The Geist Zeitgeist

Back to the B&E breakers, I think that once sports hopper comes out the deckbuilding cost of including them is greatly reduced. We’re going to be able to get 2 link running cards we want anyways. One consequence of this is that we don’t need to run the full 9. I’m thinking of trying just 6- cutting spike altogether. With corroder, we don’t really need it- people aren’t running that many barriers that make it much better than corroder. We’re not using it to break full hives or curtain walls anyways. This frees up 3 deck slots, while using shiv and crowbar as economy/early pressure. With a breaker suite of zu (could be peacock), corroder, 2x mongoose the b&e breakers will be strength 5 by default, which is all we need to deal the big problem ice (tollbooth, assassin, turing, ichi, etc.).

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Yeah fair enough, i got over excited about the potential synergys and missed the point of what is working in geist already i guess.

The issue is someone starts scoring out behind a Wraparound, and there is one card in the deck that can help.

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It always feels like a step backwards when i slot 1x special order in geist

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Well, I think Geist needs some number of inside jobs as well, since this can happen anyways if someone has a decent strength card- if someone starts scoring out behind a turing or a tollbooth, you need to assemble a lot of B&E breakers quickly or else find your permanent solution. I was also running 1x special order already, since sometimes you just can’t find the right breakers or need to break a quandry or himitsu-baku repeatedly. Between 1x special order, 2x inside job and tons of card draw, I don’t think the risk of a runaway wraparound score is all that scary. I could be wrong of course- I haven’t tested it yet, since sports hopper isn’t out yet. Another option is to drop down to 1x spike, 2x crowbar, or some other combination of cuts.

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I assumed you let out a bestial roar, run each central, then Apocalypse and beat your chest a lot if people started overadvancing Beale behind a Wraparound.
Disclaimer I don’t actually play this identity.

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The issue with cutting some of the cloud breakers is that you are making all of the remaining breakers weaker. Sure, maybe you don’t use Spike that often, but it still boosts the strength of Crowbar and Shiv while it is installed.

I sometimes use Spike shortly before I Levy just for the econ swing, but mostly they stay installed.

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Another good reason to consider security chip as a viable splash imho

So I played this deck at our weekly meetup today:

Spy the Oracle w/o B&E

Armand “Geist” Walker: Tech Lord (The Underway)

Event (10)

Hardware (9)

Resource (17)

Icebreaker (8)

Program (2)

15 influence spent (max 15)
46 cards (min 45)
Cards up to Democracy and Dogma

Deck built on NetrunnerDB.

Some observations.
Employee Strike is good, probably not great. As this is intended as a tryhardy tournamenty deck, I included it to slow down NEH and do work against IG. Nobody in my local meta played either, so I don’t know how useful it will be. Recurring it with Same Old Thing hurts and feels bad.
Spy Camera + Oracle May is not as janky as I thought, although you can get in the habit of drawing only one card per turn (manually, that is), which I think is too slow. Spy Cameras also make you basically immune to Scorch.
The hostages really are allstars here, I used it for The Source, Oracle and Film Critic and it won me the game in every case.
The Tech Writers are Sure Gambles now. Sure, they make money when you are set up, with all your Spy Cameras and Tech Traders…but at that point, you’re making so much money it doesn’t matter anyway. The setup cost of this deck is click intensive rather than credit intensive, so you can easily play Sure Gamble in the first few turns if you draw into it.
The Crescentuses have one big problem in this deck: They suck if you can’t find your breaker. The draw speed is probably not quite fast enough to ensure you can fire your Crescentuses when it hurts (earlygame). It also does nothing against the asset spam decks. They should probably be inside jobs, which would also synergise with RDI / PolOp.
I don’t know if Forger or Reflection is better here, I think as long as Turning Wheel isn’t here, I’ll stick with Forger. That said, it’s not as good as it was in the old Aggro Geist days, where you would land lots of Siphons. It definitely needs further testing though.
I initially had a third PolOp in there. I honestly think three is overkill, although that might need further testing.
So yeah, it’s a fun deck that I’ll keep playing. It’s a lot easier to play than the Garbage Man archetype, which I found very taxing. If a card comes out that lets you drop multiple Spy Cams at once, that might be a great include too.

Shoutout to untitled (I think?) for the Source+FC idea. It feels much better than a single CC.

Edit: The great thing about this deck is the mindgames. You think they have a Jackson unrezzed? Use Spy Cam and run R&D (only applies if cheap, obv). They have an Atlas token? Use Spy Cam and run R&D. It feels so good, and it’s hilarious if they actually don’t have a Jackson.

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Sorry if this is a dumb question but you don’t have a window to pop (and thus draw) before taking the meat damage do you? You need to preemptively trash to draw at the end of yours or start of corps turn?

Probably was referring to popping it after getting tagged but before scorch is played. Unless they are tagging you and scorching you at the same time with accelerated diagnostics, runner will have a paid window before the scorch.

Also, you have a window between the first and second scorch, so as long as you start with at least 4 cards in hand you can draw up before the second scorch.

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And if they’re using Accelerated Diagnostics, you have a window after they pop Jackson before they play the Diagnostics.

(If they kill you with a blind AD; shake their hand, and recommend they buy a lottery ticket.)

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Yesterday I took the first place in a small GNK event with this deck

###[Geist] (45 cards)

Event (7)

Hardware (4)

Resource (17)

Icebreaker (14)

Program (3)

Built with http://meteor.stimhack.com/
Cortez Chips are actually meant to be Political Operatives but DeDog was not allowed yet.

Only lost was against Haarpischord Studios due to a 24/7 triggering a breaking news followed by 2 Scorched Earth.

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Am I the only confused and frustrated by Democracy and Dogma getting abbreviated to D&D everywhere? Data and Destiny is a great, high impact big box guys…

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alright, let’s set for De&Do

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It’s obviously DeDog (courtesy of The Meta Snapshot).

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Playing this at the mo (among other things) and pretty happy with it. 2x levy is actually the right amount i find, you burn through your deck so fast resetting is pretty clutch.

Rabbit hole is pretty funny. It may seem a bit daft but in a deck where the main thing you do is draw i think thinning you deck is legit.
It (rabbit hole) is a great way to suddenly jump to 4 link, install a security chip and have a str 4-5 cloud breaker early. Also for decks with big ICE, the security chip buff applies to multiple cloud breakers so you can crack late game remotes without too much fuss. Political operative is obviously clutch here too.

Easy mark is to make sure you can levy when you need to. Just play it anyway if your ok for cash.

Problem is still NEH of course, so maybe go to 1x levy and find the space for a medium?

geist.rabbit

Armand “Geist” Walker: Tech Lord (The Underway)

Event (8)

Hardware (6)

Resource (16)

Icebreaker (12)

Program (3)

15 influence spent (max 15)
45 cards (min 45)
Cards up to Democracy and Dogma

Deck built on NetrunnerDB.

Do you think Rabbit Hole over Forger is useful enough because of Assassin and Caduceus? I think it’s an interesting include, but not convinced right now.

Even at 2 link, Assassin is totally traceable. With a Sports Hopper soon, it will be quite fine.

I’ve been finding 2 Levy is great at well, but I can’t shake the asset spam/setup time problems. In fact, asset spam just seems to wreck Geist. I have no clue what to do about it. What’s the point of Crescentus/Siphon if the corp gets 3-5 credits every turn to rez ice (or just drip)?

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