Experimental 'Roids

esutter479 322

Go ahead, try some! They're good...

At taxing the runner down to a nub!

Let's start with agendas. Beta pretty much at will. If you hit with even just 1 ICE, it's a small victory. Find a scoring window and overadvance Vitruvius in case milling tries to spoil your day. Wotan is basically the bioroid's version of Nisei MKII, in that it can end the run...but the runner can also click or pay one credit. Either way, it's a tax amidst all the other taxes.

Assets are pretty standard here, except for Tenma Line. I decided to throw that in there for giggles, but this is one giggle that could leave the runner frowning in dismay at his full rig that's operating on little to no money since you made him/her spend it all! Hit Heimdall 2 early and installed it over HQ to prevent early accesses? Ok...now your R&D is in danger? Tenma Line it and swap it with your Viktor 2 or whatever, and now you've got a glacier that will send Corroders running for the hills. :)

The Heinlein Grids are there to play mind games with the runner if they try to run late in a turn with no rig or low funds. Potential scoring window anyone?

I'm seriously considering Jashay's idea here for operations and removing the Giraffes for Medical Research Fundraisers. We'll see though.

Lastly, the ICE. I know, I know...why Markus? Well, why not? It can surprise an unsuspecting runner every now and again and hold a rig down early. It can also provide decent Corroder tax, and Lady tax if it's in a server with, say, an Eli. Turing is, of course, there for anti-Eater action, and gotta have the 2.0s for the ultimate D4v1d tax just in case! :)

DO NOT play this deck on OCTGN! It will be the victim of the stupidest, worst possible shuffle teases imaginable! I had a big-rig Hayley on the ropes. All I needed was a Heimdall 2 or a couple more lower bioroids. What does it give me? Agendas and Hedge Funds. I managed to fire a good ABT for a Heim 1 and Viktor 1...but that wasn't good enough with Kati Jones out and no way of tagging. I needed those monster 'Roids! Where were they? AT THE ABSOLUTE BOTTOM. BAH. In all seriousness though, it was a great game...well played...and I decked myself at 6-6. Live and learn. :)

I'm considering subbing in Cyberdex Virus Suites somehow in the future. I'm gonna need to see just how deeply my meta relies on Parasites and Suckers with Medium/Nerve digs.

I'm posting this more or less for Jashay, but I never turn away from feedback, no matter who it's from. :)

7 comments
11 May 2015 Jashay

I'm flattered!

Tenma Line!? Why on earth... ? I understand the 'I've got a slot and some influence' thing, but there are so many better options. In this deck I can only assume you use it to move Turing to a remote later in the game.

Given your tribulations with card drawing reliability (which is a bugger, to be honest), you might consider swapping it for Daily Business Show. I'd also consider dropping the 3rd Brain-Taping Warehouse to put in a second. They are really helpful in these situations. Also, you have 3 Jackson Howard; you should have been able to power through with draws, chuck Agendas, and then reshuffle the whole of R&D. You were incredibly unlucky, but still managed to score 6 points.

The ICE looks fine, but I will warn you ahead of time that someone, at some point, is going to Account Siphon you badly. Bioroids are great, but they are super-easy to get through when there's only one of them. Three Architect may be excessive; whilst irritating, they are nowhere near as taxing as the rest of the deck for their cost.

Don't knock Markus 1.0! Everyone compares him to Eli 1.0, but a better comparison is Viktor 1.0, where he comes out pretty well.

One omission here is agenda protection; I run NAPD Contract, Utopia Fragment and Ash 2X3ZB9CY for this purpose. Sometimes, the runner will just have enough money, and in those cases it's good to have some tricks waiting for them. Even a Predictive Algorithm can work wonders.

But yeah, it looks like a good start! Give it a few more games and see what fits your style and what doesn't.

11 May 2015 PaxCecilia

@Jashay I assumed Tenma Line was to move unrezzed bioroids to the outermost positions for Brain-Taping Warehouse discounts? If a rezzed Bioroid is the outermost they can click through it.

11 May 2015 Jashay

@PaxCecilia: I hadn't considered that! It still seems inefficient, though; Dedicated Server or The Root would be as effective whilst being less click-intensive. Capital Investors would be a more versatile means of using the clicks, and could generate much the same effect.

11 May 2015 esutter479

Agenda protection is an omission indeed. The guy that was playing the aforementioned Hayley deck suggested that I shove out the Tenma Line and Giraffes for 3 Caprices. While not a terrible idea, I'm hesitant to delete ANY form of econ just to have a 1 in 3 chance of protecting agendas. What if I don't have enough to safely bet the runner out? What if I friggin' suck at psi-games?

I could consider The Root, but it costs a lot to rez, and is basically guaranteed to end up in archives before long. Tenma is less costly and just as taxing to the runner...not to mention the double take they'd do when they see it, lol. As Pax mentioned, shifting bioroids to outermost is one of the options available, but being able to port a big ICE from one server (that's no longer receiving pressure) to another, to me, is pretty damn sweet. It only costs a click...that doesn't sound THAT inefficient. :P

One thing I COULD do is remove the Tenma and 3 Gifts for 2 Caprices and 2 Investors. That would just about kill 2 birds with 1 stone, and I'd still be full on influence. :D Removing Vitruvius for NAPD is also something I may consider.

11 May 2015 Jashay

I ran Caprice Nisei in the original versions of my deck, but have since removed them. They were certainly better than Ash 2X3ZB9CY, but I always felt I could use the 8 influence that the 2 Caprice Nisei cost more effectively. By all means give them a whirl, though; they're really good, and I only gave them up grudgingly. I wouldn't use 3, though.

Yeah, The Root was just an example. However, Tenma Line is very narrow in scope, and The Root covers almost everything. (Also, a better point of comparison is The Root and Adonis Campaign) The bigger issue would be the porosity of your ICE; if they needed to, they could get through to it. Given your problems in the game you mentioned, I really think at least one Daily Business Show would be good.

Capital Investors was also just an example; I actually wouldn't recommend it here. The Bioroid weakness makes it difficult to protect high-value assets, so you'll lose them quite quickly, I suspect. I found Private Contracts to work quite well in those situations. The larger trash cost is glorious.

I think you should stick with your instincts regarding Celebrity Gift; keep it. If you have to change it, change it for another econ Operation. Assets are great, but they generally don't profit you the turn they are rezzed, so they need to be protected. But Bioroids are terrible at that; there is no ICE in your deck that could not be run through by a determined, breakerless runner. This leaves you down on money in most cases, and makes it harder to pick yourself back up. A healthy balance of Operations and Assets is best.

Tl;dr: Don't go too heavy on the econ assets, particularly easy to trash ones. Caprice Nisei is great, if you have the influence. Consider Daily Business Show for draw problems.

12 May 2015 esutter479

I shall definitely consider Daily Business Show. :) Thanks for the words of advice, Jash...I'll look you up on Reddit soon for sure!

15 May 2015 FourLeaf

If you're playing a horizontal style like I am, I'd personally recommend keeping the giraffes. You don't want to offer them the money to trash your assets. To couple into this strategy, NAPD takes more time to set up, but if they're trashing assets and have to pay for NAPD and their rig, it makes nice scoring windows.

I'll often wait for someone to trash BTW, and then feint NAPD by advancing it twice. That's 8 credits between trashing and the agenda, not including the cost to get through. People run in thinking they're getting a 3 pointer and can't afford the 4 credits to steal it lol.

You should only run horizontally if you plan on taxing them with agendas / assets like my previous example. If you don't like this style, you should convert more to the way @Jashay plays.

Eve is a great tax, but is also pretty slow to return credits. You almost always can't rez her and rez something on a central on turn 1 or even 2. It's hard to justify her since it takes her 3 turns to gain back what you originally spent. ST needs money quicker than a "drip" style. Consider replacing her.

Heimdall 2.0 seems like a large credit swing to me , even with BTW. How has it been working out for you? I find it too expensive for my taste to rez.

If you liked my style and want the influence to replace Tenma Line take out both eves and tenma and then consider a mix of the following

  1. 2 DBS & 1 crisium
  2. 1 DBS & 2 crisium
  3. 3 DBS

Remember that DBS acts like pseudo protection from agenda flooding, a possible tax, and digs for more econ. It's pseudo amazing. I wish I had room for 3 in my deck. Each time I drop down to 1 crisium... I regret it.

Consider IQ over Turing since IQ can be rezzed turn 1 for 3, and will generally sit at 4 or 5. It also has this strength anywhere and can't be triple clicked through. They pay , or they don't. You never plan on people clicking through the routine on Turing so I find it slightly worse due to flexibility of only remotes.

Overall looking good. Feel free to hit me up on Reddit.