April 15th

What do you use to protect your archives? Just Shock!? Because they'll only need to run archives once or twice a game, so that's not a huge amount of damage to tank.

@Jashay well....there's the ICE. Especially Excalibur. Adjust to the way they are playing for what ICE to lay down of course. There isn't really much else you can do. Play Jackson Howard conservatively if they have 7 creds and you suspect Hades Shard. Especially against IDs like Noise, Leela, Iain, or anyone that drops a Keyhole.

I've tried Shi.Kyū and it is more of a pain for me than it is for them. Maybe it would work for you.

Haha, yeah, sorry, I worded my question badly. I suspected ICE would be involved, but I've been asking this of a lot of decks and a fair few have said that Hokusai Grid, Shock! and Shi.Kyū are enough (I disagree). Since you didn't mention ICEing archives, I felt I should check.

In your experience, then, what is your favoured ICE setup for Archives? Excalibur, sure, but that doesn't keep them out. Do you go for something like Komainu/Architect/Swordsman to annoy them on the way, or Lotus/Himitsu/Thorns to try and stop them dead? Would Tsurugi represent a nice compromise between the two positions?

Would you consider Caprice Nisei on archives viable?

@Jashay The short answer is "yes." The long answer is "it depends." Ha! Let me do my best to answer more thoroughly.

There is no particular favored setup because it heavily depends on your opponent's ID and play style. For Caprice Nisei, if I can, I will put one on the remote and one on archives. You can have it unrezzed on both, but once you rez the second, the first is gone. So, you have to be flexible.

Some runners run archives every chance they get. Some run once, hit some Shocks and never want to run it again. Some yell and scream, some go quietly, some implode, some explode.

Generally, they will run archives when they realize they need to trash something like a Ronin or Caprice Nisei or Ash 2X3ZB9CY. When they hit that Excalibur, they can't trash those things this turn, so you can overdraw and add more if it is helpful. Or play the Ronin. Or score out the agenda you've had sitting out there for the last three turns.

Ideally, if I can, the first ICE on archives is Himitsu-Bako for early protection. Unless you're playing against Quetzal: Free Spirit of course. Later, it can be replaced by Wall of Thorns. Then Lotus Field. Swordsman is there for the upcoming Eater and the Ekomind/Overmind players. Architect generally goes on R&D, but Archives is viable as well. I like to have Komainu on there somewhere as well. It is usually taxing if nothing else. There's always the unlikely event they keep going and kill themselves with the Shocks.

Where you are really the most vulnerable is R&D. Generally, you won't keep agendas in hand. It will be stuffed with Neural EMP and Snare!. It's OK to throw The Future Perfect in Archives. They usually don't have enough cash to win a psi game. If you aren't confident in that, Jackson Howard to the rescue. If they really are intent on running Archives over and over to keep hitting those Shocks, adjust the plan and shore up your scoring remote. Let them take all the net damage they want.

All of the agendas protect themselves except Utopia Fragment, which - if you can get it scored, will protect everything else. It makes runners cry when they see an iceless remote with Caprice, Ash, Red Herrings, and an NAPD or Fetal and an already scored Utopia Fragment (it has happened a couple of times).

To sum it up, what this ID, and the way I pilot this deck provides is flexibility. I hope that is somewhat helpful.

Like your deck - have you tried bootcamp? It's been fab in my Genomics deck (though I think it may not be as useful in your build as it is in mine). I am wanting to innclude a bit more Ice in my deck - I may experiment with moving up to 54 cards and Excalibur looks like a good pick.

@badbones777 - Thanks for the kind words. Executive Boot Camp is a great card, but I just don't have room for it. What would I give up?

I have done the 49 card deck with this ID. It works fine until you play noise or deal with any amount of milling. Since you are, in a sense, milling yourself, 54 cards seems just right. Excalibur cannot be underestimated.

Hey I just played against this deck! Where does the title come from?

@bloodyfistyheart - yes you did! And played well at that. April 15th is when taxes are due in the USA. Given that I just started preparing my taxes, and this is a rather taxing deck (and I wasn't being very creative), that's where the name come from.