The Modern Prometheus V.1.2

Seamus 4812

“Nothing contributes so much to tranquillize the mind as a steady purpose- a point on which the soul can focus its intellectual eye”

This is the updated version of the deck that I've come up with in a week of furious testing.

"Be steady to your purposes and firm as a rock. This ice is not made of such stuff as your hearts may be; it is mutable and cannot withstand you if you say that it shall not."

The directives remain at the heart of the deck. Unfortunately for Adam, the number of in-faction cards has dropped again. Multithreader is the main casualty of this revision.

This card is probably perceived as the strongest of Adam's compliment. Having played with it I feel confident to say it didn't pull its weight in this deck and would hazard to say that I think it is better compared to Cyberfeeder than it is to recurring stealth credit cards. Cyberfeeder, while certainly a useful card, doesn't see play these days, even in Noise. I think with time, the enthusiasm for Multithreader may subside. The three credits to install is a steep price and, particularly with the deck focused on early aggression, rarely seemed worth it.

I intend to test a more Overmind-reliant deck too where Multithreader is likely to be more useful.

Further to this, the breaker suite has been modified to fully embrace the core anarch set. The influence saved on Yog.0 over Zu.13 goes to bringing the Datasucker count up to three and all this is supported by the inclusion of Net-Ready Eyes. The Special Order is gone as I found I was rarely using it with the amount of draw the deck generates. In an ideal world it'd probably stay but influence remains very tight.

I've found this revision to the deck's programs ups the speed and aggression and Always Be Running and E3 Feedback Implants remains a solid way to apply early pressure and deal with larger multi-sub ICE in the mid and late game.

Since these changes make the deck less credit-reliant in its breaking the Stimhack has been replaced by a Scrubber but this slot could just as easily be a Femme depending on your meta.

“The companions of our childhood always possess a certain power over our minds which hardly any later friend can obtain.”

The other change is the replacement of Armitage Codebusting with Data Folding. This seems to be a solid choice.

While Data Folding has a higher install cost which seems antithetical to the deck's purpose, Career Fair is there to ease the cost when the opportunity arises and Armitage was too click intensive. Between having to spend the first click each turn running and often wanting to use two subsequent clicks to break with Always Be Running, I found myself struggling to find the time for it.

The single-click nature of Data Folding leaves more clicks to apply pressure with and the MU to keep it firing is rarely an issue. Drip econ works quite nicely with the nature of Adam's early aggression as you don't need to immediately install breakers and often don't want to be floating large credit stores to be wasted on expensive assets trashed by Neutralize All Threats.

“When falsehood can look so like the truth, who can assure themselves of certain happiness?”

The problem I and the deck now face is the fact that there are only six Adam-specific cards in the deck. Three of these - Dr. Lovegood - serve only to manage his in-built ability in the form of the directives.

The question is - are the powers of the directives enough to make playing Adam worth playing. My answer, perhaps unsurprisingly, is very much yes. It is a unique experience that constantly taxes the creativity of your play and constantly presents the corporation with questions they can rarely fully answer.

What I would say is that I really hope we see some more support for Adam shortly after Mumbad or at least some neutral or low-influence cards that can support this style of him that I'm enjoying playing so much!

11 comments
7 Nov 2015 podoboyz99

Love this a lot more than the last version. It seems a lot more consistant. One thing that stumps me is the Net Ready Eyes. You are already super weak agianst kill decks, bore net and meat, so killing 2 cards from your hand seems bad, even with Public Sympathy. It seems like you could play really aggressive early to try to make Brain Chip active and take some Sumpathy out. My suggestion is -2 Sympathy, +2 Plascrete. What are your thoughts?

8 Nov 2015 Seamus

Hi! This version is definitely testing stronger than the previous.

Net-Ready Eyes means that you're not forced to use ABR to get through Lotus Fields for the entire game and will be very welcome if more people realise how ridiculous News Hound in New Angeles Sol is. It's wonderful support for the fixed strength breakers.

The damage inflicted is pretty trivial and it's unlikely you'll need to install it before Lovegood so if you're worried about dropping below eight cards just blank Always Be Running and draw back up.

The weakness to damage is actually pretty limited as long as you start building your hand size. I've found PE matches particularly good because of the free draw.

Weyland too has been fine. I haven't come up against many NBN kill decks so might put a plascrete back in if expecting a lot of those. However, I absolutely wouldn't drop Public Sympathy for it. You want six cards in the deck to increase hand size to get that steady free draw going as soon as possible. It really is vital and in games where you don't see it early it's tough.

Additionally, since you can very quickly get your hand out of double Scorch range, Plascrete felt like a dead draw in so many games that it got cut.

If you play the deck and feel you need a Plascrete I'd suggest dropping a Data Folding for it.

8 Nov 2015 Widied

Agreed. Like this a lot more except net ready eyes. I like the zu and special order include but keep everything the same. 2 chances to find your answer to lotus field vs 1 with net ready eyes.

8 Nov 2015 Widied

Love the deck. Testing with changes : -1 Data sucker, -1 yog, -1 net ready eyes, -2 public sympathy, -2 r and d int, +1 zu, +2 brain cage, +2 the makers eye, +1 special order, +1 plascrete

8 Nov 2015 Widied

Oh and +1 special order if I didn't say

8 Nov 2015 Seamus

ABR and Overmind are also solutions to Lotus Field so only having a single Net-Ready Eyes hasn't been a problem.

Zu.13 is just so much worse than Yog.0 90% of the time. I'd recommend trying these breakers.

8 Nov 2015 AsteriskCGY

I can see the need to cut Multithreader. At this point you are using only half of the breaker's cash requirements. It makes more sense with breakers that need cash rather than Datasucker reliance. And having duplicates in a deck with no recursion is key too.

9 Nov 2015 bubbathegoat

One card that I like with Adam that I haven't seen mentioned under either decklist is DaVinci. At its most basic, DaVinci acts like a drip econ card with Always Be Running pushing you to make runs. But I think a more powerful option to consider is using DaVinci to install from your hand mid-run to catch the corp off guard, either with a breaker or e3 Feedback Implants, which you can draw up at the end of your turn with Safety First and play mid-run on click 1 on a forced run.

Or you can install any of the other 36 cards in your deck that are valid targets. The 2 influence are a problem, but I leave it up to you if you can find the room.

9 Nov 2015 Seamus

Hi.

I agree DaVinci would be really nice but I think rather than try to squeeze it into this build, a more run-exploiting shell would be required.

I have played a few games with Security Testing and John Masanori but found it a bit lacking. I'll definitely try and get round to putting something with DaVinci together. It's a very cool card.

10 Nov 2015 AsteriskCGY

So I decided to make a few modifications to justify Multithreader. -2 Yog, -Net Ready Eyes - 1 Datasucker -1 Career fair +2 Gordians +2 Multithreader +1 Armitage Codebusting. I am now mixed about swapping out the e3 for Special Orders because man it helps with Bioroid Ice. Eli is still a thing, and extending ABR for multisub ice easily makes it a 4th breaker. But relying on draw when they double up on heavy sub ice to find the right breaker has cost me a game or two. Multithreader has been able to see use as often as Datasucker, but this loadout does swing towards rig building which isn't a default for Adam. Considering with only Kati as any source of large income and feeling like clicking for a credit and letting the SF draw is still slow.

21 Nov 2015 novinchaos

I've been playtesting my own version of this with Order of Sol! You guys have to try testing it with one. Here's my list:

  • -1 Datasucker, -1 Earthrise Hotel, -1 Net-Ready Eyes
  • +2 Order of Sol, +1 Scrubber

One of the funniest things I did with Order of Sol was run into an Orion with 2 clicks, e3, and a credit. Clicked twice, paid a credit, Sol funded me a new credit, then paid again.