The Geist Zeitgeist

The ones on stream (Haarp and NEH) were very unusual games. Against NEH I was digging frantically for a Corroder, and generally having everything go wrong in a terrible matchup. Against Haarp, I was just digging for tech or trying not to be in a position to die.

As far as Code Gate replacement goes, Faust doesn’t solve the Turing problem. It might be better as a replacement barrier breaker. I haven’t tested it; feel free to do so.

Today I won the Tartu SC with the following list

[Geist] v2 (45 cards)

Armand “Geist” Walker: Tech Lord

Event (9)
2 Drive By
2 Hostage
2 Legwork
1 Levy AR Lab Access
2 The Maker’s Eye

Hardware (7)
2 Clone Chip
2 Forger
3 Sports Hopper

Resource (13)
2 Bank Job
3 Fall Guy
1 Political Operative
2 Same Old Thing
3 Tech Trader
2 Technical Writer

Icebreaker (14)
1 Cerberus “Rex” H2
1 Corroder
3 Crowbar
2 Faerie
1 Mongoose
3 Shiv
3 Spike

Program (2)
2 Crescentus

I really like TME in Geist, it won me several games when I was missing only the final agenda. How do you people use Spy Cameras? Waste them right away or pile them up for late game?

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In my experience with Spy Camera Geist, you never use the click ability, so there’s rarely a point in letting them build up. While there is a theoretical use in setting up a nice Street Peddler, it’s just too slow. Spy Camera is a 0-cost card that procs Geist & Tech Trader (& Tech Writer if you’re on that, too). It’d be an OK card if the trash ability did nothing, and that it lets you know whether to check RnD or not is a bonus.

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Spy cam is normally r&d pressure, cracking one per turn. Otherwise I bank them for when I need a cash infusion or a bunch of draw to dig for a breaker or avoid a flatline.

That being said, I have primarily been all in with replicator and bazaar, so I imagine it plays much differently from @Dragar’s list. For instance, a typical post levy turn involves installing 6 cameras and then using the click ability to set up the next few turns and rebuild forgers and hoppers

Well done, with so little FA tech.

@V01d and @Dragar thank you for taking the plunge.

let me know if you want to come on the channel.

Secret tech - don’t play any FA! I played one over Swiss and cut combined, and of course lost badly.

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Re: fast advance- I’ve been trying to squeeze in a single The Source (preserved with Film Critic / Fall Guy and tutored with Hostage). Otherwise, try to go faster than the corp (being more aggressive with draw effects at the expense of maximizing profit with tech traders etc).

Keeping the corp poor with siphons doesn’t seem to be good enough general FA play right now (thanks, MCH + Mumba Temple), so I mainly just try to keep sensies/DBS off the board and try to use spy cam/legwork to keep agendas from slipping into HQ / staying there for long. It’s definitely not a good matchup.

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could you explain the match up ? what is exactly your game plan ? what do you play for a crop deck ? would you change thing ?

Not really sure what you mean about the matchup. The gameplan is get your Tech Traders online while sniping agendas with Spy Camera and disposable breakers, and threatening Siphon. Then Legwork/remote snipe as appropriate.

There’s lots of potential swaps. One Drive By for another Siphon or Political Operative could be good, and two Mongoose might be overkill. Dropping the second Levy could also be an option. Overall the deck is great against rush, glacier and anything trying to kill you. It’s terrible against NEH FA and IG.

I was running 2 Source.

2 LARLA needed, @dragar?

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Having 2 LARLA would have won the game in the first round of the cut - Sam had done the smart thing with his Palana deck, and built a gigantic remote of barriers along with a Cobra, and used Batty to snipe my Corroder. His heart sank when I played Levy for the second time.

In the end I sniped an agenda from R&D with Spy Camera, so perhaps the lesson is that adding additional Political Operative, removing a Levy and adding The Source is correct. I have just always been a victim of The Source counterplays, which are many and varied.

I’ve also run out of cards an awful lot before, or had random Snare! or Shock! snipe my Levy/SoT, and the freedom of 2 Levy is huge.

Try and found out, would be my suggestion. I kept running out of cards vs slow decks, but I probably just need to play better.

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Freedom has to be a good include in any deck with spy camera, Sigh, I have to try Geist now that he’s actually good. I think I’m going to try this list out with Freedom in place of the siphon. Thoughts?

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Sure. I have a friend who does that. It seems good. Inside Job works with it too! I’d drop a Forger if you drop the Siphon, as it has much less value.

Since you posted your list, I’ve only had time to play a few games, but I tried removing Tech Writers and adding Street Peddlers and I really like what it does to the tempo. I knew there was too much econ in my previous builds (routinely ending games on 30+ credits), and street peddler does a good job of softening the blow from the credit loss (since it discounts + trashes for credit) while increasing the setup speed.

For those that are still carrying the fire for replicator–

spycam geist with restraint

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

Event (6)

Hardware (12)

Resource (14)

Icebreaker (13)

14 influence spent (max 15)
45 cards (min 45)
Cards up to Salsette Island

Deck built on NetrunnerDB.

I’ve got 1 free influence, which might become an employee strike. I normally only install street peddlers post-levy if I’ve got the breathing room to use spy cams to set it up. I typically levy once I’ve got either 3 tech traders or bazaar + replicator (preferably both), and it’s a beast after that.

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I haven’t played geist in months, but I’m going to try this sexy mofo out again with Reaver (only thing better than draw is more draw), birds for my permanent breakers (planning to rely on B&E for the most part) and On The Lam (it has a trashcan on it!).

Seems all right in the current meta-- rich enough to trash stuff, not much glacier to wear down your breaker suite, hoppers/forgers can be used to keep link high once you’ve got your rig set up (suck it, CTM), and you don’t have a single point of failure against boom (lots of tag avoid/remove, and you can draw up before it lands if you know it’s incoming).

Have others been running geist recently? How’s he been?

@dodgepong’s geist made quite a splash after Worlds: Angry Geist (67th @ Worlds, 5-0 @ King of Servers) · NetrunnerDB

Geist is in pretty good shape I think. With the link, tag avoidance, money, etc. the NBN matchup is decent. He was already really hard to kill and OTL makes him practically invincible.

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Probably bringing Geist to SC season this month.

He’s practically invincible and OTL is a great supplement to Siphon & Breaking News, with Traders out. OTL also plays a pivotal role in blocking Ronin, and the deck is able to run 2x Employee Strike and Medium.

Geist also packs Crescentus for HB and Blue Sun. I went down to 2x for 2x On the Lam but it’s still invaluable and there when I need it.

The ‘weakest’ card in my Geist decks these days are Fall Guy, which is insane to even think of. And Zu.13 is horrible in this meta but at least he has Crowbar.

The weakest matchup is ‘dedicated’ FA. An operation heavy FiHP Jeeves deck with big code gates on R&D is probably one of the worse matchups. Worse, as in you never assume complete control over the Corp.

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Nice, good suggestions all.

Yeah, I was thinking about putting in 1x The Source to help that out, with Fall Guy to prevent the trash if needed. Maybe OTL can replace NACH (or at least reduce the number of cards you use Fall Guy to support).

Crescentus + siphon with a medium finisher seems like a solid game plan. Was also considering FTE + spy cam.

This is all good food for thought. Wish I’d started tinkering earlier, got an SC on saturday and not much time to build/practice before then.

I was playing a lot of Siege Geist. Andries convinced me to add 2 Siphons, and I’ve gone to 3.

(Li is Marrón)

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