No blackmail?
Blackmail ranges from great to very mediocre depending on the situation. Remember that you will have to run on the ICE anyway, and the typical tax from a peice of ice is around 2 credits, so only getting 2 credits from a card is just not worth it.
Blackmail is only good when I am trying to run on a server of an agenda, in that case it is pretty good, but worse than stimhack by a fair amount.
Also any card that is blackmail could be an econ card, the deck is already pretty light on econ as is, cutting even more economy seems pretty painful. Right now iām considering -1 corroder +1 day job just due to econ card quantity concerns
The biggest thing I see about blackmail is the threat of itā¦the corp cannot stick an agenda in a server guarded by only unrezzed ICE, as blackmail letās you steal it for only 1 credit. However, if youāre playing Valencia, they will be expecting Blackmail and be playing around it, slowing them down, so itās questionable how much you need to actually run it. Similar to some BS decks Iāve buit without SEā¦just because youāre Weyland they have to install the Plascrete. Just because youāre Valencia they have to assue you have blackmail because if they guess wrong and you have them you can just blow them out.
So, is Inject now relegated to ācombo with Retrieval Runā status, or does Steelskin mean that Anarchs now have the best card draw?
I am surprised there was no love for BABW in the form of transaction operations. But I guess there are sufficient options now. 12 get money operations is probably enough for a deck. You only need to spend 3 inf for that.
The ICE looks really good, if a little large.
Anarch are happy, I think.
Eater in Criminal is really good too.
There is no way that Stimhack is better than Blackmail in Valencia. You should have some number (2 is probably the minimum) if only to threaten remotes. With medium in your deck 3 Blackmail with 3 SOT seems like it would be even better. Also, I donāt know where youāre getting that 2 credit average from. The most common piece of ICE looks like itās gonna cost you 4 credits (or 2 clicks) to break. Almost everything RP throws at you is going to cost 3 or more. Also, itās not like you just start the game with your rig up and running. A clean, 1 credit run with no set up is a powerful effect most points in the game. You also already have econ coming out your ears in this deck. Cut the Corroder, sure, 3 could definitely be overkill, but use the slot for Blackmails/ SOTs so you can put the Mediums and Nerve Agent to work.
I canāt wait to do Raymond Flint, Journalism combo ā¦ Just burn some turns racking up bad pub and accessing HQ cards.
We nailed it!
Knifed seems to solve the āDo I run a fracter?ā question for Quetzal builds.
Twins looks like a Foundry card.
Progenitor is really strong with Virus Breeding Ground. Itās scary with Hivemind (but pricey and vulnerable to power shut-down)ā¦ Iām more looking at infinite Imp tokens! Also keeps your Medium/Nerve Agent at Interface levels. Zero cost for 1 mem + its effect is fantastic.
Is there a much in this pack at works with Caissa? Iām not really seeing anything.
So eli isnāt actually the average ICE, far from it.
As a general rule Blackmail will prevent your opponent from Rezzing ICE they wanted to Rez anyway, but the issue is that here are the pieces of ICE that you commonly face
Eli 1.0 (Congratsā¦ you drew easy mark)
Wraparount (congrats you discarded a card for no value
Quandry (see wraparound)
Pop Up window (Discard a card the corp loses 1 credit)
Tollbooth (Good value here)
Architect (Discard a card gain a credit)
Tsurgi (See Eli 1.0)
Komainu (Typically easy mark, often worse since it is pretty common to run against RP Hellbent)
Pup (See Architect)
Lotus Field (this is a problem iāll admit, lotus field is actually annoying enough that you might want to find a way to pump Yog.0/play a Zu.13 keymaster over a lucky find and blue sun is definitely a huge issue right now in the case you play Zu then see Eli)
Enigma (see quandry)
Wall of Thorns (congrats you played sure gamble!)
In other words no blackmail is way worse than stimhack. Stimhack is a busted card, Blackmail just isnāt. Sure itās comparable to inside job in some respects but inside job is being cut in criminal decks right now.
Stimhack will let you do lots of cool things
- combo with SMC to find something for cheap
- Break into expensive servers
- allow for repeated medium runs (run on R&D then stimhack into R&D for morepower(
- Trash expensive assets While also doing 1 or 2
- Fight a Caprice Niesei again and pray to the luck gods that it is on your side
Stimhack only really needs to get about 4 credits of value to be a good card, at 5 it is a great card, and anything more than that it is INSANE!
I agree with this actually (busted might be a bit strong, but definately one of the strongest runner cards in existence). But I think you are hugely underrating Blackmail out of a deck that starts with a BP. Blackmail locks down any unrezed remote of any depth even with an empty rig. That is a huge tempo boost to the runner.
Comparing Stimhack and Blackmail is beyond ridiculous, how is this a discussion?
One requires zero breakers. One helps get breakers/beat traces/trash expensive stuff. But requires things to spend the money (like breakers)
They dont do even close to the same thing.
I can still rez Caprice.
Hmā¦does Eater make Singularity playable?
And if you rez Caprice, neither Stimhack nor Blackmail is going to help you in that situation.
Well, sure, you can use Stimhack money to play the psi game, but 2/3rds of the time youāre going to be taking a brain damage for nothing.
re valencia:
Iām not convinced that a āblackmailā deck is the way to go with her. I would start with a āplanned assaultā deck and grow from there.
neat to have a 50-card minimum runner in the game.
Anarchs cominā, yāall.
Progenitor and Chakana with Virus Breeding Ground - another fast advance blocker? Chakana is tutorable with Djinn, and the other two are great cards in their own right.