[TWA] HB Department Control v2.0, Regionals Finalist

Congrats!

I've been playing this deck a lot and loving it. I've been wondering how you'd deal with Valencia- got destroyed by her in a recent tournament thanks to all three blackmails being in her top 20 cards. Boot camp would've been awesome in that matchup and I see how it's a generally good answer. Previously you'd indicated that responding to Valencia would weaken the deck. Presumably something changed your mind?

Will immediately try out your modifications. Thanks for posting!

Thanks! The videos will be up at some point. Regarding the Boot Camp thing it was a combination of firstly getting crushed by Valencia a couple times in GNKs (meaning that I wanted SOME way to interact and boot camp is a very low-cost way) - the other was the realisation after testing against the common Shaper decks (specifically Contacts-fuelled slow Kate and PPVP Kate) that you really needed IT Department to win those matchups - those decks were otherwise just too efficient at breaking into servers and you got outpaced. Thus, it was essential to be able to get the Department going early and (especially against the PPVP lists) there really wasn't that much time to do it - you would often only have a 1 turn window where they can't get in to your ITD server, or need to use multiple ITDs to establish one on the second turn (5 counters). Thus I wanted more ways to access ITD in those matchups, and the third thing was that I realised Boot Camp could act as a (though severely worse) Mental Health Clinic, leading me to realise that the switches I made (-1 clinc -1 green level +2 boot camp) wouldn't change the economy of the deck too much (it would weaken the economy a little bit but it would be made up for by the increased chance to find ITD which I found essential in some matchups, as well as incidentally giving you more Jacksons against combo Noise decks) - therefore I decided the change would incidentally help the Valencia matchup a LOT (since once you rez the first ice a lot of the time if it's early they won't be able to get in to trash the boot camp, since they basically need blackmail + a cutlery/eater or sucker/parasite already set up) and made it.

Awesome modifications. Just took down a 12 person GNK tournament with this list including beating the Valencia that gave me so much trouble in league. My one loss on the day came on game point (4 points each, a priority IAA'd) when I thought R&D was safe. Quetzal SOT'd a Tinkering to get through the tollbooth on R&D (First game I'd encountered Tinkering in Quetzel and I didn't think it through). That left only architect for IT to boost and the player had enough medium tokens to access all ~6 cards left in R&D, pulling their winning agenda off the very bottom of the deck, just out of Architect range. Ugh. Well played by the opponent but should've cleared viruses instead of IAAing. I also didn't use a Jackson on the table that could've diluted R&D. So, definitely my fault, not the deck's.

Anyways, despite mis-playing the deck at times, I'm really liking it. I might take it to our regionals in a month or two if I feel I can get as comfortable playing it as I am playing RP. Starting to learn when and against which runners to build IT versus securing the win HB glacier style. I think 2 or 3 of my wins were without IT at all (though even in those most runners accessed and trashed the card out of centrals, putting me ahead econ wise). I only had one game where things became un-runnable. In all the others IT became a massive problem for the runner and by trashing it they created a scoring window and a convenient open server.

Boot camp was an all-star during the tournament: discounted rezzing and poofing into whatever I need on command. I popped it for copies off all five assets at different games during the tournament. Against valencia I used it to rez protective ice and when she broke in to trash it (at great cost, using Crypsis) I poofed it into the second copy instead :) Great, flexible card in this deck.

One note: With all the restructures I'm often finding myself not rezzing ICE during turns 2-3 so I can pop over 10 creds and Restructure. I'll give away some accesses like this but a turn 4 or 5 score can put this deck in a great position to secure centrals and build the win from there, especially against runners that take longer to set up. Do you find yourself doing the same or taking the rez hit and using ETF to build back up quickly?

Thanks again for publishing the update and best of luck for continued success with the decklist!

No worries, I appreciate your feedback as usual. Boot Camping for a Boot Camp is not something I've done yet but I imagine it's backbreaking for Valencia decks relying on Blackmail and actually trying to get into your servers. Regarding your second question, assuming Restructure is your only economy operation in hand, I usually prefer to install (on HQ if I think they may have siphon or R&D if I'm CERTAIN they don't have siphon and instead might have the maker's eye) > gain gain (up to 8) on t1 then don't rez if they just regularly run, install on R&D, gain, restructure on turn 2 - this puts you in the best position because having to click for credits as the game goes on just to turn on your restructure is really bad because it means you can't efficiently build your servers (since you need to get up to 10 ASAP and so can't install unless it's in a new server which it probably isn't by that point) or mobilise your ICE to actually protect you. So yeah, I usually try to play restructure ASAP if it's in my opening hand - I'll make that opening as long as I have fewer than 2 non-NAPD agendas, stopping potential bleeds of points early is not as good as trying to build your board ASAP especially when you only have 5 agendas that are actually free for the runner to steal (although having one stolen early really does sting).

@chaosjugglerwhat say ye about Quicksand? Seems like a reasonable replacements for the Wall of Statics. Parasite-able but its a barrier that punishes facechecks. In front of a charged IT could be really deadly or at least resistant to counter burning.

Testing tonight.

Quicksand: not so good (would be 2x better if it cost only 2). They just aren't running through it enough.

But Turing: pretty dern good. I'm running 3x for testing for -1 each enigma datapike bastion. Seems likely I'll be running 2x, mayme 3 in the ANRPC qual on Sat. Spending clicks to get thru is a bummer but stacked on remotes it becomes a huge problem for the runner. Great 1 deep for protecting econ.

Net ready eyes means lots of Yog at strength 4 and Turing is the perfect natural tax on D4v1d. Plus it's the perfect against my own Spinal Tap MaxX. We'll see if anyone runs it against me.

Yeah (we talked about Quicksand in the most recent ep) it doesn't really compare favourably to Wall of Static - in addition to the Parasite weakness they just need to run through it more times than ever actually happens for it to be useful. When Turing was released I replaced the 1 Ichi with a Turing (while program destruction is useful it's not so useful when green decks are as common as they are now and I was sick of getting Sharpshootered when I tried to boost it with ITD) and I'm thinking of replacing an Enigma with a Turing also (up to 2x Turing) - I don't really recommend cutting Bastion or Datapike, I feel like they are the best ice you can play and Static and Enigma are extra copies of them.

Just won Canberra Regionals, this list -1 Turing +1 Ichi 1.0 (since I was sick of getting Sharpshootered and want to fit a Turing but don't really want to increase the cost curve since it's in a good place, and don't want to draw two Turings since it's pretty mediocre if you need it to protect a central) -1 Utopia Fragment +1 Hades Fragment (since decks where scoring early is good, notably slower Anarchs, combo Noises, and sometimes slower Contacts shapers don't pressure your remotes, usually trying to win through R&D multiaccess, so Utopia Fragment is basically useless, and those games often go very long and decking can be an issue). Check it out!

Congrats on the win!!

First, congrats on the win! I'm a big fan of TWA.

One thing I haven't seen you discuss yet is ice placement. Do you generally ice Adonis / MHC with something annoying/gearchecky like Datapike/Bastion, or do you get spicy and put Architect in front?

I really want to play this at US Nationals but I don't know if this deck has a good chance against Noise lists that play D4v1d. Thoughts?

`@Ajar ICE placement usually mostly works itself out since you're usually tied up by which servers you need to protect, and in what fashion, and so you mostly have to place your ICE as you draw it - all the usual rules apply like to try to multi-stack Elis, put Turings on remotes, put multiple different types on HQ and keep one face-down to counter Siphon, etc. With regards to Adonis/MHC I usually don't put Architect in front early since I'd much prefer to fire Architect when there's something in Archives to recur, so I prefer to put it on a central, but of course it depends on the Runner really.

`@LSK I haven't found Noises (talking about the regular list but solitaire as well I guess) that hard assuming you use the RP method of just trying to create a 2-3 ICE remote and push through it before they can get set up - often you only need 1 ICE on each central so most of your resources can go towards setting up the remote. The big problem with that is Faust (which I've seen many lists adopt as their sole/primary breaker) because it's great at getting into remotes in the midgame - even a secure server like Bastion > Tollbooth is 5 cards with Faust (less with Suckers) and so I'm thinking of trying -2 Enigma +2 Turing (cheap early ICE is not as relevant with fewer Siphon decks nowadays) - David is still a problem against Turing but forcing them to find Faust + David + regular breakers to break through a remote (and even that drains most of their resources) can apply pressure. The main thing to remember is that even a Bastion makes it very hard for them to efficiently get into HQ so the focus is on having a hand early that can start scoring - especially a 5/3 since they all have very beneficial effects on score. If you think Noise is really popular as you identified I would probably not play this deck - ITD is a lot weaker when they have late-game inevitability even if you have it and you have to play basically without it,