Sneaky Adam

I have experimented with a few different types of Adam builds

1. Anarch Adam ( Corroder , Mimic, Yog.0, Datasucker ) pre MWL
2. Drug Addict Adam ( Drug Dealer , Faust ) pre MWL
3. Implants Adam ( leveraging e3 Feedback Implants)
4. Snitch Adam ( Au Revoir , Snitch)
5. Gang Member Adam ( leveraging the synergy between Gang Sign and Neutralize All Threats)
6. Safety 1st Adam ( Public Sympathy , Plascrete Carapace, Brain Cage, Brain Chip, Scrubber)

After running through this whole buffet of Adam: Compulsive Hacker I have now come to feel the best version is a form of Stealth.

I have always been in the camp that embraces the directives instead of trying to blank them with the inclusion of Dr. Lovegood. So you wont see him in my deck. I do like to include either 1 or 2 Independent Thinking or a single Chop Bot 3000 where if a directive becomes a real hindrance late game I can cut it for card draw.

With Adam I find that I need to both Mitigate and embrace Safety First as soon as possible. A hand size of 3 is very dangerous and does not present much options to you early game. But blanking this card with a Dr. Lovegood kills a great draw mechanic also. Brain Chip is amazing .......... when you have stolen agendas but you really need a way to pump up your hand-size if you are not seeing any. Public Sympathy does the trick here I'm more a fan of it than Brain Cage. To me it is worth the extra credit to not take the damage. I don't run recursion so if the damage discards something valuable it becomes a quick derail to the game plan.

Neutralize All Threats - I love cards designed like this. Powerful cards with both a negative and a positive. As a deck builder you are forced to then try and negate one of the effects while embarrassing the other. Nothing can kill tempo quicker than running into a high trash asset early game. Most of the Adam builds out there that I have seen are using Scrubber to combat this. I think this is a great way to go about the task but I didn't want to use the deck slots or influence. 2 credits to trash cards is great don't get me wrong but you still have to be able to find him and get him out. This deck does have a swing slot I mention below and if you like the Scrubber path you can put him in here. But my plan was to be using recurring stealth credits to feed runs so that I don't really have to worry too much about money. You cant trash something if you don't have the credits.

Always Be Running - This is what gives Adam the early game pressure and power. A corporation is going to want to ICE up HQ early to stop you from triggering your double access ability. But there is really not much early game ICE that can keep him out due to the double click to break a sub. There are a few times when you are going to need to read your opening hand and wont be able to run HQ first click over all because you can't afford to burn 2 clicks and deal with discarding. Look for an open Archives and play your set up cards. You have to keep in mind that you need to start your next turn with a run so don't hang yourself out to dry.

The Meat of the Deck The stealth suite is an investment of influence and there is no going in half way.

IceBreakers

Refractor : This is just a solid breaker overall, its ability to handle Turing alone makes it worth the include price. Also it deals with a few other common problems like Quandary and Enigma. The base strength of 2 is really nice

Switchblade: the older Switchblade Andy decks proved just how frustrating this is for a corp to play against. You do need to have your stealth credits online but when you do you are cutting through ICE.

Corroder: Nothing still beats how efficient Corroder is and BlacKat is just too expensive in influence to fit in and truth be told even if I could its just too taxing on all the stealth credits if you are making a few runs a turn.

Overmind: This card gets you out of a few jams if you are not fully set up. It also becomes monstrous when you get your Brain Chip going.

Programs:

Cloak: Brain Chip will create the MU for you to have these installed ( as well as the rest of the rig ) and they help to pump Stealth Breakers

Multithreader: getting one of these online really helps you to run with less credits. paying for use of Corroder, Overmind and Refractor.

Hardware:

I dont think there is much to explain here. You have your Brain Chip which are auto include and then we have one each of Lockpick and Silencer. Both of these are cheap to install and give you Stealth credits. Its nice to have this other form of stealth generation incase of MU issues early on if you cant steal and Agenda to get Brain Chip working. They are both 3 influence and 1 of each have been feeling right.

Events:

Remember the Adam can use a run event for his first click to satisfy Always Be Running so we have Dirty Laundry. and the Usual Sure Gamble. Like I mentioned I do like 1 Independent Thinking just to be able to turn off a directive if it because to negative and get a bonus draw from it, The main card here though is Special Order. Since we are only running single breaker copies the Special Order will be able to find the missing pieces for you. The influence and and cost sit right for the deck and from our pool of cards that let you search for breakers.

Resources.

The standard Adam cards get filled out here - you only have so many choices available once your influence is used up and 25 is not as big as it seems. you fill out with Econ to help with set up and Draw and I talked before about the Public Sympathy. The fun pieces of this deck includes 2 you wont find in most though.

Ghost Runner: this again is to feed stealth ( and maybe help for those NAPD's) like the hardware its an alt source if you don't have MU yet for Cloak. Ghost Runner is cheap and no influence and has always been a staple in Stealth setups

Hunting Grounds: This is such a great card in Adam. It helps you avoid so many ways.

Gives Komainu zero subroutines - if you dont have switchblade out yet and you have huge hand this is DANGER.

Blocks the credit loss from Tollbooth

Blocks the tag/ETR choice on Data Raven - Adam does not like tags or he has potential loss of directives. With limited clicks you don't want to use to clear tag as last click either

Blocks Grail ice from gaining subroutines

Blocks the corp from gaining money via Popup Window - this is just more funny than anything

These are just a few of the main ones and more common ones I have encountered

Mulligan Strategy:

Sure Gamble, Dirty Laundry, Public Sympathy, - these are the mains im also happy to see a breaker and Hunting Grounds.

Deck Flex Spot

The Employee Strike is a flex spot that you can swap out. I like the card because it can turn some corp game plans to mush. Other options include Quality Time for a power draw, Scrubber, Stimhack, Eden Shard, Utopia Shard. Some people are going to say Drug Dealer here but use with caution. if you get stuck at zero credits too early with Adam its a large speed bump in temp. Also influence cards can be adjusted to boost to 3 Special Order - drop the flex spot and a Hunting Grounds then add in an additional Multithreader to get deck size back up.

Adam is by no means a top superior runner. There is going to be matchups where he will just fall apart.I have been scorched earthed turn 3. It happens. But he is fun and a different and fresh way to play the game.

Have fun and Always Be Running