Truman Show (1st Swiss, 7th Cut)

solendor 71

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Good morning, and in case I don't see ya: Good afternoon, good evening, and good night!

This deck went 4-0 in a 25 player Store Championship, 15-0 combined (likely more, I haven't lost with this deck in nearly 3 weeks of testing and lost count of games played). I did not have a chance to play it in the cut (made a choice based on my opponent and paid for it)

For the runner, this deck provides nothing but bad choices. If it's not the 24/7 News Cycle that gets you, we are going run a Midseason Replacement to ensure that you are always the star here at Haarpsichord Studios.

Choices

Agenda Suite - Pretty standard choices here. Breaking News to 24/7, Explode-a-palooza for money, Profiteering to ensure the credit lead, Project Beale for Psychographics, Quatum Predictive Model for free points (sitting behind a Data Raven is just good times). 15 Minutes for another 2/1.

You may be asking why no News Teams - I dropped them in favor of bringing Psychographics and Midseason Replacements up to 3x to ensure I have some way to beat the runner.

ICE choices are pretty standard for a kill deck - force the burn through D4v1d counters with high strength ICE, aim for a tag, gain a little money.

2x Fast Track to get that PsychoBeale out to finish the game when you start getting in a pickle.

Round Recap:

1st - Apex: Runner had heartbeat installed fairly early, then installed a Plascrete Carapace. I abandoned the kill, opting to score when I could and landing a Midseason/Psychographics win after he snagged an agenda.

2nd - Valencia: This was an intense game. Double #Film Critic makes this deck extremely sad. We are tied at 2-2, with 2 1 pointers on Film Critic. I install two agendas, he runs the QPM and is forced to steal it leaving Beale on the table. I midseason for 11 tags, and credit up. Psychographics the Beale for 5 points.

3rd - Ken: This was the most intense match of the tournament. I am flooded, out of Jacksons and losing 5-2. I top deck the 24/7 and land the kill before he can find 2 more points. My deck is about bad choices, but this deck left me no good choices.

4th - Professor: Undefeated Professor deck, opponent I play frequently. Pretty uneventful game, I land a Midseason with enough tags to Fast Track and Psychographics out. I also happen to have 2x Scorched and 1x Traffic. Runner hits my Psychographics and Imps it, leaving me to burn through a plascrete carapace and 5 cards.

12 comments
21 Feb 2016 Redi Spades

How did you test the deck? Just local meta or did you get some online play in too?

21 Feb 2016 Fortunasown

Have you played any film critic decks? The list seems very strong, but I could see a careful runner with film critic and some scorch protection backing it into a very bad corner.

21 Feb 2016 kollapse

And the reasoning behind not including Astro is...?

21 Feb 2016 Saan

Influence.

21 Feb 2016 Fortunasown

Dropping two quantum for a single Astro might be a decent swap. Though with this build you actually like the higher density of low point agendas.

21 Feb 2016 solendor

@Redi Spades: I've tested both online an in the local meta over the past three weeks.

@Fortunasown: I have played against Film Critic decks. You are right, it does put the pressure on. Here's the thing, you often see so many agendas that a multi-access run will often foil the plan. It's a tough matchup without a doubt. If you have to, you can 24/7 to kill the Critic - not ideal but realistically it's something you may have to do.

@kollapse: Influence is the main reasoning. I want to see my kill tech early so I can combo off the 24/7 . I have no way to really protect an installed agenda, so I am going to run agendas that advance my plan rather than Astro for the sake of running it.

@Fortunasown: You really really want the Quantum Predictive Model - It is secure for the most part behind Data Raven or dumped once the runner is tagged. It's essentially free points unless they find them early, which then can trigger Midseason Replacements

21 Feb 2016 TonyStellato

As someone who plays Haarp pretty much non stop and has now placed top cut for 2 SCs with Haarp, I really don't understand pop up window. Do you mind explaining why include 2?Pop Up may be amazing in traditional FA, but it will NEVER make you more than a dollar a turn with Haarps ability, and it'll just be parasited in the current meta.

21 Feb 2016 solendor

@TonyStellato- I am just stuck on Pop-up Window. It's not a great choice, and I've toyed with the idea of Archangel and Little Engine but I didn't get sufficient enough testing here. It did assist several times in providing credits enough to score though

22 Feb 2016 AsteriskCGY

Special Order sounds like what you need.

23 Feb 2016 solendor

@AsteriskCGYThat is probably very very true. I didn't think of that >.<

29 Feb 2016 Fricassee

Played this deck (+1 Traffic Accident, -1 Psycho) and won an SC. This thing is really good against Noise.

1 Mar 2016 solendor

@FricasseeI am happy it did well for you! Noise was always my biggest concern, I am glad it stomped him into the ground!