A Little of This, A Little of That

I like this!

I've had a bit of success in a lot of casual play with Adam, and I enjoy him the most of any new ID that's come out in a long time, actually. I feel like his biggest advantage is to hit hard and early and throw off the corp's set-up with the massive tempo-shift.

Some things that I like for him that aren't here (obviously it's your call as to whether they're worth it for how you play) are e3 feedback implants (compliments Always Be Running very nicely) and Gang Sign (compliments Neutralize All Threats very well.)

You say you're having issues with the deck: what exactly isn't working?

I've been dipping my toes into the new IDs and I'm actually having quite a lot of fun with Adam: Compulsive Hacker. Some observations:

Safety First is really powerful once it gets going; I would consider a third Public Sympathy to increase the trigger chance. Between that and Earthrise Hotel I think you have enough draw to not need I've Had Worse. If that's there for damage, well, you have 2 Plascrete Carapace.

On the subject of Earthrise Hotel; you need the draws early game, usually, but paying 4 for the hotel is a big tempo hit. You could try putting in Career Fair, or try Drug Dealer.

Dr. Lovegood should be here. He opens up plenty of opportunities. He also synergses with Drug Dealer, should you choose to use it.

Faust and Overmind seems like overkill. Also, if you're running both of these, at least consider e3 Feedback Implants.

I found Data Folding to be too slow. I switched it for Armitage Codebusting, which helped a lot with early pressure.

Depending on whether you want early pressure or sustained pressure, The Maker's Eye can be better than R&D Interface, and a 1-of Sneakdoor Beta has served me well late-game on occasion.

How's Kraken working out for you?

@Navelgazer I had E3 Feedback Implants (as Modern Prometheus does) but I found I never drew them at the right time. I suppose you can use them effectively as replacement-breakers, but you still need to break a sub in the first place (and throwing 2 Clicks at Always Be Running isn't viable a lot of the time).

Gang Sign is good, but so much is good on-paper for Adam. And then you go to build a deck and go "Oh, I have Breakers and econ...and I'm out of Influence." All the people who say "Well Corps have no room for 'fun cards' need to look at Adam. ;) He has even less.

@Jashay I've Had Worse is there for two reasons: One, it protects you from Jinteki. And two, it gives you the means to draw up a big hand to throw into Faust for a Hail Mary. Likely Independent Thinking would be better for the draw (and Guru Davinder for the damage prevention...that pack can't come fast enough), but then I lose out on the other half. I find Jinteki matches can be TERRIBLE, especially against Fetal A.I.

The Data Folding for Armitage Codebusting swap sounds good, I'm going to look into that. I've had multiple games now where I pull Data Folding after my breakers and before my Brain Chip (seriously I've had 3 Brain Chips in my last 12 cards repeatedly) and Data Folding is useless.

Kraken I've found can be an early game-winner. Whichever Central they leave open (there's usually one, depending on their hand) you Dirty Laundry, and then if you steal anything immediately Kraken the other and blow them up. Nobody really expects Kraken, it's so niche. But it fits well with early aggression to take apart single-Ice servers. I had Run Amok before, but it was just too much Influence.

Overmind is kind of a slot filler if I get early steals and a Brain Chip, and suddenly it has a bucket of counters on it for cheap. But really it's not very good. It just fills the roll of "generic breaker that doesn't cost Influence". It always comes back to Influence.

Really, though, any suggestions have to be prefaced with "Take X out and add Y" because there's just no Influence to go around. That's why I look at E3 Feedback Implants and just get sad face.

@RubbishyUsername NBN Fast Advance is rough. Once the Astrotrain starts, the game is generally over. I can't slot Clot or Turntable due to Influence limits, and definitely nothing to bring them out on-demand.

As well, Jinteki punishes hard. Leave HQ open and hold a handful of Snares, and just dare Adam to run into it. I've been first-turn Flatlined before on my own access and it sucks.

I actually don't have too-much trouble with HB and Weyland, usually. At least, it goes even.

I have a lot of success with The Source for FA, but then i run Dr Lovegood. In my experience, you have to sacrifice something just so you don't lose 25% of the matches.

Instead of 2x of three breakers that each cost 2 influence, why not 1x and 3x Special Order?