Salem's Best Kept Secret - Undefeated - 1st Place Birmingham

Yeeeeessss... Salem's. Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeessss.... :D

Congrats =]. But sooooooo much ICE, kappa.

@Wyrmwithout the ice it's harder to bluff :P

I've played a (very) few games alternating between this (@shanodin's) and @Wyrm's Fiery Inferno version. I thought that this had barely enough assets to trigger NEH's ability every turn, let alone pretend to be asset spam. Ended up with having ICE stuck in hand and trying to go glacier without enough money.

Any thoughts/comments/advice from either of you?

I don't know about @shanodin's strategy so I'll allow him to speak to that. For FIERY INFERNO, you do not really have a secondary option. Winning a game by scoring is not a viable strategy, so given that this is the case I'm not installing a remote every turn. I'm getting NEH triggers off BN FA, and I'm installing stuff like Shattered Remains/Sensie/Exploda/15 Minute/News Team/Psychic Field. Those they don't really want to check, so it's not so much pretending to be asset spam for me, but making them not want to run my remotes and then maybe hiding a Beale. Short of it at least for me, no need to cry over getting value off your identity. Sometimes your best play turn 1 is ICE Central, Sweeps, Take 1c

@Wyrm just FYI @shanodin is a she

@dodgepong, @shanodin Apologies!

Not running Midseasons is an interesting call, and then it makes sense to not run the third Explode-a-palooza. Interns seems like a really interesting slot that makes a lot of sense.

@Ilza Interns actually won me a game - I was able to fetch a Breaking News from archives and score it with an astro token :)

@dodgepong thanks :P

@Wyrm & @crushedguava honestly, as Wyrm said, it's not that important to trigger NEH's ability every turn. It's nice, but there are other ways of drawing cards - Sensie Actors Union does so much work, and in fact I don't mind if the runner trashes it immediately as usually once is enough to find what you need. Bluffing the asset spam (or even just traditional fast advance) is fine in this deck, just install stuff and don't worry. Having plenty of ICE in HQ is great - people like to Legwork or otherwise hassle HQ against NEH , but if your hand is full of ICE cos your agendas are all on the table, then it doesn't matter.

@Wyrm the main way this deck differs from your FIREY INFERNO is that it can score out. Four of my five games in Swiss were scores. People are scared and confused cos they see cards like 24/7 News Cycle or Salem's Hospitality - this deck leverages that to astrotrain.

I feel like a massive newbie, because I can't figure out how to use Salem's Hospitality. It seems great, but what kind of prescient mind powers do you need to have in order to not only know what to target, but when to play it, so that it doesn't just whiff and be a wasted click?

You can use Salem's Hospitality to get rid of cards like I've Had Worse or other problem cards

@Rhaplanca1001 yeah as @Talism said, it's great to get rid of I've Had Worse when you're zeroing in on the kill. You can also take some fairly likely speculative shots with it, like if a Whizzard player keeps their hand you can guess they probably have a Wyldside or a Faust or some other important piece. Vs. a Criminal? Get rid of those pesky Account Siphons! It's a card with a lot of utility, just needs some thought and some practice.