I really like Spiderweb in any other ID. Hive just 100% outclasses it here, though.
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Run both.
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I feel like it might be sketchy in other IDs than Blue Sun, and worse than Hive there, (you could play like 3 Hive 2 Spiderweb 1 Meru Mati or something I guess). Isnât it just worse than Bastion vs Anarch? More importantly, if youâre not Blue Sun, isnât Shaper just going to âslowâ Parasite it?
Isnât the issue with IT dep in blue sun that you are now expending sparser than usual clicks into IT dep, while you donât have the consistent economy to do that off?
Not really - quite often you can find yourself clicking for credits not because you need the money but because you have nothing much better to do. ITD solves that.
I see no reason why I wouldnât run both. This would replace Datapike for me, and while Iâm way too barrier heavy I think itâs worth it. Spiderweb + Hive is Lady proof for your first agenda, and Corroder is still 9 credits.
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Ok, sorry, I shouldnât have tried to put my thoughts in a oneliner.
IT dep in terms of economical worth per click is really awesome. Issue is, that you canât use said worth to rez ice (and less important other business). It also scales really well, so past the initial turn or two after rezzing it, the runner really canât keep up with you unless he can find some way of taxing IT dep tokens. That means initially, you will want to put all your clicks into IT dep, and the turns after, probably most of them if the runner is not giving up on the game and trying to find some way to tax tokens and abuse the fact that he has more clicks than you do.
Now BS naturally already has affinity for ice that taxes when facechecked, so thatâs nice. But while itâs bank often looks impressive, this is partially through BSâs ability. You maintain a high potential by keeping your ice unrezzed, at the cost of clicks. That way, the burst economy from OAI, restructure, hedge fund goes a long way. Now bootcamp glacier runs Adonis, and thatâs pretty neat way of growing to a lategame where the runner can threaten every server.
But suppose we introduce IT dep here. The key time is the two turns after rezzing IT dep. If youâd want to use your BS ability, you are cutting into IT dep tokens right there, allowing the runner to tax your tokens that much more effectively. So youâd need the bank to rez on all servers and maintain that, which isnât the point of BS in the first place. After that critical period and when the game is on lock, obviously itâs much easier again. But where in HB, IT depâs initial home, you are much more equipped to build a huge bank, you simply donât have that here. And HB doesnât mind having to rez ice on all servers, it had to do that anyway. Here you have a clash between your ID and your wincon/key card.
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Itâs much less of a conflict than the conflict between HBâs best ice being clickable and ITD! Playing it out of Blue Sun seems much more sensible to me, you donât have to play crap like wall of static to make it work and you gain a big dose of parasite resistance.
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It feels like a totally different game now. You also probably donât really need that much to rez ice. Datapike is great.
Yesterday I tested it on Octgn for the first time with a random person, they had Paintbrush+Switchblade. After hours of clicking I finally get there, not fun : <
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There are upsides and downsides to IT dept in both factions. Resistance to parasite is huge. You also donât need to blue sun every turn, and ITD is such a must-kill that you can get away with no more than 1-2 cheap etrs on centrals while setting up.
As for spiderweb, 2 strength vs hiveâs 3 is a big deal for parasite vulnerability, and 2 lady tokens vs hiveâs 3 is even bigger. I do like the idea to combo it with hive for a cheap (compared to curtain wall) 5-lady server, so I can see changing the 3rd pike out for 1 of this, but not any more than that.
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When would you start setting up ITD? As soon as possible, or as soon as you could reliably protect it?
Iâve been running 3x interns in blue sun recently. Slam the ITD every time you draw it and eventually the runner tuckers out and you start winning.
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If you think you can start winning sooner and you already have Adonis do you Boot Camp it?
Maybe. If the runner is spending time attacking the Adonis, no. The main function of an early ITD is to distract the runner from central pressure. If they ignore Adonis and start hammering r&dd, then get ITD to draw them away.
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I was looking at Spiderweb from a non-ITD perspective, as I tried playing it once and was just bad at it. Parasite takes down Spiderweb just as easily as Datapike does, and almost every runner is breaking Datapike for free now.
Datapike is probably better if youâre using ITD just because of Yog lockouts, and if you get enough counters on ITD it doesnât matter what the ICE is.
You need a critical density of anti-facecheck ice , IT dept or no, to make it worth a click to refund stuff when youâre under money pressure. And gear checking for a 5 credit breaker is still good.
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I honestly donât know.
I normally want to do that after the first Atlas simply because I always miss something at that point. Either the money from the first OAI+CW, or the right ice, or ITD itself or Ash maybe. And Hive is not too bad yet. I feel more comfortable with the help of that atlas token before going into the IT war : P
There was a time that my ITD was trashed maybe 3 times by a ppvp Kate. Every time it cost her 12+ to do it. And you can intern it back, JH+EBC it back.
Intern might be bad because you can only clicked once , but bootcamp works great. In the end that Kate was so broke. And I beat her playing a normal BlueSun game despite a few misplay which would have won me off the ITD.
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Brought the ITD bootcamp deck to a 19 people ANRPC today, got 2nd place.
Not a good idea, how do you survive the hate from your friends after that?? 
Especially today, there were 2 other ITD ETF/bootcamp in the field on top of mine, people are not happy.
round 3
"Hey, what side do you want to play first?"
"uhâŚletâs play my runner game first, my corp game runs ITD, it will be slow. 
"
âbut my corp deck also runs ITD. 
â
â 
â
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I figured out on the way home that I did have a two turn window to trash @Tr33beardâs ITD if I had Eschered his expensive HQ ice and a Caduceus to the remote, he was too poor to trace me out, and I had enough creds to pay through the 7 or 8 token ITD for Meru Mati. And that wouldâve brought me to my second Escher leading into a trashed ITD on the day, it wouldâve been so glorious.
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lol, that would have been the best Escher ever. I always found Caduceus so awkward in that match up. However they still need to be there in the deck, all three of them.
I didnât even realized there was another ITD bootcamp today. I thought they were all ETF ITDs.