Accelerated Beta Team

If anything, it is still a two click tax for film critic. For a fast paced midrange deck, it feels like worth the trade off.

Only minor change I would make here is switching the 3rd Turing for a 3rd Ichi. Otherwise, this looks quite definite.

Iā€™ve been playing 2 NAPD and 2 ProVit. Iā€™ve been liking this a lot more than the singleton ProVit. It makes it much easier to chain 3/2 into the ABT train, especially if youā€™re scoring out with a triple advance. I also like the extra ProVit as the increased chance to draw and over advance it can be extra security against Noise and DLR.

Iā€™ve been screwed harder by relying on ichi over turing than vice versa. Perhaps your mileage varies here?

Iā€™ve always kind of used the NAPDā€™s to create windows, thought that was HowitwasdoneTM. Scoring one fires the team up, so Iā€™ve found you can often bait out a very expensive run that way, and then usually have a pri-req scoring window.

Maybe. Iā€™ve played two forever (with 17 ICE) and I never felt I really needed a third Turing. Itā€™s a wonderful piece of ICE to protect early remotes, but its use on centrals is of course limited. Furthermore, depending on the breakers your opponent is using, its taxation power can vary wildly, so you cannot depend on it to provide as much decent late-game stopping power, as you would with e.g. a Tollbooth.

Ichi, on the other hand, is practically always taxing in one way or another and can be put anywhere to provide annoyance for your opponent. The Ichi + Cyberdex threat is also too good to not abuse as much as possible in this meta.

Basically this: HB:EtF variants in the SanSan Cycle - #144 by higgs_bozo

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It does completely nothing if runner has 0 programs installed. I play two Ichis and I hate when I get them as first ICEs.

Edge cases exist, this is not new. How often does it happen to you that Ichi is the only ICE you have in your starting hand?

When I had 3 it was pretty often really, especially when Ichis made a large % of my ICEs. Itā€™s simply not good early game ICE, when runner doesnā€™t have any programs.

I play 17-ICE HB, so I only play two Ichi. If you keep those ICE pieces as a base and then add to it, for example by playing the third Ichi or Heimdall or w/e, I donā€™t see how that would influence your probability for pulling from that ā€œcoreā€. In this regard, hands where you only draw an Ichi, you could assume as a no-ICE hand and mulligan.

Then still, putting an Ichi on R&D turn one is not all that bad either. The only things that really punish that play are the runner playing RDI and run, or getting lucky on single accesses. And the RDI play benefits you in the early game more because of the economic setback, imo. Blind Makerā€™s Eye or Indexing are rare plays, even against HB in my experience.

This is true in a Criminal-heavy meta.

Noise always has programs. Or, if he doesnā€™t, youā€™re pretty OK with giving him a free access, since he doesnā€™t have punishing run events or Desperado.

Kate doesnā€™t punish ice-light openings (unless she has Indexing, and Kate doesnā€™t mulligan for Indexing, amirite?), and Noise punishes ice-light openings with programs.

3x Ichi is pretty good if the whole meta is Noise and Kate, I think.

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I like Turing just to keep AI plays down, since I like me some 4 cost sentry ice and mother goddess. Iā€™ve been going 2 IQ 2 Turing because itā€™s been so good lately

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Corrected typos and error of omission not including @Arkidents in the by line.

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Raises hand
I play Whizzard!