I don’t know how, but does someone want to set up a poll covering the popular entries?
Turns out it’s not that hard. Here’s one for ICE.
- Vanilla
- Tollbooth
- DNA Tracker
- Data Raven
- Enigma
- Resistor
- Crick
- Fairchild 2
- Architect
- Pop Up
- Lotus Field
- News Hound
- Sherlock 2
- Ichi
- Eli
0 voters
I also think Merlin is worth a mention, but wanted to keep the poll small.
ICE: News Hound. Awoooo!
ICEbreaker: Not sure, maybe Atman or Clippy
I think I like Quandary better than Vanilla. For your barrier you may as well tax them while you gear check, but for your code gate that’s just going to get Yogged you may as well choose the cheapest one.
I absolutely should have included quandry. Whoops.
Having played Aiki in Chronos Protocol, it’s good, but not really that great. Partially because at 3 strength it’s easy to get through (Besides Yog, costing 3 for Gordian isn’t terribly good…)
It’s an interesting ICE because it turns into free card draw for the Runner unless the Corp starts paying credits on the PSI game. It’s only useful to let them draw when you’re firing the net damage too.
I love me some News Hound. I think it is the best value ICE in the game, but the ID that makes it super effective isn’t ultra competitive. So… Vanilla.
I would say Faust for breaker it wasn’t MWL. It got hit really hard. So… Clippy or Yog. Free recursion on an already super efficient breaker is nuts, as is breaking for 0c.
Aiki gives the runner cards if they spend differently, which initially sounds worse, but it means corp wins on the 0-0 bid; it’s the runner who pays to win (an inversion of the normal model). As corp you almost never bid more than 0 on Aiki (unless you think they’ll pay to draw and you want to prevent).
I’m happy with them spending 3 on Gordian for a 1 cost ICE.
And if you play it out of Nisei Division, you get a credit for it too!
All of the psi ICE is alarmingly taxing to break given its rez cost.
3 Likes
Aiki has one big problem: you break only the second sub and pay 1 to draw 2 cards, which is amazing for speed.
Or suddenly the Corp starts bidding as well, and suddenly he sees himself losing creds as well.
If you’ve got Yog.0 yeah (low strength code gate bad against Yog, more at 11), but with any other decoder you’re paying 3 to draw 2 which is only okay and if the Corp is Nisei or Palana they’re gaining money from you playing that psi game.
you pay 3 to draw 2 cards AND gain one or more accesses. Don’t forget that part of the equation 
2 Likes
Well the accesses are part of the run. If I had a chance to pay 3c to draw two without a click, I’d almost always take it, though.
1 Like
now assume you have a sucker or desperado…or temüjin… The runner has so many options to benefit from Aiki…
2 Likes
Yup, definitely. Aiki has a downside, but it’s perhaps not as big as Harvester’s. I can see it working in Chronos Protocol early game, though. The runner usually won’t run if they have something valuable to lose, but with Aiki they might draw into a breaker, for example. Also Aiki still remains OK if the runner has something that needs 2c to boost to get the STR to break (Zu and Passport come to mind). Then it’s 5c (4 to break the nets, 1 to bid) for 2 cards. Actually, the 3c for 2cards equation was probably wrong to start with. Very few breakers break the two nets for just 2c.
2 Likes
Aiki is quite good in Palana (yog aside).
You always bet 0 as corp, so either the runner bets 0 and needs to pay 3 with Gordian (for your 1 cost ICE) which is a great exchange. Or they bet 1, they have drawn 2 and paid 4 whilst you have gained 1 - that’s equivalent to a popup for you and all they have achieved paying 4 for 1/3 of an earthrise hotel.
Its up there with pup, and in a yogless world would be superior imo.
5 Likes
I mean yeah, the runner has cards that make breaking ICE apparently cheaper, and thus any ICE with beneficial effects to the runner get worse. But for each of those things listed, the runner would be saving money by not having to pay 3+ to get around whatever else you managed to rez for 1 anyway. Considering Aiki to have a latent and sole disadvantage against them is a little dubious.
The card draw routine is definitely a downside, there’s no question there. It’s part of the cost of a piece of ICE with otherwise-unmatched efficiency.
1 Like
And now a breaker one I suppose.
- Faust
- Eater
- Atman
- Cyber Cypher
- Gordian
- Yog
- Paperclip
- Lady
- Corroder
- Mimic
- Mongoose
- Femme
- David
0 voters
Possibly I’m wrong to exclude some of the stealth breakers. I wanted three of each type (and David).
Sol is definitely competitive in current meta, it can play NBN tagging game using operation econ similar to SYNC, removing tags is less expensive to the runner but News Hound makes up for it. Two weeks ago Sol won Nationals in Belgium, last weekend I took this deck to Nationals in Poland and placed 3rd.
Interesting. Can you PM me decklists (so as to not clutter this thread)?