A Ramp to Mars

Saan 3116

This is one of three different Jemison builds I've been messing around with, and the one that I ultimately decided to bring to our final SC here in Portland. I didn't have any illusions about it being really good or anything, I just wanted to have fun with a new style of Weyland. The games that I lost I lost due to really, really bad hands to start with, and playing real 3-pointers makes terrible hands extra bad. However, I don't see that as a sign of the deck being bad, just that I need to be more considerate of when to mull with this deck. The games where I won I won fairly convincingly.

I think the most important decision in making a Jemison deck is what agenda composition you are going to use and how you plan on ramping your agendas. The obvious play is that you can turn a 1-pointer into a 3-ponter with an unrezzed Oberth (click one, install agenda on Oberth, rezzing Oberth, saccing 1-pointer, proccing Jamison to put 2 advancements on agenda, advancing click 2, using Oberth to place an additional one, advance click 3 and score). This means that I need 1-pointers and 3-pointers. Turning a 1-pointer into an Atlas with 2 counters also feels amazing, so playing Atlas makes sense (as it does in almost all decks, though), and is also nice since once I have a rezzed Oberth I can FA the Atlas's as well. I also chose to run a couple False Leads, since they can be used to never-advance a 5/3 by saccing them after the second runner click if you don't have an Oberth in a server.

I kind of wanted at least 5 1-pointers to increase the chances of seeing them early, since they're my most important first agenda, and that dictated that I needed 3 of each of the rest of my agendas. I could have dropped a 3-pointer and a False Lead to run a couple 4/2s, but there's no real reasonable way to FA a 4/2. Weyland also doesn't have any 4/2s that are good if you can FA them; the only real reasonable 4/2 is Oaktown, and that one you really want to advance regularly to get it's benefit. It's still great for rushing, so is not a bad inclusion, but doesn't do much to advance the kind of "agenda curve" wer're aiming for. Geothermal also isn't terrible, but we're already taking bad-pub from Hostiles and you really don't want to go overboard with that shit. As for what 3-pointer to run, Global Food just sits there like a lump once you've advanced it, leaving you feeling poor and empty inside, and scoring a High-Risk investment from hand and never needing to worry about money again is a pretty sick feeling.

The FA tools I decided to include were the insanely obvious Oberth and the probably less used 24/7. As I said, you can turn a 1-pointer into a 3-pointer with an unrezzed Oberth. Once Oberth is rezzed, it's really only good for FAing 3/2s and 3/1s (and blasting off Hostiles in 2 clicks, which is still an increase in efficiency).

The basest level 24/7 play is that you can use it to turn a 1-pointer into an Atlas in 1 turn, but that doesn't really do that much other than gain 1 point (which can be enough, if that's all you need, mind you). More fun uses are to use it and a rezzed Oberth to turn a Hostile into an Atlas with a counter on it, since Atlas counters are godly. The other side of 24/7 requires you to fire off a When Scored of another agenda, and the best target for this by far is High-Risk investments, which you will almost certainly score at some point in scoring games (and several murder games). This makes Midseason's a terror. There was a game I played while testing the deck where I baited an opponent into stealing an agenda by using my High-Risk counter to match their money (I was only barely ahead after the counter use) and laying down a False Lead and advancing it once. They saw that I could no longer threaten their money with my High-Risk counter, made a bunch of money then ran the remote, stealing 1 point. I then used 24/7, saccing Atlas to get another counter on High Risk (using the Jemison counters to make Maus a hard-break ICE), got all their money again, and dropped a massive Midseason's on their face. It's really, really good. You can also 24/7 to get 7 bucks from Hostile in a pinch as well. It doesn't work on Atlas, though, and that makes me sad =(

As for the kill package, I really think that the only kill plan that is reliable enough for Weyland is Midseason's Boom!, and I also think that Weyland decks right now will probably pick up more wins by being on the kill than not, so I went for it. I usually end more games with a dead runner than by making it to 7 points, so I think the decision is correct to play it. I'm going for it pretty hard, with 5 slots total dedicated toward it (2x Boom!, 2x Consulting, 1x Midseasons). Really all you need are the Midseason's and one Boom!, but I like the added consistency. Getting Boom! RFG'd by Slums feels bad, so having another somewhere is nice, and knowing you can tutor it or Midseason's up with Consulting feels even better.

Friends is there to bring back Oberths and killed ICE, and strait up one me a game at the tournament because of that. Most of my ICE is chosen because either I can rush early behind it (Ice Wall, Enigma) or because it has a fairly high number of subs for it's rez cost. With so many decks relying on ICE destruction, Mid-strength, multi-sub ICE seems to be fairly decent right now, since if they can kill it it didn't cost a ton to rez in the first place, and if they can't it'll be taxing to either breakers or Faust. Sapper is the obvious exception to both of these, and it's in there basically as a sentry gear-check (since you can just walk through Veritas without actually needing a breaker) and a R&D trap (kills mediums; seems good).

Before the tournament I meant to change a Mausolus into a Quandary to help a little bit with the "too much chunky ICE early game" problem (everything costs 4!) and to add another ETR to help rush behind. Maus can be an ETR with advancements, but that's kill-yourself kinda slow, and insanely expensive, which is the opposite of the route you usually want to take.

22 comments
27 Feb 2017 CodeMarvelous

can you with an unrezzed oberth FA a 5/3 by sacking a 2/1?

27 Feb 2017 FightingWalloon

Install 5/3 Rez Oberth Sac 2/1 for 2 tokens Advance x2 Place token from Oberth

27 Feb 2017 percomis

Rumor Mill shuts down the Oberth, Employee Strike shuts down your ID and yet you play no currents. Are the Hostiles enough to keep those away?

27 Feb 2017 Saan

@CodeMarvelousYeah, what Walloon said is accurate. Click one, install 5/3 on Oberth (rez Oberth, saccing 2/1, using Jemison to place 2 counters on Oberth); Click 2 advance Oberth (since it's the first time the Advance action has been used, Oberth kindly gives you a second advancement here as well); Click 3 advance for your 5th counter.

@percomis I've had one game where a current gave me issues and I lost because of it, but I could have tutored with an Atlas counter to score a Hostile, I was just being greedy with it. Every other time I've been able to either clear with a Hostile (or just an agenda in my remote) or by simply killing the runner instead of worrying about "IDs" or "scoring," or other nice words.

27 Feb 2017 Benjen

question: if Rumor mill is out, can you rez Oberth without sacking an agenda?

27 Feb 2017 Oooer

@Benjen Yes, this interaction has already been confirmed by Ibrahim Salem.

27 Feb 2017 Saan

A lot of the power of Oberth is in when you rez it and the synergy of it combined with the ID, so I'm still not sure how often I'd rez it inside a Rumor Mill. That being said, I can envision fringe scenarios where it's definitely good to do so (3 points from winning and holding, or have access to through Atlas counters, a Hostile and an Atlas. Rez Oberth, then score Hostile, killing the Mill. Next turn, FA the Atlas. It requires a lot of things to go well, but it wins when they happen, I suppose).

2 Mar 2017 Shulmey

I've found Public Support to work well as extra 1 pointers.

4 Mar 2017 APZachariah

Just seeing five of each type of ICE makes me happy.

4 Mar 2017 JohnnyCache

Any advice for playing against a rich runner with Clot recursion?

4 Mar 2017 Saan

@JohnnyCache If you can, try and rush a High Risk Investments early. That turns their money advantage into a potential Midseason's threat. Other than that, you can always try and shove in a couple Cyberdex, but making room is a PITA. You'd probably have to remove a Consulting and a Boom, and that makes the kill threat much weaker. When I built the deck it was for a meta where I really didn't expect to see much Clot at all (and I didn't).

5 Mar 2017 Echo_Chaser

False lead can score a 4/2 from hand. You install the 4/2 click one (corporate sales team is probably the best one right now) then just advance, advance and sacrifice the false lead for the last two tokens.

Also you can install oberth on centrals and do the same thing but you can sacrifice any agenda. Which means you can score 5/3s with out having a dedicated scoring remote by sacrificing a 2 pointer.

That might seem counter productive, but consider that every agenda that you score or sacrifice is one less the runner can steal. One of Jemison Astronautics main advantages after rotation is going to be it's ability to lower it's over all agenda density though it's fast advance ability.

5 Mar 2017 postis

@Echo_Chaser Isn't false lead "if able"? So you can't forfeit it if the runner wouldn't lose exactly 2 clicks? The other methods you mention should work though.

5 Mar 2017 cash26

can you use 24/7 if you dont have an agenda in your score area with a "when scored" ability on it? so basically without a target?

5 Mar 2017 saracenus

Congrats! DLOW!

6 Mar 2017 HollowsHeart

@postinternetsyndrome You forfeit false lead regardless, the runner just only loses the clicks if able.

6 Mar 2017 postis

But you're not allowed to pay the cost to activate an effect that would be unresolvable and/or cause no change in the board state.

8 Mar 2017 GeneralCake

@postinternetsyndrome From ANCUR: 'If False Lead is forfeited and the Runner cannot lose 2 clicks, then he loses no clicks.'

10 Mar 2017 Toper

@GeneralCake @Echo_Chaser postinternetsyndrome is right. The latest FAQ explicitly says "False Lead cannot be forfeited unless the Runner can lose 2 clicks." But it's also implicit in the FAQ's broader rule "A player can only trigger an action or ability if its effect has the potential to change the game state. This potential is assessed without taking into account the consequences of paying play, install, or rez costs or triggering any further abilities."

17 Mar 2017 lunchmoney

re False Lead - which is it? Can it sac'ed in the Corp's turn or not?

17 Mar 2017 Toper

@lunchmoney Not. The ANCUR page is out of date.

22 Mar 2017 Saan

The ANCUR page has now been updated to the proper ruling: You can not sacrifice False Lead unless the runner has 2 unspent clicks.