[TWA] Crim control v:1.5

Shielsy 929

Hey all, I'd like to show off another control deck I've been working on that's come up real nice. It's very much been born from a confluence of new developments in Runner strategy that I wanted to find a way to glue together.

As control decks go this one's got pretty different:

  • A standard neutral economy backed by Special Order and Inside Job mean you can compete with aggressive corps in the early game. Mr. Li as your card selection engine works well here since you actually don't want to see every card, only the cards you need.

  • Snitch and Au Revoir give you the means to gain information and credits at the same time, while Security Testing and Datasucker let you pressure un-ICE'd servers. Doppelgänger bridges the gap between these two lines, offering compression that few corps can compete with.

  • Your 11-13 memory worth of programs can come together pretty flexibly. Djinn is my preferred source for memory at a cheap cost (since it can also tutor for the Medium and Nerve Agent) but with 3 Djinn you actually can't play any non-breaker programs until you have one. Thus a 2-1 split of Djinn and CyberSolutions Mem Chip is better; you can play a Snitch and an Au Revoir un-hosted early, and pair them with the Mem Chip later.

  • Medium and Nerve Agent are your finishers, and let you take advantage of weaknesses on R&D or HQ. Doppelgänger works wonders here too! For extra points, name the server with Security Testing and get your virus counters at a lower cost.

  • Account Siphon plays a very different role here than in the standard midrange criminals. You'll find yourself picking a few up as your work through the deck with Mr. Li, then fire them off when the corp trys to be proactive in a scoring window. You get to trigger an expose, see what's in the server, then Doppelgänger back in there.

  • Finally, why Silhouette? To get through the midgame! There's nothing worse than getting trolled into useless remotes over and over, when you could applying pressure with Nerve Agent or Medium, or just gaining (soooo many) credits and holding onto the beatdown.

It's a tough slog, with lots of relevant decision points and a small margin for error. Needless to say, this is one of my favorite decks to date.

Please enjoy!

18 comments
3 Apr 2015 poorhaus

Another well thought out deck. Silhouette is one of my favorite runners and I really want her to work. Will give this a try. Seems very labor intensive as you commented but pretty neat if it works.

3 Apr 2015 yeoda

I was trying to figure out an Au Revoir build for Silhouette. I think I might get distracted with all the setting up that needs to be done, but I definitely want to playtest. Thanks for the post!

3 Apr 2015 hi_impact

What does TWA stand for again?

4 Apr 2015 moistloaf

The Winning Agenda podcast out of Australia

4 Apr 2015 DJINNandJUICE

Peacock? really? I mean, I get not using passport and not having enough influence for Zu. I just hate Peacock so much. I'll give it a shot though

4 Apr 2015 Shielsy

@DJINNandJUICE Haha yeah I feel you. The way I figure it Sucker, Yog.0 and Peacock form a more efficient package than Zu going into the long game. You really only need peacock for larger gate like Tollbooth or Wormhole or for servers with multiple code gates. It's kind of not that bad since most code gates dont have too many subs though.

4 Apr 2015 DJINNandJUICE

@Shielsy Yeah it makes sense. Checking the cost charts over at Sneakdoor Zeta, it really aint that bad. Might cost you 10 creds in a game on a bad day. But you're running Super Opus, so you can handle that. Way to make a deck with Peacock that I want to play!

5 Apr 2015 Shielsy

update: went 4-0 at Gmaes lab with this toady. Got my pop-up on

6 Apr 2015 Butters

Thought about adding in a Sneakdoor so you can fire off your ID when they ice up HQ or when there is a caprice being a nuisance?

6 Apr 2015 DJINNandJUICE

@Butters Your mu is super duper tight running 3x Au Revoir and a Snitch and breakers and viruses. It could be more doable if you ran Box-E as your console and switched to hardware for multi-access. Its a pretty good idea for the archetype but not really for this build.

Speaking of, going to try running this out of Andy and Leela next. Both seem pretty great.

11 Apr 2015 Shielsy

I think a sneakdoor is a great idea. There are also some issues with getting in early (against maybe NEH and the like) where a sneakdoor would come in handy. In those faster paced games you tend not to play out the au revoirs anyway, The most flexible slot is probably the plascrete if you wanted to try something like that. I've been playing a 3rd inside job and a faerie over the 2 special orders lately as well, and theyve been doing well.

15 Apr 2015 joeymcjoeysalot

Do you think Symmetrical Visage has a place in the build over Mr. Li? I've always been a fan of Mr. Li, and having played this a few times, he makes a lot of sense. I really love Sec Testing R&D with Doppelganger and Medium on the table.

15 Apr 2015 Shielsy

I think of symmetrical visage as more Like pad campaign and mr li as more like daily business show. While both clearly very good in slow decks, if you wanted to assemble a package like corporate trouble-shooter + Merlin or had lots of dead cards (like agendas) you'd prioritize the daily business show, and that's essentially what this deck is doing.

I think there's certainly a slow crim deck that wants to play symmetrical visage (and maybe Paige, with hostage). But I dot think au revoir would be any good there.

21 Apr 2015 MasterAir

I think you need to defend your decision to play 'bad Andy' here. How valuable is the expose?

I would play Andy +1 snitch, +1 Doppelganger, +2 legwork, +1 special order. Also when your clicks are worth 3 credits, Mr Li is really expensive to run. I'd seriously consider -3 Mr Li, +3 Earthrise Hotel.

There could be a case for q-coherence chip as your MU solution to free up the inf from Cybersolutions. You have no transient programs and you have to be super careful of program trashing anyway.

21 Apr 2015 Basoon

Just listened to the Podcast. If you're finding that you always want Mr. Li early, it could be right to consider Express Delivery. It's a weak card, but it might be exactly the weak card you need since it helps you set up your econ engine and also helps you find your memory solutions before you get completely clogged up with programs. Another question that I see has already been address, but I need to ask again for emphasis: Why not just run Andy? Right off the bat she'll help you get set up much faster then Silhouette could hope to. If you make that change and add ED I think you could change the breaker suite as well. Just pack standard 3x Faeries, 1 x Gordian, 1x Passport, 1x Mimic, 1x Corroder. You'll need to jigger the influence, but right off the bat you cut Yog and Nerve Agent. Legwork does way more work than NA anyway and if money is not an issue in the long game, Gordian is less susceptible to random b.s. than Yog is. I think the other influence comes from cutting the Cybersolutions for an Akamatsu. So this deck is gonna be kinda slow, but it would have some early game still just by virtue of cheap, efficient breakers + Inside job and once it gets set up, that's some crazy inevitability. I'll post a list later.

21 Apr 2015 Basoon

Here's what I came up with:

Andromeda Dispossessed Ristie:

Event Event (19)

3x Account Siphon 3x Dirty Laundry 3x Express Delivery 2x Inside Job 2x Legwork 3x Special Order 3x Sure Gamble

Hardware Hardware (4)

1x Akamatsu Mem Chip • 2x Doppelgänger 1x Plascrete Carapace

Resource Resource (5)

2x Daily Casts 2x Mr. Li 1x Same Old Thing

Icebreaker Icebreaker (8)

1x Breach 1x Corroder •• 3x Faerie 1x Gordian Blade ••• 1x Mimic • 1x Passport

Program Program (9)

3x Au Revoir 1x Datasucker • 2x Djinn •••• 1x Medium ••• 2x Snitch

I think the deck has several innate, difficult to overcome problems (memory and actually drawing the econ engine, which is terrible with one AR, only passable with 2, and terrific with all 3). This version tries to overcome this as best as possible with 3 Express Delivery. You could cut one of the Special Orders for the 3rd Mr. Li, but seems like it might be a little over the the top. The deck might want to play Ninja over Mimic as much as I hate that card since it's very weak to program trashing. That means you could run 2 RDI over Medium which I think I would prefer, (without ICE destruction, virus clearing the Medium is potentially too effective against you) but then you start wondering why you're playing Djinn at that point. Well it's because you need a shit ton of memory. At that point, you might just cut the Data Sucker too from there, maybe put the Mimic back in so you don't have to rely on god awful ninja against low strength Sentries , Maybe Utopia shard. You have several options. So yeah, if you don't mind moving even further away from where you started I would try -1 Medium, -1 Datasucker, -1 Inside Job or Special Order, +2 RDI, and +1 Ninja

21 Apr 2015 Shielsy

The biggest reason to play sihl over Andy is because you're so slow; as you spend time setting up a long, powerful economy, the corp also has opportunities to develop their remote. You have to be able to handle this. As the remote gets deeper the power of your au revoir economy weakens, as the threat of 3/2s forces you to go through over and over. The way I've chosen to solve this is with a combination of medium, nerve agent and sihl: as you proactively apply pressure to hq or R&D with siphons or accesses, you flush agendas from the top and from hand, as well as have the oppurtunity to see what's in the remote without having to run through it. If an exposed remote does demand an access, go back in there! But if it doesn't, and you end up spending 15-20 credits to see an Adonis or a marked accounts, you are going to open up scoring windows.

@Basoon I think express delivery is a great idea, and one I haven't thought of. Also, I have been a bit disappointed with nerve agent lately, so will be moving away from it. The influence will be a massive boon for sure.

22 Apr 2015 Shielsy

Hey all I've made a few changes based on some really good feedback and more play experience. Check it out: netrunnerdb.com