Salem's Guest Room is a Leaky Airlock (5/6th at FFG Regional

konoharaven 81

This is @nungunz's deck with Hive instead of Spiderweb. I messaged him a few nights before the regional, asking him what changes he was making to his Low Orbit Ion Cannon, and took this. It went 6-2 at FFG's regional, only dropping one game in the swiss. It, along with a good meta call Gabe as my runner, more or less carried me to that sweet Maya playmat, 3rd after the cut and 5/6th overall. A couple folks asked if I'd post the list, so here it is.

I told a few people how to beat the deck while we were testing, and I'll tell you what I told them: "Parasite RnD, then run it a whole bunch (preferably with a Medium or RDI out)." That's how this deck loses, and that's what happened both times it dropped games on Saturday. If there's no parasite, a pair of turn 1 bank jobs to trash the Mumba Temple before blasting RnD is just as good. It doesn't even matter if they Salsette Slums or Archives Interface your Museum of History. because Gagarin still taxes on the access enough for you to Scorched Earth them into oblivion.

When RnD holds up, however, this deck is bonkers. Ideally, you play like early game IG, getting MCH into Temple and Museum. Throw a Hive over MCH so nothing can touch it. The trick is to get at least two Indian Union Stock Exchange out (use Tech Startup if you didn't already for MCH), and then play Salem's Hospitality over and over (cycling with museums and MCH). Make a good guess for your first Salem's, and then remember their hand long enough to just start picking pieces of whatever combo they want and put them into the bin. Do this until they make a dumb run to trash your MCH, and then scorch them for the game.

If they drop Wyldside or Aesop's for cards or money, you can yoink Elizabeth Mills out of your deck with Executive Search Firm, which can be found with MCH, and then blast their locations into dirt. Remember to get her back out the next turn so the bad publicity doesn't negate your ID ability, although this may not be the most important if you're already way ahead.

If you start to run short on time, you can score behind two Tour Guide and maybe a third ETR ice. I did it twice on the day, but only after the Salem's lock stopped being entertaining / after it became readily apparent there would be no runs for me to SEA Source them on.

If you're going to sleeve this deck up, don't forget to be good at shuffling.

4 comments
23 May 2016 nungunz

Glad that the deck worked out for you. I've also been working at shoring up the R&D defense, so any thoughts you might have would be great.

23 May 2016 Orbital Tangent

I was your last opponent in Swiss. This deck was brutal to play against. Never felt in control the whole match, even after getting on 6 points.

I think, in retrospect, my best play would have been to kill the Stock Exchange and Siphon you into the dirt. Repeat Salems that gain you money is just not a good time!

23 May 2016 mediohxcore

make room for heritage, it's completely unfair

23 May 2016 DarthIA

Totally agree with @mediohxcore. I'd recommend -1 SEA Source, +1 Heritage Committee.