I think Chrisium Grid is really good right now. Every runner is running some card that affects a server, and its power on HQ and RnD can shut people down. It is solid protection against cards that make you sad.
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Agree with 2x Caprice as stated above - that’s what wins you games against Kate in the mid-late game.
Crisium - definitely needed in the current environment. I’m including it in most decks - the preponderance of devastating Events makes it a necessary card. Lots of Anarch shizzle with DLR, Siphon Spam, Apocalypse, etc., Kate’s reliance on Maker’s and Legwork (often), but also stopping Keyhole decks, limiting Datasucker or Medium counters, preventing Utopia Shard free install or cheely Wanton etc.
HB can sometimes account for Siphons by dumping credits in assets and so forth, but the threats on centrals are quite varied and prevalent at the minute.
So in the worlds lists the major difference in influence spends was on Crisium vs Tollbooth
As someone who hasn’t played Foodcoats
a) is the choice between them a meta call or is it dependent on the rest of your ice suite?
b) If it is a meta call, what expected runners would tip you one way or 'tother? Is Tollbooth just for Kate?
Turing has done a huge amount replacing Tollbooth.
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IQ and Viper are also strong Code Gates that do a similar level of checking in faction. Neither are as good as tollbooth, but that’s 2 inf that you can spend elswhere. In the end with assasin, ichi, and your other ice you already have enough tax that I think its better spent on Crisium Grid.
But both have severe disadvantages. Turing’s cost/strength ration is amazing. Its downside (clickable) is nowhere near as bad as Viper (traceable) or IQ (HQ size matters).
Turing is unbreakable by an AI (and Faust/Atman is everywhere!) and its biggest downside - reducing strength on centrals - actually turns into a benefit against AI/D4v1d rigs that many Siphon focused Anarchs run.
That’s my argument anyway. It’s certainly one piece of the puzzle that made this deck strong (BBG, Architect, and influence freed up for Caprice thanks to staples like Eli and campaigns being in faction being the final ones),
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I’m not arguing against 3x turing, its HB’s best code gate. I’m arguing that HB doesn’t need Tollbooth because it has other good in faction gear checks. Viper and IQ are great cards IMO, and they don’t have a terrible many downsides for what they are.
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The reason Turing as a 3x for Worlds, based on my conversations with other competitors, Team UK and my own thoughts, was to be able to stick it on centrals and keep the Siphons / AI breakers at bay. Fine early on a remote, a D4v1d counter will get you through, or for Kate CyCy gets in for 2c.
I don’t think Turing replaces Tollbooth per se, it plays a different role. Tollbooth is great because of that on-encounter ability. A Str 5 Code Gate is nothing to sniff at, but the toll is what makes it a super-taxing piece of ICE. It is, however, pricey, and taking in-faction options to save influence and lower your rez costs is a strong factor.
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i personally love 2 viper 2 iq 2 turing as my hb-native code gate shell for what its worth
I used to use Viper quite a lot when not many people were - found it very useful, cheap early ICE. Found at STR 4 though that it got Kate eager to bring our 4tman, and with Ichi 1.0, Eli 1.0 and similar, that really hurts HB.
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Viper is pretty strong against criminal, and fair against kates on zu/cycy if you can spread 'em. IQ isn’t really worth it IMO. Crisium improves too many matchups to leave it out. You can pretty much slow crim to a crawl by dumping one on HQ until sneakdoor drops, which is pretty slow already.
The anarch matchup isn’t so bad if you push the first agenda super fast, maybe in place of the first campaign if you can swing the cash (double hedge early). Forcing Noise to run and dump cards to faust hurts his mill and set up, if he doesn’t run, then you can score before the mill is relevant. Always keep an eye on d4v1d taxing, because sucker accumulation should be minimal if you go fast enough, so ichi 2.0 is far better, especially if you’re going something like ELI->ICHI 2.0-> Turing by the end of the game. Asssassin is a fair ice for RnD and great for HQ IMO. So viper is your non-d4v1d tax, forcing out yog or some high parasites.
Vs shaper, its just standard try to tax them, keep them running with assets, and don’t let it go into late game. Viper is great at this, when you’re already pressuring them elsewhere.
The wants are team sponsorship, restructure, and more archived/interns depending on what you feel is better (interns IMO). The problem here is, as usual, slots.
What does everyone think about the inclusion of Blacklist?
I took a list based on Cerberus’ Food Coma to a GNK on Tuesday and as well as a couple of minor ice changes, I swapped a Crisium for a Blacklist. It did serious work against a couple of Kate decks, and won me the game against an Eater Maxx deck who couldn’t Levy because of it.
Definitely worth a think in my opinion.
I’d rather have a second Enigma than play Viper. Especially with the link-based Runner lists I’ve been encountering lately.
2/2 split on NAPD and Vitruvius seems the most flexible and adding an additional 3/2 gives you the opportunity to include a one-of Biotic. Archived is only necessary against DLR in my experience, so including either Biotic or Archived turns into a meta-call.
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I would prefer the crisium, due to val+scrubber, whizz, imp and any of the other trashing effects. Downsides are that it makes RnD softer for the situational gain, because of the above cards, it requires a remote, which is better served for a campaign that gives you money that lets you win. Crisium generally doesn’t suffer these downsides and has much more likely upsides (Medium, TME, Siphon, Wanton, apoc, etc).
Doesn’t seem like a good fit to me, and I’m about as big a fan of Blacklist as anyone.
So many of the ice are clickable in some way or other that you’re never gonna get even a temporary lockout, and It’ll just sit there doing nothing until Kate/Noise decides they’d kind of like to use their clone chips now, then get killed for probably less than a Crisium would cost to deal with. And you’ve had to waste a protected secondary server to put it in all that time, instead of a campaign.
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What remote are you gonna put it in? If you want to be campaigning or scoring at the same time you need a 2nd remote. Crisium already forces kate to come through your R&D tower an extra time to pay a 5 trash cost. Whatever you have on your 2nd remote should be cheaper.
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How many archived is correct? I have 1, but I always like drawing it. If they win the psi game and trash Caprice you can lose if it takes you too long to build up a remote again.
Over advance vit is the right solution here but I’m facing lots of turntable Whiz and Val recently. Does 2 archive make sense here?
I would say 2x Archived isn’t wrong if you can find the slot for it, but you’re likely trading a piece of ICE or an Ash. Definitely let’s you rebuild quicker from a lost PSI.
Sooooo how does the Restricted list affect this?
-2 NAPD, -1 Tollbooth -1 Architect frees up 5 influence
My changes would have the new influence spread be:
2x Caprice (8)
3x Eli (3)
2x Food (2)
2x Architect (2)
And then throw in the new 4/2 when Kala Ghoda drops. Maybe swap an Eli out for a Crisium.
The other option is to go down to 1 Caprice, which might be fine with the runner changes. Testing time!
EDIT: New agenda for reference: https://i.imgur.com/Bf3RIkM.png
