Uncanny Valley v0.1

Satellite Uplink 513

Two overlapping kill strategies.

A) The Valley Grid lock. Rack up a deep remote server of binary Ice that is easy to break, then stick Valley Grid behind it. # of Ice > Runner's Max Hand Size = runner can't run.

B) Goldfinger. Markus Batty & NEXT Gold = bad times, either trash all their programs or deal lethal Net.

You use the high volume of ETR Ice to try and rush a Self-Destruct Chips (making your kills easier) or Accelerated Beta Test (to build a big server or rezzed Ice and make your kills easier).

Architect & Interns help you build your big servers and recur the key Upgrades into them.

Batty fires nicely with Architect, NEXT Gold, Viktor, and sometimes a Gyri Labyrinth.

Operation economy so you don't have to support more than one remote.

Yes, you're playing 22 Ice. You want Ice. A lot of Ice. Punch that ABT all day long, baby! It's also important (for Valley Grid) that all your Ice has to be fully broken, so you can't run stuff like Enigma/Viper/Pop-Up/Pup where the runner can ignore a sub. The dodgiest card for your remote is maybe Architect for this reason, although you can use his ability to pull a Batty up and brain them with if need be. It's why there's only 2x Architect, as you don't really want one in the remote (it's pretty expensive as well, for a deck trying to rez a lot of Ice).

13 comments
8 Jul 2015 Badeesh

VCool. Did you consider NEXT Design? How come you went with Cybernetics in the end?

8 Jul 2015 Satellite Uplink

I ultimately felt that starting 1 card closer to killing the runner was more worthwhile than starting with 2 ice installed. It's an option though!

8 Jul 2015 Satellite Uplink

@Badeesh Influence is an issue in NEXT as well, you'd probably have to lose the Wraparounds and a Jackson.

8 Jul 2015 Badeesh

Yeah forgot about the dam influence. Ruins a lot of solid NEXT design ideas.

9 Jul 2015 x3r0h0ur

Given that its a 40/15 ID, and you want batty pretty hard, I think you could make some cuts to get rid of 5 cards.

Maybe dump the 3 GLC and add 2 melange, then dump 1 viktor, the chimera, 1 interns then the agenda of choice, and you're going to see your influence of batty and valley more often, and keep roughly the same density on all things. The melange can get you all the econ you need, especially if you have it VG'ed.

I find GLC to not be great since your hand size is limited too.

9 Jul 2015 Satellite Uplink

@x3r0h0ur I get the logic behind that, but I think in this case it's kind of relevant that you don't actually want to see your Influence cards early on, until you've built that server. There will definitely come a time to look at scaling down to 44 cards, but TBH I think Batty and a Gold might be among the cards that get cut as I think it's the Valley Grid plan that's more solid!

GLC... when your hand size if 5 you usually have 5 cards in hand so drawing GLC is the same as drawing it with 4 cards in hand of a max 4 cards. You draw it, play it, play something else, happy days. I don't think it's any more of an issue, and you want to keep the momentum up to try and push out your early Agenda score.

Melange I think doesn't fit, as I'm running no other remotes so they'll probably just check and trash it before I can get any use at all. If there's any economy coming in then it'll be two Medical Research Fundraisers in place of the Wraparound, I think.

9 Jul 2015 x3r0h0ur

WRT the melange, you're thinking about it differently than I am, making them run on the valley grid can make them discard down, and cede tempo in cash, cards and you gaining cash on the turn you use it. 2-3 turns of clicking it can single handedly set you up for the game, and can even be untouchable late game.

WRT to the smaller deck size, you have interns and howard for dealing with batty too early.

Finally GLC, the problem with the smaller hand size is that you have fewer slots for agendas, so there is a big difference between 5 and 4 cards that way. If you can manage it thats fine, but during a flood the GLC will actively be bad sometimes. I suspect it comes down to preference on those slots, I just find melange to be so good in this type, since it functions as run bait and economy.

9 Jul 2015 Satellite Uplink

I could consider Melange as replacement for Successful Demonstration, which I feel are a bit sketchy (because I've never really used them before). I hadn't been considering it occupying my Iced remote but it could do a job there, so that's probably a good option vs Succ Dem.

10 Jul 2015 CrushU

Aww, but I already used this name! Uncanny Valley v2

I have three other iterations published, I like the Snare! and Valley Grid and Ronin way of killing. Less change the runner can do something to stop me from killing them with a Ronin if they end turn at 2 cards or less. Marcus Batty has been considered, but I dislike having to win a psi game to kill someone.

I do like the Melange, it helped solve a bunch of money problems. And you really really want to go to 44 cards. :)

10 Jul 2015 wedgeex

If you're already in HB there's argument for running Interns over Archived Memories. If you're comboing Interns off of Accelerated Diagnostics then, sure, but for your uses Archived Memories is much more versatile (and flavorful!)

I guess there's the argument that it can save credits installing the outermost ice on a Valley Grid server with Interns... I still think having the ability to pull back a Successful Demonstration/Hedge Fund in a pinch makes it the clear winner.

10 Jul 2015 Satellite Uplink

@wedgeex I hadn't really considered Archived Memories, but I think somewhere in there you might have actually captured why it's not as good as Interns for this deck.

Firstly, I'm moving the SuccDem's into Melange so it's a couple fewer targets, but it's definitely true that one of the key reasons for playing Interns was reducing the install cost on your critical 4th/5th layers of Ice if you couldn't ABT them into place. I also expect to face ice destruction as one of the biggest threats to setting up that many layers, so having Interns wrap up both Ice recursion/install AND economy in one card means it would outperform Archived Memories where I would have to choose one of those two modes.

Memories is sliiightly more flexible outside of the core purpose for that cardslot, but in core functionality I think Interns is better.

14 Jul 2015 cortexjackal

OMG Markus with gold... wow. Good call.

15 Jul 2015 gotsanity

I am looking at this and like the idea. Do you think wormhole would be interesting in the deck for firing off the architects to force a batty install? i love the idea of wormhole and batty to not only install him but fire off a sub from any server.