Making News: Keegan's Glacier

herod1204 394

Ever since data and destiny arrived, I have suspected that NBN is the faction to run program trashing out of. Keegan Lane, bad times fires off of tags, archangel, tracer program trashes such as assassin, and this is my current version of it. And yes, it run bad times. And yes, it can actually get it to stick and wipe rigs with a terrifying degree of ease. The deck itself runs very slowly as a glacier deck, an early melange behind something ETR will often set you up surprisingly quickly. Your aim is to trash the runners hardware and programs, ripping apart their rig to create scoring windows, forcing countless re-installs and generally pushing them onto the back foot. A scoring remote with two unrezzed keegan's and a data raven somewhere before an ETR, is pretty much impregnable.

Agendas: Lowest density possible, this deck aims to IAA all of its agendas. Global food lowers the density, Beale is there to make up the numbers, but the MVP is Restructured Datapool. Once scored, it basically reads: "click: the runner loses 4 credits", and it is always worth pumping your recurring credits onto it. If they take the tag, bad times them and hit their resources. A lot of runners will risk the tag if they are low on money but have plascretes or I've had worse floating around, and this neatly steps around most of the normally solutions. Whats that? The runner stole your Restructured Datapool and you haven't scored one? How tragic. Media blitz that bastard and get right back to clicking.

Assets: Only two Jacksons, as this is a slower deck. They should be used to throw Keegan's back into R&D, as you can normally make your centrals pretty taxing using a combination of your punchier ice. Melange is to make you the big bucks you really need to rez the bigger ice.

Ice: Wall of static and wraparound to play uncorrodable. Archangel performs a similar task and is suitably unpleasant. Tollbooth, archangel, assassin and ichi are your taxing ice. If they fire, that is fantastic, if not, then they are still very costly for the runner. Data Raven and Gutenberg will give you the tags to fire your Keegan's. Lab dog is there to smash clone chips and consoles, to better enable bad times. A smart criminal or anarch who has installed a plascrete will often trash anything other than that plascrete, scared of the scorch, which plays perfectly for you. Worse case scenario, they clonechip a parasite, and they've still spent the piece of hardware that you wanted rid of anyway.

Operations: Hedgefund and sweeps week don't require any explanation. Media blitz is to enable the tagging game with restructured data pool, whilst archived memories is for flexibility instead of a third jackson. Sometimes you just need Keegan back NOW, and that gives you the option to rather than risking R&D. I've wanted to use bad times ever since it first appeared, but never been able to get it to work. It's expensive, difficult to get right, and often will just get lobbed in the trash, but if it does fire? You can pretty much wipe an entire rig with this bugger, just don't expect to do that every game you play.

Upgrades: Keegan Lane to trash their programs. Pair him with data ravens or gutenbergs to knock key programs out of their rig. A favourite trash target of mine, is magnum opus. Between Keegan and Archangel, I think I managed to force an opponent to reinstall Magnum 4 times. But he needed the opus, to deal with ash. Ash helps protect again Val, protects against Kate, protects against everybody. He just does good work.

And that's that! A fun deck, that I've been having a very surprisingly amount of success with. Definitely needs work though, if R&D plays silly buggers it can get very poor very quickly, and siphon is a big problem for it. Any suggestions from glacier/foodcoats players with regard to the ice setup would be very welcome, as I very rarely use glacier decks.

6 comments
30 Jan 2016 esutter479

IMO, a Shattered Remains would be nice for flavor. :)

30 Jan 2016 shimya

Perhaps Little Engine instead of Archangel?

30 Jan 2016 herod1204

The lack of a trap does hurt this deck a bit, I have to rely on being able to stop them with Keegan, though a well placed melange or Jackson can bait it out, especially if they have seen a Beatle.

What is your reasoning behind that @lyn?

30 Jan 2016 shimya

Archangel can be convenient when used on something like Street peddler or Personal workshop, but it doesn't really do much against decks who have some sort of sustainable economy (i.e. MOpus) except slow them down for a click and a few credits.

Also, high link decks like Kate Nexus (Sunny etc.) are becoming somewhat popular.

I found that having Little Engine as the first Ice on a remote (behind something taxing like Tollboth/Assasin/Archer) is brutal.

Anarchs usually relly on AI breakers and Little Engine is super taxing for Faust to break. For eater not as much, but its enough to deny the access. Even if they pack Yog.0, it takes 4 datasucker counters to get through.

Criminals traditionally splash code gate breakers, but even if they don't, they usually have limited amount of them without the possibility of recursion. This is where Keegan really shines :)

Shapers are traditionally good at breaking code gates so it takes a bit more planning and positioning to make it worth it. As stated previously, placing Little engine behind another taxing ice (preferably of another type) is crucial. Even so, Gordian takes 2 to break it, Zu 6 and Study guide has to be pumped for 14 freaking credits before it reaches the necessary strength. Also, placed behind another taxing sentry/code gate it makes it taxing even for players packing stealth rig.

IMO :)

31 Jan 2016 RubbishyUsername

I would second the Little Engine move. I feel like this deck has trouble if the runner just plays out multiple copies of Faust before running, or Faust and other breakers, because you'd have to match them in Keegans. I don't know that Archangel is what to take out for it though: I think Tollbooth may be a better choice.

Also, have you considered a 1x Targeted Marketing for Siphons and upsetting players by naming breakers?

3 Feb 2016 herod1204

Those are some very strong points in favour of Little Engine, I have found archangel has absolutely no stopping power if they have absolutely nothing on the board! However, I've also found that it can cause utter chaos. It's difficult to break, the trace is still pretty high, even for a link heavy deck. I will give it a try with little engine though and see how it feels. It may do good work on centrals, but it would utterly negate the ash if put on a remote.

This deck does indeed struggle when that happens, however, that rarely does and they still have to deal with the ash at the bottom. Multiple Faust would definitely be a problem, but I'm already trashing out your recursion wherever possible (Gotta love Lab Dog. Does some seriously good things!), and Keegan tends to be a nasty surprise. Definitely not losing Tollbooth though, it's just too good. Horribly taxing, and if I've already broken your economy (this deck is scarily good at that), it's difficult even with Faust.

Targeted Marketing is a good shout actually. Boosts Ash, more money for rezzing credits. Would probably replace the pop-up windows. Problem is, it then directly competes with Media Blitz, which whilst I don't always need it, works too well for this deck to lose it.

I'll try with Little Engine though and report back.