Adam.

How many in the GNK?

Went 5-0. 4 swiss wins, 1 elim win.

Oh wait, you meant people. I think it was 21 people? Not sure. Around 20 though.

Cool! Congrats on the win. Have you published your Corp?

No, I should though. I brought a glacier/rush New Angeles Sol.

Haha I'm pretty sure I was 2nd place at this tournament. Salt Lake City GNG??

Yep!

Liam! You're the man. Well played with those decks btw. I have to say, though, most of the experienced players came to win that day...everyone was in try hard mode for sure. So your results are real! You made zero mistakes in your two games against me and definitely earned that 1st place. I hope you post your deck lists on Stimhack too...give Adam and Sol the love everywhere.

I really like your breaker suite. I'm curious, why ZU.13 instead of Gordian Blade?

@obscurementas always with that call, influence.

@AsteriskCGYExactly. INF is really, really tight in this deck.

This looks like an excellent deck. Been playing something similar, but it got a bit messy with the changes, so I'll probably swap back to this. Just a couple of queries:

1. You prefer The Maker's Eye to R&D Interface? Obviously I get that it works with ABR, but do you not find it lacking consistency? I find that the case in a lot of criminal builds, for example.

2. Is Scrubber doing a lot of hard work for you? If I were to try and free up influence for Gordian, 2x Scrubber is probably what I would drop, but I wouldn't want to make that change if you tell me that you're relying on it a lot.

Either way, thanks for the list and congratulations on the win.

@glaivemaster Good luck with Adam, and thanks for the congratulations!

1. I prefer The Maker's Eye because the nature of Adam is that you're going to be making accesses infrequently instead of just hammering a central 80% of the time. Also, the install cost of R&D interface is higher and with no way to tutor it a single Maker's Eye is usually more impactful than and RDI. It's a close call, but I think the really compelling argument for Maker's Eye is that you can recur it with SOT.

2. Oh god yes Scrubber put in work. There isn't a single competitive deck out there that isn't using asset econ, and it really helps to deal with Neutralize's downside. Even just getting to get a few credits back on Jackson is a big deal. If you are considering dropping a scrubber, I'd probably spend the influence on another Career Fair rather than upgrading Zu.13 to Gordian. The lower install cost helps you to bust code gates quickly, and ignoring the rolling strength boost of Gordian, you have to break four code gates with more than one strength to get your cash back. Once again, its a close meta call, but if you really want Gordian, I would try swapping out the Shrikes for Mimics.

How are you using Independent Thinking? Are you smashing your directives asap? Nice to see a deck without 3x Public Sympathy.

@instinctive: Smashing your directives at the right time is probably the single highest skill part of this deck.

It all comes down to evaluating how much something is costing your compared to how much you're getting out of it, and all three of the directives have games where they should be kept through the end and games where you get rid of them almost immediately.

Always Be Running: This is the directive I get rid of the most, and also perhaps the best one. It puts immense pressure on your opponent, making their centrals leaky and making it much, much more difficult to rush agendas. However, if you aren't making productive runs, the -1 click is a massive tempo hit. The three situations you should get rid of this in are either having Overmind or a full set of breakers with enough cash to use them, when you really need to set up for the late game and are okay with giving the corp some space and potentially some agendas, or the corp has some kill threat with scorches or snares that you don't have the money or handsize to handle.

Safety First: This directive is the one I keep around the most. The most notable downside of this card is that with no Brain Chip or Plascrete Carapace you die to a single scorch. Really, the two situations where I get rid of this are either when I play against PE where Snare! kills your entire hand or against faster scorch based decks where you need to be able to survive a single scorch to get the ball rolling. However, if you can keep it around and play your cards right, it turns out clickless draw is really, really good. Brain Chip is enough handsize support, provide you snowball early and get at least 2 points.

Neutralize All Threats: Not only is it a free HQ Interface, it's a free HQI from turn 1! This gives you the early central pressure that you need to stop yourself from getting steamrolled by NEH fast advance decks. The problem is that trashing unrezzed SanSan City Grids or PAD Campaigns out of a central can be a massive tempo hit to you. If the corp is just spamming assets and baiting you into them consistently to keep you down, this can be worth getting rid of. If you get a few Scrubbers out, though, it basically gives this card no downside.

So yeah. it's not particularly easy knowing when to toss your directives. There are games where you'll keep one all the way to the end and games where you'll be frantically digging for Independent Thinking to get rid of them. The only real way to know what to do is to play some more Adam.