[Valencia Estevez] Running every damn click

Decklists
1

Thought id get a val thread going as there doesn’t seem to be an active one.

From play testing im finding the combination of valencia, desperado and street peddler to be crazy. Being able to install a desperado off a street peddler before the run is successful and get the credit back means you get to install desperado for free (1c from bad pub, 1c discount from peddler, desperado credit). Installing daily casts for 1c mid run is great too, i think peddler works with val in so many ways - both overcoming the 50 card deck size and making solid use of the bad pub.

Ever since reading Alex’s Grim Feast Valencia deck tech article, iv been really captured by the idea of a deck that can “run every click”. I think valencia is definitely the runner for this, Quetzal coming a close second if not joint first, but val is the ID iv been exploring more. I’m not a massive fan of eater/keyhole, so i’ve been playing with reg breakers. I can’t seem to get behind NRE, although i understand the math and why its good. It’s the inf i think, and in that respect i’m preferring desperado to NRE.

I’ve gone through a few iterations so far, mostly trying to overcome some questions certain ICE posed, as well as the MU issue inherent from using desperado and still wanting good stuff anarch viruses (#slotthestrips).

I don’t think its optimal, but here’s a draft version i’m trying at the minute, thoughts and criticisms welcome.

Desperado Val

Valencia Estevez: The Angel of Cayambe (Order and Chaos)

Event (12)

Hardware (7)

  • 3x Clone Chip (Creation and Control) ••••• •
  • 3x Desperado (Core Set) ••••• ••••
  • 1x MemStrips (Order and Chaos)

Resource (13)

Icebreaker (8)

Program (10)

15 influence spent (max 15)
50 cards (min 50)
Cards up to The Underway

Deck built on NetrunnerDB.

5 Likes
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I think running Wyldside Pancakes is definitely worth it over your current draw scheme especially since you’re running Peddler. You can straight up swap Injects for Wyldsides and Earthrises for Adjusted Chronotypes.

Lotus Field out of Blue Sun is also a major pain for Knights, but there’s really no inf to import a solution. Faust could work, but it doesn’t play nice with the BP. Still, especially if you swap the draw scheme there will be some dead draws to feed Faust with. I’d probably swap one Knight in that case if there are no other answers in the deck for Lotus Fields.

Source: played Valencia in a couple Regionals. Did bad with your type of draw, did good with Pancake Parties. :slight_smile:

1 Like
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Yeah i considered faust + raver pancakes, its a good straight swap and faust loves pancakes. I’m undecided about faust, i think id prefer a breaker that needs credits over cards, as my testing with it i kept finding that there actually weren’t that many dead draws in my deck as i thought for feeding faust. Mileage may vary though.

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Yeah I’m not running Faust myself but I have influence left over because I’m only running two Desperados, so I can import a Shaper solution. I sometimes seem to be throwing away perfectly good cards like Liberated Accounts or even Sure Gamble though because I just don’t have time to click them and no need for the money money. Highly matchup dependant though.

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-one faust has been a fine 2nd lotus solution, much better than knight or atman
-couple street peddlers replacing an inject hasn’t been a problem yet
-you.have.got.to.carve.ice.

2 Likes
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Iv gone for 3x peddlers, still undecided how many injects, i think i prefer inject to pancakes for speed but im not sure 3x injects is neccessary.

Peddler + bad pub + desperado is really, really good. It reminds me of the personal workshop val builds that were going around when she was first spoiled, except more consistent and snappier. I’m just loving the install gymnastics you can pull off, installing liberated for 3c without needing career fair etc etc

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Some thoughts:

The deck is called ‘Running every damn click.’ Where’s your Dirty Laundry? It’s that extra push you need in the early game to get your Liberated Accounts online, trash assets without losing too much tempo, that sort of thing.

I wonder if spending the influence for Desperado is even worth it. I might try some builds with Grimoire, with the option to play a bit slower. Might also try cutting one Desperado and slotting in Career Fair.

3 Street Peddler is definitely the way to go. It’s such a good card and it synergises really well with Valencia.; I don’t think you should worry too much about too high a concentration of events. Even with a 15-event deck, that’s 30% of your deck being events - the probability of Peddlering 3 events is roughly 2-3%.

Wyldcakes is amazing, but the issue with it is you’re not digging as fast as you can with Inject. That makes things like the one-of-Faust to take care of their Lotus Field (a great idea I’ll definitely be trying out) a bit more risky. Still think it’s probably the best way to go, though.

Couple of discussion questions:

How good is Scrubber?

To what extent can you skimp on programs? Can you cut a Datasucker? A Medium? Even a Yog?

2 Likes
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This, with a small tweaking is the same Valencia list I won a SC with and it’s served me very well. I added the fausts, removed atman for desperado. I even use faust as an econ card/icebreaker because I can pitch cards that I’d have discarded anyway due to wyld pancakes overdrawing.

DesperVal and her pal Faust

Valencia Estevez: The Angel of Cayambe

Event (14)
3x Blackmail
3x Dirty Laundry
3x I’ve Had Worse
2x Inject
3x Sure Gamble

Hardware (6)
3x Clone Chip ••••• •
3x Desperado ••••• ••••

Resource (12)
2x Adjusted Chronotype
3x Daily Casts
2x Kati Jones
2x Scrubber
3x Wyldside

Icebreaker (8)
2x Corroder
2x Faust
2x Mimic
2x Yog.0

Program (10)
2x D4v1d
3x Datasucker
2x Medium
3x Parasite

15 influence spent (max 15)
50 cards (min 50)
Cards up to The Underway

Deck built on http://netrunnerdb.com.

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How, exactly?

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I just meant that if you’re breaking stuff with Faust, you’re not using the BP. I’m usually using Knight in order to break a single sub on a single ice early game (or Lotus Field in any part of the game). If it’s early game vs say…Weyland space ice or even an Ice Wall, Knight will use the BP and be cheaper with repeated runs through the ice compared to Faust. For a single remote run it doesn’t matter (and Faust will be more reliable & faster), but I find myself running multiple times a turn if I have the chance to do one of these:

  1. Get medium counters (&R&D accesses)
  2. Get Desperado money & Datasucker counters & single accesses from HQ
    Faust doesn’t support that, Knight usually does.
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That’s hogwash - more often than not (by which I mean “every single goddamn time, really”), you need to spend money once you get to where you’re going, so the BP isn’t wasted.

2 Likes
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You know that ain’t so. But whatever, I support Faust in the deck, that’s why I suggested it in the first place…

2 Likes
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I know the one time I had 2 BP from Hostile and a Checkpoint sitting on R&D that a Knight was freaking brilliant.

1 Like
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Iv considered it, but really, money isnt the issue with this deck by a long shot. Digging the money out of 50 cards is more of a problem iv found. I think testing with 3x dirty laundry is definitely worth a try though, i’d be tempted to replace the gambles with laundry’ and see how it effects tempo, i’d inclined to think it would improve for the very reasons you just highlighted.

I just can’t agree with that, desperado in val is great and i wouldn’t bother with desperado at all before i went down to 2. That’s not to say that grimoire isn’t as strong, it very much is because its still an anarch deck and we have the good stuff virus cards, but the “running all the time” aggro style i think val lends herself to gets a massive boost from desperado.

100% agree, peddler is amazing in val, even without depserado. I’ve found 12 events to be a nice number, you rarely whiff and trash events you really really need anyway. The games where iv dumped 2x blackmail onto street peddler have been games where iv had RND lock anyway and won before remote pressure was needed. Even then, the sucker rig and the amount of cash you can get together from BP + desperado has been more than enough to challenge a remote if needed.

It is. I don’t know why i can’t get along with it. I keep trying and just getting frustrated with the set up time. It was different in noiseshop, where any click could be used to really apply pressure simply by installing a 1c virus, and you dont have to click for your money or cards.
I think for this deck, or at least how i like to play it, 2x inject, 3x IHW, 2x ERH, 3x peddler and a singleton sym visage so far are doing everything iv needed in terms of draw, and being tempo conscious at the same time. Obviously, thats not to say that the raver pancakes combo isnt just as good, im tempted to say it comes down to playstyle after a certain point.

Its also worth considering the synergy isnt only street peddler + BP + desperado, using inject means we end up with programs in the heap and clone chip + BP + desperado becomes a thing.

Really good, but deck slots get tight, and as i mentioned iv not found money to be the problem. If we are including dirty laundry it may not be needed at all.

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I hear Spooned is in faction.

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What are you using to break the Lotus Field, though in order to spoon it?

If you use knight, you lose the Knight.

I guess other options are Faust, Crypsis … ?

The Val I’ve been running has only 2 desperado, and an Atman. That Atman is clutch so often. Only problem is sometimes you don’t draw it when you need it.

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I was using Faust…
NRE+Yog is the other thing I can think of, but then you don’t really need to Spoon it.

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Repeated runs through lotus field out of blue sun is a drag, but not a lockout. You can slot something other than knight, or just leave a click to move knight onto unrezzed ice. Or not worry about it, i know the idea of having a hate card you dont have an answer for can be scary, but you can play around cards as well. You dont always need tech for something.

Lotus is a good anarch hate card no doubt, but slot faust and its done in 2 cards. Or just use knight. I prefer knight personally.

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I guess you can run Spooned. But if you’re also running Yog, Spooned isn’t such a great card anymore. But I do agree, Faust is a good answer to Lotus Field (as is Knight, but it could fold to Blue Sun).

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Q: You know what’s better than Desperado and a Bad Pub?

A: Desperado and two Bad Pub. :smile:

If you want to run every damn click you might consider Investigative Journalism. I won a small GNK tourney last weekend with a Val deck with two IJ’s in it (see the tournament winning decklist page). If you can get the time to run an IJ, it really helps, especially against RP.

One game I had first turn of Dirty Laundry, Earthrise, Daily Casts, Investigative Journalism. Followed by turn two IJ. That’s a pretty good start. Giving a timewalk is not so terrible if you are also getting 4 cards and 4 credits during that timewalk.