After a lot of games with this deck, I kinda agree with you. I’ll just use Nexus with the base Sunny-link and not worry about link cards.
Really? In my games, he’s been amazingly synergistic with Jak Sinclair, who is one of the reasons you can keep up with CtM and its ilk.
As a wise man once said, “We try things. Sometimes they even work.”
I do agree I wish there was a better option of filling up MU. Surprised there isn’t, really, with her cloud breaker focus. Maybe Multithreaders or a Opus or a… the AI breaker that cues off unused MU. Brain fart. Guess it’s going to come down to influence.
Sage; it’s not an AI, doesn’t break sentries, and costs 2 per sub. Probably not worth it.
Edit - derp, you’re probably thinking of Overmind. That’s pretty good in Sunny actually, allows early aggression. It’s expensive though.
I think this is flawed thinking. Your MU is not “wasted” if you don’t use it: the very include of MU in the game is a drawback to the runner, so if we’ve found a way to play without even caring about this drawback, isn’t that a good thing? You’re not wasting a resource by not filling MU, right?
Most nice Sunny programs provide utility into the late game, where she needs help the least. The only nice aggression programs for Sunny are Parasite (no) and Faust. Jamming Faust into Sunny feels less and less good these days and even when it was a flat 2 inf it was mostly a very temporary anti-rush tool.
It’s been notoriously hard filling Sunny’s MU and there’s still no real good options for it. Right now the only real option is Datasucker and Mulithreader, and they really don’t blend well into her problems/strategy. Granted, the abortion that is Striker needs any help it can get. I will never run that card in Sunny.
Gordian Blade every day.
I’ve found a 1-of Endless Hunger fills her MU nicely. Now, if you’re running Data Foldings too you probably don’t want it, but otherwise it seems quite useful.
Lots of things were just said that I have not seen happening in my games…
… One of the strongest features of Sunny is that she actually has a reason to run Link, that she actually gets use out of it with the Nexus. Now, that said, nothing says you have to run Link… I’ve been investigating a build that ignores Underworld Connection in preparation for rotation… But it’s been subpar to every build that at the bare minimum includes 3x Sports Hopper or 3x Rabbit Hole to get your Link up to 5 with the Nexus (6 if you installed all 3 Rabbit Hole/Hopper). Five is the magic number because suddenly the Corp has to pay YOU to stay out of the Nexus trace. Power Tap takes the place of Link until you hit the fifth Link, and then suddenly Power Taps pay you back.
Additionally, Security Chip also pays Sunny back for actually picking up Link, becoming stronger than a Stimhack in the later game once you have the full SunnyBreakerSuite out, walking through servers for less than half what it should cost you… Furthermore, Security Chip happens to be one of the very few cards in most Sunny decks that she can afford to lose, meaning it gives you some security against 1000-cut PE/PU decks.
I absolutely agree that Jak Sinclair and Masanori is good. I don’t agree that this lets you keep up with CtM, because your weakness vs CtM is 100% money-related. You need money to get out at least 2 extra Link, then suddenly that stupid ability stops mattering and you can go and trash all their things. CtM is a miserable matchup for Sunny just because of their sheer speed. It very much comes down to whether they get a Sensie before you’re set up to actually meaningfully contest their board. The good news is that Nexus happens to be really good against Tollbooth.
The upside of Jak + Masanori is getting a free card every turn. The downside is that the Corp suddenly has a much larger incentive to pay to deny your Nexus trace. The further downside is that a card per turn doesn’t help against decks packing HHN.
The second-best option I’ve found is Multithreaders+Datasuckers. They just take More Time to set up and don’t really help Sunny out in early game where she needs it. Overmind, however, DOES help in the early game and I’ve found that to be the best MU use for Sunny. I’ve considered Magnum Opus, but haven’t built a deck for that yet. As a side bonus, the extra MU being available is what makes Data Folding an enticing include for Sunny decks.
I did try Faust Sunny for a while, and found that unlike most decks, Sunny doesn’t have a lot of redundant cards you can afford to pitch, and also doesn’t have ways to recur trashed cards in general outside of Same Old Thing. This also lends to Sunny’s weakness against PU/PE decks, by the way.
Uh, her programs are why she has a good late game. If you have oodles of cash, they happen to be among the best breakers. Especially at 0 influence. Basically you get to play Better-Aurora, Better-Force of Nature, and Repeatable-Mongoose influence-free. Those aren’t the best breakers, but if Criminal can get away with it, so can Sunny.
Striker is definitely the worst, though. So, if you were to declare one unplayable, Striker’s definitely the one. 
(Mostly because of Enigma, but 2 for a Quandary is also appallingly bad.) Just so happens it tends to be not as terrible against some of the new code gates running around… (Fairchild 3.0 for 6 is better than anything not named Torch, Cyber-Cypher, or Gordian Blade.)
So… anyone going to try to jam the starlight card into sunny along with x3 power taps to try and allow 2 power tap hits a turn?
Its probably garbage, but at least you are immune to boom!
we can crank this janktastic wheel up to 11 with John Masanori and Turning Wheel: run a central and bounce for TW tokens and a tag, and force the trace every turn
Meanwhile: Best Defense making OCA Sunny sad.
(at least there’s usually Fall Guys)
Yep, but I was going to do it with John Masanori, Jak Sinclair and DLR.
Yog is only 2 influence with the MWL and is perfect for Sunny. My program spread for my “standard” sunny is 2 Sherman, 2 Shrike, 1 Striker, 1 Yog, 2 Datasucker and 2 Paricia. Yog for the little stuff, Striker for the DNA Trackers and Fairchildren.
So… anyone going to try to jam the starlight card into sunny along with x3 power taps to try and allow 2 power tap hits a turn?
I have the first draft of a probably terrible deck started here. It feels like it’s money light, but all DLR decks are. The dream turn is Jaksanori into a Nexus bypass, jack out for a tag, 3 TapBucks, and a Turning Wheel counter. DLR mill 4 times, then Sanctuary into another 3 TabBucks. Lather, Rinse, Repeat.
Its probably the only way to run the card. Its a lot of set up, but DLR Sunny makes sense given the combo.
I think Yog is a must with Sunny, even as a x1. Your program search is taxed pretty heavily with her though.
My first reaction was to suppress a gag reflex, but on the other hand, Yog is a pretty good place for 2 influence for Sunny.
I feel you may not even need the Datasucker support, because of Nexus and Striker.
Currently I’m getting a certain amount of value out of just using Overmind for little stuff like that.
As an aside, I don’t generally agree with Paricia/Scrubbers out of Sunny… You should be making enough drip money a turn to destroy resources anyway, and if you can’t/aren’t, you aren’t set up yet to contest assets and should let it go.
Yeah the extra trash stuff is largely superfluous in Sunny, especially since CTM you will be able to beat the trace for free hopefully!
I’ve found Scrubbers to be useful in conjunction with Jak Sinclair to be able to grind down Assets. They can contest your drip economy if you’re not careful. That being said, it may be winmore to have more than one installed.
Yeah, Sunny is usually all drip, no burst, so even if you’re getting 6c/turn (dream late-game scenario) you can get taxed out by asset spam pretty easily. The Paricias are easily the biggest flex point in the influence and programs; if I dropped them I’d probably leave the MU open and grab more Special Orders.
I’ve gotten CTM to decline to use their ability.
Power Tap is wonderful.
I still want to somehow run Power Tap and Another Day, Another Paycheck.
Mashing all three runner trace cards together is probably the only time power tap really starts to look appealing. Its too bad that the current is so situational.
Although the DLR version of Sunny might actually be pretty good as you can afford to just run redundant crap and mill while you are ticking some passive econ.