All right, I’m out of work so here we go. I would consider myself an “obsessive casual” rather than “competitive” player, so I would love debate/criticism from the elites
Our decks are pretty similar, with the biggest differences being commitment to Replizaar, the breaker suite, and the econ resources. I eased off of replizaar a little to get in more instant-speed econ/draw, a film critic, and more flexible breakers. I definitely have games where I don’t get the cameras up as fast as I would like, but I can normally limp along until that time.
The differences between our decks (yours → mine)
##Events:
-1 freedom through equality, + 1 legwork
I tried FTE for a while and I actually really like it. Slots are really hard to find, and I thought that it was probably saving me ~1 R&D access per game (assuming there’s no jackson etc. on the table), which didn’t seem quite impactful enough. If I can find some slack elsewhere, this is going right back in.
##Hardware
+1 forger, -1 replicator
I like having a second forger in hand because I can trash the one on the board to dodge a tag (relying on a hopper to keep my link at 2+) and then immediately install the second. Having more trashable link options on the table keeps things flexible.
I dropped a replicator to scare up some influence (corroder and film critic). I just found that the draw was normally good enough that you find one of them pretty quickly and the third copy wasn’t pulling its weight in terms of slots or influence.
That being said, I’ve also tinkered with builds that focused on trashable hardware (cortez chip, clone chip, bookmark(?)), but they never quite got off the ground. Maybe if there was a good low-cost trashable hardware option, a 3rd replicator to get things humming would be worth it.
##Resources
-3 Technical Writer, + 2 Fall Guy
Fall guy is so, so good. I found that I wanted the clickless burst of econ/draw (and the ability to prevent Traders from dying to all-seeing I if I get tagged) more often than I wanted the econ from technical writers. With writers, I was typically either cracking them with only a few credits on them (to keep up the pace) or cracking them when I was already set up enough that I didn’t really need all the extra cash.
+1 film critic
I am so bad at psi games, I don’t think I’ve ever stolen a TFP. I cannot beat jinteki without this card. Hostage helps to get it on the board early if I know I’m going to need it.
+2 Same Old Thing
Losing Levy at an inopportune time is game-losing, so I like the insurance. I used to only have 1 SoT, but the Legwork (and, if necessary, Hostage) get recurred pretty often to good effect.
-1 Bazaar
2 seemed like enough. With 3x replicator, you can at least dig out one of them and throw it in the bin, but the extra bazaar is always such a drag to see.
##Icebreakers
-1 breach, +1 corroder
-1 passport, +1 peacock
+1 mongoose
I found that many of my losses were against deep remotes: I have ended games on 30+ credits with no way to get into a remote, which is just the worst feeling. Peacock is not a great breaker, but it gets the job done when needed. The second mongoose might be due to residual salt from losing a game due to breaking a grim (mongoose), grim (shiv), and then hitting an archer that I couldn’t break with my last shiv. That being said, people will stack up sentries if they know you’re on mongoose, so having a second can help out quite a bit.
welp see you later