the one who actually insta-kill with no possibility for counterplay is Eden Shard.
1 Like
There is a window for Jackson after Power Shutdown or Diagnostics play before the runner can fire Eden Shard, so, while likely harder than fighting Employee Strike, this is not necessarily autolose and could lead to some interesting puzzles.
I think one big problem when fighting Eden Shard is that you can’t actually fire the 3rd AD unless you immediately score out to win after it. That could be nasty. But if you have plenty of cards in hand and a boatload of money, you can probably get past Eden Shard. If it’s possible to construct a winning plan vs Noise doing 2 mills + Clot, I think it should be just as possible vs Eden too.
Yeah, that’s a good question. I think if the game doesn’t last over 30 mins (so it’s less than half of the allotted time) it’s fine to think about the combo for 20 mins. Sure it’s boring for the runner to wait, but that doesn’t really matter if there’s enough time to finish the next game anyway. That is IF after that you just concede or win. I think the CI games are pretty fast usually with the exception of the final turn, so spending time to think how to make it work seems okay to me.
I was very surprised by how fast my CI games were at the FFG Store Champ last Saturday. I’d been thinking I’d run Fastro just to get time off between rounds, but CI did just fine. I never had less than 15 minutes to spare (65 minute rounds), and usually had more like 25 minutes between rounds.
In general, my combo turns took less than 5 minutes, and that’s with multiple pauses (and apologies) while I considered what to put in each pile.
Damn @bblum, noticed you had said another puzzle might be impossible. Here’s noob’s try breaking rules by playing Power Shutdown #14:
Subliminal for one credit, $10 cap
AM(PS) (0$, **)
PS ($1, *)
AD -> Biotic, RO(AD), SfM(JH, JH, EC) ($8, **)
AD -> SfSS(EC), SfSS(EC), Interns(GFI) ($9, *)
Score and take clicks. ($9, ****)
Install PV ($9, ***)
SfK(PV, GFI) ($9, **)
AD -> SfK(PV, GFI), SfK(PV, GFI), SfSS(GFI) ($10, *)
Score for the win. Could do it from $8 even, since you could click for a credit before the last AD.
You can’t play power shutdown in #14.
Haha, yes. No wonder it seemed too easy. No runs made. 
My solution for #6
PS, SfM(JJE) ($2, *)
Biotic ($6, **)
AD -> RO(AD), SfSS(EC), Interns(CVS) ($8, *)
Use CVS ($11, *)
AD -> AM(CVS), SfSS(EC), Biotic ($16, **)
SfM(CVS, PV, GFI) ($17, *)
Use CVS ($20, *)
AD -> Interns(CVS), SfSS(GFI), Subliminal ($20, *)
Use CVS ($23 *)
Score, take clicks, SfK for the win
This really makes me want to try out Cyberdex Trial in the deck. That would save $9 in this one + free up Interns to do other stuff if needed. I think scoring through triple clot for $14 would be nuts. Perhaps 1-of both?
edit: My solution for #4, 2 clots
PS, JH ($1, *)
AD -> Biotic, Biotic, RO(JH) ($11, ****)
AM(CVS) ($11, ***)
SfM (JH, EC, CVS) ($12, **)
AD -> SfSS(EC), SfSS(EC), Subliminal ($12, **)
Use CVS, Score EC, take clicks ($15, ** ***)
Install JH ($15, ****)
AD -> AM(CVS), SfM(PV, GFI, CVS), SfSS(GFI) ($17, ***)
3x SfK(PV, GFI), use CVS, score ($20, no clicks)
Close to $19, but can’t think of how to improve, at least without Cyberdex Trial, which would trivially save at least $3 again, perhaps more…but two CVS could also make it simpler, so there’s that.
edit2: going back further, my solution for #3:
Biotic, JH, PS ($5, **)
AD -> RO(AD), SfM(JH, JH, EC), SfSS(EC) ($8, *)
AD -> SfSS(EC), Interns(CVS), Biotic ($13, **)
Purge CVS, Score, take clicks ($16, ** ***)
AD -> Interns(GFI), SfSS(GFI), RO(SfK) ($18, ****)
Install PV ($18, ***)
3x SfK (PV, GFI), score and win.
The awesome part is, I was able to guess/deduce the cost of the combo correctly before actually writing it out without too much trouble. Practice and some key figures help a ton! Thanks for all the puzzles!
Solution for #1:
Biotic, PS, SfM(JH, JH, EC) ($6, **)
AD -> Reuse(BLCx2, Interns, AM, AD = +$10), Biotic, RO(AD) ($2, ***)
AD -> Interns(JH), SfSS(EC), SfM(PV, GFI) ($4, **)
AD -> Interns(CVS), SfSS(GFI), SfSS(EC) ($5, *)
CVS, Score, take clicks ($8, * ***)
3x SfK(GFI, EC) for the win (with a click to spare!)
Yeah nobo suggested the same thing a few days ago. With only 1 slot on cyberdex, CVS is the clear choice, but with 2, 1 of each seems pretty solid.
1 Like
Puzzle 18: Starting hand SfM, PS, ADx2, JH, EC, GFI, CVS, SfK, SfSS, AM
Runner has Clot installed and a Clone Chip waiting to Clot again. How much $$$ do you need (decklist has one CVS and one Cyberdex Trial)?
One solution for #18:
PS, SfM(JH, EC, GFI) ($2, *)
AD -> RO(JH), SfM(JH, JH, CVS), Biotic ($9, **)
SfK(EC, GFI) ($9, *)
AD -> SfSS(EC), SfK(EC, GFI), Biotic ($14, **)
CVS, Score, clicks ($17, ** ***)
AM(AD) ($17, ****)
AD -> CDEX, Interns(PV), RO(SfK) ($19, ***)
Triple SfK ftw
I can get nearly all of these puzzles, but that’s because I already know that the combo is possible. Do you just work this all out in your head on the fly during a game? i.e. How can you tell whether or not a combo is possible based on your hand?
Since I’m far too timid to even attempt to start learning the shutdown combo, here’s a reverse puzzle. You’re facing a triple SacCon + live clot (no clone chip). Is there a game state that will allow you to win through this?
Biotic and Cyberdex in hand means “pay 7 credits, spend no clicks, remove a SacCon from the board”. There are 2 Biotics and 2 Cyberdex in deck, so you can (if you have all 4 of those in hand) spend 14c to reduce the situation to Clot + single Sac Con which was already solved above.
But, you can only have 2 CVS installed at once when you actually go to score. Otherwise an extra clone chip will nullify all that work.
Instead, look at how many spare combo slots you have. Every 2 is worth a little bit more than a purge (biotic, biotic, purge, have a click to spare). So for example, if you got your entire deck in your hand:
biotic biotic *** **
mirror JJJ *** *
mirror EVF ***
PS **
AD -> biotic, biotic, SFSS EC *** **
AD -> mirror CVS CVS, biotic, SFSS EC *** ***
AD -> biotic, biotic, SFSS GFI *** *** ***
3x SFK *** ***
Purge 4x, score everything
At this point you got so much going on that scoring your EC separately doesn’t even help (unless they somehow have no clone chips whatsoever).
I’ve managed to come up with a pretty solid way to calculate if a basic combo using 3x AD is possible. It’s basically just calculating if you have enough slots in the ADs (taking into consideration the cards in hand) and if you do, calculate if you have enough credits (this is pretty straightforward after considering what the combo looks like). This works when there’s only Clots to consider from runner…if there’s stuff like Noise mills or Leela, I don’t have a ready-made way to calculate stuff.
I was thinking of writing up a basic guide, but since I haven’t actually had a chance to utilize the method in a meatspace game yet, I don’t feel like I can claim it works. 
If it does work and it’s fast enough, I might do a writeup. One thing I’m going to try out is organizing my credits such that I can visualize what everything costs, which is hard to do online.
Just played vs Noise and got ready to try the combo. Noise has Peddler ready to go with probably a virus in it. Can you combo through with 100% probability from this point? What if it’s a Clot? You have a CVS ready as well, but is there enough credits? If it’s not 100% certain, can you do it with 1/3 or 2/3 probability?
Oh yeah, there’s also a Cyberdex trial in the archives if that’s of any use.
Puzzle 19
(edit: goofy starting position because I needed to AM(PS), PS for first two clicks…)
I failed during the live game myself, but it was very close. Of course it was Clot under there…
1 Like
Above puzzle
Constraining resource is clicks–since we have to use up our biotic click on AM, we are left with 0 after first AD unless we get clicks on it. However, since Biotic costs 4, PS1, SfMM1, AD 1 we are at 3 credits going into the AD so only subliminal can save us. So we have at best 66% probability of winning. However, we also don’t have any extra AD, so our first AD needs to get us a click and more AD. So our first pile has to be {sub,RO,AM}. I don’t think AM will give use enough installs to be able to combo out, especially on 4 creds, so I think our only path to win if he mills first pile is to get exactly {sub,RO(AD)}. I haven’t solved that sub puzzle yet though
I hate these decks. Absolutely hate them.
Why? Serious question. The games tend to be pretty quick, whether you win or lose. The turns CI does are fast (with the obvious one exception). There’s quite a few options for counterplay, though most include specific cards you need to have in your deck. The good part is that they are somewhat common includes and honestly good in other matchups as well, so they’re not adding dead weight to your runner deck. It’s true that it can be a bad/close to unwinnable matchup for some runners, but Fastrobiotics, Foodcoats, glacier RP, IG or Butcher/convenience shop can as well. Hopefully not all at the same time, obviously! 
Because it is not Netrunner. I have no problem getting creamed by Foodcoats, but these things that were an accident of wording just chill my bones.