NBN 'Yellow Snow'

Love the idea of scoring out a beale for 3 or more, definitely an idea with potential Dave!

I played against a rendition of this last week and, although the game was close (i was lucky enough to keep top decking the astros), even magnum opus struggled to make regular runs possible. The Shinobi was definitely a surprise.

I was surprised how well this did against a Magnum Opus based economy. Forcing repeated runs was key and makes me want to try the two Marked Accounts for more Never Advance bluffs.

Thanks for posting this list Dave. As someone fairly new to netrunner, it's great to see lists from top level players and the thought process behind the card choices.

I've been working on a similar NBN glacier deck. I basically just ported across your UK nationals winning list, tweaked it and came to something very similar. I made some slightly different choices which you might find interesting. From your list above I had these changes:

• -1x Character Assassination +1x Market Research: This gives you another 3-pointer to score. Between the Data Ravens (which I've added), account siphon tags and the occasional draco tag, I feel market research gives you something a little more than character assassination.

• -2x Wall of Static + 2x TMI: TMI is obviously more difficult to rez but is as taxing as Eli.

• -1x Uroboros - 1x Shinobi + 2x Data Raven: I've honestly never played with either Uroboros or Shinobi, but Data Ravens enable the closed accounts and market research.

• -1x Viper + 1x Wraparound: Needed to free up the influence for Ash and my list is weak to a Str 4 Atman. Still the wraparounds aren't very taxing so might look to replace them.

• -2x Red Herrings + 2x Ash 2X3ZB9CY: Once the influence has been freed up it's an easy choice.

• -2x Pop-up Window + 1x Closed Accounts + 1x Wraparound: This could be wrong to axe the pop ups, but they seem a weak spot in the towers of ice you put down. Closed accounts opens wide scoring windows in this deck.

I originally had only 2x Draco, but like your 3x much better.

Hopefully something in there might be of use to you. Thanks again for taking the time to post.

@Burst thanks for the detailed reply, I'd be really interested to hear how your testing goes.

Regarding your suggestions: I think you are spot on with Ash being better than Red Herrings. Its just getting the influence.

I'm not sure about dropping the Shinobi, it can win games really quickly due to the amount of money you have.

Changing the Character Assassination for Market Research is exactly what I'd do if I put in the Ravens.

I think Wall of Static is better than Wraparound for this deck. I go back and forth on TMI, some games it is awesome, others a liability, I just don't like the inconsistency. 1 of for Siphon defense is valid but we also have Draco for that.

To get an Ash or 2 in here what would you change with the influence?

To get the influence for Ash, my vote would still be for ditching the Shinobi & a Viper. But I think that comes down more to my preferred play style than any objective measure.

For me the Elis and Ichis are a lock. As you know Bioroids when stacked are brutal, so much so that I was looking to get Heimdall 1.0 in as well. Although that probably makes things a little too top heavy.

The Data Raven / Closed Account / Market Research package I was going with isn't inspiring me at the moment. Once the runner goes tag-me the Data Ravens are ignored (i.e. not taxing at all) and the only real punishment is closed accounts, which can be good but isn't that exciting vs. some decks (magnum opus).

One of the things I love about this deck is the spacing of the burst economy. Sweeps at 1, Successful Demo at 2, Hedge at 5, Restructure at 10 is such a nice curve. A little drip econ would absolutely top it off. Any suggestions / thoughts? Marked Accounts? PAD? The red coats deck has eve/adonis, eve is too high influence, maybe adonis.

The key question for me though is still that 2-3 card slot that could be Ash (if you find the influence), Red Hearings, or something else. Something to induce/protect those runs and punish. Even contemplated SanSan (I know, I know... it's not FA), but it's the best "damned if they do, damned if they don't card".

Ah well more testing to do. Keen to hear how yours is going and any changes made.

Why not run Psychographics instead of Closed Accounts? Data Ravens essentially force people to Midseason themselves.

In looking at the deck with Data Ravens... the problem there is that a strength 4 Atman basically owns it. Eli, Viper, Ichi, Data Raven all at 4 and a fair number of Shaper decks will run 1x Atman... especially when Lotus Field hits.

@JWHamner it is a lot of 4s. The impact is lessened slightly because with Data Ravens they still have to take a tag when they encounter it. And Ichi with 3 subroutines means 3 credits to break. But yeah it's a problem.

On the psychographics idea, it makes you really dependent on drawing those data ravens. And then that makes you want to put in more tagging cards and that starts to shift the focus of the deck. It can obviously work but it then becomes a different deck.

It seems with this deck that because spots are so tight any other angle you play has to be really compact/efficient. Thats why I think @Cerberus has had success with Shinobi, everything you want is packed into that one card.

Me I'm going to re-focus on Ash and making plan A the most effective it can be. Seemed to work for the Red Coats deck.

In testing this deck has serious problems against Magnum Opus builds. It is impossible to tax them enough to create scoring windows.

Economy has been very strong.

I think changing the random 4/2 for two Breaking News is right as it opens multiple ways to get to 7 points.

I'm wondering if San Sans instead of the Ash / Red Herrings is better? It forces taxing runs and generates a win condition if they don't run. R&D lock should be hard to achieve due to the economy and taxing ice.

Still needs more testing, but looks strong.

Took "Yellow Snow" to a small local tournament and went 3-0 with it. Opponents were PPVP Kate, Chaos Theory and Gabe.

I went with the Data Raven plan and JWHamner's suggestion of Psychographics instead of closed accounts. It worked well. I also included SanSans over Ash and not surprisingly they did their job well.

On your points Cerberus. SanSan is a big thumbs up for me. You have the money in this deck to use it, it's so taxing to run and trash it and it opens up another way to win. There's no downside.

As for breaking news it obviously also makes it easier for them to score 7 as well. Going the 10x2 agendas means on average they need 2 more random accesses to get to 8 points, which is huge in this type of deck. But having said that if your 4/2 is character assassination maybe the breaking news is better...

With the Magnum Opus problem, I had one opponent use MO, one had 3x PPVP out early and was lucky finding for zero. I found the FA elements really helped to supplement the natural scoring windows. I'm now running this deck like it's a hybrid, I score with a mixture of glacier and FA, whichever window opens up.

@Burst really pleased that this deck did good work for you :) I've been testing with 19 Ice and 3 San San over the Ash and have come to the same conclusion as you, they are definitely worth it, as it taxes a lot if they trash it, and if they don't it is very easy to FA a win. The normal tactic of R&D lock is also hard in this deck due to the taxing Ice and large amounts of money.

I have also been playing with the Ice mix up, I've actually moved up to two Shinobi and it has worked well so far. Of the 4 games I have played with them 2 have been flatlines, putting it over a Melange or San San, something the runner feels they must get to is brilliant for forcing the early kill.

I've not tested the Data Raven play yet, but if it is working for you then I will likely take a look at it, is the plan 2 Ravens and 2 Psycho?

I pushed the tag angle a little further and went 3 Ravens, 2 Shadows, 2 Psycho. The shadows played like a super pop up, I gain 2 they lose 2 and a click to clear the tag.

That configuration is 7 cards though, so it changes the deck quite a bit. I ended up dropping the pop-ups and the Ichis. I found with only 2 Ravens they didn't come up enough and the psychos never really pulled their weight. Hence the additional support.

I definitely need to try Shinobi again. It's great to hear 2 are working so well. One felt like a nice random surprise, but 2 sounds like a plan!

What are the typical scenarios for your shinobi flatlines? In terms of runner cards and credits and your credits. Not having used it much any tips or advice?

The runner face checking early game when they have nothing out is the most common. Get their money to dip trashing San San etc. I didn't rez it initially and so they were getting a free access, then they spent money on installing something (even as simple as Kati) and it dips them below the card / credit amount. Also as I said, key cards behind it early game make it very threatening.

How much did the Psychos / tags come into play in the tournament for you?

Thanks for the tips on the Shinobis.

The psychos/tags came in to play in all three games. Everyone was clearing tags from the start, but eventually they would keep a couple on a crucial late game turn (I would supplement them with a data raven counter to get to 2-3). That's when I would psycho out the last agenda, usually a 3-pointer (Market research or Beale).

I've been reflecting on whether going down the tag route is just making this into a bad version of a Midseasons deck (obviously without the midseasons). Not really sure, but I'm going to try a more shinobi / pure glacier tomorrow in a tournament. Will report back!

Any more thoughts from your testing?