Smoke and Mirrors, Inc.

j4 69

I'm a fairly new player, this is made from a pretty limited cardpool and I'm looking for ways to improve the deck with future purchases in mind.

Some thoughts on card choices:

Oversight AI has been working great for some ballsy scores behind Archer or, less often, Orion. Wormhole in front of one of the above feels very strong in particular. I first thought of trying it out after getting trashed by Blackmail recursion Val, so there's that too.

I haven't seen triple Hostile Takeover in a lot of newer decklists, but scoring two Project Atlas and all Takeovers has proven to be a legitimate way to win the game. Also important as fodder for the double Archer.

One-off SanSan City Grid surprises the runner and makes playing Firmware Updates feel a lot better. Enables scoring 5/3 from hand with two Tricks but I have yet to pull that off. I don't rely on it, but I'm always glad to see it.

Commercialization is a fantastic economy card, I can't see myself running any less than 3, I'll often advance an Ice Wall with 5 or more and burst econ off that with multiple copies. Similar goes for Shipment from Kaguya, great click conservation and another push for economy, it seems small but it's noticeable enough for how cheap the deck can set up and score.

Nebula is the one space ice I decided not to run. It has the lowest strength of the bunch, 5 means it's really cheap to break with Dagger and Ninja, and it only takes 2 Datasucker tokens to get in Mimic range. Feels like bad value even if I get one activation out of it. I'd say Wormhole is fantastic and strictly better then Nebula, and Asteroid Belt is alright.

High-Risk Investment has been extremely clunky, but that might simply come from my lack of experience and confidence in recognizing scoring windows for it. Even then, it's almost always the winning agenda, so I'm thinking Hollywood Renovation might be a bit better since it actually does something. When I do get to score it early, the pressure on runner finances and burst econ is pretty sweet though.

I'm also thinking fitting a Fast Track for Atlas in here might be a good idea.

3 comments
6 Oct 2015 Bigguyforyou518

SanSan City Grid should actually be the centerpiece here - if you can find your way to get your hands on a second one, I'd highly recommend it. With Titan Transnational, SanSan enables the "Atlas Train", which basically ends the game in 3 turns if it's not shut down. Your turn begins, and you fast-advance score a Project Atlas on the SanSan. It gets a token. Your next turn begins, and you use your Atlas token to pull a Project Atlas of your deck and immediately fast-advance score it, placing another token on it. Repeat, and if this only gets you to 6 points, just use the last token to grab a Hostile Takeover.

This puts an immense amount of pressure on the runner to break into that server and trash it immediately. Hopefully you can tax them 8+ 's for doing this (SanSan City Grid by itself taxes them 4 to ), because you then just follow it up with a SEA Source + Scorched Earth combo (and if you started the Atlas train, you can use that token to pull a piece of the combo into your hand to fire it).

6 Oct 2015 FarCryFromHuman

I agree with @Bigguyforyou518, 3x SanSan City Grid is heinously powerful in Titan. I'd drop two Trick of Light for two more copies in a heartbeat.

Hollywood Renovation would also be great but I don't think I'd trade out all the High-Risk Investments. They enable SEA Source better than any other card in the game, and the extra counter from your identity makes it a pretty critical score in most games.

I have mixed feelings about Oversight AI + Archer in ICE-light decks like these. I don't know that you can afford to lose a piece of ICE on a central for the trade-off of a turn or two worth of scoring window. Also, Faerie is a thing, as is Sharpshooter. Maybe these could be Power Shutdowns or Will-o'-the-Wisps?

7 Oct 2015 j4

I suppose I'll add in another SanSan one for one Trick of Light, it really is a big win condition in here. I can't run 3 for now because I lack a third Core Set, but 2:2 sounds like a good number either way. The existence of cheap one-shot sentry breakers is a very fair point, I'll rethink the Oversights, but Wormhole in front of an Oversighted Archer still seems very strong and quick (and cheap) to set up. I think I should shuffle around some of the ice, since I feel pretty helpless early game, perhaps find some space for 2 Enigma or something. Will-o'-the-Wisp sounds expensive but I can see Power Shutdown being very useful. Thanks for the input!