Smoke and Mirrors -- A Scovak Thread

Decklists
546

Wait, was Marathon spoiled? Last I saw it was just a fan with the last two words of each line…

547

There were text-only spoilers on Reddit a few days ago.

1 Like
548

Marathon. Such a cool card. Steve Cambridge is sooo jealous he could screammmm! (Or stomp on a Wari.)

549

I will have to try this build, but swap a few cards around for mining accidents. The bad pub+smoke cred + mirror should be pretty good.

550

Here’s my take on Mining Accident Smoke.

Mining Accident Smoke (no Clot, no Legwork)

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

Event (12)

Hardware (2)

Resource (15)

Icebreaker (4)

Program (7)

15 influence spent (max 15, available 0)
40 cards (min 40)
Cards up to Down the White Nile

I decided that if my plan was to Mining Accident them with the hopes of BP gain, I didn’t really want to be handing out free money with Peace In Our Time. This left a bit of a money gap, though, so I fell back on Professional Contracts and Tapwrm as my restricted card. Tapwrm also means that I get SacCons, which are good vs Skorp, which I think is going to see an uptick in play now that people are dropping the Tapwrm and Clot package. I’m actually not running Clot, but I could just drop Accident #3 and slot one in. So far I’m testing full Accident potential to see how that goes.

551

At the moment I am going with this

Smoke Stealth

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

Event (11)

Hardware (3)

Resource (13)

Icebreaker (4)

Program (9)

15 influence spent (max 15, available 0)
40 cards (min 40)
Cards up to Down the White Nile

Deck built on NetrunnerDB.

I am not sure about currents and armitage. I was thinking about Cyebrdelia, but it didn’t really convince me.

1 Like
552

I refuse to believe that armitage is better than Daily Casts. Casts nets you 5 without clicking for it. Armitage also nets 5 credits, but over clicking for them manually instead (both of these are ignoring the click spent to install), so it also costs you those 6 clicks. You can get the money paid out faster in terms of total turns spent waiting for the payout with Armitage, but you can also just click for credits manually a couple times after installing Casts and come out way, way ahead.

7 Likes
553

Speaking of Smoke in a less gameplay focused angle, what non-card lore bits (inserts, books) feature her?

554

I think the currents are good if you are playing in a meta full of Scarcity of Resources…otherwise, even with Find The Truth, Indexing is still the better option. Worst case scenario, you will install you 0- cost resources more conservatively, Scarcity will stick around a bit but that should not slow you down too much, considering the huge amount of money that FFT+RNG Key+Sec Test make every game.

Also, how much do you need the datasuckers? I suppose they are mainly for Blackstone. But I don’t think you actually need them that much. Blackstone is only bad vs IP Block, but you’ll rarely break the subs, you will just pay for the trace. If you are worried about facing many 4 or higher str barriers, you can play Net-Ready Eyes. I would totally swap the datasuckers for better cards, such as Stimhack, turning wheel or No One Home to further improve the CTM matchup. Once you got rid of the suckers you can also play Astrolabe instead of Mirror, which is good…but never as good as Astrolabe. Clickless draw is more important in Smoke than regenerating recurring credits, imho.

2 Likes
555

I agree, Casts is better at insuring some credits flow. However, I need a card to bounce back from low credits moments instead of Peace In Our Time, which I don’t want to play without the wrm. The plan is then to install Armitage and click it dry.

If you install Armitage first click and hit it three times, you’ll start your next turn with +5c. With Casts, if you install and click for money, you’ll start with +2c. Then, if you are really broke and you need to lose another turn to money up, with Armitage you can collect the remaining 6c and click for one, for a total of 7c. With Casts you’d need to click for credits four times and then you’d get 2c more at the start of your next turn for a total of 6c.

Based on this I’d say that Armitage is better for this particular purpose.

Yep. The slots are for either datasuckers or a couple of wheels. Perhaps the latter work better.

I considered that, but the two damages scared me. I’m often holding some 1x I don’t want to lose.

1 Like
556

I’d rather click for credits 4 times and be 4 ahead. At least then I still have an econ card slot =P

In all seriousness, I actually think Peace is still a perfectly acceptable card to play in Smoke even without Tapwrm. The money goes a lot less far for the corp since you’re breaking most things either for free or at a drastic discount.

1 Like
557

Is On the Lam good enough for spending the final 2 influence? That is, in comparison to any of The Turning Wheel/Stimhack/No One Home/Peace in Our Time/etc. (6 inf on Sec Test, 6 inf on Finding Truth, 1 inf on Hunting Grounds.) It seems good in a variety of different matchups, including Rewiring.

558

Seems good! Smoke in general has a hard time against CTM so that should help a bit. I doubt Rewiring will exist after this MWL but some people are playing around with 24/7 Armed Intimidation, On the Lam is a good counter.

559

I don’t think on the lam is going to be worth it until No One Home becomes legal. NoH is vastly superior imho. Ok, It does not counter meat damage but the only way you can be hit by meat damage is via Punitive Counterstrike (but you already should play Film Critic, so it’s very unlikely).

Besides the comparison between NoH and Otl, I would play it only if you suspect a lot of CTM but even then…I think having 2 stimhacks is probably better than having one on the lam, as you can trash bankers + mvt without getting too exposed to sea source or HHN the turn after.

560

I would like to hear an explanation of how you’re both getting BP with Mining Accident, and getting money with Tapwrm…

561

Yeah, I threw out Tapwrm after the first game, realizing that was a stupid decision =P. And after specifically not including Peace In Our Time for the same reason!

I can’t claim that everything that happens in my head is a good idea.

4 Likes
562

Respect for honest answer. lol…

1 Like
563

I took a Mining Accident Smoke list to a store championship over the weekend. I placed 4th which I was happy with. It was good to Dirty Laundry archives getting a Net Mercer credit and following it up with a Mining Accident. The corps didn’t see it coming. Having a bad pub or two makes Smoke crazy good.

Feedback Filter and Hunting Grounds didn’t do anything for me all day but in the right matchups they can certainly pull their weight.

Film Critic is the right call for the restricted card. It got me an Obokata and stopped me from being Hunter Seeker’d in another matchup.

The RNG Key and Find the Truth combo is fun but not entirely necessary.

Overall, I was happy with the deck and it was quite fun to play.

Ele “Smoke” Scovak Cynosure of the Net
15 influence spent (max 15, available 0)
41 cards (min 40)
Cards up to Down the White Nile
Event Event (17)
3x Diesel
3x Dirty Laundry
1x Mad Dash
3x Mining Accident ●●●●● ●
1x Stimhack ●
3x Sure Gamble
3x The Maker’s Eye

Hardware Hardware (3)
2x Astrolabe
1x Feedback Filter

Resource Resource (12)
1x Beth Kilrain-Chang
3x Daily Casts
2x Film Critic
1x Find the Truth ●●●
1x Hunting Grounds ●
3x Net Mercur
1x The Turning Wheel ●

Icebreaker Icebreaker (4)
1x Dagger
1x Dai V
1x Paperclip ●●●
1x Refractor

Program Program (5)
1x Cloak
1x RNG Key
3x Self-modifying Code

1 Like
564

A couple thoughts/questions for you (and anyone else running 3x Mining Accident out of Smoke):

On paper, it looks like you run very slim on “real” credits. Bad pub, recurring credits, and Net Mercur are great for making tons of stealth runs using very few regular credits, but how do you handle the HHN threat without Misdirection? Similarly, what about Punitive Counterstrike when you steal more than one agenda?

Feedback Filter also seems less helpful out of Smoke because of the slim “real” economy slots. I wonder if Citadel Sanctuary instead might be a better slot, especially as BP might help with the trace.

How do you deal with Skorpios without Sacrificial Construct? What do you do if you accidentally grab multiple agendas off that Maker’s Eye run, especially if one is something like Graft or Project Atlas and the other is Standoff or Hostile Takeover? I hate wasting clicks for Film Critic on a Standoff, but if you steal outright, it turns on Hunter Seeker.

I personally have been loving The Gauntlet out of Smoke for the huge HQ multi-access, and I especially love the idea in combination with Takobi and BP from Mining Accident. If I dropped Astrolabe for Gauntlet, what other draw cards might you recommend to supplement Diesel? I’m thinking 2x Earthrise or maybe Deuces Wild, the latter of which could be used for extra runs or tag removal in a pinch as needed.

Have you considered Notoriety or Freedom Through Equality instead of Mad Dash? Miraju and AgInfusion seemed pretty popular at my recent store championship. I’m wondering if a different way of getting 1 point would work better.

1 Like
565

I can’t speak to the Mining Accident variety of Smoke, but normally if you lose a breaker against Skorpios you just use Dai V as a stand in for whichever ICE type you can no longer break. Obviously it’s problematic against anti-AI ICE like Wraparound or Hortum (when advanced), but it’s a solution that can help you grab the last few points before you get locked out entirely.

3 Likes