So, having eagerly read and enjoyed Nagnazul’s guide to creating the breakerless Quetzal deck (found here), and having an interest in trying something other than my Noise go-to, I immediately put it into play… And got creamed. When the deck worked, it slaughtered. Unfortunately, during a run of poor decisions on my part, lucky draw on my opponents’ parts, and plain out lack of defense, I quickly discovered that my current play environment was only too happy to see me try to run very early game. I was eaten alive by Merlin, Hostile Infrastructure, and an inability to land that critical first Account Siphon. I love the idea of the deck; having no economy is what costs me most of my corp games. That said, I found it to simply be uncompetitive in my current play environment (Nagnazul did say it wasn’t likely to win tournaments…) I took the same idea over to the criminals and saw if I could create a hard-hitting and successful variation on Quetzal. What follows are my initial thoughts- I would love nothing more than to hear a few people chime in, make suggestions (I am much better at playing than deck construction) and help me solidify the concept. Like Nagnazul, I am putting this deck out there as a fun one, not necessarily one that will win a tournament.
Silhouette (40 card min, 15 influence)
Hardware
3x Blackguard
2x HQ Interface
Events
3x Sure Gamble
3x Infiltration
2x Account Siphon
3x Satellite Uplink
2x Feint
3x Social Engineering (** ** **)
3x Emergency Shutdown
3x Forged Activation Orders
Resources
2x Katie Jones
ICE Breakers
3x Cerberus “Rex”
2x Cerberus “Lady” (*** ***)
2x Breach
1x Femme Fatale
2x Ninja
Programs
2x Sneakdoor Beta
3x Snitch
1x Pheromones
Total: 45 Cards, 12 Influence spent of 15
The idea here is to wrest control of the Corp’s economy by forcing them to uselessly rez ICE that you will be either walking right past, immediately shutting down, or avoiding completely via jacking out. Instead of having to make it past something that might kill you early game when you have nothing (Merlin + Foundry got me on turn 2) you force the corp to show you the playing field, deny them credits, and then either shutdown their ICE or skirt around it. Once they’re crippled, waltz in to R&D or HQ and enjoy.
This is not a balanced build yet. I currently see issues with economy balance, card draw, and preventing net damage / meat damage. There is influence free, so I was considering dropping something and adding a Net Shield.
Please post your thoughts, suggestions, or funny cat pictures below.