I am also using TheBigBoy’s list, and it is clearly very strong, but I too have had issue with both copies of Faust ending up in the bin, or one in the bin and the other buried near the bottom of the stack. Interesting thoughts on lamprey. It does often end up as nothing more than Aesop’s fodder, but cutting viruses always feels bad 
Sometimes you use Deja Vu to get back a Faust. It happens, but we deal.
2 Likes
I have been very impressed with TheBigBoy’s list, but I find myself struggling against IG. Unfortunately, I don’t know that I’m a strong enough Noise player to figure out if this is just a question of adapting my play or if it’s a fundamentally bad matchup that might even require some tech.
The issue, generally speaking, seems to be a question of momentum. If they ever manage to stick 2 MoH on the table with a piece of ice (esp. unrezzed) protecting facedowns in Archives, it feels like an impossible situation to recover from. And IG can often manage to hit this critical mass by turn 4 or so. I can Imp one of the Museums, but the other will bring it back. I can run Archives so as to open up the possibility of paying to trash, but if that ice turns out to be a Komainu and I haven’t found Mimic yet, I’m giving up a huge amount of tempo for nothing (or potentially losing outright, if there is a legitimate Bioethics threat). Once upon a time, any runner with enough patience could try to play the long MoH game and force them into trying to score, but Bioethics + Hostile Infrastructure eliminates that possibility.
Anyway, I’m open to ideas. Is it a question of tempo? Maybe you let the Museum’s twiddle away until you can Imp/trash all three in a single turn, at least forcing a single Jackson use? Ignore them altogether, hit centrals which aren’t getting any denser, and hope you cobble enough points together before Hostile/Bioethics burn through your deck twice?
Or is it a question of tech, and if so, what? Archives Interface seems like an obvious answer, as it neuters Shocks and allows an avenue to turn off Museums permanently… but it also seems extraordinarily slow and clunky, especially against the rapidity with which IG can reach critical mass. -1 Inject, -1 Lamprey, +2 Archives Interface? Or pack an Eater, so that you can clear the facedowns without eating damage? Hades Shard and pray?
Talk me down, folks. Because I love this deck in every other matchup (even other twiddly MoH variants like Gagarin), and I really want to make it work. =)
Noise isn’t losing that much strength to run Archives Interface just now. It’s a pretty solid meta card in the current state of affairs and has a number of good strategies outside the IG matchup anyway.
But don’t drop the Lamprey for it. Double Lamprey runs on HQ are a great friend in this match-up. I’ve been umming and arring between IHW’s and Injects for a while now. So cutting two of those to strengthen against the meta was a pretty easy call. I think that’s the definition of flex slot in my world.
I only have 1 tech slot available to remain at 45 cards.
At the moment im on Archives Interface, because its generally good to get rid of CVS (which is in 80% of top corp decks), and removing a milled jacko is great too, its quite average against IG I feel because they will ICE/caprice it. Imp is your best friend here, Djinn could be worth a shout to tutor them up early.
If kill decks come back then Plascrete belongs in that slot.
Hacktivist meeting is decent if you are expecting a lot of IG/Gaga – that remains to be seen given tournament time constraints, but pretty decent in the online meta.
Swapping IHW for Inject helps against IG and kill decks and may be worth going back to. Dropping Levy in this case and splashing for Hades shard, emp strike, sac construct could be a way to go, but then you lose the setup speed/tempo/econ that inject gives you. Or just play apocalypse if you want to play a curve ball.
I’m having trouble dropping IHW with the amount of IG around right now. Drawing up from taking net damage is pretty helpful. And having some chance of surviving Ronin seems worthwhile too. I’m running IHW, Peddler, and Inject acorss 8 slots. I use them to draw aggressively and set up (thanks @x3r0h0ur for the advice, it is working much better) and dig for the cards I need.
Yes, a lot of cards go into the bin, but I have 1x Levy to reset the stack and make another run through my cards.
I’ve added 1x Archives Interface. It is okay for most match ups, and very good against IG. I don’t target the recursion as much as the net damage. Once they are down to 1 Shock, Archives is safe to run, which almost blanks their ID. Keep them too poor to use Snare with Lamprey. Imp should target Hotsile’s and Bioethics on the board, preferably when you can follow up with AI to remove them from the game.
If you have a chance to win quickly, that is usually the best answer, but if you are stuck in a grind then AI gives you a chance to out grind IG.
I’m still working on the best approach, and am open to other ideas, but so far this is the best I’ve got.
1 Like
I have a feeling AI’ing the shocks basically makes the MU a cake walk, just run archives to flip shit and go start trashing. Recur imps. No big deal
2 Likes
one thing to note is they generally have the pavilion, so IHW isn’t doing anything once wyldside is out unless you kill it.
Alright, it sounds like giving AI a shot is the way to go for now. 
Are people running 1x finding that is enough to get it on the table in a timely fashion? Right now, my tech slot is holding a Plascrete, which I’m a touch reluctant to let go of. Going down to 2x Inject doesn’t seem like a huge blow - especially as I find I am much less likely to play this once Wyldcakes is up and running.
Genetics Pavilion only works during the runner’s turn which is worth noting. So IHW doesn’t do anything vs the Archives run but can help vs Neural EMP and Bio-Ethics.
2 Likes
I was mostly thinking of the Bioethics, EMP, and Ronin, all of which will still trigger IHW, but you are right that Komainu, Snare, and Shock will not activate it.
It seems rather odd the way the Pavilion is worded, it seems like a minor distinction, but it really reduces the power level of the card quite a bit.
Yeah that’s my experience so far. Lamprey lock just seals the deal.
how many cards in the deck?
To my shame: 46.
I literally just dropped AI on top of a 45 card deck.
I can get to 46 and devote 8 cards to draw, by dropping to 1 clot.
Is this where you are at? This seems more resilient to kill, and still has the setup speed.
3 Deja
3 IHW
2 Inject
1 Levy
2 Grim
1 AI
3 Wyldside
2 Pancakes
3 Aesops
3 Peddler
2 Faust
1 Mimic
2 D4
3 Cache
3 Suckers
3 Parasite
3 Imp
3 Lamprey
1 Medium
1 Shez
1 Clot
Yep, that’s it, except I run 2x IHW and 3x Inject at last build. I think 3x IHW is probably better if there is much kill around, but my meta has been very shy on kill for a long time now.
I’d like to get back to a 2nd Shez or Medium if I can, but it’s hard to cut anything else.
1x Clot is pretty weak to NEH, so I try to trash the important cards out of HQ as quickly as I can with Imp. FA corps are pretty good at killing Clot, and without recursion it feels more hopeful than really useful in the only match up it really matters in.
yeah I have found clot to be fairly lackluster without the construct or clone chips to back it up. It could probably be cut completely to be honest.
Shhh! I agree completely, but if people know I don’t have any Clot, then they won’t be afraid of my Street Peddler with 3 events on it.
Also, Clot is a virus, and we do love those mills. Maybe Grave Digger or Hemorrhage? Imp + Hemorrhage can create some nasty HQ pressure…
Go down to 45 would be one option.
Of the two, I like gravedigger, you already have lamprey pressure for HQ.
Another which I quite like is incubator. One line of play I can envisage with this would be pull it off a peddler at the end of their turn (with grimoire in play), install medium, transfer counters, run R&D see 4 cards for a sneak game closing attack out of nowhere.
Djinn is a solid option to tutor up caches/imps/parasites as and when you need them
I would prioritize IHW over inject ATM. They’re much more important now with IG Kill decks around.