Tech Wasteland (Gamescape North SC 3rd Place, 2nd in Swiss)

This is the latest iteration of my Geist build, and I think it’s my best yet! There’s lots of stuff going on, but you can make tons of money, you’ll have tons of triggers so you’ll never get bored, & it performs well in pretty much every matchup!

Card Choices:

1x Information Sifting instead of Legwork, strictly for the CI Matchup. It’d be nice to have both, but if you can only have 1, gotta tech against the current best Corp.

1x Inside Job / Spear Phishing – I just love these cards & they are SO helpful in the early game, or if you’ve already spent your Dean Lister and need to get in that server NOW

1x Levy – I’ve gone back and forth between 1 & 2, and rarely does that second Levy come into play. The first time through your deck you are setting up and maybe making high-impact runs. The second time through you’re trying to win the game. If you need to go through 3 times, you’re basically just surviving at that point.

1x Calder – my previous builds had a Feedback Filter, and this is basically the same but 1-less influence. Nice safety net for those PE/PU matchups when you’re blowing through your deck

1x Corporate Defector – this was a late add, and it was crucial in winning me a few games. It’s awesome that it’s a Connection (can throw it on the Off-Campus or get $ from Calling in Favors), and man your opponents really think it’s annoying, which is awesome. Synergizes well with Spy Camera too. Information is power!

2x Wasteland – this allows you to make up to 5 credits per trash, which is pretty ridiculous. Save that Spy Camera or Street Peddler and pop it on their turn, then install and do it again on your turn. I wish it was a Connection but I can’t really complain. Much better use of the influence than that second Levy.

Matchups:

Cerebral Imaging – adding the info sifting (and having 2 Same Old Things) is a great start… Turtle / Dean for those mythic ice suites. You can usually keep up with money as long as you don’t get hit with a first turn Scarcity, and you’re pretty immune to Brain Rewiring because of your insane card draw.

Controlling the Message – you have great link & money, and the option to make pretty much all of your runs high-impact with Spy Camera. You can use Forger to avoid a Data Raven tag, or On the Lam to basically be HHN-proof.

Jinteki Net Damage decks – the Caldera does work, and your draw usually makes stealing Obakatas pretty straight forward. If you need to yolo a Miraju, you can either use a bypass event or trash the Abagnale if you’re on game point and Spy Camera’d that last agenda.

AgInfusion – this one can be tricky, but the Pol Op is a key tech card against IT Department or Blacklist. Make sure to get that out as soon as possible here.

Builder of Nations – there’s a bunch of this in my meta & it’s actually a weird matchup… You don’t have much Meat protection save the rogue On the Lam, but you’re still really hard to kill. You need to do the same gameplan of just making high impact runs with Spy Camera, and make sure to never rely on turtle when running into a triple-advanced piece of ice in case it’s Hortum.

Skorpios – this is a tough one as well, you need to make sure you keep your Fall Guys out to prevent trashing of key resources with Best Defense. Be careful with your Street Peddlers and obviously be wary of Hunter Seeker since your breaker suite is so fragile. This is another matchup where your Inside Job & Spear Phishing become pretty impactful.

Gagarin / asset spam decks – you’re relying on your draw + money to be able to trash key stuff. I took out some cards that helped here, but you still have your usual tricks, so it’s best to go faster in this matchup.