I’m not seeing blackmail as “the remote solution” so much. I understand the desire to use blackmail with valencia but ash and caprice are still quite common as previously mentioned. Also if blackmail is your plan then you might strongly have to consider including emergency shutdowns so that you can survive the corps that are going to be (and a decent portion will, at least for a while) including some method of giving them a hand vs. leela.
I believe if you’re going to rely on eater for much of your ICE breaking you’ll be well served to include quest complete a couple of times as that can help you work around those nasty upgrades. Especially if you’re using para-sucker tactics.
Instead of going for the Desperado/SecTesting Route, I’m thinking about playing a full SMC / Clone Chip suite instead.
That way, I should be able to play singleton programs (and free up deck space), and be able to parasite on the fly in case of swordsman.
So, what is the consensus on Valencia with the BP route?
Cards like, Raymond Flint + HQ Interface + Investigative Journalism, Vigil + Itinerant protestors.
Are they a good option for Valencia? Or should we just enjoy the 1 BP + Blackmail?
I am going to try both, but my experience with CT blackmail combo is that a good player can screw you up in remotes if they are FA by installing things like SanSan, Econ assets, and Jackson behind ICE, and glacier with Ash/Caprice.
Desperado is a really strong card, however personally I think grimoire is better for this deck. You want Self-modifying code/stimhack ANYWAY so the influence is tight. Grimiore’s big edge is that it’s ability is excelent, though not as good as desperado, and +2 mu is Superb. The best thing about grimoires ability is the combo with Medium/Nerve agent.
This is my current build, mostly designed to fight Near-earth hub and RP glacier while my PE matchup is pretty bad (though steelskin helps quite a bit). Having 8 draw cards makes up for the 50 card deck size minimum (even then 50 minimum decksize vs 45 isn’t significant) I run a 2-2 line of nerve agent/Medium, which could become a 1-3 line depending on how NEH matches play out. I personally think THIS build of valencia is better than all builds of MaXX i’ve been able to make. The reason for that is that self modifying code out of valencia is much more consistent than clone chip out of MaXx. MaXx basically is “drawing” 3-6 cards a turn to find his ICebreakers for clone chips, and has 6 hits in his 45 card deck. Valencia has many more hits with her 3x self modifying codes avialable, and she draws a reasonable amount a turn. Earthrise Hotel john masanori and Steelskin all make for a very consistent engine to fuel the fire.
3x of SMC gives pretty unparelled consistency. Perhaps it may be wise to play D4v1D in there as a way to break Oversight Ai’d curtain wall. Since Stimhack is weak vs Blue sun (due to needing a 5 card hand or double steelskin + a 4 card hand to make Steelskin scorch protection)
8 draw cards+20 burst econ cards gives you a fast and efficent economy.
Nerve agent pressure’s HQ, forcing the corp to rapidly defend HQ or lose to massive nerve agents. which can completely clear HQ
Medium Pressures R&D The dig through time on R&D makes every corp virus purge before it’s to late. Valencia however has the bad pub credit, making each server’s tax be actually 1 fewer than it seems.
John masanori+Datasucker pressure’s archives, I’ll admit this is far and away the weakest server pressure, but sneakdoor beta didn’t test very well. Joshua B+DLR wasn’t that efficent either. often providing no real pressure to archives and really just being a nusiance. Also losing acess to Daily casts+Earthrise was so bad. So we are left with Datasucker+john masanori as our only archives pressure.
Parasite accentuat Pressure in all 3 servers, valencia Plows through Single ice servers thanks to her BP credit, So parasite makes Double ICed R&D/HQ rapidly become Single ice HQ/R&D. Forcing the corp to triple ICE their centrals or get overwhelmed by the cayabe assult.
Valencia Estevez: The Angel of Cayambe (Order and Chaos)
Event (20)
2x Déjà Vu (Core Set)
3x Special Order (Core Set) ••••• •
3x Sure Gamble (Core Set)
3x Retrieval Run (Future Proof)
3x Blackmail (Fear and Loathing)
3x Inject (Up and Over)
3x Steelskin (Order and Chaos)
Hardware (2)
2x Desperado (Core Set) ••••• •
Resource (13)
2x Ice Carver (Core Set)
3x Kati Jones (Humanity’s Shadow)
3x Daily Casts (Creation and Control)
3x Earthrise Hotel (The Source)
2x Stim Dealer (Order and Chaos)
Tallie, you greedy so and so.
Is she pretty much card draw for Valencia? There need to be more reasons to play Tallie in my opinion, card draw would be nifty with a bunch of bp, scorch protection, huzzah!
Yeah, she’s here both as a card draw and as a scorch protection. Not really sure if it wouldn’t be better as a Plas or two, but eh. I really want to make this card work anyway
with only 1 Tallie in 50 cards I think it is risky Scorch protection. I really want to make Tallie work, too; the issue is that currently, the most common gray/black ops seeing play don’t come down until they can end the game, so I don’t see many instances where you will actually be giving BP with her. Using to her draw up to soak a Scorch or two is neat, but not very reliable IMO.
in this build calim, is Valencia going to be able to build up enough Sucker tokens early game while simultaneously playing econ and looking for breakers?
You want me to be honest ? I absolutely have NO CLUES. I still don’t have O&C (well nobody does but) and I really don’t want to playtest it with proxies. I’m gonna wait until I got the cards
She negates any kind of flatline involving two or more Neural EMPs. That by itself isn’t enough to be relevant, though, as net damage decks can still flatline you in other ways as well.
