Anarch Archaic Admonishments- Caress My Chess

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algorithm 110

Caïssa decks aren't particularly popular, because the perception is that they aren't terribly efficient. Set-up requires specific cards, influence is wasted on recursion, and the process is click intensive. Luckily, I have solved all of those problems!...Yeah... just kidding. But, if, like me, you are deadset on transforming servers into a chessboard, give this not-that-horrible package a shot. (Brought to you with archaic rap)

  1. Acquire Currency, Disregard Females. Money comes from use-it-and-lose-it ladies: Sure Gamble, Liberated Account, Armitage Codebusting. As added support, there is a background drip economy: Symmetrical Visage, Technical Writer, Scheherazade. These provide bonus chocolate chips for doing what you already need to do. You can even cycle two Pawns, and constantly earn 1-3 credits per run (note: this will almost never happen).

  2. Hereto, I shall not say she is a pence-seeking wench, but she does not affiliate with impovrished peasants. Reina Roja: Freedom Fighter and Xanadu add economic pressure for rez'ing ICE. Crescentus will double their benefit a few times. If the corp has no credits when you start your turn (or just 1, but you have Xanadu), they can't rez any ICE (even if it costs 0).

  3. Shake thyself similar to a hastily-completed self-developing portrait Start the game by pressuring the corp to rez ICE. If they don't, enjoy accesses. There is a bit of risk management in this, because it typically means running unrezed, unknown ICE without classic retard-protection (e.g. Eater). Special Order Mimic for general protection. Install Knight on unrezed ICE if you need access (this does not help with credit-denial). If you have Deep Red+Clone Chip with Knight in the heap, run like the wind.

  4. Hatred originating from disreputable gentlemen is going to continuously persist.
    Many corps will trash ICE to kill Knight. Reina / Xanadu make this inefficent with already-rezed ICE. That practice also keeps ICE on servers low, so you can get in places later with one breaker. If the corp does this on R&D/HQ, they'll want to replace it with ICE that isn't a joke, or you can exploit with a multi-access Virus (Nerve Agent, Medium). Even if they pull this off, you can force them to do it multiple times; 3xClone Chip, 2xPawn can support up to 8x Knight installs per game.

  5. Other gentlemen view my rolling. They ardently dislike it Breakers are O.G. Anarch deligths (Yog.0, Mimic, Corroder, Datasucker, D4v1d). Special Order will help get the appropriate one out. Otherwise, draw slowly with Visage as you pressure / click your banks. Knight is for early pressure, and to fill holes on your rig.

Notable corp interactions:

  1. Lotus Field is a strong counter vs Mimic/Datasucker. Knights is your only answer.

  2. Reina / Xanadu / Crescentus + D4v1d are good vs Blue Sun. Unfortunately, its corp ability severely neuters Knight...

  3. I've Had Worse's main purpose is damage protection. Pray the first Scorch hits it. One-off net/meat damage isn't too bad; nothing (except for Deep Red) is particularly devastating to lose if you have Clone Chip.

  4. Architect will provide a safe-haven for Knight if you want to blow a click protecting it.

Go ahead and draw a few hands, see what you think. I'd love some feedback. Even if it is to keep the write-ups shorter ;)

6 comments
15 Oct 2015 algorithm

Changes you may consider:
+1-2 Trope - Useful with Knight/Parasite/Crescentus, and to recover from inconvenient trashes. Issues with MU/deck space made me ditch it. It could save Clone Chip influence if you've got an influence card you really want to put in. You'll probably need MemStrips if you want to add it
+X Déjà Vu - the virus bonus is essentially useless with this deck (Parasite+Clot, maybe?), and its less efficient than clone chip
+1-3 Hacktivist Meeting great for NEH /RP / Adonis, and to counter currents
+1 Vamp - Considered this or Lamprey instead of Nerve Agent. It's pretty good with Reina
+1 Djinn. Once you get it, you get access to 5 virus utility cards. Plus, early is better for MU. For some reason, I never seem to draw one in time
+X Film Critic. Influence / deck space is tight. Technical Writer can be trashed to emergency steal NAPD. I've Had Worse helps with Midsea+Scorch & Punative & Fetal AI. I'm also bored with it, since I run it in many other decks
+1 Deep Red. Pawn is garbage without it (maybe even with it?). It's really annoying to have Pawns and Knights, and not have this card.
+2 Rook - I wanted to use more Caïssa (that was my goal here), and this adds even more to the rez tax, but it also costs you 2, blocks Knight, is useless in a some games, and is even easier to trash than Knight, since it is frequently on an unrezed ICE
+2 Bishop - Yeah... this would work well with the breakers, but it just seems so bad

15 Oct 2015 bubbathegoat

Is 1x D4v1d reliable enough to see when you need it? You don't seem to have any program tutors.

15 Oct 2015 algorithm

There are program tutors for Icebreakers (Special Order) and Viruses (Djinn), but not for the two other programs (D4v1d and Crescentus). The one D4v1d copy in the deck is not at all reliable, but it is also never nessessary. It's kind of a nice-to-have, and you can get rid of it entirely. Knight gets you by everything with 4 exceptions: Curtain Wall, Janus 1.0, Orion, or Wotan. First of all, they are all ludicrously expensive to rez (14+ credits, more with Reina/Xanadu). Second, if you NEED to break it, all can be reduced with very few Datasucker tokens in conjunction with Knight-and both of those cards CAN be tutored. Aside from slotting 3 in the deck, am I missing some magical way of tutoring for D4v1d outside of high-influence shaper cards?

16 Oct 2015 bubbathegoat

I agree that there isn't a program tutor available to anarch cheaply, and you seem to think that the 1x D4v1d is unnecessary, so why include it? You are unlikely to draw it when you need it, and you have a lot of other 1x or 2x cards that the deck may be better with an additional copy of. -1 D4v1d and +1 Symmetrical Visage +1 Technical Writer. I think Scheherazade may be in a similar boat as D4v1d where it isn't reliable enough as a 1-off to be part of your game plan.

16 Oct 2015 TheLastPaladin

@algorithmThis writeup made my morning.

Thank you!

16 Oct 2015 algorithm

A lot of the 1-2x cards were annoying to get too many copies of at once, and not essential to start causing damage. I just thought that D4v1d is helpful late game, and you can usually get the 1 copy by then.

Either way, what you're saying makes sense. A more consistent (and probably better) deck would be: -1x D4v1d -1x Scheherazade +1x Djinn +1x Deep Red