Love the list. Honestly not trolling this thread, but I agree you’ll be happy when you switch out this to Whizzard or Val (just add 3 Blackmail/3 Same Old).
The 3x Inject, 3x I’ve Had Worse, and Earthrise are necessary for these types of builds. You need to draw your ass off.
What’s with the Day Job? Guess it could get you back on your feet if you get low, but a Gambit or a Laundry may be more fluid.
Curious about the Hacktivist?. When I see them I think they could be Cutlery, Vamp, Imp, or even something goofy like Demo Run.
Day Job was meant more as come back card from painful remote run or NAPD score. Was not needed so much. Cutlery I am not so big fan of because they usually clog in the hand. I like them more in MaxX where you are already drawing a lot and have recursion. Changing Hacktivists for more economy + Vamp is a good suggestion. Also I don’t think Kim is really so bad ID as might be understood from my post. Managed to trash some economy from R&D during the games and it can harder to recognize how it affects the corp.
I’m still rocking the list I shamelessly stole from Masterair with some small tweaks and I’m really surprised you guys think Kim is weak. Like, really surprised, I think he’s really powerful and most of the players of Madrid agree.
The thing is, he pressures HQ and R&D right out of the gate and in a faction with Parasite, Imp and Medium that’s really powerful. He can simply attack and he’ll get results, even if he doesn’t get an agenda. And, eventually, he’ll build a rig and hammer R&D for the win because Anarch breakers are incredibly efficient. Scoring in a remote isn’t easy, either, because he packs Stimhack and will almost always be able to make it in.
I also don’t think people realize how powerful it is to destroy cards when you have Medium on the table. And Kim allows you to trash every single card except ICE,.
A big part of the issue from my perspective is that Ed only starts using his ability when you’re already doing a good thing (accessing cards). MaxX and Valencia have a benefit right out of the gate and don’t ask you to work to use their abilities.
If you’re seeing 3 cards off a Medium run there’s a good chance you’re going to win that game regardless of whether you’re Ed Kim or not. Valencia and MaxX help you to get to the point where you’re Medium deep digging in the first place.
I dont think medium dig is the thing that turns on Kim’s ability personally. I know thats where a lot of people in this thread are going with him but i have to agree it (medium digging) is not any better out of Kim than any other anarch.
The example i keep referring back to is noise’s mill ability. The play used to be run RND, see a card, mill it by installing a virus, see a new card. I look at Kim as having that, mitigated somewhat by only being able to target operations, then buffed by being able to do it in HQ and RND.
I think thats pretty strong and maybe we havent got the deck for it yet but i think its a sleeper ID ability and with the right deck behind it will be “better out of Kim”.
I feel like the difference is that milling and then seeing a new card is just one of the things that Noise’s ability does. He doesn’t need to be getting central accesses right now to see benefit from his ability. He also uses it to put the corp on a clock and to pressure another server (archives).
If Noise’s ability had ‘if you’ve successfully run a central server this turn’ at the beginning he would be a hell of a lot worse. Ed and Noise aren’t analogous because Noise makes demands of you during deck building while Ed makes demands of you during play.
Granted, not analogous, but at least similar in that your trashing cards that normally you wouldnt be able to trash. Not trying to say that Kim is as strong as Noise, he is not, but i think his ability has legs (even if only one hand boom boom).
Also, you mentioned something which i think is key to Ed. “Ed only starts using his ability when you’re already doing a good thing (accessing cards).” - so making each run and each potential access have a greater ROI i think is the way forward. MasterAir included desperado in his Kim deck and i think thats a good start. I was considering John Masanori for draw but earthrise has such raw power and inject is in faction.
The double sided, plastic-coated, different coloured IDs. Kim with Gagarin. Kinda like the ones that were handed out to the winners of the regionals last year (I think those had Andromeda and something else)
Yeah adding more cards that make you want to run a lot seems like a good approach to me, and I might try it at some point. Having Desperado, Datasucker and John fire whenever you access RnD or HQ will give you a lot more chances to use Ed’s ability.
I mean, Gabe and arguably Whizzard have similar restrictions. If you want an econ/tempo boost from an ID, then Kim is categorically out. Kim’s impact isn’t on the runner directly.
On the medium dig note - I disagree. Kim+Medium digs much much faster than just Medium alone. It’s not the only thing he does of course, but the impact is noticeable.
I’m on board for the crim style get in to keep getting in, but John Masinori is a bit weird here (Datasucker is kinda obvious). Then again, I haven’t played it, so I’m not that sure how it’d work out in practice.
I think the annoying part is runs don’t easily make for more runs in most cases. I’m going to have to click for cash at some point, where Gabe’s HQ run can mean enough left for an R&D run and have clicks left for setup.