i got 6th at NZ Nationals last year with Geist and won a store champ this year as well
i don’t think he’s necessarily hard to play, but i think he’s a completely different kind of runner than any other (let alone a completely different kind of criminal). with complete honesty, i’ve probably played more games as Geist than any other ID, and there is a lot of stuff to get used to. when and how to run and where. a lot of avenues you can take aren’t immediately obvious. for example, with all of his current support cards, you can start a run with 0 cards, 0 credits, a haphazard rig of a couple of breakers and a clone chip, and end it with mountains of credits and cards. that i think is the main appeal of Geist. you can go full on super aggressive to the point that you drain yourself completely, letting the corp think that they have a scoring window, and then go in for the steal, making money while you do it.
trash Same Old Thing and have Tech Trader pay for that Legwork you wanted to use again. plus, draw a card.
trash Clone Chip and have Tech Trader pay you to install that Spike, charging up Technical Writer; trash the Spike to get past Eli 1.0, getting paid again; use Crescentus to derez it, getting paid again… plus, draw 3 cards
once the engine is going, everything starts firing, and the whole machine starts putting in serious work
i also think there’s a lot of weird stuff people are trying that doesn’t really work that well
for example, i love Technical Writer because, along with his cloud breakers, i usually have around 20 programs/hardware to install each game. that’s a lot of uptime for charging those. plus, i get to draw a card with it, and even if i haven’t charged one up at all, i can drop one down and get money from Tech Trader as well, meaning it’s not solely an early game card anymore
but then i see a deck that doesn’t use any Technical Writers but also tries to justify using Off-Campus Apartment but only puts in like… 10 connections. TW is less influence, more synergy, and yes, you ‘get it now’ with OCA, but you can also charge multiple TWs at the same time
i also see that as soon as Clone Chip was added to the MWL, everyone dropped it completely. i’m running 2 now, and i might consider going to 1, but even at 3 influence, Clone Chip is absolutely amazing. it will always be another copy of something else you want because it’s something you’ve already trashed and used (or lost to damage, but whatever). what’s more, you can get paid with Tech Trader to install the program if you’re at 0 credits. it’s a million times better than Savoir-faire, which from what i can tell, is only included on the chance you’ll draw the right breaker
i also see a lot of decks running Inside Job, and i don’t understand it at all. Spike / Crowbar / Shiv are basically Inside Jobs (granted, only up to 3 subs, only as much strength as your total breakers, only one specific kind of ICE, doesn’t get past on encounter effects…), BUT: they get you a card when you use it, cost less and pay more. along that same point, i’ve seen lists without his cloud breakers, and when i question it, i hear ‘but it’s so many deck slots!’
but it’s pseudo bypass, econ with Technical Writer and Tech Trader, draw acceleration with Geist’s ability, sooo much synergy in an otherwise pretty terrible card (Spike getting past an Eli 1.0 on its own is the equivalent of Easy Mark, but it takes an MU or 2 link, costs 1 more credit, needs an Eli, etc. etc. etc., absolutely terrible on its own). i can understand dropping one or two here and there, but i run with the full 9 and never regret it.
i also don’t understand the lack of running with multi access. i remember a lot of old lists with 1 RDI and 1 HQI, and i have to say that it never felt like enough. now i see some with maybe 1 Legwork. i haven’t had a chance to test Spy Camera yet, but i’m keen to give it a go. i’d have to rework the deck to figure out how to make it work. i think i’d try 1-2 Bazaar, but i can’t see Replicator being worth the influence when Spy Camera already does a decent amount of work on its own anyway and doesn’t necessarily need an ‘install everything’ aspect
one final note: Autoscripter is such a trap, but there could be something cool with Sacrificial Construct
here’s the list i’m currently running:
https://netrunnerdb.com/en/deck/view/659473
Run and find out
Armand “Geist” Walker: Tech Lord (The Underway)
Event (8)
3x Account Siphon (Core Set)
2x Legwork (Honor and Profit)
1x Levy AR Lab Access (Creation and Control) [color=#32CD32]•••[/color]
2x The Maker’s Eye (Core Set) [color=#32CD32]••••[/color]
Hardware (8)
2x Clone Chip (Creation and Control) [color=#32CD32]☆☆ ••••[/color]
3x Forger (The Underway)
3x Sports Hopper (Salsette Island)
Resource (15)
3x Bank Job (Core Set)
3x Fall Guy (Double Time)
1x Political Operative (Democracy and Dogma)
2x Same Old Thing (Creation and Control)
3x Tech Trader (Business First)
3x Technical Writer (Data and Destiny)
Icebreaker (12)
1x Corroder (Core Set) [color=#FF4500]••[/color]
3x Crowbar (Chrome City)
1x Mongoose (Kala Ghoda)
1x Peacock (What Lies Ahead)
3x Shiv (The Underway)
3x Spike (The Valley)
Program (2)
2x Crescentus (A Study in Static)
13 influence spent (max 15-2☆=13)
45 cards (min 45)
Cards up to Salsette Island
Deck built on NetrunnerDB.
a few notes:
Sports Hopper is freaking amazing in Geist. for the obvious reason of the extra card draw (so it’s a one-card-less, influence-free Quality Time), but also: it charges up Technical Writer and Tech Trader pays you for cashing it in, which mitigates the 3c install cost a lot (potentially overpaying on the return). also, it provides link, which lets you actually use Forger to avoid/remove tags (again, making and saving money in the process) without losing cloud and not having to run crap like Dyson MemChip
also, i thought i would swap to Reflection when it released, but i’m still liking Forger. being able to remove tags (and on the corp’s turn) is great. you can still get a tag from Breaking News, but at least you won’t get into a Traffic Accident before you trade in your Sports Hopper
Bank Job is seriously amazing. you can throw it down and making one of those at-almost-no-credits runs i mentioned and get another 7 on top of it. i run at empty remotes with ICE in front of it all the time (normally a bad idea) because i can get paid while doing it plus get the Bank Job money on top of it
Peacock is really only there to save influence, but it’s actually not terrible compared to Zu.13. yes, Passport is way cheaper, and Rex is reusable, but a big code gate i see on remotes is Turing, which is 4 credits to break with Peacock or 4c and a token to break with Rex, at the same install cost, and it’s more expensive with Zu.13 and can’t be broken by Passport anyway. Tollbooth is in a similar boat. don’t see much Little Engine. Archangel i usually just go through the trace, since my link is about 2-3 in most games. Enigma is honestly the most annoying, and Rex would be a bit better there, but i typically just lose the click (or run last click). also, Peacock rarely sees play. those permanent breakers are mostly a very late game solution when everything has been used up, Levy has already cycled the deck, and there are little other solutions. but this deck makes a lot of money that using Peacock every now and then doesn’t break the bank. on the same token, i suppose Aurora might be an option, but it’s oh, so terrible in comparison, especially with the number of multi-sub barriers compared to code gates
i’m currently trying to figure out if/how Vamadeva fits into this list, possibly with support from Grappling Hook (it might be good for other big things like Archer and Orion anyway)
i am going to test Turning Wheel when it comes out (shouldn’t be long now, but we’re still waiting in NZ) in lieu of The Maker’s Eye and see how i like it. it will ideally save 2 influence that could be spent possibly swapping Peacock to Zu.13, for example, or throwing in some Employee Strikes (because Blue Sun with early OAIs really hurts this deck a lot)
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anyway, Geist is great. he definitely does not play like other runners, and i think it’s very likely that some people try him out for laughs, do poorly, and switch to someone else (i’ve seen it happen a lot here in my local play group). he definitely needs a bit of playtime to get used to