J-Horror in Orbit (The Ring 2020)

aquir 9

Flavor

Rumored one of the NBN divisions will publish a mysterious movie hit, an action-horror based on real events: how a once-decent freedom fighter was obsessed with the idea of stealing a mysterious movie hit from an "evil" company - ruining his whole life after watching it.

Idea, keywords:
asset spam, shell game, never advance, mythic ice

How to play

Mulligan: have more Sweeps than DivPortfolio, or when too much agendas in hand. At least one ice vs criminals.

First rule: shit out servers like crazy. NEH ability is great for keeping the spam-pressure.
Ice up the dangered central servers (mostly R&D, HQ only in case of suspected Siphons or Vamps).
Agendas are mostly never-advanced (E-Premier), or sometimes score out behind a Mother or Chimera, considering actual runner rig.
Successful Snare of Psychic usually provides a window for scoring or scattering new servers (while recovering from card loss+tag).

Second rule, determine the runner style, and choose your servers accordingly:
- rig-builder runner: scatter servers, hide agendas among them, score as you can (never-advance);
- aggro runner: set up the traps according to his behavior, score behind an iced scoring server (as he won't have time or money for rig-building);

The deck integrity is high, the 90% of the set is a must, only some cards are replaceable.
Most decisions are about the order of new server installs and where to place key ices.
Additional advantage as an NBN is the constant fear of tag and meat punishment, that buys some time too.

Experiences:
Strong against rig-building runner, and breaker set w/o AI.
Average aggro runner is harder, but can be handled.
Main weaknesses are control decks (repeated Eater+Siphon combo), Apex and/or Apocalypse.

Probably not the most competitive deck, but it performes surprisingly well after some practice.

Card choices

Nobrainer choices undetailed:
- Turtlebacks
- Diversified Portfolio
- Sweeps Week
- Jackson Howard

15 Minutes, Breaking News:
- standard NBN agendas to FA

Corporate Sales Team, Explode-a-palooza:
- additional and vital economy help for the deck

Project Beale, AstroScript:
- never-advance agendas, astro-token, sometimes 3 point Beale

Early Premiere:
- key asset for never-advanced CorpSales and Explode, or to score a 3 point Beale
- most times rez only in key moments to maintain the surprise factors of the game (the more the unrezzed remotes, the more panic on runners)

Franchise City:
- key asset: rez them when an undefended agenda is accessed (or deeper digging in R&D or HQ with agendas)
- in most cases it provides 1-2 points per game

News Team:
- key asset: fires from anywhere, 1-3 minus point to hinder the runner giving more time for corp

Psychic Field:
- key asset, hinder and scare off aggro runners - won't deliver flatline, but empty hand is scary, giving time or window

Snare!:
- key asset, hinder and scare off aggro runners - possible flatline the boldest ones (Psychic+Snare)
- considering the board state, always try to keep 4-6 credits in your credit pool (especially after the traps are spoiled)

Hostile Infrastructure:
- expensive, not rezzed always, but can be scary for runners + high trash cost

Mother Goddess:
- the key defense, as the 95% of time it won't gain any other subtype, so no-AI breaker rig will fail to break;
- note: it's unique, so one piece only will be rezzed in a given time, but you can install it to more servers, rezzing only the important one (in early game HQ/R&D, in midgame R&D/scoring);

Chimera:
- situational defense for anything in early/mid game, against key runs only, derezzing is great for Mother

Excalibur:
- AI to break, does not spoil Mother, prevents repeated runs (best place on R&D)

Archangel:
- taxing against Medium and such (mostly for R&D)

Other cards considered to slot instead of Hostile Inf.:
- Pad Campaign (economy)
- Neural Emp (kill factor)
- Sealed Vault (anti-siphon)
- Bio-Ethics Association (kill factor)

Have fun, and don't watch the movie!

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