Queens Gambit is not always playable, so playing 3 might strand you with no economy that you can actually use. The second one is fine, and maybe should be in the deck, but I am happy with 1, especially since one people realize you’re playing it, if they’re playing a deck without a lot of targets, they can play around it by rezzing things on their turn.
Liberated Account is also not always playable, and is probably the worst econ card in the deck. You could play the 3rd and it would be fine, but I cut one to make room.
Disagreed about Liberated, I started with two and went up to three, it’s fantastic in here. And Queens as a singleton should probably never get to the second copy. First is good, but it’s often unplayable vs. Weyland, and as you said, it can be played around after they see one.
I played it with QG before switching to your list, and the QG was okay when I played it, but I like your list a lot more. Sometimes QG is just dead. I’m not in love with Liberated, but it’s adequate.
I think I’m going to try one less Knifed to get the Stimhack in while staying at 45.
I really like the Retrieval Run in my list, but I’m not convinced on Torch. Atman at 4 is way more versatile imo (as noted above by some people as well).
CloneChip x3 is in all of them anyway. I think the Stimhack is only useful if you want to bring out something big, although bringing out Yog and trashing a SanSan for one real credit ain’t bad either… I am on the fence re Stimhack vs [random other econ card]. Then again, I am still learning to play this deck so take my comments cum grano salis. I have a RetRun build that I really like, but I decided not to rep it in a tournament due to the negative EV on RetRun when playing the same opponent (how foolishly optimistic I was! typically one must get out of Swiss to play the same person twice, right?) or against scouting… I know, it’s against the rules, but seems like everyone does it anyway.
I’m pretty sure this is faulty reasoning. Even against an opponent playing a list you’re intimately familiar with (like, “actually built” level of familiar), you can’t always leverage that info into meaningful advantage, board-state-wise. What’s worse, if you try too hard to make it happen, you could easily lead yourself into a corner by playing around something they didn’t even draw.
“Faulty reasoning” seems a bit harsh. Just throwing a spare Wrap or Ice Wall or Quandary on Archives really dings the RetRun plan. I’m not saying it invalidates the concept or makes the deck unplayable, or that there isn’t value in inducing the Corp to spread ICE thinner. Just saying there’s a difference between an easy Torch and a hard Torch, and that difference is enough for me not to want to play RetRun decks against the same opponent multiple times. As it stands, it was irrelevant anyway since I scrubbed out in swiss… There’s always two weeks from now. (EDIT: Some empiric evidence, of albeit small sample size… I did test this proposition and find it to be true against both some random folk on OCTGN and against my main playtest amigo).
I feel the RetRun plan is only really dinged if you meet a beefy/unparasitable Code Gate while RetRunning for your Torch. In fact, I’d say that the only true obstacle to the plan is a Lotus Field on Archives… and in that case, I’d rather have it there than anywhere else.
Guess what I’m saying that even a hard Torch is better than having to deal with a Lotus Fielded HQ and a Lotus Fielded RnD and possibly a Lotus Fielded remote with only a goddamn Zu.
True re the LFs… Break LF with Zu twice and you’ve bought a Torch (leaving aside the influence issue for a moment). Such an awkward piece of ICE, and having to break it with Zu (along with some mildly negative variance) definitely cost me a game against a Tennin deck I was otherwise dominating on the weekend… Still not sure the Torch is the answer though since Yog is just so much better against everything else (Dave for really big gates of course). Maybe just a copy of Spooned, as suggested by Dan in the original article…
I’m just a bit sore right now, because I lost two double elim games over Zu’s inefficiency re: Lotus Field on both relevant centrals and a third because stupid MaxX milled all three Katis in the first two turns
I just won an SHL3 game last night in which the Medtech player had Lotus Fields on HQ, R&D, and his scoring remote. Sure, I only had to steal 2 agendas while avoiding Shi.Kyu, but I had to get a fair number of accesses to do it.
I do think stacked Lotus Fields would be a problem. It’s one thing to pay 4c to break one ice if you’re making a high impact run (e.g. Legwork with Imp on the table). It’s another to pay 8c to break 2 ice. If you’re seeing 3x Lotus Fields consistently, I’d pull a @spags and run the Spooned, probably over the second Knifed.
Alternatively, if you really hate Lotus Field and you want to get crazy, you could cut Zu for The Personal Touch. That’s the kind of conditional trick I generally don’t put in my decks, because I hate being completely locked out until I find a certain card (which is why I mostly play Kate)… but if there’s any Anarch who can actually make that trick happen, it’s MaxX. You can Deja for PT if you really need it, or even run 2x PT if you also cut the Lucky Find / Scavenge. I think you’d want a second Yog in that scenario, possibly over the second Knifed.
I’ll be sticking with Zu for the time being, though. I’m up to 18-2 in league and tournament games with this archetype. I just need to pick the right Corp for my meta… it was Blue Sun 3 weeks ago, but not anymore.
