The Second Coming

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The Second Coming v1.1
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greyfield 3915

The darkness drops again but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
- Yeats, "The Second Coming"

This is... like, 45 out of 49 the deck I'd play on the Corp side at worlds if I'd gotten a ticket, alongside Vendetta. What can I say, I'm an iconoclast. Who knows, maybe bblum and Timmy won't play Weyland, you'll have a shot at that sweet sweet click tracker set.

This list is the result of long, long testing to figure out the right mix of the various pieces that make Blue Sun generally powerful - floating cash easily and making it just as easily, brutal ice (so long as you don't let it get trashed), and two strong routes to victory in OTG and murder.

The breakthrough was realizing that runners are too clued-in these days to how to beat regular Government Takeover kill decks and/or have really intense money-making tools of their own (Sunny, Kate, even freakin' Noise now can run up a stack), and thus you need a means of landing tags cheaply and efficiently - hence, Posted Bounty. Posted Bounty, in turn, makes it less promising to go for the Punitive Counterstrike kill (since any agenda plus Government Takeover is GG, it's far less consistent the more agendas you add), which made it easy to replace the standard 5/3s with Global Food Initiatives.

Consider, if you will, the agenda package, which I consider the best part of the deck by far. As always, Government Takeover is an almost auto-lose if it gets stolen (which doesn't stop me from trying to score it... more on that in a minute). But if the runner doesn't manage to take the GT (which, as one card in forty-nine, isn't easy), they're looking at 11 available points after subtracting the GFI penalties, and a requirement that they score at least four agendas to win - of seven. Cue the audible groan.

Yes, it's true: Government Takeover means you'll lose one or two percent of your games due to sheer variance, but if you aren't willing to ride the variance train, this is probably entirely the wrong archetype for you anyway. Go play, I dunno, Butcher Shop or something.

Now, that being said, let's talk about Off the Grid shenanigans. While Government Takeover is an awful agenda to lose, it's a surprisingly amazing agenda to score, thanks in large part to Hive. Being able to jump from 0 to 6 points directly and thus maximize the Lady-killing power of Hive for as long as possible is superb, and as soon as you've scored GT, you've essentially won the game, because of the aforementioned 11 point problem, coupled with the incredible income of its click ability. (If you've never activated a GT before, let me tell you, it's awesome. To hell with Adonis.) Off the Grid also pairs quite well with Posted Bounty, which is not only a great agenda to IAA, and a great bluff at GFI, it's supremely dispiriting for the runner to charge through a huge set of barriers, tear down a Crisium, and break in only to net one point.

Not to mention Midseasons. (This deck has a lot of plans; I'd call that Plan B, to respectively Posted-Scorched A, Takeover C, and, uh, rushing out GFIs behind Curtain Walls and praying D.) Now, this is one of those flex slots; it was in part a concession to all the weird decks I see, playing as much OCTGN as I do, with people running super-narrow, super-frustrating cards like New Angeles City Hall, Forger, and freakin' Decoy. (I have Contract Killed a Decoy before. I'm not proud.) Yes, it does nothing to Film Critic. Yes, it means you have to run only three influence in your Ice, and thus can't rely as heavily on the casual bleed of Tollbooth to cut out the runner's tempo. And yes, it's only one card. But sometimes, you just have to have the silver bullet to kill that wolf.

Beyond that, much of the rest of the deck is pretty standard at this point for Blue Sun. The ice, as mentioned, is a little skewed by making room for the Midseasons. I've opted for heavier-hitters, dropping Ice Wall and its ilk entirely for three Hives and a Spiderweb, which I've found to be a safe balance in most matchups. (If Noise makes up more than a quarter of the field, I'd cram a Cyberdex in somewhere.)

The economy package is a little heavier, returning to three Restructures; I like having the ability to easily jump above Curtain Wall money without having to scrape up the last few credits. As any Blue Sun player knows, one of your major weaknesses through the early-midgame is the high price of your ice making it easier for the runner to zig-zag you, forcing you to rez an expensive ice that prevents you from rezzing a cheaper one. Having an easy cash infusion helps get you over that hump. While some builds have cut Private Contracts for Launch Campaign, I like the old stalwart for its ability to let you pour entire turns into making money; the fact that Adonis Campaign forces you to spend several turns waiting for the drip to pay out can be a drag in those matchups where picking up the pace becomes essential.

Hopefully you don't need a ten-page primer on how to play Blue Sun. 'cause they don't pay me the nothing-at-all to write that. Just... make sure you can afford your ice, and stockpile cash up until the moment you know you can.

Other cards worth considering:

  • Oaktown Renovation (in the NAPD slot);
  • some kind of current for Employee Strike (maybe Housekeeping);
  • Executive Boot Camp (a late cut, but definitely worth keeping in mind... there's nothing better for fighting Valencia/enabling Contract Killer);
  • Orion or another comparable pricey ice for a fourth OAI target (I always hated how easily it shattered, and thus resigned myself to playing OAI on Assassins and the like if I need emergency cash; you may disagree);
  • Archived Memories (better than Interns about 90% of the time);
  • Shannon Claire (haven't tested yet, seems really interesting, probably requires an EBC to work correctly);
  • Worlds Plaza (actually pretty good - turns your Contract Killers into faux-Launch Campaigns and synergizes well with Private Contracts - if you need to save the Adonis influence);
  • Amazon Industrial Zone (yeah... never mind).
13 comments
15 Oct 2015 SlayerCNV

Glenn Station over napd and find slot for 1\2 Fast Track. You can fast track glenn and score in 2 turns, hiding the GT and having 9 points left for the runner in the deck :)

15 Oct 2015 SlayerCNV

And ices really does no like to me. Midseason Replacements too, because it's a 1x and i'd prefer 2 Tollbooths more or a Tollbooth + 1x SEA Source. I'm waiting D&D for playing it.

15 Oct 2015 greyfield

No no no. Glenn Station is wrong because you never actually want to have to score your agendas (other than GT and PB) if you can avoid it, because doing so dilutes your Hives. Not to mention that you're then running a 1-of to pair with another 1-of that is better hidden in your hand/deck than on the Station anyway.

15 Oct 2015 Bigguyforyou518

Just ran this against a Prepaid Kate and ran her through her entire deck twice while only letting her score 3 points. It took me a solid hour to find a single Scorched Earth, let alone 2 to deal with her Plascrete Carapace, but I had an advanced Contract Killer out on the board the whole game, so I used it to threaten a kill when she ended her turn with 1 card. That fractured the Carapace, and combined with her Stimhack brain damage, eventually allowed me to single-scorch her off a Posted Bounty (also sat there triple advanced for almost the entire game).

Getting a solid board set up can take a lot of time with this deck (especially if you don't get lucky with OAI draws), but it's almost impossible to lose to random accesses while you're doing it. I could see an Account Siphon deck really keeping me down after a mediocre mulligan, but short of that, the agenda suite makes you absurdly resilient.

Very powerful deck, thanks for the write-up @greyfield

15 Oct 2015 WhackedMaki

Have you considered Janus 1.0 in this deck? If people faceplant it it can destroy them and once it's seen (access faceplant or OAI) every piece of ice you install is Janus 1.0 until proven otherwise. That is a very powerful place to be and stops the typical "I'll run over here just to make him spend credits," mentality that a lot of people get against Blue Sun: Powering the Future.

15 Oct 2015 mawa

Gahhh why is Shannon Claire two influence. It could've stood a chance if it wasn't for that... Have you considered Wormhole for large ice?

15 Oct 2015 Dothanite

I love decks like this, and I love your vendetta deck. There's only one porblem, and someone else already mentioned it - time.

I've played OTG Blue Sun for a while, and it is not tournament friendly to me. Each game takes up 2/3 of your 65 minutes as you slowly tax not just your opponents runner but also his mental capacity. I always feel exhausted after each game, and I need time in between to recuperate.

Again, I love the idea and it's not going to stop me from trying it out. I just worry about how taxing this would be in a 7-8 round swiss.

16 Oct 2015 greyfield

@DothaniteThat's a good point. In OCTGN testing the deck hasn't had time problems, but that's mostly because I'm willing to play fast and loose. You could probably pick up the pace of the deck by stripping it down a bit - fit in two SEA Sources in place of the single Midseasons, cut the Off the Grid backup plan, and maybe even thin out the agenda mix a bit. At that point, the deck would look a fair bit more like Timmy Wong's Lanri deck, which I think is still a perfectly fine meta choice and one that's less reliant on Hive long-ball.

16 Oct 2015 greyfield

@RubbishyUsernameI have, and a seven-strength Code Gate is really nice; the problem is that it's worthless without another rezzed ice, which not only is a real drag in the early game, but also penalizes you for taking advantage of Blue Sun's natural strength in rearranging ice in servers. The second Assassin is my current choice for that "second Tollbooth" mid-to-high cost ice.

@WhackedMakiI know just the pleasure you're talking about. Sadly, at 3 influence, Janus is outside our price range.

17 Oct 2015 moistloaf

These decks auto-lose to opponents who just money up, build board, and wait for you to try to score. I seriously doubt GT will ever be a part of a high performing Nationals or Worlds list.

19 Oct 2015 greyfield

@moistloafYou're missing the point. What sets this deck apart from regular Government Takeover decks is the Posted Bounties. Normally, I agree, runners can stay even or slightly ahead of the corp throughout the game. But breaking through the typical OTG - Crisium mess (often I stack up HQ as Curtain - Hive - Hive when I'm preparing to score) is often so expensive that the runner has to either break parity to stop it, or let you have a Posted Bounty that kills them. Consider that getting through the above with a Corroder costs (11+6+6)*2+5 = 51 credits (and three clicks of running) where you've invested 6 (OTG) + 3 (Crisium) + 2 (PB) + 11+5+5 (ice, which is semi-liquid) = 33. You're 18 credits up on the runner even before you buy back your Curtain Wall for another 14. That's enough money for an unbeatable Midseasons.

Now, you might say, "Assembling all those cards takes a while". True, but per your point, the runner's plan is to sit back and wait for you to make the first move. Which means you have all the time in the world to make that move supremely punishing.

28 Oct 2015 greyfield

For anyone brave enough to run this deck at Worlds, here are the tweaks if make for various metas:

  • Kate-heavy (most likely): cut Midseasons, Assassin #2, and Enigma for Spiderweb #2, Tollbooth #2, and SEA Source. If Whizzard/Maxx are scarce, maybe also cut Lotus Field for something inexpensive and useful, like maybe a Wraparound.

  • Noise-heavy: cut two Restructures for a Snatch & Grab and a Cyberdex. (This is a little speculative a change, and I suspect Noise will be underplayed anyway, so take it with a big grain of salt.)

  • More Criminals than expected: cut the Assassins for two Ice Walls. (Trashing programs is nice, but in practice your biggest fear is Account Siphon + Shutdown your ice. If you win the early game, you'll likely win late.) Consider cutting something else (Oversight AI?!) for a third Crisium Grid.

  • Lots of drip/slow huge cash decks (Congress Kate, Sunny, MOpus): switch Interns and Midseasons for Archived Memories and SEA, and switch some or all of your tracers for cheap ETR cards. Your plan is to PB kill them ASAP, and gear checks are invaluable.

  • Vendetta/other DLR decks in droves: maybe use the Lotus Field influence for ASI? I dunno, most DLR decks have never been much of a problem for me. Maybe add some Ice Walls for Vendetta.

  • Lots of people playing jank like old-school Anatomy of Anarch, Forger, etc.: pack your balls of steel.

28 Oct 2015 greyfield

And there's a part of me that wonders whether Elizabeth Mills is better than Contract Killer. Off the top of my head, things each kills (setting aside Lizzy's benefit against bad pub and the very occasional chance to murder someone with the Contract Killer):

  • Elizabeth Mills: Aesop's Pawnshop, Wyldside, New Angeles City Hall, Off-Campus Apartment, Crash Space, Wireless Net Pavillion, Personal Workshop (though that only helps if they don't have enough to unload)
  • Contract Killer: Aesop's Pawnshop, Film Critic, Kati Jones, Professional Contacts, Theophilius Bagbiter, The Supplier, Decoy

If I was going into a meta with a lot of Valencia and/or DLR decks, I'd probably switch to Lizzy. If I did that, I might also take a chance on switching back to SEA Source from Midseason Replacements, and put that influence into a second Tollbooth.