why do u say so?
Is a rig made of paperclip, chameleon and fairies a good one?
paperclip seems to be the best fracter and one-of, chameleon helping u vs sentries and codegates sounds good and fairies are always a must.
I know that paperclip+chameleon is already half your influence, but what else are you gonna use it for??
I’m not sold on Chameleon. It’s fixed strength, which mean without LLDS processors or NRE even Lotus Field locks you out. And in the age of mean, high-strength code gates like DNA Tracker or Fairchild 3.0 (and soon Mausolus), I don’t think relying on Faeries to protect you from the worst is a good idea.
As someone who’s played a lot of Chameleon decks, I can concur it’s a great card, but it has some major weaknesses. It’s vulnerable to damage because it’s sitting in your hand (non-issue in Shaper, disasterous in Criminal), and it has hard counters in Salem’s Hospitality, Housekeeping, and Targeted Marketing. The bird breakers get around these limitations because they can stay on the board, but with Chameleon, you’re doubling down on keeping your most powerful card in hand.
Chameleon also does nothing for Khan when you need it for the first ice you’re breaking on the run.
Literally anything else?
If Criminals had any recursion in faction I would look at Chameleon. Until then, I think we are stuck with the birds for Khan.
Which might not be bad in a pack or two. But is pretty much entirely dependent on her console, which we know is coming.
But, you want your breakers in hand so you can install them with Khan. If you’re leaving your birds on the board the whole game, hell just play Sil.
You want to have the option. If you’re playing against Jinteki: PU, you don’t want your only code gate breaker in your grip after a run. They’re guaranteed to have a few Neural EMPs in the deck, and since you only have 12 influence you probably don’t have any recursion. Similarly, if you know your opponent is playing Salem’s Hospitatlity, your grip is the least safe place for your breakers.
The birds give you that option, Chameleon does not.
Here’s the list which I’ve had some success with, and it’s certainly the list that’s getting me the most Khan triggers. Security Nexus could be inside jobs. I just added a datasucker because Peregrine was costing me 9 to break dna tracker, ugh.
Better in Geist
3x Account Siphon
3x Dirty Laundry
1x Levy AR Lab Access ●●●
2x Special Order
3x Sure Gamble
Hardware (4)
1x Security Nexus ●●●
3x Sports Hopper
Resource Resource (10)
2x Access to Globalsec
3x Earthrise Hotel
2x Same Old Thing
3x Temüjin Contract
Icebreaker (12)
1x Corroder ●●
3x Crowbar
3x Faerie
1x Mongoose
1x Peregrine
3x Spike
Program (3)
1x Crescentus
1x Datasucker ●
1x Medium ●●●
What happens with GPI Net Tap? When you pass the first ice, does GPI trigger at the same time as Khan? I.E. do “passing the first ice” and “approaching the next ice” both happen at the same time, assuming there is another piece of ice? (I assume the same would apply to Snitch.)
Khan happens first.
Passing is the end of 3.2, but for naked Caprice, so before GPI. (Khan first)
(errata for Caprice, I guess).
I’ve been having fun with this deck:
Event (19)
3x Account Siphon
6x Exclusive Party
3x Inside Job
2x Legwork
2x Special Order
3x Sure Gamble
Hardware (7)
2x Box-E
3x Cybsoft MacroDrive ●●●
2x Q-Coherence Chip
Resource (6)
2x Earthrise Hotel
1x Hernando Cortez
3x Temüjin Contract
Icebreaker (6)
1x Breach
1x Corroder ●●
1x Golden
1x Mimic ●
1x Peregrine
1x Yog.0 ★ ●
Program (2)
2x Magnum Opus ●●●●
I try to play this as an econ denial deck, with the fixed strength breakers getting me through weak, cheap to rez ICE and the birds getting me through, and derezzing, anything else. This deck originally had two of each bird and no Mimic or Yog (with the influence being spent on a Trope) but ICE like Aiki (5 to break with Peregrine, letting the first sub fire!) made me reconsider.
Magnum Opus may seem like a weird choice, but it’s here to fuel the birds. An infinite number of derezzes requires an infinite amount of money! As it can’t be tutored for, there are two in this deck. The MacroDrives help with the reinstalls, which once they’re all up mean that you can reinstall the birds for 1 credit.
The bane of this deck is program trashing, exacerbated by the Q-Coherence Chips. Ideally some Sacrificial Constructs would be in the deck.
I wonder whether her console will be “When you encounter the first piece of ICE per turn you may install an icebreaker from your grip”. Essentially a Savoir-faire without the MU costs.
Here’s my current Khan build.
tl;dr - Using Compromised Employee, Ice Analyzer, and Hernando to punish the corp for rezzing ice, then shutting it down.
New Barrier breaker seems fine. Console not so much.
Are you referencing to some new spoilers I haven’t seen yet?
Scooplords hoarding scoops. #Illuminati #BarcodeXylophones #OmarWasRight
Check the Flashpoint thread. 
Barrier breaker is underwhelming. 6 to break Eli? Goes to 4 with a Datasucker token but it’s still not that impressive. 5 to get through Spiderweb. Really, against anything but Wrap/Vanilla/base Resistor, it’s not that great and absolutely needs Datasucker support.
Her console does nothing to help her breakers. It’s a cool effect that punishes people for stacking easily-broken ice on HQ, but it’s an expensive console and Criminals aren’t exactly short of ways of accessing lots of cards in HQ.
I’m most saddened by the console.
I was hoping it would be something to mitigate the ridiculous expense of installing her breakers over and over again, and instead we get… Overpriced MU + HQ Multiaccess. Asking me to pay 5 credits for that is just never happening. We could’ve talked at 3 credits install cost, though…
The breaker is about what I expected. Hoped for base 2 strength, but no one’s surprised by the pump/break/derez costs and effects. As it is, I’ll still play it because I want NEXT Silver/Wall of Static to de-rez and this does that job pretty effectively… Most other Barrier ICE I don’t care enough about to bother derezzing with this.
I also think we’ve established that you should probably play Datasucker with the birds…
En Passant is a Khan card and goes in all Khan decks. Or, at least, all Bird decks.
I want to point out something here: With a single Datasucker counter, Saker becomes as efficient as Corroder, which is the Gold Standard of Fracters…
And, interestingly, since this seems to hold up for all of the Birds, Ice Carver looks attractive as an alternate option.