Kelf's Garden Variations 1.0

Why 54?

good question, there isn't any museum...

In Kelf's original list, it's because his suite for a 49 card deck would look like 2x GFI, 3x Nisei and 3x Future Perfect at 21 agenda points. He reasoned that he could drop his agenda density further by turning a Nisei into another GFI and adding cards to make 54 cards - no more agendas, but more other stuff. In this list though, he's turned a GFI into 3x Dedicated Neural Net - which I'm not sure I'd reccomend, considering the ability doesn't stack. I think saracenus might be better going to a suite of 2x GFI, 2x Nisei, 3x Future Perfect and 1x Dedicated Neural Net and losing a few more cards.

In case you're wondering why Kelf doesn't need 3x Nisei given how good it is, I would guess it's because unlike RP who can expect to click tax a runner out of a server with their ID, Caprice and a Nisei token, Kelf is instead relying on his ID to make runs too taxing for runners to get in - kind of like a Haas-Bioroid: Stronger Together deck using a high density of cards with a particular weakness with your ID to turn their strengths into an oppressive force.

@moistloaf, @Zenit, and @RubbishyUsername updated the deck description and published my latest testing deck in the "Inspiration for" section. This is not a fully formed deck by any stretch of the imagination and will probably evolve into something fun like Kelf's original deck.

@Kelfecil thank you for a great deck to play around with! I hope eventually it turns into something you would be proud of.

Oh my, this makes me so happy! I am really glad you like my deck design and that you've decided to make your own iteration. I can make a few suggestions, but those are obviously just my opinion, so please do tell me how the rest of it fares for you.

• Agenda Suite: I have been playing with x3 GFI + x3 TFP + x2 Clone Retirement lately in a 49 card deck because it is just as annoying as the 54 card deck was and a bit more consistent when I need it. The meta has changed to the point where you need to be a bit faster, hence the change from 54 cards to 49. I can still justify playing 54 cards though if it is just as annoying to steal all the agendas and you have a bunch of good setup plans. I do however love that new agenda, even though it is not as easily scored as the Clone Retirement (which is literally a free point in 95% of my games thus far). The possibilities coming from it and the extra psi game are just awesome. Worst case scenario, if you do not have anything fancy in hand, it works as Paywall Implentation. You could drop one Nisei MKII, find one influence from somewhere, play another GFI and then switch to x2 Clone Retirement and x2 Dedicated Neural Net. Then you can also switch the last remaining Nisei MK II to Philotic Entanglement because it is way easier to score. (I kinda lost the math there I think, but you get my point regarding the strengths of all those agendas >.>)

• I have been playing x3 Upayoga by removing the Yaguras and x1 Lotus Field and I'll be damned it is even better than Snowflake. However, Chetana, I tried it and I really couldn't see it work. It is basically free money sometimes for the corp since they can break it with most things (due to its low strength). If they face check it, that is great, but noone smart enough will facecheck things anymore when playing against me. Komainu is just a solid choice in this deck because it counters a lot of cards. I can see the Upayoga -> Fire Chetana thing happening, but runners will be twice as careful about running when you have that, and sometimes you really want them to be running. Maybe do x2 Chetana instead of x3.

• The All-Seeing I is also a nice addition as well as the archived memories. However Archived Memories don't allow for the double scorch play since most runners would just remove the tag if they get sea sourced. Still a good choice though that balances out the plans of the deck to both be able to score even more effectively as well as burn people. Batty would also be awesome in this deck because of Archived Memories and as much as I did not like him in the past, it seems as if he is quite needed in the current meta because of all the councilmen and P.O.s.

• Never not play x3 Caprice Nisei. Don't be loco! :P It's one heck of an awesome card.

• x2 Swordsman in 54 cards is not bad, but still a dead card against non-faust decks. There is other ICE that works perfectly fine for both Faust and other breakers too (e.g. Komainu). Also, Excalibur is awesomesauce, don't neglect it!

I bet I have a lot more to say, but these are the first few things that come to my mind. Really curious to see how you do with it in casual or tournament play. Do not be afraid to make small changes before playing every time, such as switching from 2 copies to 3 copies and vice versa on some cards.

`@Kelfecil, first off thank you so much for the feedback! This was just a first effort at seeing how the new cards play. There is a vast difference from what I think a card can do in my head and what actually happens at the table. This version of the deck is so proto that looking back on it, it is amazing that I was able to nearly win the first game with it and pull out a win the second time.

I have published a more refined version of the deck, v1.2, see the Inspiration For link. It is still a 54 card deck but I will see what I can cut down to make a 49 card deck to see if it plays faster.

One thing I have noticed is when I score Dedicated Neural Net I get very few runs on HQ after that, they are just too scared of getting killed by multiple damage cards. I won a game with the latest iteration because they thought I still had a Snare! in my hand (I had cycled it back into R&D with JHow) and decided to chance a deep dig on R&D and between Hokusai Grid, Snare!, and Shock! which flatlined them.

I haven't missed the double Scorched Earth, it is more of a threat for floating tags because Scorch + Archived Memories will kill them dead. I also have seen a lot of decks packing Plascrete Carapace + Sports Hopper which makes even triple Scorch hard.

@saracenus oh that's cool, just saw the other iteration. Well my feedback would be much about the same with the other deck as well I suppose :)

If you are not going to go tag'n'bag with x2 Scorched then I guess the All-Seeing-I makes sense to play with Sea Source. Despite the amount of plascretes and sports hoppers I see, I do not think I will leave the 2nd Scorched Earth from my deck anytime soon. I've killed way too many people because of it to let go of it now. Remember that it is also a gear check, because they have to always fear a second one. If they see it in your hand, they will be extra careful. It's not always just about killing. And even if you can't kill sometimes, playing two of them is so punishing. I once punished a Maxx with a full hand and a plascrete. He thought he was fine with the plascrete, but killing that hand was just as punishing as a flatline would have been since he was then locked out.

But yeah, archived memories work great for Caprice Nisei and other upgrades. I might just give 'em a try in my latest iteration of the Meta Garden deck (it keeps changing name, I know ahahaha)

@Kelfecil By not going all in on Scorch I am giving my oponents a false comfort for now. They are being careful not to go tag me which saved my but against Nexus Kate/DLR deck that would have milled me to death otherwise). Once they are used to being safe from double scorch I can switch over to it to change things up. Then by the time tourney season comes around they will not know which version they are facing that day.
Besides, being able to reoccur my Upgrades, An Offer You Can't Refuse (if they do not let me score it,) Cerebral Cast, and The All-Seeing I is a nice benefit.