Building the Optimal Rig

I have a deckbuilding challenge of my own. Including spoiled cards, what’s the most optimal breaker suite? I have found this remarkably challenging to answer, as we must weigh several factors. Here are the parameters:

  • It must be as conservative on influence as possible
  • Install cost must be factored in
  • Other required pieces must be factored in (i.e. stealth credits)
  • How well does it address low strength? High strength? Multiple subroutines?
  • Other abilities and restrictions (Femme’s ability; central only breakers)

Stealth Credits
Ghost Runner
Dyson Fractal Generator Anarch, 3 inf
Lockpick Shaper, 3 inf
Silencer Criminal, 3 inf
Cloak Shaper, 2 inf

Anarch
Corroder Fractor, 2 inf
Morning Star Fractor, Fixed, 4 inf
BlacKat Fractor, Stealth, 3 inf
Mimic Killer, Fixed, 1 inf
Cerberus “Cuj.O” H3 Killer, Limited use, 3 inf
Yog.0 Decoder, Fixed, 1 inf

Criminal
Ninja Killer, 2 inf
Garrote Killer, 3 inf
Femme Fatale Killer, Special, 1 inf
Alias Killer, Central only, 2 inf
Switchblade Killer, Stealth, 2 inf
Peacock Decoder, 2 inf
Cerberus “Rex” H2 Decoder, Limited use, 3 inf
Passport Decoder, Central only, 2 inf
Breach Fractor, Central only, 2 inf

Shapers
Gordian Blade Decoder, 3 inf
Cyber Cypher Decoder, 3 inf
Torch Decoder, 4 inf
Refractor Decoder, Stealth, 3 inf
Dagger Killer, Stealth, 2 inf
Inti Fractor, 1 inf
Snowball Fractor, 2 inf
Battering Ram Fractor, 2 inf
Cerberus “Lady” H1 Fractor, Limited use, 3 inf

I intentionally left several out, due to being extremely limited use (Faerie), AI, or not efficient enough to merit discussion (Aurora, Pipeline).

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So for Shaper, my proposed breaker suite would be:

Fractors: Ceberus Lady, Inti (Lady for beefy ice, Inti for the rest)
Killers: Dagger, Ninja (in case I’ve used my stealth credits)
Decoders: Refractor
Other: 3x Cloak

This setup uses only 2 influence, but I have a solution for all types of ice, though I am hampered by MU restrictions and assembling my Cloak combo.


Ultimately, the purpose of this thread is that this is something we all will have to consider this next cycle, and I’m eager to ascertain people’s preliminary thoughts!

Not entirely in the spirit of the first post, but I think the default anarch rig will be cujo + parasite spam, maybe with fixed breaker support for later in the game (or just 2 corroders because corroder)

Honestly, I don’t mind solutions like that at all. I simply want practical answers, as these are all things we’ll have to consider soon.

I think D4VID plus Darwin might be more optimal. Both solutions are susceptible to being purged and locked out for a while, though.

I don’t ever want to have to break komainu with darwin, and from testing it looks like komainu’s going to be everywhere.

A more realistic setup for david is using it with the normal fixed breakers to save yourself some datasucker tokens

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Only with E3 Feedback Implants, I’d say. Makes D4V1D live longer, and Darwin functional.

That said, D4V1D can’t be purged. It’s got Power Counters, not Virus Counters. As of right now, that makes it safe.

How practical do y’all think it’d be to go all-in on Stealth for Shaper? A rig of

Dagger, BlacKat, Refractor, 3x Cloak

would be second to none in terms of breaking ability and costs only 3 influence. Plus Dagger is the only one that requires the stealth credits to work, barring beefy code gates. Finally, you can host it on Dino so that Caduceus is the only midrange ice you have to pump it for. Include 2x Lockpick and 3x Ghost Runner in addition to 3x Cloak for improved consistency and in case of nasty surprises.

Maybe I’m going crazy. Kroen would have a field day; he’s been asking for this for months.

Don’t speak his name lest he hear your summons.

On a more serious note, I think black cat is not worth the influence unless corroder gets restricted, even then morning star might be better, it frees up your stealth credits for the other two.

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Morning star’s problem had always been the memory cost, though - not sure that’s totally irrelevant in a Cloak-powered rig.[quote=“Lysander, post:8, topic:1217”]
Finally, you can host it on Dino so that Caduceus is the only midrange ice you have to pump it for.
[/quote]

Dude, like, Katana and Ichi are so sad right now.

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I think leaving Faerie (And Deus X, Sharpshooter, etc.) is a big mistake. Sure, they’re “one-use”, but it’s really easy to recur them and they are a big part of typical rigs. Basically, if your goal is to find the most efficient rig, it will most likely involve these cards and the cost to recur them.

I think that a “all-in on Stealth Shaper” is going to be Nasir’s thing. Stealth is is all that Nasir looks for - recurring credits are awesome and as a side effect of searching for those credits Nasir shouldn’t have problems with memory (Toolbox, Omni-Drive).

Did some testing (pre-Draft spoilers, admittedly), and I’m not sure about that. You need a lot of recurring credits to be safe, the whole-run breakers seem much better, aside from Pipeline. Otherwise it’s too easy to layer defenses that require a stealth credit to break and make you run out – especially on BlacKat.

I am testing a “whole run” build right now (but yes, using Femme instead of Pipeline as Tollbooths are a nightmare) and it works really well, a lot better than I suspected. I haven’t tried the stealth approach yet.

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I was doing Dagger, since I was running the Cloaks anyway, but Femme with recursion might be a fair sight better. A way to keep one cheap Ice from preventing NAPD stealing, as having money post-run is a challenge.

Stimhack! :wink: Or run (jack out), opus, opus, run but that doesn’t work early as you probably don’t have both the breaker and opus on the table.

Here’s my take on the whole Nasir whole-run thing. It actually performed somewhat reasonably in testing, I’m sure it could be significantly improved with the spoiled cards.

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