Agenda Composition: Are 3/1s Any Good?

[PeekaySK]

Disclaimer: not disagreeing for the sake of being argumentative, I just seem to disagree and this is definitely an interesting topic, hence the wall of text

@Arkhon

I don’t think that was quite what @Narziss was saying. The point isn’t that 3/1s are useless, it’s that they’re half as efficient as a 3/2 both in getting you to the winning line and in meeting your agenda deck-building requirement.

Yes, and that is exactly the point I’m disagreeing with, here.

• They don’t have the same disadvantages as 3/2s, for exactly the reasons I went into earlier.
• Cost/Score ratio - in terms of the point strictly, sure. Other than that, I’m not so certain - they either win you the game, or get you money, or get you scoring more agendas. The only one where the cost/ratio bit is a concern is the last type, and even then I’d wager it’s comparable to an Ash/agenda situation - it’s just different in that if you draw a ton of Ashes and no agendas, you can’t score.
• Deck space is a valid concern, but it’s compensated - the lack of an appropriate early RnD defense tends to be less swingy in terms of results. Yes, the runner will pretty much get some points reliably, but he will have a tougher time getting to match point just from early RnD leakage. This is most definitely not the case when you’re running something like 222222233
• Getting to the finish line and the utility of blank 3/2 - well… problem is, the seventh point is so much more important than the first two. Having six points is probably worse than having five and a really good 1-pointer ability available (except for very specific cases). For FAing, 3/2s are boss, of course… for other things, I’m personally not so certain.

Domestic Sleepers - I’ll just say one thing: it’s pretty obviously an “I need 6, you need 7” kind of thing. Seeing how there are entire decks built around that (out of Harmony Medtech) and they’re not total pushovers to play against, surely this can’t be bad in the faction that has two 3/2s and Biotic Labor? Also, Archer is most definitely a bitch in HB - if you’ve never tried it, I heartily recommend that experiment. I’m personally not that sold on Bifrost specifically though, because it can be a blank a lot of the time (sort of like Veteran’s Program in a Profiteering deck - if you draw them in the wrong order, you’re hosed).

Mostly agreed on the Jinteki front, with one caveat - Nisei is probably the strongest 4/2 in the game. The faction just didn’t have the tools to leverage it properly until now, I feel.

You’re totally spot-on about one thing though - the 1-pointers can’t be used as thoughtlessly as the 3/2s. You have to have a reason to include them, and the ones you pick have to have good synergy with the rest of the deck. I’m just saying that it’s much easier to fulfill these two conditions than it would seem at first.