The meta is changing and Switchblade Andy seems to be the new Andy. What answer do we have as corps?
I have some problems playing against it and Refractor as RP and simply rushing doesn’t help much as RP is usually pretty slow. Playing more barriers? Maybe Grails, which helps early game?
inb4 play NEH
Just reduce your sentries. Play cost efficient sentries to ensure they go get all their bullshit to set up and then force them to deal with good code gates and barriers. Guard is a good option: it is useful early game, not a huge investment and forces a breaker.
The biggest problem with switchblade is that it kills pup outright and makes tsurugi and komainu look silly. Just adapt and play fewer of those things. Pup is probably still worth it but tsurugi may get the ax, and komainu may be a 2 of.
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Heimdall 1.0 on R&D for ETF:FA.
And draw. This is the one slow andy deck. Identify and adapt your tempo.
Don’t play RP and play some real skillful deck like… Oh yeah, NEH.
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Here’s an RP list that’s stood up to Switchblade Andy. It’s not foolproof, but Data Raven and Closed Accounts give you some teeth against Andy’s tricks.
You give up a lot to include it (Daily Business Show, ELP, Ash). Data Raven, however, is a lot of brutality in RP for 4 credits if they don’t want to be tagged, and most runners don’t. Otherwise this is a “fast” RP deck, meaning lots of cheap Ice. I don’t f*ck with Komainu
RP with Raven and Closed Account
Jinteki: Replicating Perfection (Trace Amount)
Agenda (9)
3x NAPD Contract (Double Time)
3x Nisei MK II (Core Set)
3x The Future Perfect (Honor and Profit)
Asset (9)
3x Jackson Howard (Opening Moves)[color=#FF8C00] •••[/color]
3x Mental Health Clinic (Honor and Profit)
3x Sundew (Mala Tempora)
Upgrade (3)
3x Caprice Nisei (Double Time)
Operation (9)
3x Celebrity Gift (Opening Moves)
2x Closed Accounts (Core Set)[color=#FF8C00] ••[/color]
3x Hedge Fund (Core Set)
1x Interns (Mala Tempora)
Barrier (5)
2x Eli 1.0 (Future Proof)[color=#8A2BE2] ••[/color]
2x Himitsu-Bako (Opening Moves)
1x Wall of Static (Core Set)
Code Gate (5)
1x Chum (Core Set)
1x Enigma (Core Set)
2x Lotus Field i[/i]
1x Quandary (Double Time)
Sentry (9)
2x Architect (Up and Over)[color=#8A2BE2] ••••[/color]
2x Data Raven (Core Set)[color=#FF8C00] ••••[/color]
3x Pup (Honor and Profit)
2x Tsurugi (True Colors)
15 influence spent (max 15)
21 agenda points (between 20 and 21)
49 cards (min 45)
Cards up to Up and Over
Deck built on NetrunnerDB.
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HB: Cerebral Imaging can be tough, especially if the Andy deck isn’t playing Kati Jones.
Viktor 1.0 really hurts Refractor, Eli 1.0 hurts a lot more when you don’t have Datasucker, and a corp with no remotes is a corp you can’t Sec Test.
I also had an experience of just getting rushed down by an updated Supermodernism. I know y’all are a little dismissive of that deck type around here, but it felt like it got scoring faster than I could get my breakers (and Lycan means you actually need all 3!). This, by the way, is why I think Stealth Andy should pack at least 2 Inside Job.
I haven’t played the sucker variant, so I can’t really comment on it.
Less sentries, or more cards that hate on breakers. Power-Shutdown for stealth credits, or that card you forgot about way back when called Will 'o The Wisp. Andy decks tend to rely on searching for breakers with special order, which means that if you can kill the breaker or hide it they’re going to have to draw another tutor or draw through the entire deck to get to it.
Grail tends to be good enough to slow down stealth andy even more, btw, since every type is now dangerous.
Options abound. I’m finding that stealth decks tend to include less econ and are weaker to asset spam, so maybe look at Db0’s old RP builds? More ash?
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If you’re trying to tech against stealth andy why spend 4 inf on architect? And put the 3rd eli back!
I’m not sold on 4 inf on data raven although 1x could be good. However, I will say that closed accounts is an excellent splash. Good stealth andy players will usually clear their tags, but towards the late game, your click pressure gets to be enough that they figure they can float tags across 1 turn after a siphon w/o losing too many precious resources. But going broke suddenly is crippling.
Also, play wall of thorns, probably just 1x, since it sucks so much vs Lady. Big pain in the ass for corroder, can stifle a late-game R&D lock win.
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Yeah, 2 Architect was a knee jerk reaction to “Architect is awesome!” back when it was released. It’s not in there as a Stealth counter, though isn’t stacking sentries a Switchblade counter of sorts?
Sometimes late game I don’t want to install or Rez Architect, and Eli is good all game. Building a cheap Chum + Architect early is my dream. I can dream bigger than that though.
Ugh, Wall of Thorns. Easily the worst card in the deck, but I can see it as a 1-of. I just don’t usually accumulate mountains of cash when I play RP, so Thorns seems like a big investment, or one that’s antithetical to faster play.
Lastly, 2 Data Ravens is good. You can stack them (awesome), and they’re great deterrent for R&D, great for spamming econ assets behind, and can put the runner to hard decisions on the scoring remote. I’d play 3 of I could.
Play all sentries - it’s really easy to get 3+ sentries on a server that way and drain the stealth credits. Also lets you score behind them before Andy gets set up.
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Lol, I actually like this, even though it might not be practical. A while back there was a stealth kit deck running rampant in our meta, and the worst matchup for it was my janky “almost all code-gates” foundry deck. He just couldn’t find enough stealth credits to break like 6 code gates
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I’ve been running an untrashable variant against @DJhedgehog, and it did terrible (at least the single time I played against his Stealth Andy with that particular archetype – we had a close game with IT Dept RP, though). Asset spam doesn’t do the trick, as you’re leaving servers open for easy Security Testings, while they’re bouncing off your centrals for free thanks to stealth.
I’d actually been mulling over Will 'o the Wisp as a possible solution myself quite a bit today, debating over whether to include it for a tournament where I expect plenty of Switchblade Andys.
Will o’ the Wisp as a solution against the faction with Special Order? Will only seems good against Anarchs with their drought of tutors, and not even them because they build around it.
I get that it’s a tempo hit, but my special orders never seem over taxed in Andromeda.
Takes two stealth credits using Switchblade to break just about any sentry except Rototurret. I’ve facechecked with two stealth credits early into double sentry – oof.
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even if turns out to be just a minor tempo hit (and it could be more, if the runner pitches them after getting a full rig out, or uses most up to assemble their rig), it’s enough to open a window for a scoring turn or to get a Nisei train rolling.
also, once the runner realizes you’re wacky/janky enough to actually use a Will 'o the Wisp, they might get cautious over the idea that you could be wacky/janky enough to run 1-2 more. all wild speculation, of course.
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Less? Maaaybe. More importantly, stack 'em. Sure, Tsurugi only takes two stealth credits – but three of them in one turn take 6. Make 'em have to bust through a whole bunch and risk going broke or running out of stealth creds. It’s not guaranteed, but it’s pretty effective.
Datasucker variant hurts that a touch, because can use suckers to replace some of the stealth creds – even then, should be okay, but certainly not ideal. Definitely will require more ice on all centrals, though.
Might be time to consider running Neural Katana again, though, because it can’t be run through (like Komainu) and while it dies harder to mimic, if you’ve got a predominantly stealth/switchblade focused meta, well, it’s just as expensive to break as EITHER Komainu or Tsurugi, but is cheaper than either.
What Switchblade eats makes Mimic cry, but the reverse is definitely also true, I think.
If you’re willing to spend 18 credits securing a server, plus install costs and clicks, I’m willing to work to get into it. The whole time you’re building I’m running on that server or knocking over others for cheap accesses.
Definitely right about the duality of switchblade and mimic; they handle situations very differently. Maybe that’s what most stealth decks are missing: mimic.
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Stacking sentries and code gates is the answer, not fewer of those types of ice. Power shutdown is super painful, as Andy often only runs 1 copy. Will O the Wisp is probably also quite reasonable and won’t cost you any influence.
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Maybe it’s time for some traps? Shattered Remains would trash some of the stealth chips.
Stacking Sentries could be fine, but runner has Ghost Runner for that situations.
The weakness of Switchblade Andy seems to be the Corroder, so I’ve put 3x Eli, 3x Markus and I’ll see how it goes. Stacking them is easier, cheaper and runner has to actually pay some credits.
shattered remains is a good idea, if you’re a good bluffer!
actually starting to think Gemini might be a decent include as another low-cost sentry to stack with Pup and your higher-cost sentries, if you gear your RP toward net damage.