I couldn’t agree more.
Personally, I think that at this point, if you want to play “lol Siphon” decks you either play Geist or go Anarch. People keep making the mistake of building the same old Gabe deck with some minor improvements or relying on Security Testing when both are dead ends.
I agree. I think this is dead in present day decks. It’s too inconsistent. The only decks it works any more are asset spam decks (where it competes for Bank Job clicks, which is far more efficient). It’s fantastic there, and lets you crush all asset spam with Desperado. But other decks can shut down centrals quickly and very efficiently. And if your economy was based on the six cards of Sec Testing/Desperado, you’re left clicking Kati and sighing.
I’ve done a lot of testing with Rex, and I lost a large number of games with early Leela builds because of this card. Criminal really suffers from a lack of tutoring and draw, you don’t want to be needing to Special Order a second code gate breaker. Also, it is very easy for your opponent to exploit, I’m sure Rex has a place in some decks but I honestly believe Peacock is better currently for decks like my Leela build.
If it was two years ago and decks had extra slots, I’d run 3x Rex. As it is… I’d rather Peacock than give up those slots.
Given your testing, I’m sure it is for your leela build. That said, supporting a hardcore central attack with passport with 1-2 Rex for remote pings can’t possibly be too much work for Rex, I’ve not had an issue with a general nuisance Gabe build.
Also, I feel people are way too hard on Peacock. Of all the code gates around it’s only bad against Engima, and most of the time you can play around that one. It doesn’t affect the cost of breaking Tollbooth, Archangel or Turing so I’m fine with it. Wish Aurora was half as good, frankly.
Anyone giving Stealth, or at least Refractor a go? You only need 1 stealth credit to get to 5, you break with normal credits, it’s cheap to install and has a base strength of 2. It’s also not any more Influence than Zu. I keep thinking that 2 RDI/3 Desperado/Corroder/Refractor isn’t an awful Influence spread if supported by 3 Ghost Runners, leaving open the possibility of 0-2 Cloaks if desired / if you want to bring back 3x Switchblade/Silencers.
Otherwise, the Faust/Drug Dealer engine still seems really good if backed up by a few minimal other breakers or something like the B&E suite out of Geist.
…you mean by giving ice Tracer and using Gingerbread, which is in-faction?
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…interesting. I don’t know if it has any potential to be good, but it’s definitely interesting.
Oh god, if someone tells me about panera-gingerbread again this week, I’m going to suck start my pistol.
Unfortunately it often really is too much work for Rex, especially once they get the read that it’s your only way to break remote CGs. If they know ahead of time they can completely screw you by stacking code gates on the remote preemptively. If they don’t know at the beginning they’ll figure it out pretty quickly. If they bait you into 1 bad run on a remote, or force you to keep getting in there to trash Adonis Campaigns or Sun Dews, you can run out real fast.
When they first came out I tried Rex in Leela to save influence based on the exact same reasoning you just presented here. Unfortunately it just wasn’t good enough because as a criminal player you need to control remotes or end up losing any kind of control over their income. That allows them to turtle up enough to tax you out of the game. Once a good player sees that you are running Rex, they will immediately start putting all their CGs on remotes and force you to use those counters very quickly.
Also, even if you have the second Rex in hand, the tempo hit you take from having to install the Rex #2 is just brutal. It can can strait lose you the game even if you have tons of money when you need to make multiple runs against an Ash or Caprice Server. It’s even worse when you are forced to Special order for the replacement. Those 2 cards alone are a huge reason to stay away from Rex.
Pancha is two influence, needs one per every ice on the server, and has no in-faction tutor. I don’t think that’s worth it to make your rig based off an okay breaker.
Well, I’m not trying to push you off a ledge or anything. I just hadn’t considered it. I’d considered bringing 1x Gingerbread into Shaper and fetching it via the usual #ShaperBS. But using Panchatantra in Criminal is something I hadn’t thought of.
I’d say “It’s obviously worse than bringing Gingerbread into Shaper,” but it seems to me that the sad fact of the matter is that Shaper has good breakers, and Criminal…has good Killers, at least? Mostly. I mean, it’s not for nothing that I’m running Faust Gabe these days. Criminals’ breaker suites are painful compared to the other two factions’. I don’t know that things are so dire that it’d actually be worth using Gingerbread/Panchatantra as a pseudo-AI, but…honestly, I don’t know that things aren’t that dire. 
I might try it. For science.
More like every other ice on the server. Assassin, Gutenberg, Data Raven, both Ichis, Ravana, Viper, and Resistor are tracers already and are pretty commonly played
But your other points are valid which is why it’s probably megajank
If we haven’t already, I move to christen this “combo” Panerabread 
I’ll accept responsibility for nicknaming another netrunner cards.
Man, what about chameleon supporting Rex. It has utility before finding other breaker types, and helps early game pressure…
edit: nm, its 3 inf, not 2. GTFO
You don’t need one for every ice on the server. Why would you not run Faerie (and Mongoose when it drops)? I’m not saying “use only Panchabread LOL YOLO”. ;p I’m saying that it might be a way to do a similar thing as Nexus Kate and pick a piece of ice per turn to get past.
I use Faust in Gabe, but it’s not like it’s my sole breaker in the deck. Why burn a card or two to get through Enigma on HQ/R&D when Passport is 1 to install and 1 to break? I use Passport and Breach (and soon, Mongoose) to supplement Faust, so I can be more flexible and efficient. That’s what I’m talking about here. It might make sense – and I’m definitely not saying it does, but it might – to lean on Gingerbread/Panchatantra as a supplemental part of a breaker suite. Being able to say “Cool, Turing’s a Tracer, break for 3” seems…OK, at least?
(Thinking more about it, the really annoying part is all the 6-strength ice, like Crick and Archangel.)
The Way of the Gun reference?
If you don’t mind me asking, what exactly is this archtype? I don’t see enough card support or Criminal IDs that support this path of play. How would I, as a Criminal player, pressure the Corp if I’m not making multi runs a turn? Do I rely on drip economy or burst events? Do I transition from early game aggression to a Criminal control style?
I’m hardly an expert, but 1 run per turn starts to feel mighty oppressive when it’s got ~2 R&D Interfaces behind it, or a Medium ticking up counters. And a single HQ run can be devastating when it’s Account Siphon, Legwork, and/or followed up by a Shutdown on a decently expensive piece of ice.
I make 1 run a turn on HQ in Gabe, if I can help it. Nobody wants to let me get 3 credits off that, not to mention the one access per turn. It winds up being decent enough pressure on its own, at least before ice gets deep.
Basically this is the problem, criminal is not that great at doing it, so its not really a known archetype. I’ve had success using Logos with medium/keyhole and vamp out of Iain or Leela. Also using logos out of Leela to use her bounce ability to punish the corp for scoring too fast. Basically you just stuff a power card in your deck and lean on it. Good players are only caught by this once, and you can’t make a game out of it.
I believe Leela and Tenma are the only ones who can reasonably do this. As Tenma can lean on TME or indexing. Leela can lean on her ID to slow the corp down (or punish with big runs if they go fast). Once the corp slows down (double layering ice to protect against the bounce), you have to speed up your board state by grabbing breakers, RDIs or whatever and prep for attack.
I guess overall I’m saying econ denial isn’t super viable out of criminal, so Ice gets rezzed in your face, and then you have to cope with it with whatever breakers you have, and weaker econ since you’re not making money hand over fist from siphon and stuff.