MWL checkup, daily MWL thread #651

Right, my point in the second statement precisely :slight_smile:

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My favorite time to faceplant an architect is actually turn 1, since they donā€™t have anything relevant in archives yet. Granted, it sucks turning on Breaker Bay Adonis, but I just think of it as 5 credits and a clcik to break Architect 1 time. Meanwhile, if thereā€™s an agenda on top of R&D, thereā€™s really nothing they can do to protect it.

They get to look at the top 5 cards of R&D and install one thoughā€¦ Thatā€™s a massive deal. Especially if they install that agenda (if there is one) and a piece of ICE from hand. Theyā€™ve also then got information about whatā€™s coming up for the next few cards.

Face planting Architect is a Bad Idea.

Youā€™re not wrong. Face-planting an architect is never a good thing, but itā€™s least impactful in the early game, and its certainly more attractive to me than being afraid of R&D until I get a Mimic. Plus, a 4 credit rez cost (effectively only 3 in ETF) can help mitigate the tempo gained by the install. Thereā€™s an approximately 30% chance of an Architect in their opening hand, 50% if they aggressively mulligan for it. Iā€™ll take those odds.

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Turn 1 you are giving up 2 free installs/clicks/cards, which is way more valuable action wise than turn 15. You also get information and can get something vital.

If you think about it in terms of percentage of actions taken by corpā€¦ your speeding up their game plan by a LOT here. You risk them setting up whatever they needā€¦ faster scoring remote, faster economy, faster central ice.

Idk I hate face planting into architect, but I think its only very situationally better to do it on turn 1(banking on them blanking on stuff to do with it)

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Itā€™s never great, for sure, but Iā€™m not banking on it blanking so much as them not having it. By turn 3 or 4, I can be reasonably certain that theyā€™ve drawn at least 1, making the gamble much less attractive.

Iā€™ll admit, Iā€™ve not been great at explaining myself here. Itā€™s the culmination of decent odds against finding an Architect coupled with a decent chance that the second sub will not be very relevant that makes me comfortable risking a first-turn Architect faceplant.

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You mustā€™ve been playing some scrubs for people not to have architect both centrals turn 1 every game! Clearly the better play than this whole ā€™ not drawing themā€™ malarky.

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I wait to beta test them on turn 2. Nothingā€™s better than free Good ICE!

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what ICE density are you firing your ABTs on? Iā€™ve had terribad luck on jinteki lately

Faceplanting Architect turn 1 is alright only if the Corp didnā€™t play Hedge Fund. Otherwise itā€™s a bad idea.

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Iā€™m firmly in the hitting architect is a necessary unintended consequence of running aggressively enough in the early game for a fair number of runner decks. Most of my runner decks lose if I wait until Iā€™ve found and installed mimic/Faust/faerie before I facecheck things. At most 1/5 ice are architect. Itā€™s not cheap to Rez. Include it in whatā€™s the worse that could happen calculations. Itā€™s usually one of the worst things that could happen.

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I wish Neroā€™s ability could somehow help you avoid the Batty psi game.

Does anyone else think the soft restriction on ppvp has been good for the game? Shapers seem to have with stronger long term econ engines with hyperdrivers, proco, casts, writers and aesops, whatsmore there is more diversity in those engines.

Is there that much diversity in Shaper econ engines? To me it seems the choice is whether or not to include ProCo with your Aesopā€™s/Tech Writers. Or Magnum Opus, but I canā€™t remember the last time I saw a successful list with MOpus economy.

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Yeah, not seeing much if any diversity in econ engines in any faction, really. I mean I have a beach party doubles econ powered deck, but itā€™s tier 2 at best.

Anarchs are Wyldside + Career-faired resources (Noise runs Aesops)
Shapers are Tech Writer + Aesops, maybe with Proco, maybe with Scheherazade (Kate might be on UC)
Criminals are run events + Kati (Geist uses Tech Trader / OCA)

I donā€™t necessarily think this is bad, but I would like to see more diversity in near-tier or tier 1 deck engines at this point in the game. At least there is at least one off-main ID per faction even if they are pigeonholed.

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I like CT Siphon spam too! Itā€™s a lot of fun.

In mine I went to 2x Siphon for an extra Vamp and a Faust, but I almost never used the Faust, so the 3rd Siphon is almost certainly better.

I like Escher, since it can rewrite the game by moving problematic ICE out of the way, and stacking codegates and barriers for Battering Ram and G-Blade. Of course, the main problem I had with Escher was most of the ICE was still face down because the corp was too poor to rez it, but thatā€™s more of a 1st tier runner issue problemā€¦

I tried to port it into Jesminder, but it never worked as well as it does in CT.

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Jesminder does want Siphons over Vamps but can also be a fantastic Proco-Hyperdriver Stealth deck.

I was playing something not entirely dissimilar two years ago! :wink:

But whereā€™s the R&D pressure? Iā€™ll have a tinker around and see what I can do with deck slots.