I agree that against PE you want to score the bigger agendas. I was simply stating that you can’t keep hitting HQ for lamprey purposes if you hit a fetal or a snare.
1 Like
From early experience I’ll likely get to a point where I don’t mind IHW over Plascrete because periodic and judicious use - wait, crap, Anarch, I mean CONSTANT AND RECKLESS SPAMMING - of Wanton Destruction keeps making my Scorched decks cry by smashing the combo pieces I want to hold onto.
Getting two Scorched in hand with a tag operation gets tricky when you absolutely don’t want to draw them in advance. I might just need to readjust, but thus far Eater into WD on HQ is half a Scorch kill defence on its own, letting IHW do just fine as the other half.
3 Likes
20 Likes
I’ve had Steelskin saved my ass today. Twice.
Opponent threw down a midseasons bait. I grabbed it, he gave me six tags and said ‘GG’, as I didn’t have a plascrete out.
I said, “Oh really?” with a big, shit-eating grin as he then goes wide eyed and plucks cards from my hand one at a time.
Hits the I’ve Had Worse and then groaaans as I get another 4 cards before he drops the second scorch.
Next turn, I deja vu the IHW back into my hand and grin.
I naturally draw a second IHW later, so I play the first one as a Diesel. He thinks it’s his chance, as he drew another Scorch. Hits me with the scorch and… I draw back up!
Surviving scorch has never been so much fun!
4 Likes
You missed a spot.
Needs some flavor text, too (it’s certainly got room!). Suggestion: “They took my hand once. Never again.”
7 Likes
I think this card is going to really put a hurting on PE kill decks. It’s like a Deus X that you don’t have to pay for it install. Now every faction has Net damage hate they don’t have to splash for and that serves dual purpose (Leela for crims).
“Don’t taze me, bro!”
3 Likes
Or you could look at it as uncontrolled attrition of the runner’s deck. How many anarchs will be splashing Levy? They draw more cards that is less in their deck. Yeah it makes them harder to kill right now, but easier to kill in the long run. Maybe.
1 Like
True, but as an Anarch running IHW against a Minh PE deck, I would find it easy to aggressively pressure R&D while checking unadvanced remotes.
PE needs to deter the marauding of R&D with the fear of Ronin and work compression. IHW in hand allows Anarchs to ignore the first Munshinned remote and keep hitting R&D early.
Double Ronin is your only real fear, and they can’t set that up if you’re regularly trashing them from R&D.
And once R&D is locked down, the current PE builds are paper tigers. They’ll never get to the late game where decking is a threat.
The PE net-damage archetype is going to have to adjust by adding scarier and more expensive ice to lock down its centrals.
However, it will still be second tier because Clot will allow more Shaper builds to ease off the accelerator and include their full array of silver bullets, Deus X being first on the list.
After Clot is out, 2 out of the 3 runner factions will be effectively teched against net damage without giving up any influence nor sacrificing much utility.
2 Likes
a lot of those PE decks are built to function in the long-game by just robbing you of your deck. IHW saves you in the early stages but accelerates the process of milling the runner deck. Seems like a give/take thing to me.
1 Like
IMO Anarchs shouldn’t lose to PE as much as they do. Anarchs should tech a singleton Keyhole for PE match-up like Crim and Shaper tech Feedback Filter. just my opinion. Keyhole ain’t nearly as dead in other match-ups as FF, either
1 Like
Eh, they have a hard time getting there if a runner doesn’t fear an early death, which IHW will do. Also, Anarchs are king of the late game. They have so many twisted things they can do to a corp once their tools are down. On top of all that, with Eater out, around half of Anarch builds will be running Keyhole. My PE card is going on a long vacation starting now.
It’s also nowhere near of an autowin vs PE as FBF is in criminal.
4 Likes
Took my Nationals NEH Scorch out for a spin against a few different opponents running Maxx which all seemed to be packing 3 IHW.
Game 1 - IHW delivers crushing tempo swing
Playing against Slysquid I went for a turn 3 Scorch off Breaking News against 4 cards. This is (was) sometimes a legit play, set the runner back a turn and if you’re lucky knock something crucial out of their hand. It was a harsh reminder that IHW was in the game now and he drew 6 free cards. Instead of buying a turn I opened myself up to some serious Keyhole pressure. Interestingly it meant his stack ran out even faster, I think around turn 9. Thought I still had him as he didn’t seem to have any recursion left and just an Eater for a rig, but he was hanging on to a Hades Shard.
Game 2 - IHW makes it too risky to Scorch
Rematch, I’m wise to his plan and rig now. Good amount of money and the double scorch in hand, but I don’t fire it off because of IHW. My Astro plan was chugging along nicely so it just didn’t make sense to risk spending a turn and ~15 credits for the double scorch that might fail. Even when two IHW were trashed by his ID I didn’t think it made sense to try. Won 7-0 on agendas.
Game 3 - IHW doesn’t help Maxx with no stack
I began to realize how quickly Maxx runs out of cards. When his stack ran out I hit him with a Scorch to clear out any recursion he was saving. His rig wasn’t really capable of solving the board and it was an easy win from that point. Didn’t have IHW in hand but it wouldn’t have helped him here.
Game 4 - IHW can’t save a 3 card hand
My opponent takes a break from running and lays out one too many Same Old Things. With three cards in hand a Breaking News + Scorched takes him down. I had a scored Astro and second Scorched in hand so a plascrete wouldn’t have saved him either
Not knowing if the runner has IHW in hand makes it very tricky. From my perspective, as the corp, so far I’d say it’s as good as Plascrete for Scorched defence. Also I found Maxx much harder to scorch than most runners as she very rarely drops below 4 cards.
4 Likes
sure, but that’s not a strike against Keyhole, but a testament towards SecTest, which is the real star in the Criminal PE match-up. I’d say Keyhole is just as good as FF; the real issue is money, which Criminal solves with Bank Job SecTest and Siphon, while Anarchs are left with fewer option. PE just has to tax RND with like an Eli and anything else and Anarchs can’t really run it more than once a turn.
interesting report @willlt. as much as some people think there are going to be more and more Scorched decks with all the new Weyland, I think meat flatline is becoming a less viable strategy. having the threat will always be good, but the scorched package is at least 4 cards, SE SE SE SS, while the Punitive package is inconsistent. personally I will probably be playing IHW as a weaker in-faction Diesel, and will probably only leave them in my hand if I draw into them click 3 or 4. planning on still running 1 Plascrete in nearly all my runner decks for the time being
IHW plus Plascrete is just hilarious though, a full Plascrete and a hand of just one IHW is enough to survive double scorches.
But how is that more hilarious than just playing two plascretes? You still have to keep your hand at four cards or more to survive double scorch.
Mainly because IHW is useful in all matchups, whereas Plascrete isn’t. It also means that in the situation I detailed above where you have a Plascrete in play, you can be much more reckless with your number of cards in hand, spending those clicks on running or econ or what have you. Being completely safe from flatline with a single Plascrete and any number of cards in hand is not to be discounted, I don’t think.
If you have a Plascrete on board and less than four cards in hand, you die to 2x Scorch even with 3x IHW in your hand.