Tournament Winning Decklist: Entropy v1.3

• Tournament Location: Epic Loot Games and Comics, Dayton, Ohio

• Attendance: 12, 4 rounds Swiss

• Final Score: 7-1, for a total of 14 prestige (1 Corp loss, Runner side undefeated)

There are only a small number of similarities between this version and Entropy v1.2, which is the runner deck I have been playing in tournaments for a month or two (placing second once until this win). So I will start by copy/pasting the write-up of Entropy v1.2:

Welcome to Noise. Run R&D first turn, if they let you in, take a peak. If it's something you don't want to have, play a virus to trash it. Preferably Imp, because then you can run back in and trash the second card. So on and so forth. If you trash agendas early they will just get Jackson'ed back unless you run and steal them, which can be fine. You are still playing viruses you need, and the agenda density is going up in R&D, and you have Medium and Demo Run. If you can break your way to R&D, you should make sure you can KEEP breaking your way to R&D. Still debating on whether to cut a Clone Chip for Hades Shard... currently through good piloting I can make precise archives runs and work around Jacksons by forcing them to be used while still building towards an R&D critical mass.

In the vein of Street Chess, this deck cycles Cache for money. Cache gives you 4 credits if you have a Grimoire out, and when your turn begins, 3 more. This means with Aesops and Grimoire out (which are NOT combo cards, since the entire deck depends on them/utilizes them) you are getting 6 credits for 1 click, and you only need 1 credit to punch the card and get the payoff. If you go through 2 early, Deja Vu them back (if necessary)

D4V1D immediately appeared to me to fit a Noise deck perfectly, because the only code gates that matter are easily parasite-able, or are Viktor 2.0/Tollbooth/Lotus Field. D4V1D allows you to break a surprise Tollbooth for 3 credits, and will let you straight up walk through an Archer in a pinch at the cost of letting the 2-Credit subroutine fire. Breaks Grim, Viktor 2.0, etc. Anything below 5 Str can be Parasite food that your Datasuckers will assist you with.

Djinn ensures you get the viruses you need (trying to control variance by using it to get your first Cache is fine if you have the Aesops). This Noise deck actually runs quite often, and is built around punching through servers when needed, harrassing constantly, and dropping viruses when locked out in order to maintain disruption and pressure while building toward a board state that CAN punch through. This deck does not draw very often, every card is potent and helps you get something done. In this way I was able to avoid having to splash for draw or including Wyldside. The clickless economy assists with heavy pressure, since you have a full 4 clicks left to make runs and install programs and viruses.

Updates:

• Dropped 2 Knight, cut 1 Mimic, in favor of a single Crypsis, which helped to open space for Wyldsides. Knight was my original answer to Lotus Field, the bane of Noise's existence, but after the addition of 2 Djinn (I'll cover this in a second), a single Crypsis in case of Lotus Field is a tutor-able answer that frees up deckspace and becomes more reliable.

• Dropped 3 Queen's Gambit. This card is simply too 'all-in'. As my skill with Noise Cache increases I realize that I really don't NEED to spend 2 clicks gaining 6 credits, because I already gain 7 in 1 click with Cache. So I streamlined the deck to accomodate getting Cache, and other viruses, out faster. Less downtime, less 'cute' stuff.

• Added 2 Infiltration. RP is abundant in our meta, and in particular, one of our core players plays an incredible shell game PE using Mushin No Shin, which he is nearly undefeated playing, and I was concerned about leaving Ronins on the table. Another player, who I ended up facing in the final round to decide who would take 1st and 2nd, ran a tagstorm NEH deck with Snares and Dedicated Response Teams (and Manhunt), so it seemed like a good decision.

• Surge, while a controversial choice, is still making plays. Against NEH you can Clone Chip a Parasite onto the single Eli guarding R&D as their turn ends, gaining a virus counter immediately with Grimoire, then another virus counter as your turn begins. Click 1, Surge the Parasite; basically a 1-click instakill of the best central ice in the game. You have 3 clicks to hammer R&D with Medium and Demo Run now, or Imp, or even use Parasite with accumulated Datasucker tokens so as to save the Surge for Medium. Surge makes plays.

• Wyldside made a huge different at getting me the cards I needed. I need viruses, I need Aesops. 3 Aesop's fits the bill, you want to take an opening hand with this and mulligan if you don't get one. 2 Wyldside was the right choice, this is a card I don't want to see until mid-game when I've set up my rig and started to cycle Caches and Parasites. Don't leave Wyldside on too long. You need 4 clicks! You don't want to turn into a mill machine. You want to exploit EVERY hole in Corp defenses, faster than they can plug them. No holes? Make them. Face check, Parasite, repeat, repeat. Afraid to face check? Djinn for a Crypsis (if you must) if it makes you feel safe. They'll rez the ice knowing how taxing Crypsis is to the runner; little do they know, you won't be using that Crypsis. You'll be destroying the ice while getting mills.

Strive to mill at least 1 thing each turn, Aesop's one thing every turn to keep your econ up, and make at LEAST 1 run a turn. Be aggressive, make them have to ice up. This works to your advantage, because your mills are trashing ice as well. Check archives often. Did you just play 3 viruses for your first 3 clicks? Check archives last click. Get Datasucker tokens, find out what you milled, count their splash, track what ice they're using, look at the cost of the ice. Are you milling a lot of cheap ice? Then if the deck is well-built, due to their ice cost curve, they'll have primarily expensive ice leftover, Heimdall, Tollbooth, Hadrian's, etc. These clues can let you decide what you need to pitch when you inevitably overdraw with Wyldside looking for something and have to trash a card. Lots of high strength ice in archives? Pitching a D4v1D is a safe bet. You can always Clone Chip it.

Clone chips are best saved for power plays, or to recurr lost breakers. Power plays being, parasite your way to an open R&D in a single turn, and after access, Clone Chip an Imp (mill the top card), run back in (seeing 3 cards instead of 2 with Medium), Imp trash the top card, run back in (seeing 4, 3 of them new cards), and so on, That's a 5 card dig to give you plenty of Aesop's fodder and force them to ice up. You know what they're drawing the next 3 cards for, is it ice? Watch where/what they install. Now you know how many Datasucker tokens you'll need. Did they purge? Aesops the imp, run R&D, surge, Demo Run R&D, run R&D. That's a 9-card dig. Noise. Makes. Plays.

Enjoy the deck, it's not terribly diverse compared to other Noise Cache decks out there, and honestly this deck just takes a bit of practice to pilot. When I first started I just wanted to smash a bunch of viruses on the table and run Archives every so often, but this deck plays so much more beautifully when you approach it with finesse. You build to a point that something will happen somewhere, and you let the corp make a move. Then you go turbo-A.D.D. on a single server in a single turn and just can NOT be stopped. In between, keep their assets in check, mill often enough that they need to keep Jackson on the table or need to ice archives. Jackson does not counter Noise, Noise counters Jackson. Top tier decks are built around counting on those Jacksons now to dig for the Astro and get the chain started, or to save the Astro from archives after you mill it. That Jackson becomes reactionary against Noise, and that control is what you want. You want them to cringe every time they draw and it's an operation instead of a piece of ice or an agenda, because that means on your turn, the chance of nailing an ice/agenda card goes up!

Don't think like a shaper. Don't think like a criminal. Practice this deck, and even if you lose, go for the power plays. The power plays will be your "light bulb" moment, where you understand what the deck is capable of. After seeing that in action, just work backwards to early game to find how to efficiently get to that point while still maintaining pressure. Good luck, and enjoy the deck!