Originally published at: http://stimhack.com/grim-feast-deck-tech/
Discuss the latest article by @vinegarymink here.
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I think this deck is brilliant. Beyond the card choices and competitive viability itâs incredibly fun to play. I won a GNK with my take on it.
While I have only been doing OCTGN casuals and some RL play, I have faced some very strong players and I am currently 30/4 with this deck â a ratio I have never achieved with a runner deck prior to this. IIRC all four losses were to fast advance so this streak may be the result of the deck being a damn good meta call 
Great work @vinegarymink, this deck breathed some fresh air into running for me.
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Interesting that you said the HB with NEXT ice match-up is favourable. I played you in the last round of swiss in Manchester and scored out 7-0 (I think) behind a bunch of NEXT ice by putting cyberdex in archives. Did you get me confused with a bioroid deck?
Iâd forgotten that you were on NEXT, my apologies. I guess the Cyberdex did me in that game, and Iâm pretty sure that my draw wasnât great either. In my experience this is still a good matchup for Valencia though.
Interesting. Iâm leaning towards a second cyberdex after that experience actually.
Love this deck, though I would definitely test with Paige more. She seems like one of the best cards for this archetype. Maybe cut clot, one david, and an inject?
I tested Paige a lot and I wasnât impressed. She might work for others but Iâd absolutely never cut any Injects for her.
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Great looking list, and I appreciate the detail you go into on your choices. Makes everything a lot clearer, really good showing both for the deck, the tourney, and the article.
Honest question, what are your thoughts on Investigative Journalism? It reduces the amount you pay to get in even further and makes RPâs assets even easier to trash â Sundew nets you a credit with Desperado, MHC costs nothing, etc. Played and used early it seems like the savings you could accrue would potentially be kinda huge. At the same time, youâve got a looot of places to sink your clicks, not least of which is Wyldside. So I can see the argument against it, too, and imagine thatâd be your feeling (that itâs too slow for too little and/or combos badly with Kati and Wyldside if you havenât hit your Chronotype yet). Still, given the heat of the discussion over in the other kind of desperado Val thread, wanted to check if youâd thought of or tried it or if it just didnât seem worth the bother/deckslots.
I think I agree about Paige here, though. I guess it depends on what youâd cut, but at the moment you make⌠8 discards, ideally? Now, not like thatâs terrible by any means, but I can still see why youâd hesitate when you can just draw through, presently, with Wyldside at almost no cost, on top of all your draw power. You havenât got the number of redundant cards to make her really shine.
Iâm sceptical about IJ. You need to hit it early to make the BP worth the 5 clicks, but doing so might lose you too much tempo. It also pairs badly with Kati, and a lot of the time youâll just be able to get more resources with the clicks youâd spend; getting Sucker counters will often be better for example.
Iâd consider it if you expect BP removal, but I donât think it does enough as a pure econ card.
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I like the 1 Corroder. I squeaked it a game as RP vs. a Headlock Reina because she had no answers to Himitsu-Bako. Party Pancakes are cool to see too. Worried itâd be too janky, but probably so awesome to have down.
the idea that this deck advocates things like sitting back get rich with Kati, blackmail anything that moves, then keyhole/eaterâŚ
this is not my kind of deck
Have you even read the article?
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You have my approval! Mainly for using my avatar to close out the article. That deck looks sweet.
Paige Piper looks like she could do some work here. No idea where Iâd slot her in though. My tests with her in Val have been very positive. I think inject is technically better (probably), but Iâm sure there is a âstyleâ based choice to make there. I wouldnât mind if somebody went either way on those.
Good article! You came to a lot of the same conclusions that [TWA] have been working on re. slow keyhole/eater valencia, and deck tech articles with useful content (matchup guides, history, giving reasons for card choices) are really underutilised and appreciated
I probably should have been clearer when talking about the âserver campâ plan. Even when this is your approach youâre still usually running centrals in order to build Sucker counters and to put pressure on the corp, as well as Parasiting as much as possible. Youâll never be just sitting around clicking for creds and loading up Kati even in the slower matchups. Concentrated central pressure is what separates this deck from a lot of Valencia builds.
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Awesome list dude been loving valencia since O&C and im excited to see her making her way into the competitive meta more often. Now this might be a dumb question but whats your plan on memory usage? The only thing i can figure is that you only install the programs that are relevant to your matchup but with max five mem and 7+ mem worth of progs that has to get difficult, especially considering that your basic set up ( Eater+Keyhole) soaks up 4 mem.
5 memory for 7 programs is fine. People have handled more than that in criminal for years. Unless youâre playing eater as 2 memory as per your post, you wonât have problems.
Memory hasnât been a problem for me unless I get deep into the game without finding Desperado.
Eater+Keyhole+Datasucker is the setup you want in play by the endgame, and that still leaves a free MU for Parasite recursion. Crypsis doesnât come down until its needed so its not a concern, and D4v1d is the same. Occasionally your opponent will rez enough ice to demand that more programs stay in play, at which point you might need to juggle a bit. However Iâd much rather have to improvise occasionally than include bad cards like Memstrips, that donât do anything on their own.
Youâre more likely to lose because you didnât set up in time because you put dead cards in your deck than because you have the money and cards for a big rig, but not quite enough MU to support it all.
EDIT: I didnât realise Dan was reading this thread. I meant to say that Memstrips is a highly playable staple card in other decks like Reg MaxX, but generally doesnât pull its weight here.
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?? oops- thatâs only 3 mem.
I love the deck, been playing something very similar myself (though⌠datasucker! of course! what stupidity made me forget it?). I wanted to put me 2c in and say I completely agree with no paige piper in here. club pancakes plus inject and IHW give this deck crazy shaper levels of draw in my experience, and paige almost always ends up as dead weight. A big problem I always had when testing her is that her âfirst time youâ restriction meant I had to slow my pace way down when I had a bunch of cards in hand that i wanted to thin. (ie; paige this turn, desperado next, katie the run after, eater the turn after that⌠you get the idea.)
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Yeah the fact that sometimes you have to time your cards sub optimally to make best use of Paige is also a strike against her imo
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