Honeycomb Crunch (SG Nationals 5th place)

IonFox 1497

"We know all about you. Where you live, your daily routines, even your favourite YucaBean joint. It doesn't matter what we do with the information. What matters is making sure you know that we know."

-- Keegan Lane

It's 1.30 am Nationals day, and I'm sitting in a cold, dark second-story room sleeving up this deck for the first time. Fast forward about 20 hours, and I finally finish 5th in a field of 40 players, with this amazing deck going 5-1 through the day.

The basic principles of this deck are simple. Drop your tagging ICE over centrals, make money and score yellow cards to claim victory. SYNC actually aids this plan rather well, as the ID simply discourages the runner from running, allowing you ample time to find credits and FA tools. And if they do go tag-me, you just get another FA option with Psychographics. Sometimes you can also play a never advance game with just a single data raven over a remote, and rotate through QPM, news teams and actual agendas, to tax the runner everytime they get brave enough to check.

Tournament Report

Round 1 vs @TeacupGiraffe (Stimshop CT): I get a very nice opening and play a hedge fund, drop a gutenberg over R&D and install a naked news team to get a measure of his running style. He proceeds to immediately drop a workshop with breakers and draws like a maniac. Sensing his reluctance to run, I install an AstroScript behind a Data Raven and get more credits. Once again, he just dumps stuff onto his workshop, and continues digging, despite having his entire breaker suite. At this point I score out the astro, followed by another GFI behind the raven. He finally decides to look through centrals, taking a couple of tags. However, he forgets about my ID and is left with 2 clicks and 4 credits which just won't cut it. I then biotic, triple advance and psycho out the last GFI behind which was naked on the table for game. Afterwards, he told me he was looking for his Plascretes as he hadn't seen any of my influence and presumed I was ButcherSYNC. 1-0

Round 2 vs JJ (L4J Whizzard): Here my opening is a little worse than last game, with some agendas, econ but no ICE. Thankfully, I topdeck Lord Jackson himself and get back into the game. We both take turns setting up, he gives me a Quantum Predictive Model I hid behind a raven and finds a pair of News Teams covering the latest Global Food Initiative in Archives. I then proceed to biotic out an Astro, and easily close the game from there. 2-0

Round 3 vs Hong Qing (Eater MaxX): I rush to secure my centrals as fast as possible, and by turn 2 I have a raven and crisium on HQ, a gutenberg on R&D, and a resistor over archives. I feel pretty good about it until he drops a keyhole and starts going tag-me, blowing up agendas and Jacksons. I manage to Biotic out an Astro, but run low on creds and he proceeds to siphon me twice immediately. Ouch. But hey, closed accounts is a card so I click for a cred, sweeps and bankrupt him. He clicks for credits and I get some breathing room to resecure my servers with an enigma over R&D and a resistor over HQ (which is at about 8 strength). He then proceeds to play Day Job, and I Archived Memories closed accounts to effectively seal his fate. A couple turns later I psycho out a 5 point Beale while he is forced to click for credits and Levy. 3-0

Round 4 vs Martin (PPVP Kate): I mulligan into a flood so bad not even Noah's Ark could save me. Eventually, I manage to stabalise but Martin already found 5 points despite eating a pair of news teams. He then plays a Maker's Eye and finds an Astro on top. Well, you can't win them all. 3-1

Round 5 vs DPS (Good Stuff Val ft. Dave): Dave is well known for being an amazing player with even more amazing card choices. I don't remember much apart from a tinkering, hemorrhage (woooaaah) and astrotrain to victory. 4-1

Elimination Round 1 vs Bernard (PPVP Kate): Another small flood with no ICE. I decide to take a bit of a risk and install a QPT and astro, then sweeps for money. He gets money, finds nothing on R&D, adopts the kitten... and diesels last click. Phew! From there, I manage to ride the astrotrain to 6 points while he can't seem to find a SMC. However, he finally installs clot with a clone chip, and has trashed both my virus suites. I proceed to Archived a suite and click to 8 credits. He misses the suite and doesn't seem to have legwork, and his Maker's Eye finds nothing. I fast track 15 minutes, install it, biotic, install the suite, advance it twice with the last astro counter and purge for the win. Great game, hate to think what would have happened if he had trashed the suite again. 5-1

And that's that. I might have been able to go further if my Noise play wasn't so terrible that day, but I still feel that I did well. Credit to eventual champ @Burdle.Jai for coming up with this amazing list, and letting me have it when Weyland failed me for the last time.

Thanks for dropping by, and feel free to drop any questions on matchups or card choices, I'll be sure to get to them. Good hunting, everyone ^.^

17 comments
14 Dec 2015 yokhen

I've been playing a aimilar version of this deck. So from my own experience I think you would benefit from making that Unlikely Beale and 15 Minutes into another GFI.

Now, the previous might be a matter of choice but man oh man, having 3 Archangels and 3 Gutenbergs have maxed my enjoyment of the game. Every other game the runner enxounters archangel a few too many times and ends up losing helplessly. Even though it just pops cards back to the grip if you choose the right cards * cough cough Kati Jones cough cough * it will mean a serious slowdown to the runner, allowing you even more time to set up your game!

Another card that empowers the game is Motherfucking News Teabagging Team. It forces the runner to take 2 tags (enabling your tagging game) or take as a -1 point agenda giving you, guess what, even more motherloving time to play your game!

Other than that it looks good!

14 Dec 2015 IonFox

@yokhen News Team is pretty awesome, unless you're the runner.

I actually would like to squeeze in another gutenberg and perhaps archangel, but the problem then becomes what should be cut, as every card in the deck already fills a certain role. The smaller deck size also means card slots are at a premium, and "nice but not needed" just isn't good enough.

14 Dec 2015 Chuftbot

It's not quite as reliable, but I've found Targeted Marketing can often fill a similar role to Crisium. It's still pretty handy in matchups where Crisium might not do a lot, and it cancels the odd runner current. If you dropped 15 Minutes and Beale for a GFI you could fit a TM as a replacement for Crisium and stuff in an extra Archangel/Gutenberg. I'd lean towards Archangel because that card is frogdamn rude.

Question regarding some card quantities: did you find you needed the second Psychographics? I've found it can do really well but it tends to sit in hand for a long time.

Congrats on the solid performance! SYNC is a really cool ID and I'm super happy people are doing well with it.

14 Dec 2015 IonFox

@Chuftbot Thanks, you're too kind.

You are probably right that the 2nd psychographics does sit around HQ too long in some cases. But it can be a godsend if someone goes tag-me by keyholing/medium running through a gutenberg. However, I'll definitely look to switching it, to test either a TM or piece of ICE (maybe archangel, gutenberg, or other small gearcheck ICE) to help out the rush.

I'm actually rather happy with the crisium (hah no apocalypse for that MaxX) and feel the agenda suite is fine as is, especially since 15 minutes and a 5 point beale won me a couple games. That being said, if the 3rd GFI works for you, go for it ^.^

14 Dec 2015 yokhen

@IonFox @Chuftbot Yeah I've found myself in a similar situation. Had I had a single Psychographics in hand, things would have been very different. Right now I am testing it in my own deck in a similar fashion as you, I hope it gets to be used because otherwise I will be switching back to Closed Accounts which I've used once. I guess it all depends on the meta.

15 Dec 2015 Badeesh

Love this. With the archived memories about, I think the second psychographics could certainly be a Lily Lockwell. Well, I certainly think is worth considering.

19 Dec 2015 TeacupGiraffe

Hahaha, the fear of scorch is real. Congrats on the 5th place.

21 Dec 2015 benticurus

What is the reasoning behind Beale x1 and Global Food x2 ?

Wouldn't it be better to just have 3 Beale and two left over influence?

22 Dec 2015 IonFox

@benticurus The important thing to remember is Beale was printed as a 3/2 while Food is a 5/3. If I chose to go to 3x Beale, I'd still be 2 agenda points short of the required amount, so in this case, 2 influence was used to lower agenda density.

22 Dec 2015 benticurus

@IonFox right! ...im slow, haha thnx

22 Dec 2015 mostlysmart

Been using this deck for the last couple weeks. Currently 6-2 and the two were my fault and one was agenda flooded to the point where I drew 7 agendas in a row on jnet.

23 Dec 2015 crushedguava

@benticurus The other way you could approach it is to remove 1 GFI and the 15 minutes and go with 2 more Beales. This results in 1 more influence for yourself, but 1 (effectively 2 as you can't force the 1 point back into your deck should they steal it early) more point for the runner to score.

What you gain is the ability to play SanSans. I found that when the runner plays very carefully and chooses not to run through your RnD ICE and go tag me, you end up with a lot of dead tag punishment cards and agendas in HQ. It gets worse with clot.

With SanSans, you lose some tag punishment but you are much speedier.

23 Dec 2015 IonFox

Just as a general note, the most flexible slot is this deck is the second psychographics, as runners usually don't go tag-me, and it could clog up HQ for a while. Feel free to swap it as you wish. I would reccommend another cheap ICE, Shipment from SanSan or whatever.

Also, this deck's small size means draw isn't as important, so you could also swap out a Jackson Howard (what blasphemy is this?!) for another cute yellow toy.

23 Dec 2015 TugtetguT

I do not see how GFI is just an expensive 1 influence version of Beale?

23 Dec 2015 TugtetguT

Probably should add to that comment that you can just remove a 1-pointer or two to keep the same agenda density.

25 Dec 2015 steevo15

I'm really curious as to what Archived Memories did for you. I could totally see it as a second Blue Level Clearance, or maybe something else...maybe a Snare! to increase RD protection in addition to News Team?

26 Dec 2015 IonFox

@steevo15 Archived Memories is your 3rd Biotic, 2nd Fast Track/Closed Accounts or even an agenda you threw away, whenever you want it. It's reeeeaally good. It flat out won me 1 game in Nationals (3rd one) and made a couple others quite easier.