I’m sorry, I’m not an expert in Headlock but it seems that Vamp plays a huge role in headlock. Also, does this deck have long-game sustainibility?
What do you mean? Sure, they have 3 architects, 2-3 Ichis, an Assassin or Ichi 2.0 but the rest of their ice has ETR. If you mean that you can click through the ice, then that’s not a long-term option.
Also, I’d like to hear how you deal with Astrobiotics.
Like the description says, running out of payload cards or cards for Faust can be an issue. But if you account for it with your play then it usually won’t lose you the game.
It’s not a long term option, but it’s a very relevant short term option. Their holy grail is sticking an early Adonis or Eve, and clicking through Eli, or even Turing, in order to deny them one is a win for you.
The big thing is that Biotic and SanSan are super expensive, and they put themselves into the headlock when they use them. Their best cards against you are Shipment from SanSan and CVS (they put it on HQ with Lamprey installed).
My first few attempts at Headlock Reina did include vamp. Landing vamp requires outmoneying your opponent which requires slow but long-lasting and huge payoff economy engines (Liberated Accounts, Kati Jones). Unfortunately in the foodcoats matchup, setting up this economy is too slow and gives the corp too much opportunity to protect their asset economy. If Etf can keep it’s asset economy, then it’s near impossible to find a vamp window because they generally have more money than you. Not to mention how much of a problem crisium grid can be.
Ever since abandoning vamp and adopting a more aggressive approach, my match-up vs Etf has become favorable. Before it was unwinnable.
i havent tried this version, but ive played a ton of Headlock and with vamp, it is pretty much as he said, the matchup where they could secure a Drip econ in a hard to get server your behind the whole game.
might have to give one of the non vamps versions a whirl, the other side of the coin is, the vamp version if it gets in frount, it Stays in frount.
I’ve wanted reina to be good for awhile, but when the dominant corp identity literally turns off your her ability, I can’t really see her working out too well.
@tf34 had that thought as well, but we haven’t tried it. My instinct is that Reina is better because if you don’t draw Scrubber when you’d like it then you still have other sources of econ that can get you by, which is not true of Xanadu. Plus, Reina’s link is nice.
Is it Headlock with only Reina + Crescentus? There’s no siphon, no vamp, no xanadu, and no rook. This seems like a different Reina deck with a different gameplan.
I’ll check later, I might have it. Will be putting up a few games piloting Headlock as well. I’m definitely interested in investigating the Foodcoats matchup some more since that’s the deck to beat these days, it seems.
I used to play the old Headlock a lot and loved it, but eventually Corps caught on to correct play and I stopped winning as often. Breaker Bay Grid was a blow as well, since previously HB would get into a death spiral where they were too poor to even rez and defend a Campaign, so they continued being poor.
Do you find your opponents blunder and give the game away by doing things like scoring when they really can’t afford to or installing too much ICE instead of clicking for credits, or does it hold up against Corps that know exactly what to do?
Also, thoughts on Employee Strike? I don’t love the card normally but a lot of the time the Corp just can’t score an agenda for like 8 turns without crippling themselves, so it has a longer expected lifespan here.
Spooned also seems strong to kill Turing/Booth since you have a limited supply of D4V1D tokens. Worth finding a slot for 1x since you can Deja it?
I do get a lot of free wins by opponents not understanding that they should focus on accumulating credits, but it also holds up against opponents that know what to do.
The thing is, the correct corp strategy is to focus on accumulating credits, but the econ of corp decks in the current meta is very “fixed”. Like, they can play their operation econ and they can try and protected their Campaigns, but beyond that they’re basically stuck clicking for credits (i.e. nobody is playing cards like Capital Investors and/or Melange). But the more they take inefficient turns like “click for 3 credits” the more efficient your turns are by comparison - if you take that turn to draw some cards and you find a Parasite or Crescentus or something, that’s going to cost them more than 3 credits. So they can avoid the death spiral of being totally headlocked, but you come out ahead (and more agendas accumulate in HQ).
Employee Strike would be good. Spooned is generally solid and huge against Lotus Field. But I don’t think there’s anything I would want to cut for them.
I have played against a ton of foodcoats now with a lot of success. I would be very interested in testing against somebody who feels very confident piloting foodcoats. Anybody interested in some games tonight?
What’s the thought on Headlock now that we lost all this influence from MWL? Seeing as we abused Parasite, Desperado, Clone Chip, and sometimes Yog.0.
I used to run a Career Fair list with Kati (always cleared tags, no plas), it was more focused on Keyhole runs than keeping the Corp poor permanently. What with Sync and All-Seeing-I running around, that deck is definitely dead. What’s a good Headlock list look like now?
There might not necessarily be one. This deck was good for a small period of time because it was a great meta choice against a lot of the decks being played (as opposed to just being good stuff). Whether or not that will be the case again depends entirely on what the top tier Corps are shaping up to be post MWL.
I guess it’s nice at least that Reina had a lot of influence spare, usually poured on Desperado or other gubbins, but a build of 3 Crescentus 3 Clone Chip 3 Parasite still works. Though this deck is obviously gutted with -6 inf, so are a lot of other decks, and though Reina’s not in a great spot at the minute, she wasn’t pre-MWL either. She has a chance to shine if she’s good against the way Corps are playing post-MWL but I wouldn’t hold my breath. This
Here’s what I’m running right now, looking to tweak it and find which cards to cut. It has been running rather well in the 15 or so games I’ve played since NAPD MW. It definitely looks different without crescentus and clone chip. Retrieval Run/Deja Vu help there and 2x Levy helps a ton. Enough draw to get what is needed decently quickly. Still isn’t quite there though.
Event (20)
3x Dirty Laundry
3x Déjà Vu
3x I’ve Had Worse
3x Inject
2x Levy AR Lab Access ••••• •
3x Retrieval Run
3x Sure Gamble