Hey all- just thought I’d post this deck that I’ve been having a lot of (casual and practice level) success with lately. Particularly because I feel it accidentally got better with the MWL changes I made. Write-up to follow:
Haley MWL Smaug (45 cards)
Hayley Kaplan: Universal Scholar
– Event (7 cards)
3 Diesel
3 Sure Gamble
– Hardware (11 cards)
1 Akamatsu Mem Chip
1 Astrolabe
2 Clone Chip••
1 HQ Interface••
2 Plascrete Carapace
3 R&D Interface
1 The Toolbox
– Program (16 cards)
1 Atman
3 Cache•••
1 Corroder••
1 GS Shrike M2••
1 Harbinger•
3 Multithreader•••
2 Paricia
3 Self-modifying Code
1 Study Guide
– Resource (11 cards)
3 Aesop’s Pawnshop
3 Armitage Codebusting
3 Daily Casts
3 Professional Contacts
Named after the Jnet rando whose deck inspired this list, it leverages the excellent synergy between Hayley and Aesops economy to build a mountain of cash in a hurry, which is then converted into a doomsday-rig for late game. a few notes about card choices:
Econ: Aesops/ProCons/armitage/daily casts/cache/harbinger/paricia/SG. The proven aesops engine is accelerated by Hayley’s ability, which also leaves clicks leftover for mashing armitage or procons as the situation demands. critically, you have a fair number of low-importance installs like paricia, mem chips, clone chips, armitage (even if mostly or completely full) and others that you can liquidate for quick cash at a moments notice with aesops. most of the deck ends up as econ one way or another, which mean you get rich quick.
Rig: multithreader is a key pivot when transitioning from early game to late game econ. it turns the somewhat lackluster but pumpable breakers into an unstoppable get-in-anywhere-for-free machine. Of particular note (and often overlooked) are its synergy with SMC, atman, and study guide. I’ve also tested the deck with gordian, which is fine, but makes for a much weaker late game; if I had 2 slots open I’d consider running SG and Zu.13 side-by-side. That said, atman often saves the day if they try an early rush behind codegates.
Support: interfaces are a no brainer as you can often get in every turn, and plascretes are a must- against tag heavy decks it’s often best to rush out your build and they go tag me, letting your multithreaders do the rest of your econ heavy lifting if they trash your key resources. Like them or not, plascretes are the way to go; if you discover a biotic in their hand, at least you can get a refund at aesops.
flex cards/questionable includes: toolbox is the obvious standout; frankly it’s unnecessary in most games, but I wanted a “maximum possible rig installed” memory solution, I chose to include this beast instead of going the safe rout with another akamatsu or a cybersolutions. if you’re looking for spots the third armitage, paricias, or second plascrete could also be pulled per your meta. Pet includes to consider for me would be escher (in case they finally manage to set up something that can tax you out), notoriety (very undervalued card right now with the prevalence of GFI), or drive-by or clot if you could find the influence.
Matchups: feels very strong against any glacier or rush setup, for obvious reasons. has surprising legs against FA; mostly my plan is to lay into them as hard as i can early, trashing assets and checking remotes and testing ice, while using haley click compression to get my setup rolling in the background. with plascretes and multithreader, the deck can hang with damage decks or other tagging setups as tag-me is rarely a death sentence, and procons means drawing up before/after net damage remains profitable.
Let me know what y’all think; am I delusional to think this big-rig could be fast enough to play? I think this deck, or one like it, is very well situated with ppvpk on the backburner and corps making some very tough influence decisions. If not, what are you trying in haley and what improvements would you make to this list? Let’s talk about the new queen of shaper (ok, maybe not, but still. she’s good.)!