That’s exactly the issue! I have two Tinkering in at the moment. Personally, I dropped Hostage, because I found I was drawing into May naturally enough without it (I run a third Quality Time in place of the Infiltration and have a third Eureka in place of a Makers Eye, so the draw and double ratios are the same as yours). In 30 odd games with the deck I don’t think I ever played it/wished I had it. Where the third comes…who knows, although I did play with only 2x Makers Eye for a while as three meant they were clogging my hand a bit.
Yea, Hostage is probably a weird call if we want a third Oracle May, we should just run a third May. I like the third Eureka because it pairs well with 3 Test Runs. I feel like I would want to run Overminds still which would make better use out of the Scavenges and early aggression.
Oracle Chaos
Chaos Theory: Wünderkind (Cyber Exodus)
Event (32)
3x Diesel (Core Set)
2x Dirty Laundry (Creation and Control)
3x Eureka! (Second Thoughts)
2x Indexing (Future Proof)
2x Legwork (Honor and Profit) ••••
2x Levy AR Lab Access (Creation and Control)
3x Lucky Find (Double Time) ••••• •
1x Net Celebrity (The Spaces Between)
3x Power Nap (Double Time)
2x Quality Time (Humanity’s Shadow)
2x Scavenge (Creation and Control)
3x Test Run (Cyber Exodus)
2x The Maker’s Eye (Core Set)
2x Tinkering (Core Set)
I’d play Hostage over a third May. It feeds Power Nap and isn’t a May misfire. But I don’t think it is needed. I think that the deck can draw and play May consistently and quickly enough without it. Or maybe I’m just lucky.
I don’t think I would run 3x Overmind and the 3x breakers as well. I think I would be looking to optimise an Overmind build to capitalise on the early aggression from Overmind with masses of multi-access (incidentally I don’t think you need Tinkering and 3x Overmind, they both serve essentially the same function). I think it would play very differently but that it might well work. My main worry would be the multi-subroutine Jinteki ICE. I think you could run into problems with them.
I think the two worst would be Komainu and Ashigaru, which are both based off hand sizes, and only once. Tinkering is the alternative option, but for a quick pressure it’s still TR breaker, Tinker, run, may/recovery, vs Overmind to run. With Overmind that’s 6 cards instead of 3 to start running with, and as a first install makes good use of CT’s extra memory, and will last at least two turns worth of runs. But especially with Ram and Garrote that means subsequent installs are much more useless. SMC is a harder call because expensive breakers are worse off because of it.
I’ve been experimenting with using Retrieval Run lately, since everyone all of a sudden remembered that existed now that inject is a thing. There’s no risk to May, it’s a good bit of added insurance in case you’re stuck digging for whatever “get my crap out cheap” piece you’re missing or you go and face check a Grim or some damn fool thing like that, and a darn good way to cheat out programs otherwise because let’s face it, who is going to be icing archives against CT?
This deck is so bananas. Fun to play, but you really have to be committed to drawing up until you get your breakers out. I had one game where the test runs and two of three breakers were all being too cool for school and hanging out at the bottom of the deck. I was forced to just draw and diesel while my opponent scored behind a wraparound that made my garrote cry. Ultimately I lost after getting a few points back.
So my question is does running one-of the breakers make this deck necessarily more vulnerable to bad shuffles? Running two-of breaks that beautiful oracle may econ/draw, as does throwing in a same old thing.
Tinkering goes a long way to stopping that issue without messing up the deck ratios. As does using Femme instead of Garrote. Although Wraparound remains an issue.
That’s poor luck; nothing to really be done about that. An important thing about playing this deck is knowing what to Test Run first. For example, against Jinteki, my order is Killer Decoder Fracter. Against Weyland, Fracter Killer Decoder. Granted, playing as aggressively as I do you can lose your Fracter to an early Killer, but sometimes the risk is worth it to apply early pressure. My build only runs 2 Tinkering but I usually try to save them as long as possible. I don’t think this deck needs to completely eschew early pressure. After all, you’re better suited to recover than many other builds that apply early pressure.
Thanks for posting this Deck Idea. It is refreshing, fun, and competitive as well.
I won my first Game Night using a variation of the original deck, and thanks to you I have myself a Deep Red playmat. Here is the version that I ran, nothing too crazy.
Based on the stimhack.com bylaws, you would owe 5% of the tournament winnings to the deck creator. I’ll be patiently awaiting 5% of the playmat; please pm for address.
Seriously though congrats on the win. I’m really glad people are enjoying this deck as much as I do.
Hey everyone! Just wanted to point out that I saw at least three (3!) people playing this deck at worlds! I cracked a joke to a guy playing it who may not have got it. It’s not like I was wearing a shirt that said “DJHedgehog” on it or anything :P.
A good friend of mine was at least one of those three if not a fourth. He loves the deck. We’ve got two local players in Madison who are playing the deck. It’s fun, for sure.
I’ve been hitting one struggle with this deck, and that’s that a lot of its pressure is on R&D. Once my opponents can ice it up 3-4 deep, and a single remote also 3-4 deep, it becomes very hard to win, as any agenda drawn is just going in the remote. This is mostly against RP (especially with ELP), but it just gets frustrating at times. I can make easy credits in a turn, but then I run and gamble with maybe a Maker’s Eye or something, and then I’m out for another round to make money again. Thinking of including an Escher in the deck, just to re-route annoying ice to a different server.
At that point you just money and threaten the scoring remote. Make runs to clear out any upgrades, then money up for another agenda. Then HQ becomes the new target.
Retrival Run has been fantastic for me since I switched it in. It speeds up the deck by a serious amount, turns May “misses” into wins and provides limited insurance against destroyers.
Inject in theory would be amazing. But where would you find the influence? Less than two Legwork feels like conceeding the Astrobiotics match-up to me.
