Resources
Hunting Grounds - 3
The Turning Wheel - 3
Wasteland - 3
Events
Apocalypse - 3
Dirty Laundry - 3
Levy AR Lab Access - 1 (3 influence)
Prey - 3
Quality Time - 2 (2 influence)
Sure Gamble - 3
My theory here is that diversifying the breaker suite should allow Apex to get through more troubling ice. Endless Hunger and e3 Feedback Implants allow you to get through anything that has at least one "End the run" subroutine. D4V1D allows you to deal with high strength ice that doesn't have any "End the run" subroutines, such as Assassin or Turing on a remote. Mimic deals with low strength sentries that don't have "End the run" subroutines, such as Cobra. Plus D4V1D has the added benefit of hanging around once its counters are gone, so it can then be used for Endless Hunger or Heartbeat.
Clone Chip gives you a bit more flexibility, especially if you lose a key program during a run. Plus, it can let you recur a spent D4V1D. Dyson Mem Chip is needed to run the full suite, as the +1 memory from Heartbeat isn't enough to hold Endless Hunger, Mimic, and D4V1D simultaneously.
The Turning Wheel seems promising in isolation. I suspect that this card will be eventually changed with errata so that it only can place a counter from a successful run, but for now, you can run repeatedly into an ice on HQ or R&D that just ends the run to build up counters on this for a massive dig. I'm wondering how well this might work in a Criminal deck that takes advantage of Snitch and Au Revoir to make piles of cash.
Last point I want to discuss is the two copies of Quality Time. Originally, I was using Grifter instead, since that gives me money for running, which feels like something the deck should be doing anyway. I swapped Grifter out for Quality Time to add card draw into the deck. But still, I end up drawing a lot of cards by spending clicks, and it feels like I no longer have sufficient economy for this deck.
General Hospital - 44 cards
Identity: Harmony Medtech - Biomedical Pioneer
Agendas - 18 points
Global Food Initiative - 3 (3 influence)
The Future Perfect - 3
Ice
Crick - 2
Komainu - 2
Lotus Field - 3
Susanoo-no-Mikoto - 1
Swordsman - 1
Wall of Static - 3
Wall of Thorns - 2
Assets
Jackson Howard - 3 (3 influence)
Mental Health Clinic - 3
Shi.Kyū - 3
Upgrades
Ash 2X3ZB9CY - 3 (6 influence)
Caprice Nisei - 3
Operations
Cerebral Static - 3
Hedge Fund - 3
Medical Research Fundraiser - 3
As I have stated on the page for this deck, there is nothing original about this deck. It's the Jinteki 6 agenda deck, just for slightly modern times. GFI takes the place of whatever was being used before Data and Destiny came out (I think it was the Source Code fragments, but I could be remembering incorrectly.)
Ice suite is supposed to be kind of diverse. I went with Crick hoping I could use it to get some key upgrades or assets back. Komainu should hurt the runner, and has a kind of synergy with Mental Health Clinic, since the more cards the runner has, the more it will cost them to get through this. Lotus Field can stop a runner early, and can't be affected by Parasite or Datasucker. Susanoo is supposed to go on your scoring remote, but can be placed anywhere except Archives. Swordsman is a one off to deal with Faust. Wall of Static and Wall of Thorns provide some more EtR ice.
I've gone with Mental Health Clinic instead of other drip asset economy mostly because it's cheap to rez and I don't care much about how many cards the runner can hold. I've also picked Medical Research Fundraiser over Celebrity Gift because I don't have enough traps to make Celebrity Gift worthwhile and I don't care about how many credits the runner has. In theory, Ash and Caprice should be able to defend the scoring server, making the amount of money the runner has a little less relevant.
So those are my decks. Let's get on to how badly I did.
Round 1: vs. Marty
Harmony Medtech vs. Valencia Estavez: 3 - 3 L (milled)
Apex vs. Argus Security: 2 - 7 L
Both of these early games were fairly fast. My early attempts to defend in game 1 were in vain, as the combination of Blackmail and DDoS left me unable to stop an Apocalypse. I was able to rebuild after that, and even scored a GFI. However, he still took the other two, and though I did get two Shi.Kyu onto him, he burned one off thanks to Frame Job. After that, he was able to get Eater and Keyhole out and started burning me down. I can't remember if my Swordsman was just burned, or if I put it onto Archives, thinking he would be sure to run there. I suppose instead Swordsman should have gone onto R&D if I had it. End of that game I had a TFP in a remote, with no money to score it, and getting milled out anyway. Second game was frustrating. I was unable to find my breakers, which gave him the time to rush out 4 points. I did snag a Project Atlas off of R&D, but he was still able to rush out the last of the points.
Round 2: vs. Andy
Apex vs. Gagarin Deep Space: 4 - 7 L
Harmony Medtech vs. Nasir Meidan: 6 - 0 W
I play against Andy fairly regularly, so it's interesting to see what directions he goes in. Game one in theory should have been a good match-up for me, but I don't think I saw a single copy of Apocalypse in the game. Or if I did, I installed it face down, thinking another one would come up later. As such, I was unable to adequately deal with the large amount of assets, ended up running out of cash, and lost the game because I ran into an Ash without money. Game two was much better. He went broke installing out equipment, so I put both Ash and Caprice onto the scoring server, and just didn't even bother bringing ice online. Won with two GFIs on this one.
Round 3: vs. Aaron
Harmony Medtech vs. The Professor: 0 - 6 L
Apex vs. NEXT Design: 2 - 7 L
I have no notes on this match, as it put me into tilt. What I do remember is that game one went very badly. He was able to get his setup quick enough that nothing I did mattered. Game two started off poorly. He scored out an Accelerated Beta Test, building up his defenses. I was able to land an Apocalypse after that, but he still rebuilt much more easily than I did. Once again, I believe I ran out of cash, giving him the game.
Round 4: vs. Brian
Apex vs. Near-Earth Hub: 6 - 7 L
Harmony Medtech vs. Ken "Express" Tenma: 6 - 2 W
One again, ended up losing a game as Apex that should have been a good match-up for me. I ended up having to dig through most of my deck in order to find the first copy of Endless Hunger. Before that, I was able to put some pressure onto R&D thanks to D4V1D, since he chose to protect it with Little Engine, which had the added benefit of giving me extra cash. I think I ended up snagging two copies of Explode-a-palooza and one AstroScript Pilot Program, but he got up to 6 points as well. I tried digging for the last one in R&D, but he ended up scoring out a 3 for 2 agenda thanks to SanSan City Grid. Second game was better for me. I was able to drain out his money, and while he was able to nab one GFI, he messed up using The Maker's Eye at one point where he couldn't get in. As such, I managed to score out a GFI and a TFP.
Round 5: vs. Natalie
Harmony vs. Hayley Kaplan: 3 - 6 L
Apex vs. Building a Better World: 7 - 4 W
First game, I was able to get a Cerebral Static off on the second turn, which turned out to be the right play, since she spent the first turn building up money through events. Unfortunately, her deck turned my own against me. She took a Shi.Kyu only to turn it around with Liberated Chela and Hyperdriver. Plus, the moment I started setting up my scoring server with Wall of Thorns, she managed to get out a Morning Star onto a NetChip, making my barriers nearly useless. She then got out a Garrote and a Torch, the latter making my Lotus Fields nearly useless. After that, she took a GFI from me and was able to install two more Hyperdrivers, two more Liberated Chela, and all three of Fan Site, making it impossible for me to win. I decided to score out the one GFI, which gave her the Fan Sites. Her final turn was burning the Hyperdrivers to give herself 10 clicks for the turn, which would let her use both Liberated Chelas if needed. I decided to not even bother forfeiting for the first one. Game two was interesting. I suppose I should have known this was the 6 agenda deck. I did end up having enough time to build up my rig. As such, she was able to get an early Hostile Takeover. After that, I thought I was fortunate to snag a Vanity Project off of R&D, but that ended up being taken from me, thanks to the combination of Consulting Visit, SEA Source and Exchange of Information. After that, I built up counters on The Turning Wheel by running into a Meru Mati on HQ repeatedly, then made a run on HQ hoping to dig out agendas. By luck, the first card I pulled was Government Takeover, giving me the game.
Post-Game Analysis
Thinking on this, I won the corp games where I was able to keep the runner poor. As such, I should reconsider ice to be more taxing. I should also probably reconsider Biomedical Research Fundraiser. Finally, I may want to reconsider Shi.Kyu for something more taxing. Originally, I was contemplating using News Team instead of Ash, but these cards don't seem to have as much benefit now, since there are so many cards people are utilizing that require the forfeit of agendas. As for Apex, I still want to reconsider both economy and card draw. Perhaps I should bring back Chop Bot 3000 for some card draw. Plus, I may need a better form of drip economy. Data Folding might be the answer to that, but I would have to bring back Leprechaun to get the space I need. Or perhaps I should consider Scheherazade to get money from installing programs.
Out of 38 participants, my dismal performance earned me 35th place.
Well, that's all for now. Until next time, I have no snappy sign-out for you.
Friday, June 17, 2016
Wednesday, June 8, 2016
The Changing Nature of Words
Update: As of July 12, 2016, the Netrunner FAQ has "Swap" as a defined term, wherein two cards exchange position simultaneously, thereby explaining how swapping devas doesn't count as installing the new one. Of course, the cards with swap on them that have the word install still count as the new card being installed, because that's how that works.
As such, the lesson is, "Words only mean what the designers say they mean."
If you play Netrunner, you've probably come across (or at least, have heard of,) the Android: Netrunner Comprehensive Unofficial Rules, or ANCUR. It's a fairly useful resource, allowing players to come up with rulings on cards that have not yet had official rulings on their usage. Still, I'm of the opinion that they don't always get things right. Allow me to explain.
On the unofficial ruling page for Democracy and Dogma, there is a ruling from Damon Stone, the lead designer, on Sadyojata. His claim is that swapping Sadyojata with another Deva icebreaker does not count as installing the new icebreaker. And while normally his status as lead designer would normally give him a free pass, this particular ruling seems to contradict how they have defined the term "swap." But to get a better grasp on just how this particular word is used, let's run a search on NetrunnerDB for all cards with the word "swap" in their game text.
And the results are:
Aghora
Allele Repression
Exchange of Information
Jinteki Biotech: Life Imagined
Midori
Mumbad City Grid
Raman Rai
Sadyojata
Surfer
Synthetic Systems: The World Re-imagined
Tenma Line
Toshiyuki Sakai
Turntable
Vamadeva
So let's ignore the three Devas for now, since that's what we're trying to understand. Also, let's ignore Exchange of Information and Turntable, because agendas in the score pile are not installed. Still, we need to establish some sort of baseline definition for the word "swap." To do that, let's start with Jinteki Biotech.
This seems fairly straightforward. Before the first time of the game, we can switch any copy of Jinteki Biotech for another copy of Jinteki Biotech one time. Of course, identity cards also aren't installed, but this does give us our baseline definition for "swap:" to exchange one card for another.
With that done, let's examine the remaining cards for understanding.
This card allows the Corporation to switch 1 card in their hand for 1 card in their discard pile for each advancement counter on this card if the card is rezzed and the corp trashes it for cost. Again, the cards aren't installed, but this allows us to see how swapping works when swapping cards between HQ and Archives.
These three cards all involve swapping installed ice. Tenma Line specifically says "swap 2 pieces of installed ice." Mumbad City Grid allows the corp to swap a piece of ice that the runner just passed with another piece of ice protecting the server. Surfer allows the runner to swap a piece of barrier ice currently being encountered with another piece of ice directly before or after it. In all three cases, two installed cards are being swapped, so logically, we can deduce that the cards are not considered to be installed when swapped if they are already installed to begin with.
Now it gets interesting. Both Midori and Toshiyuki Sakai say that we can swap an installed card with a card that is from HQ. This differs from the previous scenarios where we are swapping two cards that are already installed, or swapping cards that are not installed. Now we are swapping an installed card with a card that is not installed. But what I think is most telling is the official ruling on these cards from the Android: Netrunner FAQ. Specifically, page 8 for Midori reads, "Ice that is swapped is installed, but the install cost of the ice being swapped does not have to be paid," and page 10 for Toshiyuki Sakai reads, "The card that is swapped with Toshiyuki Sakai is installed."
So if we were using Midori or Toshiyuki Sakai with Haas-Bioroid: Engineering the Future, these cards would trigger the effect of that identity if it was the first time we installed a card on the Runner's turn. Based on this, we can logically determine that swapping a card from hand with a card that is already installed means that the new card is considered to be installed. Yet somehow, we are supposed to believe that the definition of the word "swap" is now different for the Runner than it is for the Corporation.
Of course, all of this is just my opinion. Damon's ruling stands until the FAQ is updated, which I don't think will happen until Fear the Masses is released. And to be honest, I'm just hoping that it will turn out this way so that a Deva/LLDS Processor deck would be viable. As such, take what I say with a grain of salt, and hope that creativity wins out in this case. Granted, I now see why A Game of Thrones: the Card Game Second Edition needed a Rules Reference Guide which defined practically every term that would be used. And yet, players still debated on the meaning of "Limited."
Until next time, update your definitions. Your words no longer mean what you think they mean.
As such, the lesson is, "Words only mean what the designers say they mean."
If you play Netrunner, you've probably come across (or at least, have heard of,) the Android: Netrunner Comprehensive Unofficial Rules, or ANCUR. It's a fairly useful resource, allowing players to come up with rulings on cards that have not yet had official rulings on their usage. Still, I'm of the opinion that they don't always get things right. Allow me to explain.
On the unofficial ruling page for Democracy and Dogma, there is a ruling from Damon Stone, the lead designer, on Sadyojata. His claim is that swapping Sadyojata with another Deva icebreaker does not count as installing the new icebreaker. And while normally his status as lead designer would normally give him a free pass, this particular ruling seems to contradict how they have defined the term "swap." But to get a better grasp on just how this particular word is used, let's run a search on NetrunnerDB for all cards with the word "swap" in their game text.
And the results are:
Aghora
Allele Repression
Exchange of Information
Jinteki Biotech: Life Imagined
Midori
Mumbad City Grid
Raman Rai
Sadyojata
Surfer
Synthetic Systems: The World Re-imagined
Tenma Line
Toshiyuki Sakai
Turntable
Vamadeva
So let's ignore the three Devas for now, since that's what we're trying to understand. Also, let's ignore Exchange of Information and Turntable, because agendas in the score pile are not installed. Still, we need to establish some sort of baseline definition for the word "swap." To do that, let's start with Jinteki Biotech.
With that done, let's examine the remaining cards for understanding.
This card allows the Corporation to switch 1 card in their hand for 1 card in their discard pile for each advancement counter on this card if the card is rezzed and the corp trashes it for cost. Again, the cards aren't installed, but this allows us to see how swapping works when swapping cards between HQ and Archives.
These three cards all involve swapping installed ice. Tenma Line specifically says "swap 2 pieces of installed ice." Mumbad City Grid allows the corp to swap a piece of ice that the runner just passed with another piece of ice protecting the server. Surfer allows the runner to swap a piece of barrier ice currently being encountered with another piece of ice directly before or after it. In all three cases, two installed cards are being swapped, so logically, we can deduce that the cards are not considered to be installed when swapped if they are already installed to begin with.
Now it gets interesting. Both Midori and Toshiyuki Sakai say that we can swap an installed card with a card that is from HQ. This differs from the previous scenarios where we are swapping two cards that are already installed, or swapping cards that are not installed. Now we are swapping an installed card with a card that is not installed. But what I think is most telling is the official ruling on these cards from the Android: Netrunner FAQ. Specifically, page 8 for Midori reads, "Ice that is swapped is installed, but the install cost of the ice being swapped does not have to be paid," and page 10 for Toshiyuki Sakai reads, "The card that is swapped with Toshiyuki Sakai is installed."
So if we were using Midori or Toshiyuki Sakai with Haas-Bioroid: Engineering the Future, these cards would trigger the effect of that identity if it was the first time we installed a card on the Runner's turn. Based on this, we can logically determine that swapping a card from hand with a card that is already installed means that the new card is considered to be installed. Yet somehow, we are supposed to believe that the definition of the word "swap" is now different for the Runner than it is for the Corporation.
Of course, all of this is just my opinion. Damon's ruling stands until the FAQ is updated, which I don't think will happen until Fear the Masses is released. And to be honest, I'm just hoping that it will turn out this way so that a Deva/LLDS Processor deck would be viable. As such, take what I say with a grain of salt, and hope that creativity wins out in this case. Granted, I now see why A Game of Thrones: the Card Game Second Edition needed a Rules Reference Guide which defined practically every term that would be used. And yet, players still debated on the meaning of "Limited."
Until next time, update your definitions. Your words no longer mean what you think they mean.
Tuesday, May 31, 2016
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.
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.
Thursday, May 12, 2016
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.
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.
Monday, April 11, 2016
BEWARE, I LIVE
In 1982, video game developer and publisher Williams Electric released an arcade cabinet game. In it, the player controlled a small spacecraft. The goal was to shoot asteroids in order to collect crystals which were converted into bombs. But while they were doing this, worker drones were also mining those crystals in order to construct a massive entity. The only way to destroy the entity once it was completed was through those bombs. The entity shared its name with that of the game: Sinistar.
This particular arcade game, while not completely ingrained in the public consciousness like some other successful arcade cabinets (Space Invaders comes to mind, as does Pac-Man,) has still left it's mark on numerous people. From Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, where the Undead Dread Lord hero quips, "I Hunger!," to the Heavy Weapons Guy in Team Fortress 2 shouting at his foes, "Run Coward!" and "I live!," to director M dot Strange's feature length animation project We Are the Strange sampling lines from the game as well as quoting the game, to music, with musician Renard both using samples from the game in some of his songs as well as naming two of his songs after quotes, to a full musical production based on the game produced by a group of students at the College of William & Mary in Virginia back in 2009, to literature, with an appearance in a Dresden Files novel called Ghost Story.
So what does this have to do with Netrunner?
-prowler_32-: i heard its a dolphin brain in a jar
Thinfoil.Hate: no its an alien from outside the solar system
PrincessSpaceKitten: You JUST told us it was an AI
Thinfoil.Hate: alien AI
Thinfoil.Hate: space is big. they can't come themselves they beam programs across the light years.
Apex is the first (and so far, only,) digital runner identity. We have no idea exactly what it is. It could be a remnant of the virus that took down the Internet before the SYNC protocol was instituted. It could be a person who has been jacked in since birth, with no idea they have a meatspace body. Or it could be an alien AI, out to consume all of our server space.
I AM SINISTAR - 45 cards
Identity: Apex - Invasive Predator
Programs
Endless Hunger - 3
Harbinger - 3
Hyperdriver - 2 (6 influence)
Leprechaun - 2 (4 influence)
Hardware
Chop Bot 3000 - 2 (2 influence)
e3 Feedback Implants - 2 (4 influence)
Heartbeat - 3
Plascrete Carapace - 3
Resources
Always Be Running - 2 (6 influence)
Ghost Runner - 2
Hunting Grounds - 3
Wasteland - 3
Events
Apocalypse - 3
Dirty Laundry - 3
Levy AR Lab Access - 1 (3 influence)
Prey - 3
Sure Gamble - 3
Traffic Jam - 2
Readers of this blog may realize this deck list is very similar to my previously discussed Apex Build, Time Dilation, which I brought to the 2016 Yellow King Store Championship. In order to improve the list, I took inspiration from CodeMarvelous' Apex build, Always Be Hungry and added Always Be Running. This helps with ice that has no subroutines which exactly read "End the Run," such as Assassin, or Resistor. It can also be used to circumvent ice which can be advanced over the strength of Endless Hunger, such as Hadrian's Wall. I decided to go with Always Be Running instead of D4v1d, mostly because of influence, but also because D4v1d costs memory, and memory can be pretty tight until you get either a Leprechaun or Heartbeat. Make sure to remember that Leprechaun can host two programs of any size, so you can host an Endless Hunger on it as well as a Hyperdriver.
I'm still working on the ideal opening draw, but ideally you'll want at least two of the following three: Endless Hunger, Always Be Running, and e3 Feedback Implants. Having at least two of those three should let you get through just about any piece of ice, but you'll need all three to make the massive runs that are necessary to pull off Apocalypse.
I've gone with Traffic Jam as a cheap way of overwriting Corporation currents, but with the release of Democracy and Dogma, it is possible to use "Freedom Through Equality" instead. It costs a little more, but it could speed up your game. I suppose your choice will depend on how your local metagame is regarding both currents and how quickly corps are in scoring agendas.
The big thing is you want to make sure Levy AR Lab Access ends up in your hand, and that it doesn't get discarded. Your main draw engine is the two Chop Bot 3000s, which will let you burn through unnecessary cards to get to the cards you need. You could take advantage of the Hunting Grounds to get out more face down cards, but there's always the possibility you'll accidentally install the Levy AR Lab Access face down if you haven't drawn it yet.
So far, I've had about a 50% win rate with this deck, but my sample is probably not significantly significant. As such, take it with a grain of salt.
I would like to thank the artists Liiga Smilshkaine, Adam S. Doyle, and Shawn Ye Zhongyi for creating spectacular artwork of Apex. I'd also like to thank Wikipedia for being the major basis for the research done in the introduction.
Until next time, RUN! RUN! RUN!
This particular arcade game, while not completely ingrained in the public consciousness like some other successful arcade cabinets (Space Invaders comes to mind, as does Pac-Man,) has still left it's mark on numerous people. From Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, where the Undead Dread Lord hero quips, "I Hunger!," to the Heavy Weapons Guy in Team Fortress 2 shouting at his foes, "Run Coward!" and "I live!," to director M dot Strange's feature length animation project We Are the Strange sampling lines from the game as well as quoting the game, to music, with musician Renard both using samples from the game in some of his songs as well as naming two of his songs after quotes, to a full musical production based on the game produced by a group of students at the College of William & Mary in Virginia back in 2009, to literature, with an appearance in a Dresden Files novel called Ghost Story.
So what does this have to do with Netrunner?
-prowler_32-: i heard its a dolphin brain in a jar
Thinfoil.Hate: no its an alien from outside the solar system
PrincessSpaceKitten: You JUST told us it was an AI
Thinfoil.Hate: alien AI
Thinfoil.Hate: space is big. they can't come themselves they beam programs across the light years.
Apex is the first (and so far, only,) digital runner identity. We have no idea exactly what it is. It could be a remnant of the virus that took down the Internet before the SYNC protocol was instituted. It could be a person who has been jacked in since birth, with no idea they have a meatspace body. Or it could be an alien AI, out to consume all of our server space.
I AM SINISTAR - 45 cards
Identity: Apex - Invasive Predator
Programs
Endless Hunger - 3
Harbinger - 3
Hyperdriver - 2 (6 influence)
Leprechaun - 2 (4 influence)
Hardware
Chop Bot 3000 - 2 (2 influence)
e3 Feedback Implants - 2 (4 influence)
Heartbeat - 3
Plascrete Carapace - 3
Resources
Always Be Running - 2 (6 influence)
Ghost Runner - 2
Hunting Grounds - 3
Wasteland - 3
Events
Apocalypse - 3
Dirty Laundry - 3
Levy AR Lab Access - 1 (3 influence)
Prey - 3
Sure Gamble - 3
Traffic Jam - 2
Readers of this blog may realize this deck list is very similar to my previously discussed Apex Build, Time Dilation, which I brought to the 2016 Yellow King Store Championship. In order to improve the list, I took inspiration from CodeMarvelous' Apex build, Always Be Hungry and added Always Be Running. This helps with ice that has no subroutines which exactly read "End the Run," such as Assassin, or Resistor. It can also be used to circumvent ice which can be advanced over the strength of Endless Hunger, such as Hadrian's Wall. I decided to go with Always Be Running instead of D4v1d, mostly because of influence, but also because D4v1d costs memory, and memory can be pretty tight until you get either a Leprechaun or Heartbeat. Make sure to remember that Leprechaun can host two programs of any size, so you can host an Endless Hunger on it as well as a Hyperdriver.
I'm still working on the ideal opening draw, but ideally you'll want at least two of the following three: Endless Hunger, Always Be Running, and e3 Feedback Implants. Having at least two of those three should let you get through just about any piece of ice, but you'll need all three to make the massive runs that are necessary to pull off Apocalypse.
I've gone with Traffic Jam as a cheap way of overwriting Corporation currents, but with the release of Democracy and Dogma, it is possible to use "Freedom Through Equality" instead. It costs a little more, but it could speed up your game. I suppose your choice will depend on how your local metagame is regarding both currents and how quickly corps are in scoring agendas.
The big thing is you want to make sure Levy AR Lab Access ends up in your hand, and that it doesn't get discarded. Your main draw engine is the two Chop Bot 3000s, which will let you burn through unnecessary cards to get to the cards you need. You could take advantage of the Hunting Grounds to get out more face down cards, but there's always the possibility you'll accidentally install the Levy AR Lab Access face down if you haven't drawn it yet.
So far, I've had about a 50% win rate with this deck, but my sample is probably not significantly significant. As such, take it with a grain of salt.
I would like to thank the artists Liiga Smilshkaine, Adam S. Doyle, and Shawn Ye Zhongyi for creating spectacular artwork of Apex. I'd also like to thank Wikipedia for being the major basis for the research done in the introduction.
Until next time, RUN! RUN! RUN!
Wednesday, March 23, 2016
World of Finance
So let's talk about deck economy.
In pretty much every runner or corporation deck, you will likely need to have some form of economy. Even if you're going with a runner deck that depends more on stealth credits for breakers or a Faust build, you still need credits to install the cards you need. As a corporation, you need credits not only to advance and score your agendas, but also to activate your defenses. So for both players, economy is important.
When Breaker Bay first came out, I wonder how many people overlooked Breaker Bay Grid. Even if they did, decks quickly arose to take advantage of this ability. Popular choices for cards to pair with this effect include Ash 2X3ZB9CY, Caprice Nisei, Eve Campaign, Hostile Infrastructure, and sometimes The Root. But I like to think that deckbuilders may have overlooked one potential combo.
Breaker Bay Offshore Bank - 49 cards
Identity: Titan Transnational - Investing in Your Future
Agendas (21 points)
Global Food Initiative - 2 (2 influence)
High-Risk Investment - 1
Oaktown Renovation - 3
Project Atlas - 3
Ice
Caduceus - 3
Enigma - 3
Errand Boy - 3
Hadrian's Wall - 2
Ice Wall - 3
Orion - 1
Taurus - 1
Assets
Jackson Howard - 3 (3 influence)
PAD Campaign - 3
Upgrades
Breaker Bay Grid - 3
Caprice Nisei - 3 (12 influence)
Crisium Grid - 3
Off the Grid - 3
Operations
Beanstalk Royalties - 3
Hedge Fund - 3
The main combo of this deck is Breaker Bay Grid and Off the Grid. Because off the grid isn't a region, it can be used with Breaker Bay Grid to set up a server that the runner can't attack for only 1 credit. This leaves you free to concentrate on defending just your central servers while you install and advance your agendas in your Off the Grid server.
The remaining cards work to support this strategy. Crisium Grid should be placed on both HQ and Archives to prevent Off the Grid from trashing as well as preventing runner effects such as Sneakdoor Beta. A third Crisium Grid could be placed on R&D to stop Medium, The Maker's Eye, Indexing, and Keyhole. Caprice should be placed on HQ to provide a final layer of defense.
Your agenda suite is a bit different from most standard Titan Transnational decks. Because the deck doesn't use Mark Yale for economy, the extra agenda counters from Titan's ability are mostly useless. Project Atlas is still fairly useful, since you could search for a card you need. Oaktown Reconstruction could potentially generate great amounts of credits, as you could leave it in an Off the Grid server for as long as you'd like. Global Food Initiative grants you 3 points, but is only worth 2 to the runner. There's a one-off High Risk Investment since there wasn't enough influence for a third GFI, but it's fairly worth it, as the extra agenda counter on it could be worth quite a lot of credits.
Your ice suite is mostly for protecting your central servers, but do give consideration to defending your remotes, especially the Off the Grid servers, as if the runner does make a successful HQ run, those servers will become immediately vulnerable. Caduceus and Errand Boy are mostly about making back your money, though Errand Boy can grant you extra cards if you need them. Ice Wall and Enigma both function as gear checks, and can potentially become slight taxes later on. Hadrian's Wall is a big tax for runners using conventional methods, say either Faust or Corroder. Taurus is included to attack the runner's hardware, specifically whatever console they are happening to use. Originally, Orion was a copy of Grim. However, I've switched to Orion for a few reasons. First off, while Orion is a Barrier, Code Gate, and a Sentry, the one thing it is not is a Destroyer. This means that it cannot be broker by a Sharpshooter without the use of Panchatantra. Second, even with the rise of combo decks using Panchatantra, Gingerbread, and Dinosaurus, Orion still should be fairly expensive to deal with. Even with the aforementioned combo, with Gingerbread on Dinosaurus, it would still cost 7 credits for Gingerbread to break Orion, which is comparable to the cost for most standard breakers. Third, Orion doesn't generate Bad Publicity like Grim does, which means that runners will not have access to a free credit each run.
The operations just round out your economy, since you aren't doing anything combo focused on operations. Your assets also round out economy, as well as Jackson for draw power and some recursion.
So what are the downfalls of this deck? Well, the big thing is that the pieces are individually weak. Caprice, Off the Grid, and Breaker Bay Grid are all relatively cheap to trash, and since the only recursion in the deck is dependent on Jackson, the runner could still trash the pieces again. A possible solution to this might be including a copy or two of Interns, which would let you get back an Off the Grid immediately, as well as allowing some immediate ice recursion. Second, there's a fair amount of weak ice, meaning that ice destruction could cripple the deck. Again, adding Interns might help rectify this point. Third, there is no backup win condition. If the runner goes full on tag-me or Data Leak Reversal combo, there's no real way to punish them. Granted, the Crisium Grids should help prevent Data Leak Reversal from being installed in the first place, but aside from spending the vast quantity of credits you should be generating, it could be hard to come back from that kind of attack.
Until next time, check your credit pool carefully.
In pretty much every runner or corporation deck, you will likely need to have some form of economy. Even if you're going with a runner deck that depends more on stealth credits for breakers or a Faust build, you still need credits to install the cards you need. As a corporation, you need credits not only to advance and score your agendas, but also to activate your defenses. So for both players, economy is important.
When Breaker Bay first came out, I wonder how many people overlooked Breaker Bay Grid. Even if they did, decks quickly arose to take advantage of this ability. Popular choices for cards to pair with this effect include Ash 2X3ZB9CY, Caprice Nisei, Eve Campaign, Hostile Infrastructure, and sometimes The Root. But I like to think that deckbuilders may have overlooked one potential combo.
Breaker Bay Offshore Bank - 49 cards
Identity: Titan Transnational - Investing in Your Future
Agendas (21 points)
Global Food Initiative - 2 (2 influence)
High-Risk Investment - 1
Oaktown Renovation - 3
Project Atlas - 3
Ice
Caduceus - 3
Enigma - 3
Errand Boy - 3
Hadrian's Wall - 2
Ice Wall - 3
Orion - 1
Taurus - 1
Assets
Jackson Howard - 3 (3 influence)
PAD Campaign - 3
Upgrades
Breaker Bay Grid - 3
Caprice Nisei - 3 (12 influence)
Crisium Grid - 3
Off the Grid - 3
Operations
Beanstalk Royalties - 3
Hedge Fund - 3
The main combo of this deck is Breaker Bay Grid and Off the Grid. Because off the grid isn't a region, it can be used with Breaker Bay Grid to set up a server that the runner can't attack for only 1 credit. This leaves you free to concentrate on defending just your central servers while you install and advance your agendas in your Off the Grid server.
The remaining cards work to support this strategy. Crisium Grid should be placed on both HQ and Archives to prevent Off the Grid from trashing as well as preventing runner effects such as Sneakdoor Beta. A third Crisium Grid could be placed on R&D to stop Medium, The Maker's Eye, Indexing, and Keyhole. Caprice should be placed on HQ to provide a final layer of defense.
Your agenda suite is a bit different from most standard Titan Transnational decks. Because the deck doesn't use Mark Yale for economy, the extra agenda counters from Titan's ability are mostly useless. Project Atlas is still fairly useful, since you could search for a card you need. Oaktown Reconstruction could potentially generate great amounts of credits, as you could leave it in an Off the Grid server for as long as you'd like. Global Food Initiative grants you 3 points, but is only worth 2 to the runner. There's a one-off High Risk Investment since there wasn't enough influence for a third GFI, but it's fairly worth it, as the extra agenda counter on it could be worth quite a lot of credits.
Your ice suite is mostly for protecting your central servers, but do give consideration to defending your remotes, especially the Off the Grid servers, as if the runner does make a successful HQ run, those servers will become immediately vulnerable. Caduceus and Errand Boy are mostly about making back your money, though Errand Boy can grant you extra cards if you need them. Ice Wall and Enigma both function as gear checks, and can potentially become slight taxes later on. Hadrian's Wall is a big tax for runners using conventional methods, say either Faust or Corroder. Taurus is included to attack the runner's hardware, specifically whatever console they are happening to use. Originally, Orion was a copy of Grim. However, I've switched to Orion for a few reasons. First off, while Orion is a Barrier, Code Gate, and a Sentry, the one thing it is not is a Destroyer. This means that it cannot be broker by a Sharpshooter without the use of Panchatantra. Second, even with the rise of combo decks using Panchatantra, Gingerbread, and Dinosaurus, Orion still should be fairly expensive to deal with. Even with the aforementioned combo, with Gingerbread on Dinosaurus, it would still cost 7 credits for Gingerbread to break Orion, which is comparable to the cost for most standard breakers. Third, Orion doesn't generate Bad Publicity like Grim does, which means that runners will not have access to a free credit each run.
The operations just round out your economy, since you aren't doing anything combo focused on operations. Your assets also round out economy, as well as Jackson for draw power and some recursion.
So what are the downfalls of this deck? Well, the big thing is that the pieces are individually weak. Caprice, Off the Grid, and Breaker Bay Grid are all relatively cheap to trash, and since the only recursion in the deck is dependent on Jackson, the runner could still trash the pieces again. A possible solution to this might be including a copy or two of Interns, which would let you get back an Off the Grid immediately, as well as allowing some immediate ice recursion. Second, there's a fair amount of weak ice, meaning that ice destruction could cripple the deck. Again, adding Interns might help rectify this point. Third, there is no backup win condition. If the runner goes full on tag-me or Data Leak Reversal combo, there's no real way to punish them. Granted, the Crisium Grids should help prevent Data Leak Reversal from being installed in the first place, but aside from spending the vast quantity of credits you should be generating, it could be hard to come back from that kind of attack.
Until next time, check your credit pool carefully.
Monday, March 7, 2016
Petrie's Family Games 2016 Store Championship
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.
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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