The Time of The Maven

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gilesdavis 350

Hi, my name is gilesdavis and I am a Hayleyholic.

Shaper has just always been my jam, or as friend and fellow Drop Bear Valkyriez not incorrectly put it recently, I'm a total 'Shaper tragic.'

So every 3-6 months or meta shift I get the itch to check if it's finally possible to make a viable Maven list. Pre-Salvaged Memes I had a list that leaned on Threaders to offset that undeniable downside to Maven, 2c per sub. It was pretty decent, but not quite there.

I posted that list to the Itinerant Pro Testers server seeking advice, there was some constructive chat... and then this happened;

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e3 Feedback Implants, the Green Machine that is Rotage had done it and I got to work.

This is obviously a late game/control list and requires some set up, but once it's online with Maven at strength and Mantles online it breaks (outermost) 3 sub ice like Anansi, Tyr, etc for... 2c.

In an opening hand you wanna snap keep a ProCo + Tech Writer, a Gamble, Hyperdriver or Rezeki on top is about as good as it gets. Seeing two Writers early is extremely good for ensuring a hard lock going into the late game. The playstyle is generally to not be too concerned with letting the corp get to 4-6 points first, but that said, if you have the tools at hand don't be shy about stimming up and roundhousing your opponent's remote if they try to rush.

Tech/Card Choices:

The Breaker Engine

Maven has been covered above, Engolo, is your backup for AI hate and the dumpster fires that are Sandburg & Helheim Servers.

Deus X is a pet card of mine, I usually play it in conjunction with Pelangi so it's never a dead draw (looking at you, 10str Surveyor), but it still earns it's slot here. It makes combo kill RP and Chronos very sad, it breaks any AP ICE for 3c (or free with Simul, and at worst it's a +1 Maven boost.

Tech Cards:

Stargate, I feel is the right choice. It's constant pressure plus disruption, whereas Indexing is finite without HART and Medium is little fragile in this Sandbox meta.

Hunting Grounds, it's a rare meta it's not worth slotting.

Imp, HQ and spam tech.

Noto, it's a great card, fun, and especially good in metas with a lot of food/2pt scoring plans. It wins games, but similar to Apoc you so often win on the central runs of the noto turn. For that reason I would definitely consider cutting this for the 3rd Simulchip as 2x just does not feel right. A second Beth would also be nice.

This list is a blast, and I even ported it to The Artist for Okorina 3, you can see it in action on Vesper's stream here. It's current record is 18-4 (82%) in jnet casual, for whatever that's worth :)

Thanks and shoutouts to Rotage, Pinsel, cableCarnage, and lostgeek for helping tune the list, Baa Ram Wu for his enthusiasm and being an all-round great dude, and the ANZ Drop Bear crew for being so rad and putting up with my incessant Shaper nattering.

Peace x

10 comments
10 Jan 2021 ValkyriezGaming

As far as Shaper Tragics go mate your a good one. Cool list and interesting choices.

10 Jan 2021 Diogene

@gilesdavis This is super fun! I had seen someone try this with Chaos Theory: Wünderkind. But it is true that e3 Feedback Implants will make this deck fly!

Considering that Turntable is supposed to be the best shaper console, wouldn't it be better to go for Fencer Fueno (for trashing stuff) and Turntable (replacing Imp) It might give you an edge.

In any case, I'll give this a spin for sure. Thanks for sharing.

A fellow member of the SA (shaperolic anonymous).

10 Jan 2021 gilesdavis

Thanks for the kind words @Diogene!

That is a bit of a thinker, Turntable is one of my favourite cards and my go to in more reg Hayley with 3x Aka, but then you often aren't able to play the 3rd and sometimes even the second Hyper if you're on multiple 2MU programs.

With this list once you're online it's mostly a combination of 'Gatelock and remote camping, with Clot threat online. The Imp comes in if you keep whiffing on stargates and think they're flooded, it's also handy for Vacherons or other agendas you may not want to steal on sight you find in HQ or the remote. If you're Stargating every turn you will probably end up needing to pay the 1c Fueno tax every turn.

I think the NetChips are right here, esapecially due to the Hayley and Writer synergy.

Hope you have fun with it, I sure have been! See you at the next SA meeting :)

10 Jan 2021 Havvy

Great idea for deck!

10 Jan 2021 rotage

Great deck and glad to see you had great results with it.

Also lovely to see the Itinerant Pro Testers group doing a good job. In case anyone is curious its an open group so anyone can join to discuss decks, strategy, tactics etc. Find us in stimhack slack and discord

10 Jan 2021 rex_monolith

Any thoughts on using net mercur instead of pro con ? cheaper to install and you could then get your draw from the spending of a mantle penny or have the option of adding a penny to the net mercur instead.

10 Jan 2021 Greasythumb

Is it worth cutting a NetChip for the third Simulchip? I often wonder if the right number of netchips is actually 5

10 Jan 2021 gilesdavis

@rex_monolith interesting thought, I think maybe 1x Net Mercur could be cool, but ProCo is definitely not cuttable! Mercur you're choosing a cred or a card, and you don't run much early game.

@Greasythumb I was originally on 5 NetChip, but @rotage and I both found we were hitting too many games where buried chips were holding us back.

Expanding on my Noto comment, I actually think cutting it for a single Indexing or Khusyuk could be the way to go, but I still really wanna find room for the 3rd Simul.

11 Jan 2021 Diogene

@gilesdavis I did the testing of the deck. It work super well.

I found the same weakness found in Xandorius Smoke Ring 1.0 : damage and grinder deck will chew out a lot of the combo cards. For now, I did not face them using this deck, but it felt that if I were to face Jinteki PE, it would be more difficult. Any thoughts?

Other than that, this deck does miracles and can pass even the most extreme glacier. Brilliant.

12 Jan 2021 gilesdavis

Hey @Diogene, glad you enjoyed it :)

RE: grind matchups, PE isn't too bad but it is another argument for 3rd Simulchip. You want to be wise with your Deus', try to keep one on the board but eat the single pings and save it for burst damage like Snare!, Sting!, Junebug. Sometimes you need to pop it if you have critical cards in hand. The most important card vs PE is Stargate.

RP is more problematic but similar strategy; save Deus X for Viral's, or Dedi/Ronin and try to 'gatelock.