Gemini is a money sink, especially against Andy. I’m sure it has a place but I don’t think this particular problem is it. The option to save your stealth credits and pay a single credit (without corp pumping trace) to run through is horrible.
yup, it’s a money sink and untenable if you’re low on credits, but if the runner thinks any of its cards in its grip are valuable (and chances they’ll have a valuable card or two in there), you can sink some credits in to force them to choose between spending either two stealth credits or four real credits. at the very least, it’s forcing a somewhat more difficult choice than Pup’s single stealth credit tax.
I think rarely the case will work in the Corporation’s favor. Especially, considering that you are blind bidding while the Runner can make an informed bid, it’s difficult to argue that you will perform better than them.
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had a total brainfart and thought the runner did their blind bid first. ugh, okay, so not as good a solution!
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There is no question that stealth Andy is good, but without Ghost Runners, I find her pretty manageable. To that end, you might have to reexamine if you should play some tagging or not. If you’re not playing any tags, and stealth is a hard match-up for you, the right answer might be (gasp) Foxfire. The other option is to aggressively get her to blow through GR, but that’s way riskier and there is no guarantee she won’t hit all 3 of her GR’s
So Stealth Andy has still been wrecking my RP’s face most of the time – I’ve only been able to win a handful of games by rushing out Nisei MK IIs and drawing/rezzing decent barriers – but I’m seeing hope in the next data pack with this card:
It’s useless in the mid- and late-game when runners get all their programs out, and it sucks against Atman, but I think it helps with the early-game Stealth Andy match-up and potentially gives you enough room to score out MK IIs quick.
Some benefits (if you’re Jinteki):
- So cheap to rez! A lot of runners aren’t afraid to facecheck if you have under 5 credits (unless they suspect you’re running Grail), and this can change that.
- Great outer ice on centrals for the early game
- Two stealth creds to break. And stacking this with another Sentry gives you a much cheaper total rez cost than stacking Komainus and Tsurugis.
- Punishes that early Desperado if they can’t break this.
- Protect a Sundew early for cheap! By the time mid-game rolls around, you’ve hopefully put non-obsolete ice in front of it.
- It’s still good against most runners who aren’t Stealth Andy. It’s a Mimic-heavy meta right now, and some think it’s safe to facecheck (if they suspect you’re not running Grail) if they can get a quick Mimic out.
- Even if you don’t include it in your deck, its subroutine is nasty enough that some runners won’t be as aggressive as they would be otherwise until they get their programs out. You can get the benefit of Grail’s early comfort without running Grail ice.
It’s not a silver bullet, but hey, maybe it will increase my winrate against Stealth Andy to 30% instead of 20%. It’s probably a two-of in my RP. I want it to be a three-of, but again, it’s useless in the mid/late game – it’s like gear check ICE, but really painful if they can’t break it, something Jinteki hasn’t really had until this point (Gemini traces aren’t cheap, and Yagura isn’t that painful).
Stealth decks wait to run until they break sentries from what I’ve seen, so cortex lock will probably be useless by the time its rezzed and not affect RP. I think RP just needs to play more non-sentries.
Switchblade is a problem for RP? What about IHW?
I still think/hope that Cortex lock can slow down Stealth Andy even more, forcing them to either fill out their MU or get more Silencers / Cloaks, because it becomes much more cheaper for you to stack sentries. Stacking Architects, Komainus, Tsurugis is just too expensive early on, and Pup only taxes a single Stealth cred.
Packing a lot of barriers and code gates is still highly advised, but Cortex Lock could be a supplement to that so a third of your ICE isn’t so easily invalidated.
Yeah, IHW is also a problem, but this particular thread focuses on the Switchblade one. :oP At least Cortex Lock can be a better defense earlier than Komainu/Tsurugi, as its damage hits all at once instead of one at a time, and can flatline if they’re low on cards (but who does that against Jinteki)
Against Stealth Andy, I try to stack my sentries in front of R&D (usually 3 Tsurugi and 1 Lancelot, or 2/2). That cost them Ghost runner credit until it’s too taxing. With a excalibur + Caprice in the remote (only one attempt to win the psi and a 100% fail if Nisei already scored). It’s the only way I was able to have some results against Andro Stealth.
I’m going to say it now - Cortex Lock is a bullshit, unfair card that I hope never sees the light of day. We are at a point in the game where face checking ice is super dangerous for the runner, and being able to do that much damage (early in the game) for only 2 credits isn’t cool. I just imagine a Chaos Theory playing a Sure Gamble and then running on turn 1.
Sorry for the derail…
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Wait, that wasn’t risky right now? Sure, it’s not flatline-risky, but it’s difficult.
The other thing is that it’s not that hard to break, and naturally falls off. It’s a terrible late game top deck, and has a not to unlikely corner case - that the runner can manipulate - where is does jack shit.
It’s inconsistent. The up side you mention here is quite real, but so is the situation where it’s useless.
(also, the deck that builds a billion memory is usually doing so for overmind, which can break cortex lock for a single counter).
On the general topic of Switchblade, I’ll echo Greed Guts. Stealth breakers in general, and Switchblade especially encourage the corp to do what we’ve learned (against normal) is sometimes bad practice - stack you ice by type.
Imagine R&D is protected by Guard, Architect, and a Neural Katana. Mimic laughs at that server. Switchblade? Not so much.
That is why I have both switchblade and mimic in my stealth andy 
It’s one influence and one mimic is sufficient enough.
You know what’s even better against stealth Andy?
Rushing your agenda.
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Well you need your agendas to do so ^^
Against every runner if you can rush a Nisei without being broke it’s the right play, tho.
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There aren’t a huge number of cards that easily get through a strength 4 sentry.
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Do you belive in Fairies?
It’s not Paper wall, but it’s not Archer, either.
Okay, let me rephrase: it costs 2, has a nasty effect, and is out of Mimic range. That’s a big deal.
I agree it’s not Archer, but Archer lives firmly in the ‘Hard To Break’ box. I’m just saying this card doesn’t live in the ‘Not Hard To Break’ box either.
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And you need decent early ICE to fend off Stealth Andy so you can rush those agendas! Cortex Lock could be one of those cheap options for RP.