NEH Butcher Shop Variant (2015 Linköping Regionals Winner)

Nice deck! Wondering: was Blacklist (Breaker Bay) legal, and if so, why didn't you include it? Seems like everybody and his dog likes to run Blacklist.

It was indeed legal, and I pondered about it. But what to remove? Econ? Ice? Meat damage?

Besides, it seems stronger in a more FA type deck, where you can rez it to stop clone chipping out a clot.

Would probably slot Daily Business Show before Blacklist in this type of deck anyways.

Also, the plan of this deck is to go fast to pre-empt the inevitable rig and economy engines. Recursion often doesnt seem that much play early.

The deck runs very thin on ice defenses, and a long game is not in this decks favour.

May I recommend Restructured Datapool (A card everyone has forgotten) as opposed to the utopia shard? if you score it out for some weird reason, it lets you immediately start a money fight.

It could be ok I guess. Considering I haven't scored my utopia even once, I don't really know if it would be relevant. I guess the 3 pointer could be used to get the last three points if you have an astro counter - bluffing the NAPD.

Scoring the three pointer early sets you back a great deal economically, and maybe stops you from threatening the MS play anymore - at which part the deck crumbles.

How much good did the Information Overload do? It has been fairly underwhelming for me so far, when playing this archetype...

@clercqie I agree that it can oftentimes be underwhelming, but if they get a Plascrete down, it becomes a win condition. In a deck that removes Reclamation Order (which is usually reserved for reclaiming Scorches once you blow off their Plascrete), I think it becomes a lot more relevant.

@clercqie Information Overload is one of the only cards that does anything once the runner goes Tag-me. One of the ways this deck can lose is if the runner decides to just ignore Data Raven and run everything... at that point, if you dont have the kill in hand (or if you got unlucky and hit the IHW in their hand with a Traffic Accident and need to reload) Information Overload is one of the only things in the deck that keeps the runner from stomping all over you.

I have tried the original and this variant, and I love the change to Pup and Pad Campaign, but I have to say I don't like TGTBT. The only time the tag doesn't stick is if the runner is flat broke or they run last click, and good runners won't do either of those things once they suss out you're running Butchershop (which they should be able to do by turn 3 or 4, sometimes earlier if they access a SE). So it becomes NAPD #4-6. That's not bad, but I would much rather have Beales and have the threat of scoring out with the Astro train much stronger. Essentially I think TGTBT is only going to win you the game in corner cases and against desperate or bad runners, and it weakens the threat of scoring out too much for my tastes. Plus I'm testing a singleton Psychographics in my current iteration as a third win condition, so I need the Beales.

I also would never play with a 3-pointer, if they luck into it early it just makes Midseason so much worse. Now you can't bait with a naked Astro because that puts them on match point and enables lucky R&D hail marys before your Midseason next turn can put the game away.

@shango Is on point regarding Overload. Most games I just pitch it. But if youre up against a tag me runner with lots of protection, it is really your only defence since data ravens are turned off. It can be a good idea to keep one in hand if you haven't found any meat damage yet, but have a midseasons. Since people get very panicky when they are under a boatload of tags, expect them to hammer RnD for the last points. A well placed Overload destroys everything they own.

Regarding TGTBTs. The tag of course never sticks, and was never ever meant to. It is my way of playing midseasons more aggressively. Put it out in a remote naked or in the trash. If they run it they turn on midseasons and spend a click to pay 2c. The real bonus is that they only get 1 AP for their troubles. This means that they can't really run face down cards if they are poorer than me. They cant run third click, if they want to clear tag and empty Kati for example. It can also be used to score the last AP for the win. Even if I have no combo in hand TGTBTs and NAPDs are both a tempo hit for the runner, and this deck plays like a bully, never wanting to let them set up in the way and speed that they would want to.

What I do agree on is the decks weakest point is the 3 pointer, and I am welcome to any suggestions. But it has so far never lost me a game, so I have just left it in for deck space reasons.

Anyway. I really welcome any discussion. And peoples meta and experiences may of course vary - do what works for you and your playstyle.

@warpstoned that makes sense. Maybe I was too reluctant to score them, but I also felt like they piled up in hq before I was ready to midseason. I'll give it another shot.

As far as the 5/3 goes, I'm testing with full counts of astro beale napd and breaking news. I think the ability to double advance a breaking news and threaten multiple tags either way is good enough to go up to 21 points for. Maybe in your list, add another BN and a psf? At least that splits the points up over two agendas, and maybe psf would actually come in handy in some crazy corner case.

Oh, and I cut an information overload to fit the agendas. One feels like enough.

Just to be clear. I only score a TGTBG myself if it gets me to an significant AP level (7 or 5 with an astro counter). Or else I let it lie there, it's too expensive to score when youre defence relies on you having more money than the opp. Rich runners would probably not leave your remotes unchecked anyways. But you get a card for installing it and it adds to your shell game.

In our meta - Fast advance and clot is still prevalent. Meaning fast advancing might be harder than usual. So I might be biased against beale as it is basically just a fast advanceable 2 pointer.

PSF might be a hilarious include if I were to cut the 3 pointer :)

I'm too much of a coward running only 1 overload, with imp and other trashing around. In addition to you might not finding it when you really need to. But you proably can get away with 1. This might be a meta call. I dont see many tag me runners anymore actually, but when I made this there were a few running around.

In general, the draw power of NEH is quite insane. Install jackson for a card. Next turn use him three times. Get your hand in order. Often there might be an extra face down jackson for additional archives shuffle protection if needed. In addition to getting cards for your pads, markeds, tgtbs, other agendas.

@Warpstoned Yep, it's just getting to 4 or 6 points without Beales that I'm wary of. If you're on the Astro train then yeah, its not an issue. Other than that, you're scoring NAPDs without scoring servers. That's a bit rough. But scoring out is a distant plan B for this deck, so it might be a moot point.

@shango Yeah I think we're on the same page. Beales helps scoring out quite a bit. However that is as you said plan B.

Depending on your meta (clot/meat protection) you might want to vary accordingly.

I think -1 TGTBT -1 Utopia +2 Beale would be a reasonable switch for people who are wary about the 3-pointer.

That seems a totally reasonable change.

If someone finds the space for it, a third breaking news could be good. As BN are a win condition against passive runners with I-A-A (or with help of astrocounters) with midseasons and meat damage back up.

Generally BN>TGTBT against passive runners and the opposite for aggressive runners.

Thoughts on -1 Traffic Accident, +1 Pup? I mean, when would you ever need 2 TA at once?

Thoughts on Gutenberg?

@swingjunkie I would be wary of removing any meat damage. As this decks "thing" is kinda about the amount of and consistency of meat damage. But it woulnd't hurt to try it out.

@Groober Since the first tournament I took this to, Gutenberg came out. And I seriously considered switching out the pups. But I kept the pups on account of the deck keeping doing well ( maybe even better if Gutenberg is there, who knows? )

Pros are that gutenberg are much more parasite resistant, little more taxing ( a click as well as 2 creds) and is in faction.

Cons are that it becomes blank, like data raven, after the runner has become tagged, the low ice count may mean you may not have the luxury of putting it on RnD (meaning mimic reduces the tax severely) and the higher rez cost.

I will certainly play around with gutenberg and the left over influence and see what I feel about it. I would certainly not blame anyone slotting Gutenberg - since it is a really good piece of ice.

Some changes were made to this deck and piloted to another Regionals win. Se the "Inspiration for" for the changes made and stuff.