I would go morning star if money was ever a problem. Every NEH game I played was a race to see if they could score 2 3/2 agendas before I got my rig. That’s where legwork comes in- one shot can clear all those agendas out from NBN, really cutting their chances of taking advantage of any early lead.
Quality time is where it’s at. You want to overdraw and pitch a lot of cards anyways. I use my QT on each pass through the deck to get to what I want and pitch the rest.
So far I have 3 games with x3ro’s Full Disclosure version, and I am falling for this deck. I would never play any version without Doubles. Power Nap for 7 and 8 mid-game is insane. With my limited experience, I’d say this deck is incredibly powerful unless the Corp is actively doing things against you. I have yet to face Power Shutdown but I think that could definitely put you back many turns, although your breakers are so expensive that it would be risky for the Corp.
tbc ping pong calls
I’ve cut to 1 Quality time, but I’m not sure in testing how much I miss it. I often felt that I didn’t want to drop the cards, but I think I need to be better at parting with good cards, and just hoping to see them again post levy as DJ says. I do know the power of a distilled deck when all your crap is out of the way. I would love morning star because Eli 1.0 is in 90% of decks these days, but the legworks are crucial to stopping NBN. If I have to pay 3 to break Eli’s when I fight HB, then so be it. Legwork is definitely the tits.
edit: as for tinkering, I feel like it is a very up-tempo play against corps trying to squeek out agendas against you. Even one puts the fear of god into them to not stuff an agenda out again behind 2 pieces of ice. This gets even stronger with femme, scavenge and good running tactics.
I have played a few games (5-6) against Power Shutdown with will-o-the-wisp. Worst game for me against it the player got rid of my battering ram 5 times in one game. Score was 4 to 4 when he activated a willow against it, and I just magically had the third test run (second time through the deck mind you) to score the double advanced 5/3 he didn’t think I could get to. The point is this deck is probably the best answer to dedicated program destruction/removal because you can get to your test runs and fish the stuff back up really easily. If you even sniff program destruction or any kind you should hold back 1 test run, if possible.
Breaking Eli for 3 is still better than corroder, and battering ram still has the option to deal with bigger barriers. If they don’t know what you’re using for barriers, they may make a multiple barrier server and battering ram keeps its strength for the entire run. 2x eli in 1 server is only 5 to break, still pretty good. Worst against wraparound because of the 1 sub, but still not bad.
I like this deck because it feels solitaire for awhile. I enjoy sitting back, playing my doubles, getting my rig and eureka’s set up. Then in a matter of one or two turns, you suddenly have all their servers locked down.
Yikes, I feel like its the opposite of solitaire, I feel more like a coiled snake ready to strike at agendas in remotes, and if you’re too passive, I’m coiled up around you putting the squeeze on with multi access. It’s note quite Gabe level in-your-face but I know I’m pretty aggressive with it!
Oh yes, I am very aggressive with it. Maybe it feels solitaire because I have yet to feel pressured at all by the Corp. Then again, I haven’t played any Scorch strategies with it; I am sure that would instill the fear. I feel like getting tagged with this deck is the worst thing imaginable.
I suppose it boils down to how long you expect the game to go. Average game length is around 13 turns and my NEH has never lost when it went beyond that. To me, going through your deck a second time is simply something that won’t usually happen against tournament corp decks.
I do think it’s better when the games are shorter. Most corporations can really take advantage of the over reliance on Test Run. Just install in a remote to lure out their first Test Run. If they grab Femme, they don’t have an answer for your other Barriers and Codegates and you often get a scoring window until their next Test Run. Or, if they go for Battering Ram, just hit them with a nasty sentry like Rototurret.
Keep in mind that my version has increased the chances of an Oracle May or Hostage in your first 5 from 34% to 51%. Oracle May and Kati Jones are the economic backbone. In my last game I was able to trash not only three Sansans but the asset economy too.
Recur, with Levy AR Lab Access? My position isn’t that I don’t like doubles and I’m looking for things to dump influence on, Lucky Find would still be a very good choice. I just think alternatives to Test Run and an additional copy of Oracle May/Femme are more important. Code Siphon might help when it comes out, as another in-faction program search.
The list I posted actually has more multiaccess
But considerably less economy, with fewer cards and more chances for Oracle May to miss.
What are your guys’ thoughts about trying this deck with Kate or Exile? You’d get a free link and you could fill the last 5 cards up with another Quality Time, Indexing, etc. I’m new to playing CT so I’m not sure how much better the 40 cards are vs. 45 cards, but since you’ll never use the extra memory and CT doesn’t include any link, it seems like this could work fine with another identity as well?
I can’t comment with any authority here, but it seems the +1 memory is a big deal. Garrote at 2, Battering Ram at 2 and Torch for 5 total. To get the extra mem on those other ID’s would require some extra cards and then I would probably be tempted to go for 3 x Motivation to Oracle with impunity. Motivation is also a great card to pawn off.
Think it’s worth a shot, but the archetype is probably best in CT.
I’m running Femme in my version so the MU isn’t an issue, but I think the smaller deck size is quite important to how the deck works. You only have a finite amount of economy in the deck, so with 5 extra cards you need 5 more draws (i.e. the extra Quality Time) to get through the deck and recycle with LARLA - which means you’re effectively a few clicks slower at getting the economy back into play.
Moreover, adding 5 cards dilutes your chances of drawing Oracle May or Hostage, which slows down the draw/economy engine. Kate’s ability doesn’t really add much to the deck because you’re playing the programs for free most of the time anyway and if not she has, at most, three uses playing the breakers from hand. With Exile you’re probably only cashing in on his ability a couple of times too - when you TR and/or Scavenge. Is having the link really worth it? You’re probably beating most of the tracer ICE anyway so you’re only really worried about competing with the Corp’s trace events (Midseasons, SEA Source, Punitive) and you can do that with economy.
Increasing deck size to effectively reshrink it with draw cards seems like slamming your dick in a door. You need to find May ASAP, the smaller deck size will help yield her in an opening draw, which is what you want. Link doesn’t matter, this deck normally has buckets full of cash. Exile’s draw would be nearly irrelevant to totally irrelevant depending on if you run scavenge. You’re running 3 programs, you’ll scavenge 3 times max with garrote and like 6 with femme. Kate doesn’t make any sense at all. CT is the only ID that makes sense.
I suspect it will be considerably less painful, at the very least. I’m, uh… I’m not going to empirically test the hypothesis, though :). Thanks for the lulz, though.
Played last night at a game night with my version (femme, 2 legworks, 1 hostage, 2 may, 3 lucky find) and had an optimal draw. First hand was 3 test runs, hostage and diesel. Turn 1 I dieseled and found an Oracle May. Then the Power Naps were all near the bottom of my deck so I got Power Naps of 8, 9 and 10. Sweet.
(I won BTW :P)
I’m doing that same influence distribution. Been good so far, but I need to squeeze in a scavenging.dd you make any other changes?
I’m playing the same too - I have 2 Scav and 2 Tink in my version.
I’ve found the credit explosion to be epic and it sets up really fast. I played two games tonight - smashed NBN NEH and narrowly lost to Jinteki RP (Caprice Nisei on a remote that was costing $9 to get into). I was really pleased with the deck performance though - could easily have won if my last ditch Maker’s Eye had hit the target.
IIRC my tweaks are 1 infiltration and 3/2 indexing/maker’s eye for the Jin PE decks.
And I have a Deep Thought in there. It got hit by a failed Oracle draw last night and I was planning to install it after the Levy in order to trash the Femme so I could reinstall and mark a Wotan. But… I won before that happened. Had to break the Wotan once for 12 (it was vs Stronger Together).
The reason for that long story is to highlight that, yes, I agree with you guys that the deck could benefit from a Scavenge or two. I currently have one Tinkering and I think that could definitely be good early against a rush deck, or for an early Indexing over a single ICE (since Tinkering lasts the whole turn).
Man how I wish I could squeeze one more influence (just one little wafer thin influence) in order to switch out an Oracle May for a Hostage. Though having an extra May in hand may not be terrible against a tagging deck.
So are people subbing Eureka! for Scavenge then to fit the Scavenge in if you’re running Femme?
I have 2 each of Scavenge, Eureka and Tinkering