Sure thing, Retrieval Run is useful. But when faced with a choice: RR or Hostage, I will always take Hostage - worst case scenario it will net you 2-3 credits from power naps vs 6 credits from RR. Best case scenario - it will get you Oracle May on the table, and the deck is called Chaos Theory / Oracle May for a reason.
Aside from that, this is my favourite deck ATM and everyone I know likes playing it. Love the reaction of some people: “How come you always guess that it’s going to be an event?”
The problem that immediately jumped out at me is that it kind of seems like you’re relying on getting May+Motivation out with only 1 Hostage. That doesn’t seem to me to be a thing that will happen reliably. This deck normally really relies on getting the Oracle May out to start drawing the Events to gain cash, since you can almost always bank on the fact that what you’re going to draw is the event. The addition of all the extra Hardware in the deck really does necessitate the addition of the Motivation to reliably call what’s next in the deck with May, but with only singletons of both of them and the singleton tutor doesn’t make me thing it will happen with the kind of regularity that the deck requires. If you get the Hostage first and end up needing to tutor out one of the combo pieces because you’re simply not finding one through drawing/Diesel, it could potentially make things very awkward if the other one is near the bottom of the deck.
Next, I’m not sure if I like the hardware/program package. Or rather, I like the idea, but I’m just not sure that this is the deck archetype to support it. As stated above, it just seems like it bogs down the streamlined design with having to run the Motivation, and also having to tutor out both pieces of the combo, especially with the single tutor. It looks like you are running 2 of each of the breakers because of the slower draw power of this deck, in order to increase the likelihood of finding them, but this further increases the need for the Motivation/May combo to appear reliably, since that’s yet another 2 events not inside the deck.
Reading back over this reply, it seems like everything more or less boils down to the problem that the addition of all the hardware requirements makes you need to run a combination of cards that has a not-so-great chance of firing off. Even when it does fire, the deck draws much more slowly than the more event-heavy versions of the deck due to the lack of QT. As I said, I like the Sage/Dino idea (maybe not Overmind/E3 though? Again, gotta find that single E3 reliably for barriers), but I don’t think this is the place for it.
I love CT-Oracle May and play it quite a bit. That deck was my first time actually messing with Oracle May and I was so pleased with it, I tried to build other decks, most relevantly an Andromeda Motivation-May deck (the idea being with 3x Motivations, Andromeda’s ability, and Hostage in-faction you’d assemble the combo with extreme reliability).
After much back and forth and deck building I realized… Motivation-Oracle May is rarely better than Professional Contacts. An Oracle May that never fails trades 1 click for +1 card and +2 credits at the expense of showing the card to the corp. Motivation + Oracle May is pretty much the only way to get a high degree of success without going with a mono-type deck. Professional Contacts trades 1 click for +1 card and +1 credits. It never fails, can be used multiple times/turn, and doesn’t reveal anything to the corp. The Andromeda deck ditched the motivations and both saved influence and improved reliability by switching to ProCon.
I’ve yet to see a time when MotiMaytion is worth it outside of a deck that plans to feed Aesop every turn and those spare Motivations are really just 0-influence Easy Marks. My advice with the current data pool is either go ProCon or go mono-type.
I stated it in the other topic, but I’ll mention it here as well:
Parasite (not if they use Lotus Field, but not cutlery since they can boost to keep you from breaking it) and/or D4V1D recursion
Femme/IJ (unless they use Guard and it’s limited to one ice per bypass effect)
Noise/DLR and Hades Shard (but the NEXT version at least uses Eden Fragment, so a complete mill strategy doesn’t work unless the runner packs Eden Shard)
Most of the best tools seem to be Anarch. I’m not sure if Shaper has any directly useful tool unless you count tutor/recurring the other faction’s tools.
Do what you were doing anyway. Lock down their remotes so they never have time to rez it and get counters on it. Money isn’t a problem - if you have full rig you should be able to get in even if they get three counters on it. More and you’ve lost but you probably would have lost anyway if you left a remote alone for that long. Archer is a problem but Archer is always a problem.
When it comes to ITD, it has to do with board state more than anything. If they rush out ITD then play like a criminal- run everything without a rig and force decisions. If they spend money and need it, that’s time they can’t commit to ITD; same with exposing weaknesses by facechecking and forcing them to play more ICE.
Midgame force them to use counters to keep you out and hope they can’t keep counters up and run you into an Archer. They can spend their whole turn to gain 3 counters: how many can you make them spend? Can they keep you out of everywhere long enough for you to not win? Archer is the big threat here, but at least the deck has recursion to deal with the program loss and Femme/scavenge to play on a rezzed archer.
Late game you just have to get lucky. ITD, IMO really shines in the late game where it reinforces existing defenses to a nigh unbreakable fortress. This deck can make money, but not fast enough to get through a server and kill it before it gets out of hand.
Parasite is the skeleton key of Netrunner, in that it answers most problems with Corp defenses. I would complaint about it being “broken” but runner needs some help these days when it comes to the mid and late game.
I’m more thinking of rush ITD decks (i.e. NEXT Design), that can get ITD on the first or second turn with 2 pieces of ice protecting it. With 3x ITD and 3x EBC they can fairly reliably do that.
I agree with @DJhedgehog that running like criminal in the early game can be beneficial, but it may only allow you to steal 3-6 points before they can defend their weaker centrals if they are running a low agenda count (7-8 agendas).
Is there anything for this deck to do before a rush ITD deck can get to 4+ counters on ITD? In my limited experience, having only one Femme isn’t enough to get in to trash ITD.
I haven’t played this specific build, but I have played a lot of NEXT Design and for it to work you need quite a few stars to come right (you need the ICE, the right types of ICE and the money as well as the actual asset). Which isn’t to dismiss it at all, but unless they have a God hand, there is usually a pressure point that you can exploit.
The issue is that double-deep rush remotes can be problematic for this build in general. Tinkering is the best quick solution I’ve found, if you can make space for it (and is a good way of mitigating Archer as well).
I’ve always been a CT fan, mostly because I have an inexplicable amount of fun building a 40 card deck. I’m a big fan of this deck archetype, but I wonder how you guys are dealing with the inability to get your breakers out quickly? There are only 3 breakers and 3 test runs, and I always seem to trash my breakers with May or accumulate 3 scavenges before finding a single test run. I’ll have like 40 credits but a couple of quandaries and wraparounds will keep me completely shut out for 8-10 rounds.
Well there’s also 3 QTs and 3 diesels, so drawing into breakers or Test Runs isn’t usually that big a problem, especially if you also have May out drawing a card and 2 bucks a turn. Don’t be afraid to draw a bunch and then just throw a bunch of junk in the heap at the end of the turn. If breakers are what you need, the draw power is there to find them if you’re not afraid to make sacrifices. And with Levi, they’re not even that big a deal.
Correct, this deck is as much about adaptive pressure as it is drawing a card and netting two credits in the same swing. And if you’re already running 1x Hostage/2 x May, a second hostage isn’t very useful beyond fueling Power Nap. RR is also insurance against May whiffs, damage, and so on. It synergizes well with the overdraw, and can be a half Test Run without needing a second combo piece.
I really like code siphon, but having to clear the tag removes the ‘economy’ effect of CS…that said, the deck is rich, and tutor is really the missing factor. 2x code siphon has to be very good.
I’ve resleeved this and added a new spin on it (mostly due to cards being in other already made decks). I’m now testing it with racheal beckman. That hanging click is super nice for when you’re oracling every turn, and still want play a double…and run.
Seriously, the difference 1 click makes to this deck is amazing. The downside is the 1 lost influence vs NBN and Jinteki, since you’re not bothering at all obviously.
What do you think of adding a comet and starlight express? (ducks), with prepaid?
(I would arguably add 3x lawyer up as well). Lawyer up under these conditions essentially becomes another diesel.
Comet would give you one click per turn so long as you played at least two events a turn.
Starlight costs you one click, so more or less a wash. But starlight lets you play double events at no cost, saving you 14-15 clicks.
Aesop it when you don’t want it, and perhaps increase handsize (beachparty) to accomodate your draw events…
I think we went through Starlight earlier in the thread. You need to play a double every single turn for starlight to not be actively weakening you. The only turns it does you any good at all is turns where you play at least two doubles in a turn so you really want be doing that at least 50%. Give me a deck with 20+ doubles and it just might happen. But with the 9-12 this runs (even with Lawyer Up)? Nah.
Comet is (hopefully) going to push this deck back into playability from a “raw aggression” standpoint. I’ve even considered Rachel Beckman because this deck has the economy to make multiple big runs a turn. Comet + Beckman = holy shit clicks. Could you imagine every turn after those cards are played being 6 clicks? Me neither.
Starlight Crusade is a piece of garbage unfortunately. They really missed the mark designing that card, unless they add 10-15 new doubles to play with that are actually worth playing. Lawyer up is not even a diesel when starlight is up because it still costs 2… Running interference costs too much influence, so does singularity. Executive wiretaps? Oh man, the horrible doubles.
I played with Beckman in this deck for quite a while. As well as the obvious benefit of giving the click, she also gives you another use for your Hostages after you get May out. Unfortunately though she really is a dead card against NBN - either they’re going to win too fast for the 8 cred setback to be worth it, or they’re gonna tag you. Breaking News laughs in Rachel’s face. As at least 50% of Weyland decks are trying to tag you, and Jinteki has Snares she’s risky there too. That said, RP rarely runs Snare and having 5 clicks makes RP’s extreme click compression much easier to deal with. And of course Rachel is a massive help against HB. A decent shout if you have the influence, but definitely a meta call.
Oh and then of course there’s the anti-synergy with Code Siphon. So yeah definitely a niche include, though a good one.