He’s there, but the meta’s not there yet. When I played him I had problems with NEH, but not with slower corps. Blue Sun or RP weren’t that hard. 3 of both Maker’s Eye and Legwork (with Utopia for full access) is usually enough for getting the agendas.
Also, I don’t think playing a fixed breaker will be good in Ken. Good players won’t give you many succesfull runs.
I switched for Parasite Gabe only because of NEH. When it’s done, I may get back to Ken - PrePaid or Kati.
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Anyone try Ken with Knifed + SOT to wreak vengeance on all Barriers?
Seems a better use of influence than Clone Chip, which you shouldn’t need unless you screw up.
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No, you couldn’t:
Step 1: Midseasons
Step 2: Oh, you’re tagged. Off goes your Crash Space, sorry about that
Step 3: Pass the turn
What do you do now? You can’t drop another Crash Space, because it’ll just get trashed, you can’t dump the tags fast enough.
Congratulations, you’re now relegated to playing the Corp’s game and hoping you can close out before he draws two Scorches, or a Scorch and Traffic Accident. In the meantime, he can intermittently ping you with damage to slow you down at his leisure, if he’s so inclined.
Crash Space is a decent card, but it’s nowhere near the Guaranteed Survival™ that Carapace is. While Carapace is a card that the corp actually has to play around, Crash Space is something that they can handle as a byproduct of progressing on their primary/secondary game plan track, simply because it’s a resource. You have to play around them.
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I personally like Oracle May Motivation Aesops Ken - Trading in my influence for a superior draw engine. Do a lot of sit-backing unless its for a run event, which relegates the limit once per turn he has naturally.
I’ll post some lists up on what I like with him tomorrow probably.
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Apparently nobody plays Midseason Replacements in the east… 
@CJFM : Well, it’s not a serious threat around here at the moment, although it might be if “Anarch Clot Killed the NEH Star”…
@PeekaySK : I see what you mean re: Midseasons tags. Again, if Midseasons takes up NEH’s slack post-Clot I can see switching out for Plascrete if you wanted to…
However, Midseasons is only a problem if the Corp has more money than you. I’ve seen the money this deck can pull down… It’s ridiculous. The only reason the Feedback Filter works in this deck is because it can accumulate tons of money from: Kati Jones, Desperado, Security Testing, Datasucker counters, Public Terminals and Ken’s ability. I really don’t think any Corp can outmoney this deck, and if they do, well, a loss is a loss. you shake the opponent’s hand and move on because you can’t be ready for everything now…
I would just like to note that a player with an exact duplicate of this Ken list took the second place spot at both Game Theory and Gamer’s Armory, and was the number two seed going into eliminations at Atomic Empire, so it can’t just be that my brother is luck and it was a fluke all those times…
Leela is inferior to Andy? 
Yeah, he’s saying that the woman that gives you +4 cards at the beginning of the game is better than the one that can disassemble the Corp’s board.
Yes, Andy is better, for the simple reason of her being more consistent. When you’re in a serious tournament playing like a dozen games over hours then overall consistency matters quite a bit.
But don’t take my word for it. Let’s wait for the next big tournament and see who’s more popular- Andy or Leela. And don’t just let popularity fool you, also observe which ID had the higher winrate. If you’re thinking it’s gonna be Leela then I’ve got bad news for you…
I only repeated what he said for clarity… I’ll be honest, I’m not sold on Leela either. I’ve seen her get beaten pretty handily by people who just slowed the heck down and stopped rushing out every agenda they got their hands on. I don’t like Runners whose ability can be denied because of something the Corp does. It’s the same reason no one plays Successful Demonstration - it relies too much on what the opponent is going to do.
We’ll see I guess.
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Yeah, I’m curious about importing Knifed or Spooned myself -most likely Knifed, since obstinate Barriers like Eli are a pain in the ass. I’m just wondering how often it would help since you’re only gonna get one. Maybe you could switch out Feedback Filter and Clone Chip depending on the meta…
One could argue that Leela increases consistency as well, simply because of how hard she can snowball off of a bad corp start. So instead of “increased consistency of win by a good start yourself” you have “increased consistency of win by your good or opponent’s bad start”. And that’s just what happens before the first card is drawn. Her ability has so, so many other uses vs. so, so many different corp strategies.
The only reason why Andromeda is even in the same ballpark as Leela is her link, in my opinion. Considered alone, Leela’s ability is indescribably better.
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So, I am still curious, who is it you thought was me?
Oh, there’s another guy named Jesse that plays here at Atomic Empire. I don’t even know his last name, so I saw your name in your profile and just assumed you were him.
Like I said, you know what assumptions do… : )
If you’re letting the Corp slow down you must have bad draws or you’re playing logos.
I don’t know about that anymore. Now Midseason decks have so many kill cards to blow away your Carapace. I can see a point of playing Crash Space instead and just banking up and stealing intelligently vs Midseasons.
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Yeah, but that’s sorta the point - they have to find the cards to blow away your Carapace, then they have to find the cards to blow away you. All of this is costing them time and resources, which you can use to try to win before you lose. Crash Space gives you none of that, as “trash a resource” is simply a rules action, rather than a card effect.
Please do elaborate on this, as it has always stricken me like a BS answer - easy to utter, but practically undoable in the realities of a match in progress.
In a Midseasons matchup, how do you:
- “Steal intelligently” from a remote? Obviously you can’t really let more than two agendas slide, and each one you do makes the whole endeavor so much riskier
- Pressure RnD? Only running RnD when you have more money than them isn’t really an answer you can depend on, and you can always access some must-trash stuff, or an NAPD. Do you only run when you are un-Midseasonable even if the agenda you’d steal were an NAPD?
- Even so, you can’t always account for everything… like, do you play around the possibility of them holding or mandatory drawing a Restructure?
- How about HQ? Mostly the same question, with the added “benefit” of the corp being more in control re: composition
So far, the only thing I can come up with is “Imp everything, steal 7 points all at once”, which obviously has issues if you’re anything but Anarch (ideally Noise). Being able to trash accessed agendas, and trash agendas instead of accessing them (hello, Keyhole) obviously has merit, as it brings you closer to the 7-point blitz part of the plan, but not everyone can reasonably pack these things.
I didn’t mean anything fancy. Take risks early on, while it is probable they don’t sit on problem cards yet. Money up. Force rezzing to make the corp poorer by whiffing Siphon intentionally. Try to access cards only if your bank account can handle Midseason.
All this is easier said then done, sure. But my point is that by allowing yourself to get Midseasoned and playing Plascrete isn’t any better. Both situations suck. And if they do, why not employ the first method and play Crash Space for other reasons than Midseasons.
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That’s a pretty bold claim. Andy has been demonstrably good (and at points unplayably good) for ages, Leela has been good for a bit. Leela gets worse if there are fewer agendas in the world (maybe lots worse, but I’m not too sure about that). The Link helps Andy but that 9 card hand (with mulligan) is a really good power.
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