Adam's Junkyard OR HILTSWADAGR

Adam's Junkyard OR How I Learned to Stop Worrying About Directives and Get Rich

On first examination, playing Adam: Compulsive Hacker might seem like running on hard mode. You have to run first click? You have a max hand size of 3? Surely you are at a disadvantage.

But there are two things to consider with your starting rig of directives. The first is that they each have an upside, and it's easy to find cards to synergize with them.

• Always Be Running... is pretty terrible, and you want to get rid of it ASAP. That being said, being aggressive early game is not a bad idea, especially with a built in insurance policy. Including cards that are never bad, on their own, like Dirty Laundry and the infamous Datasucker can help you prevent this forced run from being a wasted click. But sometimes it will be wasted, or worse. So it is your first target for destruction.
• Safety First has a pretty good ability with a tradeoff that can be mitigated. Early, early in the game, you'll want to be careful about where you run because of your limited hand size. You'll want to be conscious of SEA Source, which will sometimes be unavoidable due to Always Be Running, and avoiding Snare! is always a good idea. However, install one Public Sympathy, and this card now gives you an advantage over most runners. Install more than one, or have a stolen agenda and a Brain Chip, and you're now sitting pretty with card draw, if you want to keep it out. Safety First can be turned to your advantage in the early to mid game, and sold off in the late game.
• Neutralize All Threats is a plain good card. It's a free HQ Interface with a fairly minimal drawback, so long as you keep making money to pay for some unforeseen trashes. And believe me, you will make money in this deck. You might trash this late game if running HQ becomes less viable, you really need to dig with an Independent Thinking, or really, really need some credits with Aesop's Pawnshop.

The second advantage is that directives can be sold for sweet, sweet cash, or to draw some cards. Adam loves to draw him some cards. This lends itself to two cards. The first is our old buddy, Aesop's Pawnshop. Adam starts with 9 credits worth of stuff to sell to Aesop, if he so desired. Within 3 turns, you could theoretically be up a bunch of credits and down all of the disadvantages of the directives. The second is Adam's wonderful event card, Independent Thinking. For a click and a credit, you can turn your junk into card draw. Lots and lots of card draw.

Because of this built in synergy, you want to build an economy around cards you want to trash. Some of the cards that work are old favorites, some are old pieces of junk, and some are new all-star cards.

• Cache, of course, belongs with Aesop's Pawnshop. A credit and a click for 6 eventual credits is a great play.
• Q-Coherence Chip... works with this deck. It actually does. It's 0 credits to install and can net you 3 credits your very next turn if Aesop's Pawnshop is out, making it a delayed Easy Mark. Which is pretty OK to start with. It can also help you set up more of your rig, in a pinch, which is nice. You just have to be careful about when it needs to be trashed. But it's also worth more money because of a new amazing card...
• Technical Writer. People play Kate "Mac" McCaffrey: Digital Tinker because her ability is so versatile. She can drip herself a credit on most turns in the right deck, and she makes cards plain old cheaper. What if there were a card that could turn every runner into Kate? What if you could install more than one? What if it wasn't limited to once per turn? What if it installed for nothing? What if it got you credits for 0 install cards? You would play that card, right? You'd be silly not to. So, Adam plays it. At best, you get it out early game, and it nets you double digit credits. At worst, it's the last card in your deck and you sell it to Aesop's for some cash. Suddenly, Q-Coherence Chip can net you 4, 5 or 6 credits on install, Cache can get you 6, 7, or 8. Self-modifying Code pays for its own use, in a roundabout way, and can even net you some credits if you have multiple Technical Writers out and/or a Multithreader. And then there is Harbinger...
• Harbinger is a card with all sorts of possibilities in other decks. Here, it is the ultimate efficient piece of junk. If you're just selling it to Aesop's, it's 6 credits for a click. It doesn't cost money. It won't clog up you rig, like Cache. It also has Cache's low, low influence cost. With Technical Writer(s) out, you can net 7, 8 or 9 credits on a single install. With Independent Thinking, you can turn one directive and a Harbinger into 6 cards drawn, which is also pretty efficient. It might not do anything on it's own, but it's the best card for enabling your econ engine.

Adam: Compulsive Hacker's faction cards help enable your economy, and are otherwise just plain great. I've already talked about the greatness of Independent Thinking. Brain Chip is a great card for mid to late game. It's worth it's cost if you have even one agenda point, and it becomes amazing with 2+ agenda points. You can set up a big rig. Which you will have with your Multithreaders. Multithreader is like Cloak, but better, albeit with a larger upfront cost and no stealth synergy. But in this case, upfront cost and stealth are of less concern. Late game, 6 for runs is insane.

With all this money, you're going to go with a basic rig. Corroder, Mimic and ZU.13 Key Master work well enough, are cheap and cost minimal influence. Overmind is a decent backup, and can be sold off later in the game. Datasucker is Datasucker. Self-modifying Code gives you some consistency. Just be really, really conscious of program trashing. I have not squeezed in any Clone Chips here. R&D Interface gives you some minimal R&D pressure ability. Combined with your free HQ multi-access, and you should be OK in that department, although you won't be going on any glory runs with Adam.

I like playing this deck. It turns some weaknesses into interesting gameplay options, and sometimes into powerful strengths. It's a pretty rich deck, and can be unstoppable in the late game. It can also be aggressive, but maybe a little weak to FA decks. Try it out! Adam can be pretty good. Against my initial assessment, he's probably the best of the D&D runners, out of the box.