Coalescence is All You Need* - Undefeated at MansionRunner

YsengrinSC 1430

I've been playing this deck on stream quite a bit and it has been consistently performing really well. I'm not sure this the best Arissana deck, but I do think this deck can be incredibly overwhelming for the Corp.

This deck is largely a riff on Hold the Waffles - but the addition of Muse and Coalescence take that deck from being too fiddly and inconsistent to a real monster. Having an installable program that generates credits enables you to turn UAV credits into real liquid credits. This is an enormous difference in how the engine can work, and why I think the deck can skimp on runner staples like Sure Gamble, Dirty Laundry and Creative Commission. Now that said I think if you want to have a more "standard" build CableCarnage's build here is a fantastic starting place and will probably have a similar ceiling to this.

I also want to shout out Spec Work which is the other main piece of consistency. Draw 2 isn't the most impactful, but the extra little econ burst is nice.

The gameplan pattern of this deck is pretty classic shaper:

  1. Focus on setup, applying just enough pressure to keep the Corp honest. Physarum Entangler is worth its weight in gold here. I don't mind throwing out a Muse to Ari's ability if it lets me lock down a remote for a turn or 2. The setup cards for you are LilyPAD, Urban Art Vernissage, and Environmental Testing. You don't need all 3, but 2/3 are usually needed for your deck to get really going.

  2. Stop the corp from winning. This is more important than trying to win in most cases. Discard your Conduit if you see it too early, it's generally cheaper to Simulchip in later if you have to push for a win. Again Physarum Entangler is great for stopping scoring out of the remote, Paricia allows for some game against asset decks. In general you can get into most remotes for 2-3 credits/ice.

  3. Now that the other player is miserable (or you can't stop them from winning) it's time to pivot and win the game. The deck packs 2 different win conditions as 1-ofs Deep Dive and Conduit. Conduit is best against ice light decks (or decks that don't have much ice on R&D). If the corp heavily ices R&D after the conduit, you don't need to force your way back in, you can just sell it/chip it return to step 2 instead. And Deep Dive is a better closer against decks like Azmari, where they will likely have 3+ ice on R&D fairly aggressively, or you can't break the remote and need to Hail Mary it in one turn.

Notable slots: I talked about a lot of these in detail in this video but I'll try and hit some highlights here.

  • Gachapon - this card is 2 installs for Environmental Testing, which is a huge deal, and triggers on the Corp's turn for a second LilyPAD trigger.

  • Propeller - Most people will want to swap this for Cleaver as an immediate change. I think that's fair, but I'd encourage you to try it for now. If your local meta is all Bran all the time, then you can ignore that. But in general we have plenty of access to recursion and re-use of this program, and in practice it breaks most barriers extremely cheaply. Turbine means you only need to boost against a few relevant sentries.

  • Ashen Epilogue - This is the most cuttable card in the list. But I view this card as insurance against the super grindy glacier corps. This deck has fairly finite money unless you get 1-2 turns of huge credit gains off Kyuban so being able to reset everything can be quite handy.

Notable options:

  • Hannah "Wheels" Pilintra/Miss Bones as more asset/upgrade tech. A great use of influence in matchups that can be tricky (though if the meta moves that asset heavy this deck gets harder to justify - Simulchiping a Coalescence is sorta +5 credits for 2 clicks, but it's not ideal)
  • Prognostic Q-Loop - would be quite fun to play around with, and something I'm going to toy with. Now that almost all the econ is in hittable targets for Q-Loop it should more consistently help the deck hit its endgame board state.
  • Trick Shot - Yeah this should be in here, just trying to figure out the cuts because this list really wants to be on 45.
  • Dr. Nuka Vrolyck - this is very much a personal playstyle thing, but I much prefer Diesel to Dr. Nuka Vrolyck in this deck because you're racing the Corp rather than trying to out-value them. Being +4 cards with a 2 click investment is better for the deck than +3 -1 Credit so that you can make runs or install key pieces of the rig. And once LilyPAD is down, you're usually fine to just drip draw 1-2 cards/turn + a click to draw every now and again.
  • DZMZ Optimizer - I find myself rarely installing this, but it's probably right for some of the deep glacier games.
4 comments
24 Apr 2024 zensiert

is the decklist a play on this paper? arxiv.org

24 Apr 2024 YsengrinSC

It is a bit of a joke on that paper.

It’s also comment of a set that got a bunch of great shaper cards (Burner, Cataloguer, and Trick Shot) just two “mediocre” programs are enough to give them a shot in the arm.

1 May 2024 xiaat

This absolutely looked like a pile of cards until I loaded it up and started playing. Having a blast, thanks for sharing

4 May 2024 tberton

I had been toying with something very similiar, glad to see a tuned list. I had wanted to cut SMC, but didn't have the courage, glad to see that you did!