Trade-In Desperado cost you 1.5 clic per game if you sacrifice a ppvp and gives you 3 inf, that is the choice I made 
Eli is back, esp in NBN FA, so Blackstone breaking it for 5c with at least a stealth is a no-no, I think.
What would happen with the glaciers coming back is the corp protects the Temujined remote with Eli, and you lost aggro.
You gained 8c but lost draw + install + 4 runs (including the Eli bump) : you could have got away for half the inf with a Day Job, or draw + click credit, gain 5c and keep a card (aka: 'grats you won 3 cred for 9 inf. Sure Gamble is better.).
Sure, you could clic Eli next for terribad credit/clic ratio (16c in 13 clics is draw, install, load and unload a kati for 12c then… clic 6 times for credit).
You want Lady in those builds I think (it breaks Eli for 1c).
To me, if Eli is back, Temujin shouldn’t be on MWL. Better inf / clic-cred ratio cards than Temujin exists, starting with Siphon.
Those are fair points re: Eli, and I’ll have to play around with Blackstone to see if the concerns are warranted. My thinking is that out of a 49-card deck with 3 copies of Eli, the chances of them seeing Eli on turn 1 and then placing on Archives is not so high. There’s the possibility of them using AAL to prepare an ice install to counter whatever server you use for Temujin, but most HB decks aren’t likely to ice that AAL remote on turn 1 either.
I also don’t think I’d pack PPVP in the same deck as Temujin + Desperado? If you’re going the Trade-In route, wouldn’t Akametsu Mem Chip (or the 0-credit neutral mem chip) be a better choice? At the very least I could use that in case I don’t end up needing the Trade-In.
You could trade-in Akamatsu sure, but Trade-In MU for MU is an issue if this ends installing Akamatsu for nothing. You should find another hardware that you want in multiple in your deck (R&D-I and HQ-I for exemple).
Draw-Draw, install Aka, Trade-In, Install desperado cost 5 clic and 5c, with a MU -1 +1 effect.
Draw-Draw, install PPVP, Trade-In, Install Desperado cost 5 clic and 3c (Trade-In refunds 1c, and recurring cred on PPVP buy you the event)
In one case you have +3 clic +2c cost in half of your game, in the other in you only have +3 clics in half of the games.
Now, my reasoning behind that is if you play Shaper, you can compress draw enough to make that clic loss practically a non-issue (+ a 3-turn PPVP can buy you the Despe in theory).
It is all about clic compression there and imo, Temujin Despe Trade-In is more Kate stuff (where draw compression clog hand), and less Smoke.
If you still try that, you may want to pack Analog Dreamer in those decks (I’m considering it seriously if I replace Multitheader to find more inf, replacing a Lucky by a Day Job as a meh solution, and trying to get another 3rd inf somewhere, is my Parasite).
Also, Personnal Workshop is a Shaper card.
Eli is back to being the gold standard as far as early game ice, but I think after the big box we will see Barriers begin to occupy a different space in decks than just gear check.
We kind of already see that with cards like Bulwark and Chiyashi, which are both back on the menu in pretty huge ways in a post Sifr environment. We will continue seeing it going forward with Tithonium and a few of the midrange barriers in Terminal Directive.
These cards all make pretty decent arguments for blackstone, especially since the “support pieces” for blackstone work very well with switchblade, dagger, refractor and houdini.
Finally, to add to the Desperado discussion I think you pretty much can only run Desperado or Temu, Temu seems like the right call IMHO as you still have Astro or Mirror as decent options.
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I still want to test 3 temu/1 desp (rest cc/plop). It costs a lot, but Mercur/desp seems so sweet…
Thinking about Crescentus instead of Multithreader & Corporate Scandal (1x Lucky -> Day job). Will maybe cut 1x scavenge but I’m very unsure.
It does, but it also doesn’t do much to solve the real stealth problem, burst economy.
TemmyJ is great and can function in this slot, but you do sometimes need that seed money to get rolling and I am not entirely confident that Shapers even have that in their card pool at the moment, which means you have to spend some influence on it, or just tough it out.
If we can solve that problem, I think it would do a lot more for the archetype overall, rather than tripling down on a good thing.
I don’t see much point in slotting Crescentus. Also, if you are running Corporate Scandal… why not just run Net Celebrity? I don’t think you will use an off bad pub more than once a turn and it saves you an influence.
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Wholeheartedly agree. Another strong option for Shaper burst economy is what I feel like we could really use right now. Cold Read serves as pseudo burst economy, but it’s not the same.
I’ve been playing this Prepaid version of Smoke. Makes tons of money and can apply some major pressure! Switchblade can be swapped for Dagger to free up Influence. Also, Legwork can be used for something else. Would love to include Clot, Clone Chip, and Sac Con. I’ll tinker. Here is the list:
Prepaid Smoke
Ele “Smoke” Scovak: Cynosure of the Net
Event (22)
3x Deuces Wild ●●●
3x Diesel
3x Dirty Laundry
3x Indexing
1x Legwork ●●
1x Levy AR Lab Access
3x Lucky Find ●●●●● ●
2x Mad Dash
3x Sure Gamble
Hardware (5)
2x Astrolabe
3x Prepaid VoicePAD
Resource (6)
1x Beth Kilrain-Chang
1x Film Critic
2x Net Mercur
2x Same Old Thing
Icebreaker (3)
1x Corroder ●●
1x Refractor
1x Switchblade ●●
Program (5)
2x Cloak
3x Self-modifying Code
15 influence spent (max 15, available 0)
41 cards (min 40)
Net Celeb is a great idea.
Crescentus is MVP in the game I played (it have influence on board : “do I rez if this will be derezed anyway”, then “hmm, CC is there”) and is a good & cheap replacement for Parasite.
I just changed Multithreader for this one and this feels great (I need a non-breaker prog to Scavenge it eventually, on top of being an asset).
I think you could potentially fit two temmyjs in there if you shuffle influence around. That would make some booku bucks on your dueces and dirty laundry runs.
Pretty cool that prepaid slots in so well. Do you miss polop?
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Yeah, you could drop a lucky find, Legwork, and swap the switchblade for dagger to add 2 Temujin.
With smoke’s ability to pressure any server, Indexings, and the Legwork, Polop isn’t missed. There are games where I wish I had it, but 1 Polop wouldn’t typically make a difference.
Would running Switchblade be a problem with it being too much of a tax on your stealth credits? If you are using Indexing where you need to make multiple runs in the one turn, the amount of stealth credits needed can easily add up. For instance, an Architect and Eli 1.0 on R&D would not be unheard of but would cost you 6 stealth credits (and 8 normal credits) to get through the two times. Granted these ICE are two of the best in the game for this very reason but I think playing Switchblade (especially when combined with Blackstone) would mean you would need to dedicate more slots to more stealth credit sources.
Generally speaking, I usually find that I run out of “real” credits before stealth credits with most rigs, now that Net Mercur is a thing, and that is compounded when using Dagger (all of those subroutine costs add up). And if you’re using Indexing + Mad Dash and/or FTE, theoretically you may only need to make a few impactful R&D runs anyway.
I have been running 1-2 Ghost Runner and Cold Read in my deck over the past few months, although the latter is mostly for combating asset spam when running naked remotes. That has been more than enough to compensate. But you can just boost Net Mercur over multiple turns early in the game.
With Mad Dash and Indexing, you’re speaking about 4 runs, not 2.
In the given exemple (which now cost to HB 3x Jackson), you’re talking about four stealth and twelve credits.
There should be TTW, Masanori and/or DS somewhere in a deck playing those. Imo this is vanilla Criminal.
Boosting Net Mercur early is a waste of early aggro, and imo not a good move, unless you found, funded and installed run economy, which is, to me, again a waste of early aggro. Don’t confond early aggro and earlier aggro !
With someone rezing an Eli, you have to find 9c, find & install Blacky, then use the Smoke cred, when the same thing with a Lady cost you 4, you also have to consider that : the Gamble you played here is used for something else in Lady decks.
Faster ! Harder ! Stronger !
Without the Kate Discount, several cards (Visage, Personal Workshop) are roughly equivalent to VoicePad, and don’t oblige you to sink a ton of influence into money events. The decision seems pretty clear-cut to me: don’t play PPVP in Smoke. There are better ways than Lucky Find to spend influence on money, and there are other cards that do more or less the same thing without Lucky Find.
Regarding Fracters, allow me to suggest an alternative: Inti + a couple copies of Tinkering. Influence-free, gives you a zero-cost answer to Vanilla and Wraparound, and gives you a way to break big barriers efficiently on power turns. Since Smoke decks these days are mostly about power turns anyway (you’re either playing a bunch of psi on a remote or going for Indexing / Dash), seems like a natural fit? This is what I’ve been doing in Kit basically since Net Mercur was spoiled and it works great.
On a more general note, at least one Stimhack seems mandatory to me, with all the HB-remotes-full-of-crap to be dealt with.
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I am trying a hybrid tonight that is combining PPVP with 2x temmyj and no lucky finds.
Seems pretty decent in the slots that normally would go in Lucky Find/Daily Casts.
And Deuces plays pretty nice with Temmy. Getting 4 and two cards or 7 from Deuces seems worth the slots.
But yeah, it probably will be the case that Personal Workshop is better, or simply don’t run either and go for something traditional. Personal Workshop lets you recycle your Mercur cred.
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I’ve personally been working on a Smoke deck that heavily relies on Net Mercur credits, but is quite fun to pilot once your rig is set up. Main goal is that once you are set up, you should be making at least 2 runs a turn, once on HQ or R&D, the other to an unprotected remote or server to spend a recurring credit to get more credits banked on Net Mercur. If you have all of your versions of Cloak set up, you don’t even need money in the late game, with 4 recurring credits and then Net Mercur, that’s all the economy you need to get into most servers.
Event (15)
3x Diesel
3x Dirty Laundry
2x Indexing
1x Mad Dash
2x Modded
3x Sure Gamble
1x The Maker’s Eye
Hardware (6)
2x Clone Chip ★★
2x R&D Interface
2x The Gauntlet ●●
Resource (10)
2x Beth Kilrain-Chang
3x Daily Casts
3x Net Mercur
2x Temüjin Contract ★★ ●●●●
Icebreaker (3)
1x Houdini
1x Paperclip ●●●
1x Switchblade ●●
Program (6)
3x Cloak
3x Self-modifying Code
Personally, I really do think that Smoke needs a strong economy and draw very early in a match, but once you hit the middle of the match when the game begins to slow down, you can start to build up Net Mercur and really start to snowball on various servers. Switchblade is like a 1000-degree knife melting through every sentry.
I see most people are on three indexing and two mad dash. Seems really good.
Slots are so tight that I might cut down to x1 mad dash, but I love the consistency.
Also, I really like Mirror, especially with Tinkering.
Is anyone excited about Egret? Will it actually be useful or is it too expensive?
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