A very useful piece of the deck (Bellona x2) was banned officially shortly after the event, this decklist will refer to Bellona as the original 5/3 for archival purposes of how the deck worked prior to it's banning and this version will be uploaded with Reeducation as it's replacement until further testing determines suitable replacements.
Currently Degree mill and Reeducation seem like suitable straight replacements in this deck but -2 Post-Truth Dividend +1 Tomorrowʼs Headline +3 Project Beale is also being tested.
The deck aims to set up fast advance scoring windows with a strong control of agenda density and the top of RnD.
The little amount of ICE it runs is used to avoid possible lose conditions and desincentivize runs against centrals or to add extra taxes to the trashing of critical scoring tools.
Federal fundraising can be used to easily control the top deck and set up your scoring windows but a good runner will remove it from the table quickly to deny such a powerful effect, so your main way of gaining information on RnD will be your ID ability, you will need to offer the runner lose-lose trades where they have to choose to either leave powerful installed cards on the board or give you game defining ID activations.
You do have to be careful of spacing your "trash-me" cards as you want to limit steals and trashes to once per turn, if the runner is not interacting with your bait a sacrifical Post-Truth Dividend will force the runner to take it.
You want to have the runner steal a 3 pointer early on to reduce agenda density in RnD while enabling Threat 3, Bellona was key here serving as an additional 5 cred tax to your benefit.
Its key to be mindful of the percentage of agendas remaining in the deck and how your actions can combat multiaccess.
A Federal fundraising (without extra draws) or an ID activation with an install will end the turn with two known cards on top.
An ID activation without an install will end the turn with three know cards on top, this beats a fully charged The twinning but reveals one new card to a Cataloguer.
Its important to use hidden information to your advantage and gamble on the runner following logical play patterns based on the tells you generate, tossing an agenda to an unprotected archives inconspicuously, not panic protecting HQ to avoid signaling agendas in hand or purposely ICEing a server (like a trash safe central) so the runner spends clicks checking it for no reward.
If not facing ICE destruction the best ICE to use is Endless EULA as at best it can be broken for 3 by a Cleaver while other meta breakers like Lobisomem and Curupira have to pay full price (6).
Against criminal ICE HQ first to avoid Diversion of funds, and against Shaper ICE RnD to tax multiaccess.
As a rule of thumb ICE your servers depending on what is needed to deny run events/activations instead of protecting them.
You should aim to be have 15 credits (or 10 credits with econ already set up) before attempting to score, so you are able to pay for the scoring costs and not leave you economically crippled afterwards.
Its important to use both Restore and Epiphany's ID activation to play around Holoman's and Stoke the embers limitations.
Restore can be used to either install Holoman/Vladisibirsk or install an agenda previosly placed in archives.
Having a primed Vladisibirsk (already 1 advancement counter on it), Calibration testing or a scored Remastered edition effectively reduces the agenda requirement by 1, that means that scoring lines that score a REQ 4 agenda can score a REQ 5 or score a REQ 4 with a limited Holoman.
Business as usual can be used instead of a regular advancement to prime a Vladisibirsk for later.
At Threat 3 Sudden Commandment into Red Level Clearance can be either a (3 credits -> 1 click) or a (5 credits -> 1 click and 1 non-agenda install).
You should aim to always having either a Vladisibirsk, a Holoman or a Calibration testing preinstalled before attempting to score, if the runner trashes them you will need to use Spin doctors and Restores to get them back but some are bound to stay and you will get ID activations in the process, with good setups and draws this is not needed but it benefits your gameplan to gain more ID activations and if they stick they greatly amplify your scoring potential/versatility.
Click 1-2 install Stoke the embers (+3 credits) and Holoman from outside HQ | Click 3 (6 credits) Holoman activation [SCORE] (+2 credits and advancement)
Click 0 Have Vladisibirsk preinstalled or installed clicklessly with Red Level Clearance | Click 1 Install REQ 4 agenda | Clickless (4 credits) Sudden Commandment into Business as usual | Click 2-3 (2-5 credits) Advance Vladisibirsk, Advance Agenda, Vladisibirsk Activation [SCORE]
Click 1 Install REQ 4 agenda | Click 2-3 (3 credits) Business as usual + Business as usual, Vladisibirsk activation [SCORE]
Click 1 Install REQ 4 agenda | Click 2 (5 credits Threat 3) Sudden Commandment into Red Level Clearance gain 2 clicks and install Holoman | Click 3 (6 credits) Holoman activation | Click 4-5 Advance, Advance [SCORE]
After the banning of Bellona, which only served as a gift to the runner to reach Threat 3 while generating a 5 credit swing (or letting you greedy score it with low credits and bouncing back economically), nothing else in the deck is at risk of recieving a ban (NSG has signalled that Holoman is here to stay with the Bellona and RecoCo bannings).
That leads to the future of Dawns release and the rotation of all non-NSG cards, while the decks loses quite a few cards I remain positive that alternatives will be found within the Standard cardpool left after Dawn's release:
-NGO front: Can be substituted for other econ cards, not vital to gameplan.
-Endless EULA and Tollbooth: Surprisingly this will be one of the heaviest hits to the deck as good taxing ICE that remains relevant lategame are hard to find within NBN without a supporting tag gameplan.
-Attitude adjustment: A great econ + agenda reshuffler that will be hard to find replacements for if NSG doesnt print new agenda shufflers in Dawn.
-Restore: The biggest hit to the deck, if new recursion outlets arent printed in Dawn it will severely tank this deck's viability.
-Calibration testing: While a good trash magnet that if left untouched can amplify your scoring potential it's not vital to the gameplan, if no replacements are to be found it can be replaced with something else.
I wanted to thank my friends at Meeting of Minds discord server for teaching and sparring with me, to ManintheMoon and all my opponents at the Summer showdown for the great experience to cap off my first month playing the game and the reader for having read all that damn text.
Thank you all, now learning runner awaits!
3 comments |
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24 May 2024
PiroARat
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25 May 2024
krokmaster
Thoughts on Subliminal Messaging as another way to gain clicks with Sudden Commandment and pressure the runner to run potentially giving you more Epiphany counters? |
25 May 2024
Rene Reed
Most of the time spent either building, playing or writing about this deck has been while sleep deprived, not something I would recommend but definetly had a lot of fun in the process, I find decks where you play mental games with the runner really engaging. On the subject of Subliminal Messaging, while it could be a valuable piece I have found that the runners run pretty consistently against an ice light board (what they dont do as much is trash freely unless they stole and agenda or can get two trashes in the same turn) already lowering the ammount of times you can get SM back to hand. Losing the consistent recursion of SM then it becomes more and more a fourth copy of Red Level Clearance where you can only choose options 2 and 4 which ends up being noticeably less good when you need that versatility in a given gamestate. In my experience I havent usually had the problem of lacking a Sudden Commandment target as there are 8 out of 49 and I wouldnt know what to remove to make room for SM but that doesnt mean it cant be a good include and is a good card to keep in mind for potential changes in the future. Thank you for the suggestion! |
This looks extremely fun to play and even more rewarding to win with.