Tis The Season (1st, 4th, 1st, 1st in 4 Store Champs)

Card draw simulator
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Derived from
Tis The Season (1st Place Eternal Games SC)
Inspiration for
Blue Sunset (1st Hurstville SC, 21/1/17)
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WhackedMaki 874

Four store champs, four top 4 finishes with three victories. You can try to argue the results, but I think Weyland is here to stay. I wrote up most of my thoughts on the deck in the last one, so I'll just write about the changes.

Mausolus: Card is nuts. Ending the run isn't important, taxing them as much as possible is what's relevant and wins you games. This card does that extremely well, and they can't run through it repeatedly without losing themselves the game. I never advanced it, but if your opponent goes full YOLO on the server it could be worth doing to EtR. I'm testing 3x of this and only 2x Hive, as Hive loses usefulness as the game goes on.

Sapper: I never had it fire off central access, but the threat is big enough to stop early runs. It's good and possibly more deserving than a 1x but once they can break it it's not taxing, so I'm happy with it where it is.

Paywall Implementation: If you haven't watched Beyoken's newest video on currents I recommend you do so. I play my current purely reactively to EStrike, and this is a 0 cost one that can give some marginal benefit.

Elizabeth Mills: She's here to deal with Val and mitigate Bulwark's downside. I was the only Val at my past two SC's and never used her for removing the BP from Bulwark, so I'm dropping her. If Blackmail is super common in your meta than keep her.

Now, I want to go over some mistakes I think I see in other Blue Sun decks and offer some alternatives in case people are considering other cards.

Spiderweb: In the hayday of Faust this was good. Now it's strictly worse than Fire Wall. Paperclip breaks it for cheap, and it's very vulnerable to Parasite. D4v1d is even less common than Faust now, so at least do Fire Wall please.

Housekeeping: I love this card and played it all of last year when runner currents were bad. But now EStrike is so popular that playing your current proactively gets you punished. I run Paywall Implementation over this and Scarcity of Resources simply because having a 0 cost turn off EStike is worth the spot.

Caduceus: Link is too common right now for this to be good, and it's not that great of a facecheck penalty. Snek and Sapper are better uses of your slots right now. I might even consider Guard to deal with Nexus if it's popular by you.

Quandary and other small ice: You know what your ID does, right? You aren't a gear check deck, you're a Glacier deck. Get some real ice in your deck, put more money cards in, advance an Oaktown to 7 and get enough money to rez real ice that punishes them for checking it. I run 9 ice that end the run and it's more than enough.

Any questions comments or feedback just let me know!

22 comments
20 Dec 2016 mohaymen

Wouldnt you prefer scarcity of resources instead, its only 1 credit more, and its very useful early game game against sunny or andy, because i dont think the runner makes runs that often. And would you prefer -1 hive +1 fire wall? And lastly, is flatlining your main focus here, or does it depend on the runner whether he's good late game or not.

20 Dec 2016 WhackedMaki

@mohaymen I played with Scarcity for a long time, and it was never what I wanted. Most Andy decks are on 2-3 EStrike now, and losing your way to counter that loses you games. Paywall is not to make money at all, it's purely to turn off EStrike. You're welcome to run Scarcity, but I hated myself every time I played it out early and then lost to their current.

If your meta is competely devoid of Faust then Fire Wall is probably better. I just like Hive, but it's not set in stone as needing to be there.

Kill is the main game plan, with scoring being the backup. Often scoring puts the pressure on that allows the kill, forcing them to run before they're ready and getting hit by Midseasons. I will always rush on scoring, although I will often over advance Oaktown for a bit to gain money advantage.

20 Dec 2016 mohaymen

I see thank you <3

21 Dec 2016 Prestige

Did you find Best Defense useful for anything outside of giving you a plan to get rid of Plascrete Carapace?

21 Dec 2016 WhackedMaki

@Prestigeit kills Self-modifying Code, Street Peddler, Net-Ready Eyes, Progenitor, Same Old Thing, Security Testing and more without them even needing a tag. Using it to kill Plascrete Carapace or Obelus is great, but I think it's good enough to go in decks that don't tag the runner. SMC and SOT are the biggest here to keep their currents in the trash and not allow them to have the breaker they need while you score early. I used to run 1x Scorched Earth before to deal with meat damage protection and I haven't missed it once since changing it. The usual plan for dealing with Plascrete is to just hit them with more Booms. I've killed someone through 3x Plascrete before.

21 Dec 2016 Conduit23

It seems you loathe Employee Strike as much as I do! Why not 2 Hostile Takeover over 1 Corporate Sales Team to help deal with Current recursion?

Good call on Paywall Implementation over Scarcity of Resources. I often found myself saving Scarcity to play reactively, which absolutely defeats the point of slotting it.

21 Dec 2016 WhackedMaki

@Conduit23 It's the worst thing to happen to Blue Sun since the ID has been out. People need to stop playing other ID's with abilities so people stop slotting it!

Perhaps testing with -1 Paywall -1 CST and +2 Hostile would be good, but it might put too much pressure on the 1x Elizabeth Mills to deal with the BP. There's also inherent risk in holding agendas in HQ, and they're not tutorable like the currents are.

21 Dec 2016 saracenus

@Prestige Best Defense is the real MVP. Same Old Thing, Self-modifying Code, any Adam Directive, Faerie, Inti, etc. It will wreck a lot of common setups and if they go tag me, it is gold.

22 Dec 2016 Meristem

How do you feel about -1 Restructre +1 Preemptive Action? Card seems really good in this deck, additional Jackson?

Also, thoughts on Contract Killer over Snatch?

22 Dec 2016 WhackedMaki

@Meristem I prefer the regularity of having money. If you want more recursion then go for it. I just find the money battle is very important to be winning at every point possible.

Snatch and Grab is able to be tutored for when you need it which is big. Contract Killer is also vulnerable when your only plan is to feed them an agenda but need Film Critic gone first

25 Dec 2016 Longi

What has been your experience with 2 pieces of Bulwark so far? And what about the inclusion of Mother Goddess? A lot of other Blue Sun decks seem to run it.

26 Dec 2016 WhackedMaki

@LongiI quite like Bulwark, having punishing barriers is really important IMO. The 2 credit gain also won me the top 4 game against Nexus Kate, allowing me to put money into the trace he couldn't beat. I'm not a fan of Mother Goddess as I prefer killing them to scoring, and it's not actually a taxing ice. My meta is also full of nexus, AI breakers and Inside Job, making it not that great.

3 Jan 2017 hi_impact

Ur going to laugh but I play 1x Witness Tampering in my Blue Sun decks with Bulwark or Hostile Takeover. The remove 2 BP helps with Val and its tutorable with Consulting Visit.

I understand the constant desire to cut BP removal but my meta is rife with Val when tournaments are on the table.

8 Jan 2017 bubbathegoat

What are your thoughts about Chiyashi in this deck? It looks good, but I don't want to take out Janus for it.

I haven't been crazy about Wormhole, since there is often very little ICE rezzed. I swapped that for a Mother Goddess, which is sometimes all the ICE I need.

I wanted a little extra recursion, so I added a Preemptive Action. It's been great with the consulting visits to keep all the operation options alive.

9 Jan 2017 WhackedMaki

@hi_impactIf it works for you, go for it. Bad Pub isn't very popular by me, so I've never felt the need to get a tutorable card that removes more than one.

@bubbathegoat Chiyashi is a strong ice for sure, but it has to mean losing Janus. I will be testing it out, but it has some pretty big shoes to fill in that regard. Wormhole is an ice I go back and forth on a lot, and I'm just happy to have a big ETR codegate most of the time. If Mother Goddess works for you, keep at it. I often find myself feeling like I have too much recursion when I get all the Jacksons, so I don't feel the need for it. If you like it though, more power to you.

10 Jan 2017 Echo_Chaser

I'm going to try this deck out, the only changes I think I'll make is that I'll drop the Sapper and put in another Mausolus.

10 Jan 2017 WhackedMaki

@Echo_Chaser I wouldn't cut the Sapper. It has won me multiple games, either by trashing the Medium they weren't prepared to lose, or against Crims who use Mongoose and then accessing it, losing a breaker.

10 Jan 2017 tvaduva

You need to update the name again.

10 Jan 2017 WhackedMaki

@tvaduvaJust for you

14 Jan 2017 Dzerards

You can chalk up another win for this deck. Just took down the Bangor SC with it. All my opponents had Film Critic. Didn't help any of them.

Your deck is pretty tight. Only changes were -1 Hive -1 Wormhole +1 Sapper +1 Maurolus

15 Jan 2017 WhackedMaki

@Dzerards Congratz and thanks! I've been considering the 3x Mausoles with only 2x Hive, glad it worked out for you

15 Jan 2017 bubbathegoat

I really like 3x Mausolus, but I'm too fond of the Hives to cut one. Hive is the ICE that I like to use to rush my first agenda, or block early Temu econ off of Archives.

There are some matchups where I really want to score an agenda quickly (especially an Oaktown), and I feel like Hive has been the best ICE for that. (so I cut thw Wormhole)