[HB] Breaking Breaker Bay: Upgrades Incorporated

Deck Archetypes
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Recently a certain HB deck has been on a tear.

The first example I know of is from Warsaw Regionals.

Haas-Bioroid: Engineering the Future

Agenda (9)
2x Accelerated Beta Test
1x Eden Fragment
1x Hades Fragment
3x NAPD Contract
2x Project Vitruvius

Asset (10)
3x Adonis Campaign
1x Blacklist •
3x Eve Campaign
3x Jackson Howard •••

Upgrade (8)
2x Ash 2X3ZB9CY
2x Breaker Bay Grid
2x Caprice Nisei ••••• •••
1x Crisium Grid •
1x Cyberdex Virus Suite

Operation (4)
3x Hedge Fund
1x Peak Efficiency

Barrier (6)
3x Eli 1.0
3x NEXT Silver

Code Gate (6)
3x NEXT Bronze
1x Tollbooth ••
2x Turing

Sentry (5)
3x Architect
2x NEXT Gold

Other (1)
1x Mother Goddess

15 influence spent (max 15)
20 agenda points (between 20 and 21)
49 cards (min 45)

I brought a very similar list to both Portland and Tacoma regionals. So did many others, it seems.

The only modification for me was pulling Turing for Viktor 2.0 (I’ve also seen IQ in the same slot). Seems like reasonable meta slot fluctuation.

@BenConn suggested dropping the Blacklist in favor of a Bootcamp, which I think is a good idea. Certainly there have been games where I’ve flooded out with a Blacklist in hand, wishing to draw Jackson. It can also rez NEXT ice, which has it’s own benefits.

At Tacoma I went 3-2 with the deck, and it seems super solid. Some notes:

Not as weak to Whizzard as it looks on paper. However, this relies upon abusing the lack of tutors, as a long game of Parasite spam is not good for you.

This is a pure glacier deck. Score responsibly.

Jackson is most frequently used as Rework ++. Recursion of Caprices is a important secondary function, as is ABT insurance.

Eden Fragment is nuts. Hades is alright.

“It’s not a good remote until you have more upgrades then ice!” - I said this facetiously, but it bears some truth.

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Faster version of that style of HB.

I have been playing a ton of HB forever, and this is the style I settled on as the most all around reasonable to play. I think my final version changes the Red Herring, 1x Heimdall and Yagura into a 3rd IQ, 3rd Architect and 2nd Caprice.

I still hate Next ice. I still hate 3 pointers. If you do too, try this out.

I played this almost exclusively in the SHL4 and finished the season with a winrate in the mid-60’s.

Any questions about the includes, ask away.

The deck plays faster, like by a couple turns. So yes, BLC is important as are the ice choices. Usual setup is to have 2 Ice Remote, 1 ice HQ, and 2 Ice RD. Play fast enough to not have Agendas in HQ. Make moves for agendas without upgrades to keep them safe. You gotta play in a way that makes them consider running your remote every single turn.

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In the newest version I’m looking to put 3rd Breaker Bay Grid and 1-2 IQ. IQ may be great to counter Yog and/or D4v1d, but it needs very careful plays.

Turing is so great as a remote ICE and it saved my ass one time on a central.

Blacklist was great in Warsaw regionals, but pretty lousy in Bielsko-Biała. You can spend that 1 inf elsewhere, but I don’t know where - maybe Wraparound or second Crisium Grid? Depends on the meta. But ambush Blacklist + CVS may ruin the runners game.
@matuszczak played with Bootcamp, but I think he stopped.

I tried playing with Heimdall, but it’s an overkill - this deck totally relies on econ and you can’t just spend 8 creds unless it’s a Tollbooth or nice hit from the NEXT Gold. If you get below certain amount of creds you may lose your Ash/Caprice/BBG/CVS server.

NEXTs are ok and I still don’t know why people hate them.

Caprice is ok, but you don’t have to rely so much on PSI games like in RP. She’s just one of the many defences this deck has and you won’t lose the game without her. Usually I win without even getting to PSI games.

This deck needs a good pilot and it’s much harder when you’re tired. It also tires the opponent and you may sell him some traps along the way. For me it feels better than RP, but people here know how to deal with RP.

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I’ve been playing a similar deck (without the NEXT suite) and find it Hard to beat Prepaid Kate.
Have you guys good tips on General Strategy and Ice Placement?
I find it Hard to score my agendas as she seems to be able to get in my servers all the time.

Not match-up related, but how many remotes are the right number and how do you Protect your campaigns? Often Agendas Stack in HQ because an Adonis or Eve sits in my scoring remote, but if I Put them naked, they just get trashed…

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The most striking one: why Fire Wall over Tollbooth?

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3 dollars cheaper to rez and its not a code gate, which in the era of NRE Yog Sucker I value. The deck taxes more from speed than raw tax. Its 3 dollars cheaper for normal breakers… but the 3 dollar cheaper rez means I can rez like… Fire Wall and Viper. Which is more tax than Tollbooth, forcing 2 breakers.

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Stacking NEXT Silvers is great against Lady.

Regarding remotes it depends on the matchup, Protecting them with NEXTs are great, because when they are attacked you can rez the NEXT so it doesn’t become a dead server.
The key to this deck is knowing when to trash Adonis/Eve in your scoring server. With BBG even one turn of campaign is great, you shouldn’t wait until it ends.

Fire Wall easily dies to D4v1d & Knifed. Tollbooth is great against everything that’s not Femme.
Against Yog you must make them spend Datasucker counters and block the centrals.

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@Jander I used to play EBCx3 just after O&C release, fearing Valencia. They were usually the worst cards in my deck. It was somewhat useful to tutor JH or Adonis, but Since nobody chose to play Val I cut one, then the rest and was happy to have useful cards instead. I feel that 2x Caprice, 3x Jackson is mandatory in the deck, but there is a lot of experimenting potential with the remaining 4 influence. Some of the versions I played are: 3 EBC, 1 Crisium; 2 EBC, 2 Crisium; 3 Capricel; Sweeps Week, 2 Crisium; Crisium, Cortex, Ice Wall; Caprice; 2 Tollbooth.

@bahram 1) NEXTs are awesome, leave them alone :wink: 2) I prefer TB to Fire Wall, which is a 5 cost ice with a lot of cheap answers (Lady, D4V1d, Suckers, Atman 4 + sucker). Also facechecking it costs you nothing. Also the runner is a LOT more likely not to have an answer to a Tollbooth. The only upside is that Fire Wall is a barrier, so it helps you try to beat Kate by depleting Ladies, but I’d rather just play Ice Walls for that. Also this brings me to point 3) NEXTs really are awesome, leave hem alone :slight_smile:

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My free inf Sweeps Week is Peak Efficiency. Great card in late game. It somehow makes every ice you rez cheaper by one cred.

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I agree that NEXT are awesome. Especially once they get ramped up. But I’m struggling a bit with my Silvers always getting parasited. This makes it really tough to get the Bronze out of NRE/Yog range. Any tips for playing around this?

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Jackson the parasited NEXTs ASAP. Also, Blacklist the Parasites. :wink:

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I used to play Sweeps Week in a faster, Eveless, operation based version of the deck before NEXT Gold. I’m still unsure about Peak Efficiency as it has a bit of a win more side to it, I’d rather play Restructure in the slot, but it is surely a close call.

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After the games I lost I usually think - “I wish I didn’t thrash that Peak Efficiency earlier/I wish I had it”. This deck has problems getting back the econ in late game, when your campaigns are usually gone. Like you rez many ices, you get siphoned 3 times, you play many PSI games etc.
Peak Efficiency can get you from 0 to 5-10 in two clicks. If you’re in need, you can even use it as a Beanstalk.

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I got a long reply coming for this. Ill get at you later.

TL:DR -Parasite and needing more pieces < Just having good ice to me

I get why NEXT, just not for me.

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It’s a parity card. Given the dearth of Criminals (and thus Andromeda) and the popularity of Stimhack (the card) then Sweeps seems less useful now. Restructure works better with a deck like Supermodernism or butchershop where floating a ton of credits is part of your plan.

Here, you want to be able to burn all your money on rezing stuff if needed. Campaigns + Breaker bay can do that, but Peak often will get you out of the danger zone credit wise.

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I would like to add here that there is another card that goes great with Breaker Bay–Will o’ the Wisp. Just tuck it in your scoring remote and you’re going to cause some grief, unless the runner manages to parasite your ice down. Good with Architect.

Drawback is the 1 trash cost of course.

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Caprice will stop WOTW from firing. I still don’t know against which runner WOTW is gonna be great - as we know that it may be lousy against SMC or Special Order.

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Yeah, or just a second copy of the breaker. If you can squeeze another “protect this server” upgrade in, it’s probably better as an Ash.

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If you can rez it for free and force them to use clicks, useful programs and events, and $ to reinstall something, seems worth it to me. I was playing a deck without Caprice, but I do see your point on that one.

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Will O could be decent on R&D late, behind the obligatory Architect there. Usually you’re digging for an agenda and hoping to not lose to Medium or RDI Makers. I play 2 Crisium in my Haas though, and I like Cyberdex more than Will O in that slot.