HB: ST - Do Bioroids Dream of Cybernetic Goats?

Has HB:ST's time come? It's yet to be seen. But new toys recently released have certainly helped playing it more fun.

Ice Placement: The name of the game is tax, tax, tax, and more tax. Surviving the early game is critical here. Against fast aggressive runners, you will want to get your ice set up ASAP in order make each run as expensive as possible. While your ice is porous, it is very taxing. Since there are only 8 agendas in the deck, the chances of them pulling an early Agenda are low, but it can certainly happen. Against criminals running Security Testing and Sneak Door Beta, that means you cannot leave a single remote or central server without ice. Icing Archives also becomes necessary when playing against Parasite & Datasucker combos.

An ideal central server ice placement starting from outside to in is: Ichi 1.0 - Victor 1.0 - Eli 1.0. These three ice will form the core of your central servers. This is fairly cheap for you to rez throughout the game and will continue to tax the runner significantly all game. Against potential Account Siphon users, you want ice at least two deep on HQ as soon as possible. Against runners who have run-based economy (Gabe, Desperado, Security Testing), mid-to-late game actually becomes better for you because if you've set up your servers properly, they should not be earning any money per run, starving them of money.

Celebrity Gift: A true MVP in this deck. It gives HB:ST the quick cash injection that it so badly needs, especially having to give up the powerful 1 free credit per install that HB:EtF enjoys. While Melange Mining fulfills largely the same role, it has the huge downside of needing to be protected for a turn. Since there are no tricks or mind games in this deck, most runners will run remotes if they think they can get in. And early game, they can click to get in, making Melange less reliable. Celebrity Gift doesn't have that same issue and drawing it early is great, since it means you'll be threatening Heimdalls right away. And while revealing your hand isn't ideal, in this deck, it's not too much of an issue. Your opponent should know what to expect when they see HB:ST.

Eve Campaign: Once you get a bit of a money cushion, you will want to set up a server for Eve as soon as possible. In the age of Desperado, Whizzard, and Imp (not to mention Security Testing, as mentioned above), leaving an Eve unprotected is often times no longer viable and a waste. However, I've found that one single taxing ice, such as one of the Victors, can often be enough of an economic hit that many runners won't take that plunge to trash unless they are very well off. If they leave your Eve up, you are set for money for the rest of the game. Also, Eve doubles as a place to dump your credits for Account Siphon protection.

Enhanced Login Protocol: What a great card for HB:ST. If played early, it can be a real thorn in the runner's side for huge chunks of the game if they cannot find one of the 8 agendas in this deck. Combines well with everything.

Project Wotan: If you can score one early, you will be able to leverage it into a further scoring window.

Inazuma: This card is excellent and is one of your trump cards. Would love to include two of, but there simply isn't enough influence. A surprise Inazuma into ice that they thought they could break with clicks can be game changing (such as Heimdall or Ichi).

Other cards not included:

Caprice Nisei: I would absolutely love to include Caprice in this deck. An earlier iteration of this deck did indeed have her in. When you were all set up, she did incredible work, especially in combination with Enhanced Login Protocol. However, including her means sacrificing Celebrity Gift, thereby forcing you rely on Melange or other economic solutions such as Successful Demonstration. The problem with Caprice is when you're poor (which is not uncommon playing HB:ST), she really doesn't help as playing the Psi game becomes taxing for you - especially early game when every credit helps to rez ice. Overall, I just found that the consistency of getting big money from Celebrity outweighed Caprice's undoubted utility. And relying on a combination of Melange and Successful Demonstration is simply more inconsistent and dependent on the Runner's actions.

Overall, be prepared for long games where you win the war of attrition.