Smoke and Mirrors -- A Scovak Thread

Hmm, your deck link doesn’t work for me.

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This is my first attempt at a Smoke deck post- MWL. I think Smoke has not been hit that hard by the new restrictions, so here’s my list:

1 Scavenge
1 "Freedom Through Equality"
1 Cloak
3 Sure Gamble
2 Peace in Our Time
1 Cerberus “Lady” H1
1 Refractor
3 Indexing
2 Temüjin Contract
1 Dagger
2 Political Operative
2 Mad Dash
2 Net Mercur
1 Inti
1 Beth Kilrain-Chang
1 Film Critic
1 Houdini
1 Same Old Thing
2 Astrolabe
3 Self-modifying Code
3 Diesel
2 Clone Chip
1 Levy AR Lab Access
3 Daily Casts

I dropped 1 temujin contract for 2 peace in our time and 1 lady. Polop is there for the upcoming glacier resurgence. Notable cuts are Aaron Marron and Clot, might add one of the two if I feel I miss them (maybe swapping peace in our time for 2 copies of dirty laundry).

I toy with this atm:

Idoru

Ele “Smoke” Scovak: Cynosure of the Net (Intervention)

Event (22)
3x Diesel (Core Set)
3x Dirty Laundry (Creation and Control)
1x Legwork (Honor and Profit) ●●
1x Levy AR Lab Access (Creation and Control)
3x Lucky Find (Double Time) ●●●●● ●
2x Quality Time (Humanity’s Shadow)
2x Scavenge (Creation and Control)
3x Sure Gamble (Core Set)
2x The Maker’s Eye (Core Set)
2x Trade-In (Up and Over)

Hardware (6)
1x Clone Chip (Creation and Control)
1x Desperado (Core Set) ●●●
3x Prepaid VoicePAD (Second Thoughts)
1x Sports Hopper (Salsette Island)

Resource (5)
1x Beth Kilrain-Chang (Blood Money)
1x Kati Jones (Humanity’s Shadow)
2x Net Mercur i[/i]
1x Same Old Thing (Creation and Control)

Icebreaker (4)
2x Cerberus “Lady” H1 (All That Remains) ★★
1x Dagger (Creation and Control)
1x Gordian Blade (Core Set)

Program (4)
1x Multithreader (Data and Destiny)
3x Self-modifying Code (Creation and Control)
15 influence spent (max 15, available 0)
41 cards (min 40)
Cards up to Intervention

Decklist published on NetrunnerDB.

Next evol is removing a Trade-In and a SMC for a Test Run.

I build a smoke ppvp deck as well, seems along the same power level as temu-smoke, although I haven’t enough experience with it.

Your list looks solid, except I would cut multithreader for a second clone chip and swap gordian for refractor or houdini. How consistenly are you able to install desperado, by the way?

@Jamesgrety : I won by turn 12 with all out yesterday, and about to Levy. I lost T4-T8 two times per inexperience against new cards too. I think this could perform really nice with a better pilot than me. It is quick and very flexible.

Clone chip is really just a joker, I wouldn’t put 2 of these. Also, 2 stealth breakers is 2x more stealth support and I wouldn’t do that.

Multithreader is nice there (transforms Gordian into a better Refractor imo, and occasionaly makes free SMC) :wink:

Trade-In are nice with PPVP. Used on one you used once, it cost you a click, a card and bring you a cred, this is not slow as much as I though.

Draw - Play ppvp
Draw - Play Trade-in
Play tutored hardware is 5 clicks.

–> cost is 2 - 1 ppvp cred - trade-in reduction + hardware price, which is a nice clic/inf ratio to compress +6 inf of +2 desperado.

You win cr after 3 runs, so yes it is slow, but before that, if Net Mercur is out, this means all trash cost are -2, which is superb => dirty laundry crash 5c assets.

This is good against horizontal BUT you need mercur (I lost to horizontal because of not finding both of these cards yesterday.

If I would put something, the list need one Parasite (so finding 3 inf), and one Mercur.

I’m curious, without the credit discount from Kate, is PPVP still efficient enough to run out of Smoke? What’s the advantage of running that economy engine with Smoke rather than Kate?

I think I would consider making room for Patron if possible, especially with how it combos with Desperado and since you’ve dropped Astrolabe.

I do like the idea to use Trade-In for the second copy of Desperado to save influence.

Given how strong I predict egret+switchblade will be, I am going to say I think you should just run temmyj in smoke.

But maybe Egret is a lot worse than I am predicting… Seems really good with clone chip and Houdini.

Good question. @grogboxer and I were experimenting with ppvp even when ppvp was on mwl and it was fairly strong, just lacking in necessary tech cards. The difference with Smoke ppvp is that you don’t install a ton of things (sharpahooters dx lady etc), your breakers stick around, and the decksize means you find ppvp faster. I’d say it balances out when you use Smoke’s recurring credits.

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I think smoke and ppvp are good, but not better than a Temujin based economy. Not only because in Smoke you need Net Mercur and PPVP to set up, but especially because ppvp economy is based on non-run events (Gamble, Lucky Find, maybe Peace in Our time). But if you play Smoke you need to run a lot to load Net Mercur. Temujn Contract has more sinergy with Smoke than ppvp, in my opinion

That’s a fair point. I am just finding myself hesitant to spend 9 influence on a full Temujin package now, or 6 influence on an incomplete 2x set. I also don’t know how confident I am in running a Smoke deck with only 2 Temujin as the core economy engine.

I’m not sure what other options might help to supplement or replace Temujin now, and still be competitively viable.

I play with 3 temu, 2 clone chip, 1 corroder and 2 Political Operative and I am doing well. The only thing that I’m missing is clot, to be honest, but that can be fixed by dropping plops or corroder

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While I will miss switchblade, this seems pretty solid until we see what a post Sandburg ice meta looks like.

The Pol ops are good calls. I might even run interdiction alongside it.

I wonder if the Baba Yaga rig build may make a comeback paired with system seizure to be able to combat high strength ICE with Sandburg? Switchblade giving 7 strength could be pretty powerful, esp with retained strength from system seizure. Influence could be spent on:

1 Baba Yaga
3 Peace in Our Time
2 Temujin
1 Switchblade
1 Clone Chip
1 Stimhack

Possible decklist: https://netrunnerdb.com/en/deck/view/909987

It’s also based around Dirty Laundry, Maker’s Eye/Legwork, and (now) Deuces Wild, which does let you run. So It’s not entirely accurate to say the PPVP econ is only based on non-run events.

Deuce wild would be an error, I think. Running for 3c max - 1 card, 3 times, is not enough vs Desperado : I would never remove it, it is invaluable to horizontal decks (with Mercur, all trash costs are -2).
Kate would use it, as she could use extra draw.

The change I made:
o -1x SMC, +1 Test run (Test run can be PPVP for more effect than a post Levy SMC).
o -1x Trade-In, +1 Mercur (Mercur was MVP in most games, I don’t care finding Desperado or CC a little later).

This can win T9-T15, before Levy, or after, since lategame it is even stronger.

Without a Parasite, it have semibad match-ups vs NEXT ice though (both lists have dependences on the rush vs snowball balance your piloting gives to those lists).

Not sure about performances vs NBN FA, I played one and botch the game. Those Spaceship Weyland FA that people play is W~5 - L~2 atm.

Still unsure about Palana Rush. I’m around 50%/50% w/r vs those lists.

Non-NEXT glaciers happen to loose recurrently if the Runner have a plan. The runner will lose if he doesn’t know how to do (it is more a matter of experience here than lack of card / money).

Neo-tag & bag Weylands are gameloss due to noob piloting (I did not play since a few monthes). I’m quite terribad as a pilot vs those anyway.

I SOT at least twice on Quality Time to find “Da Event” (Legwork / Maker) that makes a gamewin, I’m super proud of finding this (6 cards in the deck and still need your legwork ? Clic 1 DO IT - and draw through Mercur if it fails). The list can evade many thing the corp throw at your face through the pilot’s creativity.
You have to keep track of your events but if you +/- know what is in the stack, the list is super strong.

Another strong synergy is PPVP / Mercur : Mercur creds transforms Sure Gamble into 1 clic Lucky Find.

In my opinion, Idoru could bring @Calimsha back to the game :wink:

Maker’s and Legwork are not economy events, though. So you have to compare an econ package made by gamble, lucky find and deuces OR peace in our time (for influence reasons) vs Temu-Gamble-Daily Casts. I think the former takes longer to set up and is more resilient in the late game, whereas the latter is faster most of the time. And the early game is crucial if you want to maximise temujin efficiencty (4 credits per click) and load your net mercur.

Interdiction is pretty good, especially vs multiple battys or caprices.
And plop is such a versatile card from a designe perspective, it even sinergizes with cold read credits if you us it during a run. I love it

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Could Desperado work? 2 desp 2 temu is 12 inf, possibly doable if the rig is inti atman dagger decoder

I think that 3 temu and 1 despy is maybe better? I have no idea though, I will have to test it. You can still ‘tutor’ desperato with trade-in or you need to play tyson (which is meh). The main problem I see with 12 influence dedicated to despy and temu is that you only have 3 influence left to spend. Either you spend it on Lady and clone chip or on clone chip and Pol Op (I think that not playing clone chip is just too risky). If you choose the latter option, your main fracter will be Atman, which is ok but can be easily countered by Seidr Adaptive Barrier. On the other hand, Blackstone might be a viable option but then you need to include 2 net-ready eyes to make it more efficient

I think Blackstone is a lot better than many people give it credit for.

Against rush decks using low-strength barriers, it has a higher install cost than Corroder but then is just as effective as Corroder or Paperclip. Against glacier decks that have at least 2 barriers on the server, it also ends up being pretty cost effective, and in some cases it’s even cheaper than Corroder or Paperclip.

Yes, NRE makes Blackstone a lot more effective. But if you’re looking for places to cut corners for influence, Blackstone really is a decent (not stellar, but decent) alternative.

Now, as for killers…I used to be a huge proponent of Dagger and was always skeptical of those people advocating for Switchblade. But then I tried it out, and I honestly don’t know if I’ll ever go back. Dagger is good, but Switchblade is so good. I would rather run Blackstone + Switchblade than Corroder + Dagger.

I’m really hoping that there is at least one true, decent Shaper economy card in one of the next Red Sands packs or TD. I feel like Smoke in particular could really use at least one extra option to help open up some deck design space. Temujin is really solid, and a great fit for aggressive decks. I do think I might toy around with 3 Temujin + 1 Desperado as others have suggested, and maybe use a Blackstone + Dagger + Refractor rig to make room for PolOp + Clone Chip, or maybe Slums + CC. Need to brainstorm a bit more.