I think he isn’t as bad as people have kind of made him out to be.
After all he gets three tiny id abilities that you can turn off and on. While a few probably are a little too limiting, he seems fine, especially at 25 influence.
I also think multithreader and independent thought are the cards to concentrate on most in faction.
Looking at him again, I think he’s gonna be good. If he can score early his console becomes insane value, and he is able to use some pretty interesting tools both to get in early and lockdown the lategame. I like having to manage his directives for different matchups and gamestates with Dr. Lovegood and independent thinking, and will probably build around cycling through mutiple copies + harbinger.
The reward is the three upsides his directives give you. Imagine being able to start the game with a HQ Interface and a Wyldside in your rig as any other runner, without having to tutor for them or pay for them or even spend a click drawing them. You just have to figure out how to navigate around the downsides (plus how to fill your deck using only 25 influence… probably a lot of neutral cards like Sure Gamble)
I would try aesop to trash ABR, and low cost easy play cards (which can get sold by aesops, like cache) so that I would get the free draw every turn. I wouldn’t run his console, which seems inconsistent for me.
If that all goes well you get a free draw every turn and a hqi and some aesop fodder. Maybe gang sign, since free hqi.
I don’t yet like independent thinking, at least in this concept build.
Another direction I see is to play the console and maximise the power of ABR click through and the free Hqi. With those, it helps hq and remote pressure considerably and you might reliably score a couple of points early and use the console effectively. Not sure the follow up though
If you keep Always Be Running, you can use Yog + Datasucker and still be able to break Lotus Field
i think you might have to play his console. otherwise, you’re really starving for influence. sure, Desperado’s great for his mandatory run every turn, but so is Datasucker, and you can include 3 for the price of 1 Desperado.
that said, Box-E might work, but it’s double the cost (and costs influence, even if it’s only 1). once you’re at 2 points, they have the same effect, but Brain Chip gets better the more you score. i don’t actually see it as a ‘win more’ card. i think it’s just to put more pressure on the corp as the game goes on.
Security Testing for synergy with his directive? And is Notoriety a crazy idea? The only problem is that is might only become viable mid/late-game when you might not have to rely on [click], [click]: break a sub, but it would boost your console.
I think the bottle neck might be importing breakers: Study Guide and Darwin look great to multithread, but that’s quite some influence!
i think Overmind might be one of his best breakers tbh. as you reinstall them as the game goes on, they’ll get more and more counters with his console. you’re probably running E3 anyway, so they’ll get some longevity, and once they run out, ditch them for Independent Thinking / Aesop’s. best of all: no influence.
Dirty Laundry is already great for Adam, so i think Security Testing is a solid include. great for Sunny as well with Jak Sinclair
This. The synergy is obvious with his console. My only hangup with Overmind is that it will only let you break 3 pieces of ice max in the early game. Its biggest drawback is mitigated by sucker/threader and e3. While I am not too sure about e3 and ABR it could work.
Actually, my only hangup on ABR and e3 is that you will have to spend three clicks and a hand full of creds to break any piece of ice. Its pretty potent for challenging remotes against rush decks, but if you lean too heavily on spending three clicks a turn, how will you get your econ online?
Oh and finally, no one mentioned the new neutral resource. If you are going all in on Cache and token breakers, that resource could make you a fair bit of cash. I think it might have a slot.
I really wish ABR was either “once a turn, one click for the sub” or jut “two clicks per sub”.
Both together is just… really harsh, especially early. Make it higher influence if that’s the concern, but really… it’s just so rough-seeming. As you say, spending 3 clicks a turn makes setting up hard. Hell, even the one click mandatory run is kinda rough. If it was “At the end of your turn, take a brain damage if you didn’t run” maybe it’d be a bit better, combos nicely with his console and lets you use Jak Sinclair to make a workaround for things.
That said, I can get behind the idea of Overmind for him once you get further in and have some points scored. Multithreaders are, if nothing else, a 2-strength boost each turn.
Almost wonder if Surfer might be worth it with the Multithreader synergy? Think it becomes all the more likely if you end up using Faust as well as Overmind.
Almost wonder about Cyberfeeders, too, if people want to go in on viruses like Cache. Ups the rate of return slightly and provides more credits to make his breaking stuff more viable. With that route, yeah, Technical Writer definitely becomes more valuable.
Dunno if Study Guide is worth it, even with the recurring credits. Really depends on draw order, and SG’s not that good normally. Maybe with the recent influx of higher-strength code gates, but the 4 inf on the Guide is a killer.
Mimic is obviously valuable enough to run if you’re using AI of any type. I don’t know if Yog is for the free breaking, since he doesn’t start with enough MUs for lots of 'suckers, and the Multithreaders’d take up more space.
Hitting any high trash cost card on your mandatory first turn, first click run destroys your momentum. Dealing with that shit is the first hurdle for any Adam deck, and my kneejerk reaction is that it won’t be worth it.
With Dirty Laundry first click, you’re safe hitting anything with a trash cost higher than 3. If your starting hand has a Sure Gamble, you can check out before you access. Losing the click for no gain is a very real tempo hit, that’s for sure. Most of the 0-cost run events that have access replacement effects have a pretty high influence cost (Account Siphon, Indexing, Code Siphon). However, Adam can definitely get some use out of running the Shards and installing them early instead of accessing. Easy Mark and Career Fair/Daily Casts are ways to quickly recover from low credits.
Am I right to think that Demo Run is a non-bo with NAT?
ABR, built in HQI, click through ice – I keep returning to the early game suicide approach of using 3/4 clicks each of the first two turns throwing yourself at the servers hoping to get a few agendas early; first click blind Maker’s eye or Legwork. You’ll be spent and in a bad place for the midgame, but if you can nab a few agendas your console becomes awesome for the late game.
Really thinking you might want public sympathy or something to turn on the free draw if this plan doesn’t work out or you don’t find your console early.
Putting together this input and satisfying my need to have a decklist (or at least to consolidate everything), here’s an example.
Adam: Compulsive Hacker
45 Cards (25/25 Inf)
Event (10)
3 Dirty Laundry
2 Independent Thinking
1 Modded**
1 Stimhack*
3 Sure Gamble
Hardware (7)
2 Brain Chip
1 Clone Chip**
3 E3 Feedback Implants******
1 R&D Interface**
Resource (17)
3 Daily Casts
3 Data Folding
2 Dr. Lovegood
2 Film Critic**
3 John Masanori
2 New Angeles City Hall
2 Scrubber**
Icebreaker (5)
1 Faust**
1 Mimic*
3 Overmind
Program (6)
2 Datasucker**
3 Multithreader
1 Self-modifying Code***
To complement Safety First, I think Modded (and maybe Career Fair) is a good call here. It prevents tempo loss, which is especially helpful for Multithreader, and pulls cards from your hand, allowing for an easier time to draw the free card at the end of your turn. Faust also makes this more common, and may be all you need. As for the hand size, I think we’re fine with Brain Chip.
To help alleviate the downsides of Always Be Running, personally I’m a big fan of Dirty Laundry and Datasucker. Security Testing and Daily Casts are also good ways to generate money without having to click for money again. E3 could help break more than one subroutine if you see something nasty.
To make Neutralize All Threats pack more punch, I think Scrubber is almost a staple here. It conflicts with Security Testing, but since Scrubber is less influence it wins. It will grant you two credits to trash cards while accessing, instead of not accessing at all.
Turns out that 25 influence goes pretty quickly when there are so many possible supplemental cards. It may be the case that Modded/Career Fair do not go well with Faust. Independent Thinking is a great card to find Faust food.
Given that that’s 36 cards, I assume you’re missing some?
Adds up to 45. I know he said 36 at the top. Weird.
Worked it out - the deck was no doubt built on NRDB using the cards available there (36 of them released, and therefore available), and then the extras were added in manually, but the total at the top wasn’t changed.
Actually I was keeping track of it myself and forgot to edit the total at the end. It is 45 at the time of posting. Good catch.
were people thinking it wouldn’t ?
Hell yeah it is. The Lovegood + Drug Dealer + Safety First + Faust angle on building Adam is my favourite so far. Potentially Earthrise as well to really go hard on that draw. Datasucker and possibly Sec Testing make good economy options with that mandatory run. Hunting Grounds also seems very nice, to deal with ICE effects that Faust/ABR can’t handle and to fuel Independent Thinking in a pinch.
Question is though, do you run extra hand size and Brain Chip, or just one of the two? Both is suboptimal because in the late game you’ll likely end up with more hand size than is useful and Public Sympathies etc will be dead draws. Having another console (yes, probably Desperado) would be sweet, but influence. Brain Chip is great late game and makes Faust (and a backup Overmind) keep getting better, but if it’s your only hand size booster you’re relying a lot on an early game score to stop Safety First crippling you. That said, Faust + ABR + NAT is an extremely potent early game package so maybe that score will be pretty easy.
Adam’s such a puzzle, I love him already! He has that feeling that Nasir and Leela had when they were first spoiled and people just had no idea what to do with them, and they’re my two favourite runners these days.