Dirt 1.0 (Reina Supplier Blackmail with Primer)

moistloaf 174

Any publicity is good publicity.

Except when it's Bad Publicity.

Concept:

Give them BP with Activist Support and run servers for free. No one plays BP removal/prevention, except for the one-in-a-million Elizabeth Mills. Reina because she is the only released Anarch to enable Underworld Contact.

I am well aware that The Supplier does not 'combo' with beginning-of-turn effects, including Activist.

How to Play:

  • Mulligan for ProCo, Supplier, and Inject, in that order.

  • Set up your economy; pressure when the opportunity presents itself. That said, do not allow them to rez much ICE, especially on RND. Do not install Activist Support or New Angeles City Hall yet. If you see a Crypsis early and have the cash, install it and start building some counters to keep the Corp honest in remotes.

  • Get multi-access up. You definitely want at least 1 RDI before you start the Blackmail. 2 is preferable. Generally you will host them on The Supplier to save 2c, but you can save one in hand if you want the surprise factor and have the cash. If all goes as it should, even if the Corp sees a hosted RDI, they won't be able to do anything once the Blackmail starts.

  • Once strong economy and multi-access is up, install Activist and NACH when you see fit. Depending on the Corp, they may be on the brink of winning; that doesn't matter. Ideally, you already have one of these hosted and install the other one from hand on the turn when you are ready. Remember, Activist Support takes a turn to enable Blackmail. The strong economic base is needed because you will need to be capable of paying 2c/turn for the rest of the game to avoid the tag from Activist Support. Playing Aesop's Pawnshop just to get rid of Support seems bad.

  • You should be able to snag several Agendas from your first RND Blackmail runs; sometimes you will win on that one turn, especially if you were able to snag a few points early. If you don't win, you have to be prepared. Unless you have another in hand (which is preferable), NACH will be gone. This means you are going to get tagged by Activist on the beginning of Corp's turn. You are then open to resource loss and Black/Gray Ops. Be brave. Often, you simply have to roll the dice and go all-in with Blackmails when they turn on. It's not auto-lose if you don't snag the win, but it does become a bit more difficult, since your economy will take a hit.

  • If you end up in late game and have exhausted your Blackmail/Same Old Thing, Crypsis is your answer. If you managed to avoid Activist tags, you should still have a strong economy.

Notes:

  • The other BP option we have is Frame Job. I didn't go that route because it requires an Agenda to make it possible, and it hurts way more than Support if the Corp manages to remove that single BP.

  • I chose Armitage Codebusting over Liberated Account because it nets you more credits (equal with Supplier) and can come in for free with The Supplier. Granted, it is more click-intensive, but I don't foresee that being an issue in this deck. Testing may prove otherwise.

  • Inject draws you 4 for 1c. Sure, you might lose a Crypsis, but that's why you are running 3.

  • You can port this list to Andromeda: Dispossessed Ristie easily. Replace Inject with Express Delivery and swap some other things around. Definitely worth testing, especially to ensure set-up with The Supplier on turn one. But Andy is lame, and Injecting for 4 is great.

  • that Velasquez lady will make this deck much easier (Corp starts with 1 BP). You won't even need Activist Support. That said, I'm making this version since she isn't out yet.

  • Other Influence options include -1 HQI for either another Supplier or another RDI. I have the HQI in there for the situations where you suspect they are hoarding Agendas in hand.

  • I added DLR as the 46th card for optional shenanigans; feel free to remove it.

  • No Kati Jones as of now, but you could easily fit her in somewhere. Maybe -1 Scrubber.

  • For those familiar, this deck plays a bit like Burke's Motivational Speaker with Iain Stirling: Retired Spook.

Problems:

  • Fast advance.

  • Midseasons.

  • High variance.

All comments and feedback will be reciprocated as usual! Let's go besmirch those dirty Corporations.

7 comments
5 Nov 2014 4dd150n

Very creative. Do you find that Scrubber is worth having in here? I would be tempted to replace it with Surge since Crypsis is your only breaker.

I would also consider replacing some economy with some more retrieval cards (Déjà Vu?) since this deck is built around a single card of which there are only three copies. If you run out of Blackmails and still didn't score enough agendas, you could be in some real trouble.

I also want to see how this works against Blue Sun: Powering the Future. ("Oh, you just laid down some new ICE in front of this server? Well check out the bad news I have for you."

5 Nov 2014 moistloaf

@Addison removing Scrubber is definitely a possibility. I have found it useful in match-ups versus Adonis Campaign, and does help you trash things you access with Blackmail to make sure you dig to the Agendas on further runs. That said, some games you won't see one at all.

I don't think Déjà Vu is worthwhile. Between Blackmail and SOT you have 6 Blackmail, which is plenty. In my limited experience, you will either win or lose before you even use your SOT. There isn't much else I'd want to recur, so I left Deja out.

So far, this deck is pretty strong against Glacier, including Blue Sun: Powering the Future. You just sit back and grin while the Corp ICEs everything 2 and 3 deep and piles up credits. Even with 3 Plascrete Carapace, this deck's biggest challenge is still flatlining, but that's partly because of how aggressively I play.

5 Nov 2014 4dd150n

@moistloafDude. I just sat down to make a new deck and realized this one could really benefit from a Raymond Flint. Thoughts?

6 Nov 2014 moistloaf

@Addison he will only ever grab you one card. Activist Support only gives them BP if they don't already have one. I wish it could keep giving them BP, but it might be too good. I still dream of the day I can justify playing Raymond Flint in a deck :)

7 Nov 2014 spanargoman

Interesting blackmail deck idea, and one of the decks which can worry less about the downsides of Inject. How do you plan to handle Executive Boot Camp when it comes out? And what do you do if you happen to be super unlucky and get all 3 copies of Crypsis trashed by Inject?

15 Nov 2014 moistloaf

@spanargoman Boot Camp hurts, giving Corp a way to rez ICE without us running. This deck would almost always flat-out lose to Boot Camp, I think. Losing all 3 Crypsis to an Inject is another very difficult situation, although I have won without Crypsis before, it's just very situational.

19 Nov 2014 spanargoman

@moistloaf Adding some parasites might help with Boot Camp, though I'm not too sure how much.. On the plus side, I think Order & Chaos brings a lot to a blackmail build. Valencia can parasite any ice that is rezzed and use Hivemind+Incubator+Medium combos for multiaccess as opposed to spending influence on Interfaces. Puts the Corp in a bad spot whether or not they rez their ice.