Caissa reborn v1.0

hexsyn 161

With the new FAQ 2.2 giving the green-light to the caissa + Scheherazade combo, I’m revisiting my chess-heavy Reina deck. Rather than using vamp or siphon to keep the corp poor, this deck reverts to the old strategy of making ice way too expensive to rez, and Derezzing it when the corp finally bites the bullet. A lot of things have changed since the original ruling put this deck out of my mind—specifically card draw and economy within the anarch faction. Below I briefly explore the new cards that can shore-up some of the original weaknesses of the deck and I think may be worth considering.

What has changed since the original ruling?: 1. Eater/Faust-safe breaking for wherever your knights aren’t 2. Wyldcakes-passive draw that the deck always wanted 3. I’ve had worse-burst draw and a way to not run plascrete 4. Autoscripter-potential extra clicks for how many programs you want out there (only works with programs from the grip though, no pawn shenanigans) 5. street peddler-anarch-style draw with a surprise factor, especially with deep red out 6. Rachel Beckman-potential extra clicks, still too rich for my blood 7. Technical writer-double-up your econ with that pawn action! (note it works from grip or heap) 8. mass install-potential burst if you feel you need it

Deck concepts: 1. Derezzing is better than trashing—don’t lose your caissa if you derez! Thus 3x crescentus and 3x emergency shutdown. 2. Corp may well overwrite-trash their own ice just to get your pieces off the board—pawn to the rescue! Nice of them to do your job for you :P 3. Parasite and bishop are there for when something actually does need trashed. 4. Bishop finally has a job now that Faust is out and about. 5. Faust fixes the dead-draws inherent to all the 3x cards being run for consistency/early game reliability 6. All resources are worthwhile targets for career fair, allows a fairly weak economy when combined with the low-cost curve of the deck

Concessions: 1. Autoscriptor is of unknown value to the deck, may be replaced in future. 2. Not sure if the career fair + resources econ is more optimal than alternative options 3. 46 cards atm (for shame, I know) 4. Deck needs more testing and refining overall, I anticipate program numbers being changed as a result

10 comments
19 Oct 2015 tzeentchling

Muertos Gang Member might be a good option in place of Emergency Shutdown. I suppose it depends how big asset play is in your meta.

20 Oct 2015 Saan

You might want to consider -1 Autoscripter (as much as I like the concept, just having 1 probably won't do enough, and is heavy at 3 inf) -1 Emergency Shutdown +2 Clone Chip. This will effectively give you more derezes/dead ice due to recurring Crescentus and Parasite. It also leaves you with 1 inf left over, which you could use for a Shard, Film Critic, or some other 1-inf nicety (possibly in place of a Scheherazade or a Deep Red, depending on which you find you want less, since 3 copies may prove to be too many).

20 Oct 2015 Myriad

I will second the plan to put Clone Chips in. It lets you pull off some amazing plays with Peddler.

Also no Xanadu?

20 Oct 2015 Shielsy

I think you may have forgotten to put the street peddlers in.

if the autoscripter doesnt work out for you and you find yourself with a little bit of memory a Sneakdoor beta owuld be good in that slot too. Theres some nice synergies there with your emergency shutdown and pawn

20 Oct 2015 CodeMarvelous

I definitely find room for clone chips and maybe one xanadu

21 Oct 2015 Cyberblues

I have no experience with caissa. What do you think is easy to switch?

I included clone chips for a crescentus and the box, but would like to include peddlers as they are so effective. Maybe instead of pawns?

21 Oct 2015 M0H4WK

@Cyberblues Pawn is essential for retrieving caissa from your heap (recursion) and money with Shehe.

Wat about Immolation Script when they trash the ice with Caïssa on it?

26 Oct 2015 michaeln

What about e3 Feedback Implants to make Knight and Faust breaking more palatable? (Could replace with Autoscripter with it, and have an influence left over for something else.)

30 Oct 2015 lemonwood

I played this deck tonight at my store... I don't think I like faust in this deck... Need Darwin to take down the big ice or Eater so i can derez them easily.... But I love this style of deck!

26 Nov 2015 cygnals

Been fiddling with this one for about a month now. Some suggestions I have:

-3 Career Fair -1 Emergency Shutdown -1 Autoscripter -1 Deep Red -3 Daily Casts -2 Bishop -2 Parasite

+3 Clone Chip +1 e3 Feedback Implants +3 Technical Writer +2 Xanadu +2 D4vid +1 Pawn

D4vid comes in handy when dealing with Turing and >7 strength ice, as well as e3 giving D4vid, Knight, and even Faust a lot more mileage. With D4vid comes an increased need for recursion, which is where Clone Chip comes in. I may regret cutting the Career Fair and Daily Cast in favor of more tech, but I'm fairly convinced Technnical Writer will more than make up for that what with all the Pawn cycling going on. I may also regret not having Parasite or Bishop to help break/derez ice, but Xanadu should help Rook be even more potent than it already is.

I've wanted Caissa to work ever since its inception; this build looks like it has some answers.