spooky voice Drop 1 Careeeer Fair for a Secuuuurity Testiiing, ooooo~oooh cough
It says you have 15, but unless there’s something missing, I don’t see it.
EDIT: Oh, Clone Chip had the pips chopped, I see. Eh, I dunno that Inject is worth it enough in this situation, but that might just be me. Aside from my pet card, seems reasonable-ish. You’ve said you don’t like Ms. Piper and she’s the thing I’d most recommend other than that, though 3-of Same Old Thing seems… I dunno. I guess for Blackmail recursion that’s a thing, but there’s a lot more recursion here than I feel like you ought to need, and if the reason for the Dejas and Clone Chip is Inject, that seems even stranger, to me. Lots of support for the draw, but also not feeling like enough to be reliable, necessarily. I guess it lets you recur parasite and D4V1d, but the one-of just feels like a weird choice, ultimately.
Y’also might want another Mimic and Medium, it’s important to get Mimic early even with Cortex Lock, and having double Medium (with Memstrips) makes the nasty R&D dig process that much more bearable.
Sec test’s anti access/management seems to take time away from the plan. Install Desperado forget about it feels like the anarch way. (irony i know)
Also not sure investigative journalisms are worth it. i like to keep the blackmails mysterious, none of this same old thing constant threat business. if i lose the bp, i’m still runnin my ass off while they’re spending time and effort on taking away the bp (and immediately after it’s clear when they think it’s safe and throw down an agenda).
no day jobs no journalism.
keep runnin.
Has anyone tried out Raymond Flint? I’m just spitballing here, but with Investigative Journalism, maaaaybe Itinerant Protesters, Flint, and some HQ multiaccess, you can threaten accessing most, if not all, of the corps HQ pretty much whenever you want. Might be a bit too janky, even for Valencia’s tastes, but if we ever get a more efficient bad pub generator than Frame Job/IJ, it could be worth considering.
I think Raymond Flint is pretty good when you are relying on Blackmail to control the remotes. With that in mind, RF’s best ability is the expose effect, so you can see if the thing they just dropped in the remote is worth your precious Blackmail. The access you get from IJ or Hostile Takeovers is gravy.
That said, with the deck I was running, very similar to @steve_houston’s, Blackmail isn’t the main threat, so the Raymond Flint loses out to deckslot pressure.
The three Same Olds are left over from a list that had 1x of each Legwork and Vamp, which were awesome things I can no longer have because of Desperado. I still find I like having them early. I’ll often Blackmail 5 times a game. I’d go down to two in this list, but no less.
I suspect I’ll cut the Investigative Journalisms after a few games. I can’t imagine many windows to use it in the past competitive games I’ve played with Val. She’s slow enough as it is, so I don’t have 5 clicks to spare for the extra Bad Pub. That’s five runs I have to use it just to break even.
I feel like IJ is way more useful in most games (once, not like three times, though having the second down to protect VS BP removal is okay) than people give it credit for being, especially here.
Just install it if you see it early right away, and the first turn you don’t need to run, use it. If you don’t run more than five times after that in a deck with Desperado in it, you’re a crazy person. It’s much better than the Cyberfeeders I tried to use to fill the same role back in the day.
Similarly, y’all can talk crap about how Sec Test seems bad because it doesn’t let you access all you want, it’s just kinda silly. With Medium, unless that first run scored you an agenda, the second one won’t show you all that much different whether you used Sec Test or not, you’ll just have more money to keep going, and a way to spend a click to gain 3c, which is pretty great when you can spend two “credits” breaking ice to get there. Pup as a Sec Test deterrent doesn’t matter a whit to Val.
But like… if you can’t see how much a second BP could do for you against a lot of targets, I dunno what to tell you. Makes traces even weaker, makes it easier to trash assets (and lots of decks DO leave lightly defended assets against Val because they need to or have other taxes in place, like RP, also makes killing them in HQ/R&D easier), just makes running, one of the most important aspects of the game, much simpler. The difference between one and two is huuuge, and makes the corp’s life ever so much worse – as any GRNDL Supermodernism player whose games ran long can tell you,
Against any FA deck you just find your Medium as fast as you can. It can be a bit of a race, but with Parasites and such to slow down NEH, Val has a good shot.
Haven’t played too much vs Butchershop, so I’d have to see. I suspect I just try to keep even money-wise, and play more surgically.
I have gotten killed a bunch by 6 meat damage decks (Butcher Shoppe and Government Takeover punitive Weyland), so I’ve added in a single Tallie Perault. The thinking is that if you steal the GT (or are otherwise anticipating a 6-damage hit) you can pop the Tallie after your discard phase to go up to 5+BP cards. A Plascrete would likely be more effective, but I just wanted to try to get some useage out of Tallie. She could possibly turn off Subliminal also if you are in a situation where a tag won’t hurt you too much, but that is pretty rare with the reliance of this deck on Kati, and the fact that there’s a good chance you won’t have any extras due to Paige.
I had the perfect setup for my Tallie plan the other day on OCTGN. I was pretty sure that I was playing the GT kill deck so got my Tallie out, and was taking money on Kati. Then the corp triple advanced a remote that I hadn’t been checking. So, that was either a GT or a Cerebral Overwriter. I decided to check an open HQ first to see if there were any Overwriters in there (and gain a Desperado credit) and viola I steal the Government Takeover. I am thinking, “I am so smart. My Tallie plan is going to work!”, I take all the credits off Kati (so he can’t Punitive me twice) and am left with two clicks. So I think I may as well run HQ, as I may win right there with another agenda and will get Despo credits. Lucky me, though, I hit a Snare! Best laid plans…
So against Butchers Shop, I try to stay ahead of them on money with my Valencia deck, as that defangs then considerably. It also does work against GT builds, as if you’re richer than them, PC isn’t much of a threat. If you’re running crazy doubles econ Val like me, you even have the options of Singularity if you suspect the GT or FJ to forfeit it to deny the flatline if for some reason you are poor.
Played Val with Desperado vs TCcody in the league against his HB. Was locked out of all servers while I built my board. Used IJ during this time. Lost the game 6-7 and IJ made me 2 credits. Also had to trash a Medium because I didn’t have the MU and couldn’t afford Memstrips. First and last time I play the Desperado build in Val. I need Grimoire and Desperado isn’t that useful in this glacier meta.
Went back to my favored build, but with 2 IJs. Never had a reasonable time to install it, nevertheless use it. Ditched it everytime and I’ve won 3-4 of my last games with Val in the league. Dropping IJ for something more useful like Knifed and Vamp.
IJ just doesnt fit my style. It seems I’m too busy establishing my econ, building my rig, and blackmailing early remotes to spend 5 clicks on IJ. Desperado is great, but with no breakers I’m not running all that much. All my opponents lock down centrals and I’ve played against a lot of Grail lately. Plus I need Memstrips for my full rig, which is awful. So painful to install that card.
The desperado still kills in that deck, I know grimoire could have helped you recover but it was from something that would never really happen to you again.
I’m with you on IJ, but that desperado is killer…
now the grail matchup i haven’t dealt with as much
Watched a few Val Desperado games and defended against two during the league. It’s string once it’s set up, but I’ve noticed they can’t quite get their breakers and enough econ to beat ash and caprice. Always seem to have around 4-6 credits.
On the other hand, Splashing Career Fair and Clone Chips really synergize with two Hallmark Anarch cards: Liberated Accounts and Inject. My runs may not be as cheap as Desperado builds’, but I don’t make as many runs.
Here’s the list:
Valencia Netready Career
Valencia Estevez: The Angel of Cayambe
Event (18)
3x Blackmail
3x Career Fair •••
1x Déjà Vu
3x I’ve Had Worse
3x Inject
1x Legwork ••
1x Special Order ••
3x Sure Gamble
Hardware (6)
2x Clone Chip ••••
2x Grimoire
2x The Personal Touch ••••
Resource (12)
3x Daily Casts
3x Earthrise Hotel
1x Kati Jones
3x Liberated Account
2x Same Old Thing
Icebreaker (6)
2x Corroder
2x Mimic
2x Yog.0
Program (8)
1x Clot
2x D4v1d
2x Datasucker
1x Medium
2x Parasite
15 influence spent (max 15)
50 cards (min 50)
Cards up to Breaker Bay
OK I think I’ve solved the MU issue and have made the deck more elegant as well. Djinn is way better than MemStrips, lets me go down to 1 Medium, and can fetch Parasites which is a decent ability.
Human First has been strong so far. I tested it in Kim and liked it, and it’s just a ton of money when you most need it when you have it up and firing. Having 3-of is a ton of deckslots on a card, but Paige can make that justifiable. Another benefit is sometimes this deck is drawing cards early looking for Paige and Career Fairs and Earthrises and whatnot, and your hand can get cluttered. This costs 1 to get it out of your hand, and also does work while you grind.
You’re right, it’s not. I updated it after some more testing. Bye bye Career Fair:
-3 CF, +1 Desperado, -1 Deja Vu, +3 Dirty Laundry. Good to have that redhead back. Another Val Pal!
Career Fair and Dirty Laundry make about the same money, Dirty Laundry has some additional benefits we all know of, as well as combo’ing with BP and Desperado.
It can be hard to hard cast an Earthrise sometimes, but this feels right for now.
Best laid plans… 