Thanks!
I’m not really sure if the Crick thing is a problem with the deck or a problem with my play. In our first game, Ian stashed the game-losing GFI in Archives and just left it there with no Jackson protection and a non-Crick ice unrezzed. I never ran it because I never wanted to spend 5c to see one unknown card (and he had an unrezzed asset that might have been a Jackson, but wasn’t).
I’m definitely slotting Political Operative ASAP, and I hear you on Crick… which is why I now run a passport in my version of this list. Great work making the cut!
Demolition run over TME could be worth a test. Combos with medium, gets another counter, and allows you to x+1 fresh cards on the next run. As its a run event it synergises with terminals, desperado and ken.
Demolition Run also can trash the Crisium Grid on HQ if you run it there, which saves you a few bucks.
I like the idea of Escher as a way to make high stakes job easier (and it is a Run itself), it costs a lot of influence though.
Cross-posting:
@Saan won with this deck at a small GNK:
Ken “Express” Tenma: Disappeared Clone (Honor and Profit)
15 influence spent (max 17-2☆=15)
45 cards (min 45)
Cards up to Kala Ghoda
If you can make HQ events land consistently, you’ve already won as crim in my opinion.
Been having really good results with a similar list to @Saan’s above. The list is derived from @Selverin’s Warsaw winning “Run Express” deck. It has a couple key insights that my previous Ken decks were struggling with:
all tag-me, all the time. the deck eschews resources (save SOT’s) and runs 3x plascrete, allowing you to go all in on siphons and blaze through tagging ice and news teams willy-nilly. Closed accounts and psychographics are the main risks here, but I think the deck has decent answers to both (recovery econ cards and deep RnD digging, respectively), and neither is too common.
criminal draw sucks, so don’t play draw and focus on making your draws as high quality as possible. I’m still really uncomfortable with this but it worked for him and so far it’s working for me. Criminal and neutral draw cards really do suck to play, and spending influence on draw kind of defeats the purpose of playing Ken, in this case at least.
cheap but robust breakers: a large portion of the deck is given over to breakers and special orders, and a “complete” breaker suite costs only 6 to install (3 if you find faerie instead of mongoose). throw in a few redundant breakers to handle stacked/taxing sentries and cover any marcus-batty related program trashes and we’re ready to break surprisingly quickly.
Kenny T and the Express Street Band
Ken “Express” Tenma: Disappeared Clone
Event (24)
3x Account Siphon
3x Dirty Laundry
2x Easy Mark
3x High-Stakes Job
2x Inside Job
2x Legwork
2x Lucky Find ••••
1x Notoriety •
3x Special Order
3x Sure Gamble
Hardware (8)
2x Desperado ☆☆
3x Plascrete Carapace
3x Public Terminal
Resource (3)
3x Same Old Thing
Icebreaker (8)
1x Breach
1x Corroder ••
2x Faerie
2x Mongoose
1x Passport
1x ZU.13 Key Master ••
Program (2)
2x Medium ••••• •
15 influence spent (max 17-2☆=15)
45 cards (min 45)
Cards up to Kala Ghoda
the changes I made are -3 TME -1 easy mark +2 medium +2 inside job. HSJ and DL have such incredible synergy with medium that I think it’s a shame to forgo this by over-focusing on maximising Ken’s ability with TME. and, given that we’re making this change, the chance of making very high value inside job runs also goes up (this also keeps up our count of run events). while easy mark (together with lucky find and SG) is a cornerstone of the “get money when you aren’t ready to run yet” part of the econ, I find that inside job can often double as econ and early pressure by saving us a lot of money (often more than 3) that would have been spent breaking ice.
Is anyone else testing along this “Polish Ken” vein? It seems like a really strong way to take advantage of a lot of the good stuf crim has to offer without getting mired in what they “don’t do well”. personally I think medium is the account siphon of RnD and the twin threats make it very easy to spread the corp very thin and take advantage of wherever they’ve neglected to defend well enough. “real” breakers also give you “real” accesses, meaning popular counters to siphon spam like crisium, wrap, and turing often end up falling flat.
Anyways, I’m having a ton of fun with Ken right now, even if I don’t know ultimately how competitive it is (@Selverin is a great player and could probably win with anything, though I think he has a great track record building solid decks) and just wanted to see if anyone else was playing for high stakes 
Any issues with Resistor? Just have a bunch more credits to always pay the trace? Or QPM?
[quote=“tvaduva, post:50, topic:6733”]
Just have a bunch more credits to always pay the trace?
[/quote]yup. the deck stays pretty rich thanks to 13 flat money events, 3 siphons, Ken credits, desperado, and public terminals. The other thing is if you don’t have any tagging ice to deal with yet, you can usually just not go too heavy on siphon and enjoy breaking them for 1 for a while before you “go loud.” 4 credits for resistor sucks, but if it’s the only ice they can afford to rez you’re in a good spot.
QPM sucks, but there’s nothing for it. If you think you can genuinely stay tag free and still get access (good luck with data ravens and gutenberg everywhere, especially in SYNC) you can do it, it’s just not plan A (I’ve only ever stolen QPMs when the corp just gets shit luck and can’t find any ICE, or some similar situation.)
I know medium might be slightly more reliable, but i’ve had fun with another run-lots card from anarch: Hemorrage. You’re making tons of runs, and combined with Utopia shard you can wipe out the corp’s entire hand and still run archives before they get a chance to respond. I think everyone agrees on a shell for Ken, but experimenting with the extra cards is where all the fun is 
.
Here’s the deck:
Ken “Express” Tenma: Disappeared Clone
45 cards
Influence: 15/15 ●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●○○
Event (18)
2 Account Siphon
3 Dirty Laundry
3 Inside Job
2 Legwork
1 Running Interference
2 Special Order
3 Sure Gamble
2 The Maker’s Eye ●●●●
Hardware (7)
2 Desperado ○○
2 Plascrete Carapace
3 Public Terminal
Program (10)
1 Breach
1 Cerberus “Rex” H2
1 Corroder ●●
2 Faerie
2 Hemorrhage ●●●●●●●●
2 Mongoose
1 Passport
Resource (10)
2 Bank Job
2 John Masanori
3 Same Old Thing
2 Security Testing
1 Utopia Shard ●
I’ve been really enjoying the crap out of Kenny Tenma, but what I want to talk about today is this thing where people play ZU.13 alongside passport in criminal lists :).
Peacock (no, seriously, hear me out–where are you going?) is just barely less efficient, and doesn’t cost influence. Think of what you could do with two more influence! It’s also more resilient to Power Shutdown! For Tollbooth / Wormhole / Turing-onna-remote it’s actually better. Why pay influence for the ZU?
#considerPeacock2016 #MakeCriminalDecodersGreatOrAtLeastNotThisBadEverPlease
I love me some medium out of criminal too, but I find that just about all of the corp dex are running 1-2 CVS (Dien showed up with 3 CVS because trolololo), which can create some awkward situations vis-a-vis TME. I also like having more Public Terminal Synergy targets, and the ability to keep a full 5-MU criminal rig (Corroder, Mongoose, Faerie (or 2nd Mongoose), Passport, Peacock) out and not have to sacrifice something for the Medium.
That said, Medium can “just win” games if your opponent isn’t expecting it.
this is a good point, and I may just give this a try (not super exciting, but i’d probably just get a second corroder. passport is welcome but I always hate to see/install/use breach).
A couple minor points in Zu’s favor in my mind: 1) the install cost. the cost of the first enigma break is 7, compared to Zu’s 4. while it may seem like small beans, early on it can be a big tempo setback if it makes you miss a DL or some-such. 2) the biggest cost disparity is actually on the cheapest ice - 2 vs. 1 for quandary, next bronze, or 3 versus 2 for a last-click enigma is a significant price jump if you want to be flying by them repeated to hammer a server. passport may solve these issues but having 2 decoders out is not always an option, especially early.
that all said, I’m definitely going to give it a spin; 2 influence is a big get for these inconveniences!
[quote=“hypomodern, post:53, topic:6733”]
That said, Medium can “just win” games if your opponent isn’t expecting it.
[/quote]Also, even if they are expecting it. Splitting ICEing priorities has been at the heart of every victory I’ve had with this deck, and medium presents a durable threat to a corps win condition (even with CVSs) in a way that possible future TMEs just don’t. The synergy with the rest of your run events (DL, HSJ, IJ) more than makes up for any loss of public terminal targets in my experience
I play Peacock in Leela.feels just like Zu,without influence.Unless you count Yagura and Datapike…
The install cost is nice, and Quandary for 2 is just a pain in the ass, I agree :). A singleton NEXT Bronze Zu beats Peacock, but at 2 NEXTs the cost is the same (Peacock: 2, Zu: 2), at 3 NEXTs Zu wins again 4 - 3, at 4 NEXTs it is 4 - 4, at five we’re in “god save us all” territory but Peacock pulls ahead 4 - 5, etc.
I think you meant non-last click Enigma is cheaper for Zu, 4 - 3. On last click Peacock breaks for 2 as well.
My hypothesis is that the extra 2 inf is worth the 2c upfront given how filthy rich this deck is, so I’m eager for more data 
If everyone runs tons of Quandary, Yagura, Datapike, etc. then Zu definitely makes sense!
If they’re expecting Medium–I tend to find myself CVS purged after the first couple digs. TME is nice in that it’s a high-impact event; doesn’t require multiple successful runs. I think I like Medium more against rush / FAers with porous ICE, TME more against Midrange => Glacier. Both are important parts.
I definitely agree on 2x Inside Job; I can’t believe Sel cut those – they’ve carried water every game.
Early days for me, but peacock felt good on Jnet this evening. The deck is mad rich and in edge cases (double enigma on HQ?) passport can provide support for efficiency’s sake (though will eventually get dumped in a medium build if they have any sentries to stack).
[quote=“hypomodern, post:56, topic:6733”]
I think I like Medium more against rush / FAers with porous ICE
[/quote]yes, and I think this is why I am on medium right now; these are the decks I’m facing most and those giving me the most trouble (possibly because I’m primarily a glacier player myself, it has always seemed easier to beat as the runner). In a meta where I thought I had a chance of facing less than 60% NEH I suppose I would consider switching back to TME.
[quote=“hypomodern, post:56, topic:6733”]
I definitely agree on 2x Inside Job; I can’t believe Sel cut those 
– they’ve carried water every game.
[/quote]right? so brutal. Part of it I think is that it’s very hard to truly counter - the better your ICE the more value IJ has. I must admit my love for this card is a big part of why I’m on medium right now as well - it gives great value if they’re putting off remote building to try to tax you out of RnD.
I know everyone is still convinced desperado is the best console evar, but I took out notoriety and desperado for 2 doppelgangers, and put in a run amok, could also be apoc. Testing commences tonight. Money+breakers=Go is just my style.
Desperado is half of that Money + Go equation! Dopple is just more “Go,” but with Ken, don’t you run out of Money before Clicks on most turns? Curious to hear the results.
Played it last night, won all the games. Money was never an issue, I can’t see desperado being better in any situation. Being able to check remotes and also bounce off multiaccess events where I’m forcing rezzes is awesome. Didn’t even think about changing it yet…more testing to come.
