Lunar Cycle Spoilers (Up to Architect)

Does no one play fun dex at all?

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Hey, my Shaper of choice is Professor, and my HB of choice is Stronger Together :stuck_out_tongue:

Stronger Together is many things, I’ve never heard it called ‘Fun’ before. :stuck_out_tongue:

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I’m totally going to try a chum/howler/rsvp-shinobi deck with it, just not expecting it to be good.

I mean, that Fetal/Snare and Hokusai remote? They make a run on it, hit the Data Mine, eat some Haus of Knives, THEN have to hit the remote. Nighty night, keep your Neural EMPs tight.

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Wüsthof Haus of Knives, presented by Mark Danielewski

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Assuming that the text spoiler I’ve seen for Labyrinthine Servers is correct (roughly: when scored, it gets two agenda counters. Spend one to prevent the runner from jacking out, they can’t jack out for the rest of the run), it’s going to be useful in any deck that wants to runner unable to stop running. Said deck’ll already be running Port Anson Grid no doubt for those times when they haven’t scored a 5/3, but because of the prevent ability that doesn’t turn into a nombo so much as a “don’t even both trying to make me use these counters”.

@mediohxcore I agree that it’s not likely to see nearly as much play as TFP. But there’re people that, even when it’s to their benefit, don’t like Psi. There are the “all 5/3” Medtech decks (usually relying on Mushin and traps) that might like to ability to force the runner into a kill behind a Chum or something. There are tax-heavy decks (Tennin most of all, but can see some janky RP variant that wants to make sure you hit a central) that might like the ability to force you to go all the way down a taxing server before you can go to their scoring server. There are PE decks that want to kill you with Chum + Komainu but haven’t been able to make you keep going after Chum before – let alone keep going into the Hokusai/Fetal server behind, especially with HoK or Neural EMP as additional/follow-up power.

I’m not saying it should replace TFP, that’s not going to happen – TFP is just generally useful. But giving Jinteki a second 5/3, let alone one that’s actually massively useful to several strategies, opens up their options substantially. What’s there to not be excited about, aside from having to deal with these scenarios as a runner?

EDIT: Hell, it’s an Agenda that gives you two unbreakable Whirlpool runs. How many people want to use Whirlpool but don’t because of how finicky it is? Stupid Cell Portal Combo – ACTIVATE! (Or don’t, because whyyyy it costs so much to make it worth it… though, I suppose 14 credits to bankrupt/kill the runner’s not the worst possibility.)

EDIT AGAIN: Because I do like to trawl the rest of the 'net in the hopes of finding the odd good idea (much as we might like to pretend otherwise, it’s not like ALL the good players post here, alas), ran into something a bit interesting.

How does Architect interact with Awakening Center? I mean, you all but remove the cost-saving of AC (because it saves you 7, costs 2 to rez, and Architect is 4), but… wouldn’t that allow you to slip it in as a trap, installing a piece of Ice they’re not prepared to deal with on AC in an unpredictable moment? Worse, without AC being rezzed beforehand, it can actually work as something of a trap… and unless they’re dealing with Architect each run (far from impossible), you can keep recurring Ice for Awakening Center. (Pop an Inazuma in front of it!) It seems like that might make AC something that could actually end up being useful (take not, all you Stronger Together folks :stuck_out_tongue:).

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I don’t mean it can’t be useful, I just mean that any competitive deck shouldn’t be playing it over TFP, ever.

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Took my a while to figure out what the crap that was.

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That’s pretty short-sighted.

  1. It might not have to be a choice, it could be as well as.
  2. You don’t know what the game has in store for us in the future, I can think of a bunch of twisted ideas for cards that would make TFP useless.

I don’t think I agree that TFP is “super busted” - I see them stolen more frequently than I see them scored.

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TFP is both the best and worst 5/3. It’s the hardest one to lose, but it doesn’t do anything for you while scored, whereas other 5/3s have very strong effects. I suspect 5/3s with sufficiently strong effects will compete with TFP-- for instance, I’ll definitely be testing Utopia Fragment in my RP deck-- but I also suspect that Labyrinthine Servers won’t be one of them (assuming the spoiler is true).

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Yeah, TFP’s value is that it’s likely safe enough in your deck or hand that you don’t need to protect yourself as heavily there. It’s anti-R&D lock, sort-of, and goes well in RP particularly because there’s a bit more strength in the remote servers by way of costing that extra click to run – so the lack of protection there becomes tolerable, and the benefit is focused on the not-losing, not on the help winning. This is true of most good RP agendas except for Nisei – Fetal and NAPD both are the same way.

But I do think that LS might be able to see play in competitive situations – either as an addition, or even as a substitution (though this is less likely and very much is dependent on a decktype that doesn’t exist presently in any practical sense).

EDIT: To go into more detail, I think the deck that wants LS is one that focuses on a glacier/net-damage strategy. Build up heavily taxing/dangerous servers and use Port Anson grid and LS to force the runner into situations they can’t get out of easily. Hokusai, Fetal, Komainu, Chum, Snare, Shock, and Shi.Kyu are the key pieces in my head, with Neural EMP, Cerebral Cast, and Tori Hanzo as possible contributors. Beyond that, Pup and any other ice that has net damage potential that can be stacked up to the sky.

It’d be the first Jinteki deck I’ve seen in a while that’d want to run 3x Chum, as a deterrent and a means of keeping other Ice alive. A Komainu at 4 strength is much less likely to be immediately removed with Parasite, for instance, and is also more painful to break. If they’re able to do so cheaply, Hokusai, Fetal, or Snare could spell their doom. If not, then they’re spending a pretty hefty sum to do it. A pair of Junebugs or Ronin or something to make running more necessary/riskier… or not, I’m not sure of that just yet.

It feels like about as good a PE deck as any. Maybe not – but LS makes flatline potential rather heftier, because you can prevent the runner from removing themselves from basic risks. Once it’s scored, they have to know they’ll get through the server able to eat a Snare – unrezzed Ice becomes all the more worrisome because it could spell their doom. The time they spend preparing becomes scoring windows.

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Time to retake Civics 100? :wink: :us:

I celebrated a few days ago. Happy 4th, though. :slight_smile:

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One would like one’s colonies back.

:wink:

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Honestly, you can have them, if you really want.

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Last data pack previewed: The Source. Here’s some new spoilers.

Looks like Earthrise Hotel is probably a neutral Wyldside that eventually trashes itself. Code Siphon is pretty neat, sort of a combo Modded/Test Run. Can’t quite tell what Industrial Genomics says but I doubt it’ll unseat white tree in my heart (or my deck).

Of course, by then, we’ll all be playing Blue Sun decks anyway, right? Right?

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I moved 3 posts to an existing topic: New Spoilers! The Source