I’ve been testing a Making News Tag Drizzle deck, linked here and pasted below. I come from a Midseason PsychoBeale deck that was doing very well, but I started to feel that runner economies were speeding up enough that I was having a harder time firing off the Midseason. This deck removes the ability to tag the runner on the corp’s turn while simultaneously super-charging the ability to tag the runner on their own turn.
MVPs are Manhunt (obviously), the ID in Making News (by about the midgame, those credits get used very frequently) and Data Raven. ChiLo City Grid is a powerful card that I’m on the fence about right now. If I get a Viper and a Hunter on RnD, ChiLo turns that server into a heavy tax if they let the traces fire, and activates two already taxing pieces of ICE if they opt to break them. Another good play is throwing ChiLo in a remote while you’ve got Manhunt running and start installing your Sansans, Melanges or even an agenda along-side it. It’ll make the server taxing during setup because ChiLo triggers off the Manhunt trace.
Strengths: the deck is super taxing and it’s hard for runners to figure out a strategy against it. I think Parasite recursion/Cutlery is probably the best call because that can chop up the data ravens, and Atman at 4 is pretty funny in this deck (I didn’t notice that it was almost all strength 4 until I ran into an atman player. Still managed to win, but it was much tougher). Aside from that, regular breakers cry at the cheap taxing nature of cards like Hunter and Viper, made worse by the fact that if you’re clearing tags you just can’t afford to let any of those traces fire or you’re eating an even bigger tax.
Problems with the deck so far: money and ICE. I feel like Eli and Viper are absolutely crucial to this deck, since it’s ultimately an econ-denial strategy on the corp’s side. If they don’t show up, runners don’t get slowed down early and can build their state to the point where they can handle the tax (or be prepared to go tag-me). Money is also tough, since I don’t want to have unprotected remotes that could provide easy answers to the manhunt trace. That puts persistent asset economy out, leaving me with… well, hedge, Sweeps and Melange. If anyone has any good ideas as to how to do the econ differently, let me know. Melange usually sits in the Sansan/Scoring server, letting the runner come in and trash it if they want to pay the tax for it and otherwise paying out to me very quickly. Another obvious weakness is link, and the Andy supplier decks runner Dyson and Underworld Contacts make me nervous.
Game play so far as been mixed, but promising. I’d say about half the time the pieces align correctly and the tax is very burdensome for a variety of decks I’ve played against. The other half the time the deck doesn’t feel like it really distinguishes its self, but often pulls through a win because the cards are largely yellow. Any thoughts about increasing consistency or economy?
Tag Drizzle
NBN: Making News (Core Set)
Agenda (11)
3x AstroScript Pilot Program (Core Set)
3x NAPD Contract (Double Time)
3x Project Beale (Future Proof)
2x TGTBT (True Colors)
Asset (6)
2x Daily Business Show (All That Remains)
2x Jackson Howard (Opening Moves)
2x Melange Mining Corp. (Core Set)
Upgrade (4)
2x ChiLo City Grid (Trace Amount)
2x SanSan City Grid (Core Set)
Operation (13)
2x Archived Memories (Core Set) ••••
1x Closed Accounts (Core Set)
3x Hedge Fund (Core Set)
2x Manhunt (First Contact)
1x Psychographics (Core Set)
1x Scorched Earth (Core Set) ••••
3x Sweeps Week (True Colors)
Barrier (3)
2x Eli 1.0 (Future Proof) ••
1x TMI (What Lies Ahead)
Code Gate (7)
1x Checkpoint (Order and Chaos) ••
3x Pop-up Window (Cyber Exodus)
3x Viper (Cyber Exodus) •••
Sentry (5)
2x Data Raven (Core Set)
2x Hunter (Core Set)
1x Information Overload (The Spaces Between)
15 influence spent (max 15)
20 agenda points (between 20 and 21)
49 cards (min 45)
Cards up to Order and Chaos
Deck built on http://netrunnerdb.com.
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I love those painful choices.