It was Friday before the first Megacity of the season, I was enjoying a nice lunch while pondering the precarious state of corps at the moment. My latest experiment, ZATO ob, was getting soundly crushed by crim pressure and constantly too poor. Something needed to change, so i glanced through all the installables available by their install cost. And though this search often ends up with nothing, this time a big thing stood out: Mitra Aman.
A card i mocked on release for being just a Beanstalk Royalties becomes a lot more interesting when you can play it from your deck for free. How convenient that Ob does that. And even more convenient that brand new rashida replacement trashes itself for a 0 coster. +6 credits is a very big swing, even if you dont have an event to play humaniod is always a great bit of value.
More on the utility aspects of Mitra later on, but dont overindex on them, the most important part of the card is the credits, dont be afraid to trash him for just money without swapping.
this deck needs money fast, these are the best ways to get it
ZATO has two modes, both of which are very good. Primarily, against non-shapers, you can rigshoot their breakers forcefully, locking down the remote long term. Bumi 1.0 is here as a 4th killer with the trash text, but you can also experiment with Ballista or Sorocaban Blade depending on what influence you want for other stuff.
Second, but just as important, is that it acts as an improved Anoetic Void, letting you completely safeguard a remote for a turn if you have 3 etr ice and can ob for a 4th. (this is why we have so much 2 cost ice, and the treeline). If you can add an Envelopment at the top of the server, you can also force great amounts of money from the runner while they try to force the ice down (assuming you got treeline in the deck to replace it after the first break)
Notably, Zato is extra good if people are skipping out on their Pinholes, which was certainly the case this weekend.
It is very free in this shell, the only core points are:
the rest is very up in the air. Spin is a good extra 3 dots, but if you got ambitions for the spare inf you really dont need them all.
my choices this time: Bumi 1.0: is pretty alright when all the anarchs are on a couple Botulus, and as a bonus you get insurance against Arissana. But there are enough other good ice that its not at all mandatory. One cute replacement could be Trebuchet+Logjam as a chain.
Hafrún: lets you in theory extend the rigshooting plan to centrals. In practice, Bankhar makes that pretty akward, so I did not fire a single stavrun in the tournament. But hafrun does also have extra utility as a very embarrasing Border Control
Cut finals vs Hosh (rematch of cut game 2)