Bioroid Threads

As you guys know, Business First recently came out. I've been playing around with the new cards and have discovered one of the most infuriating strategies to play against. In short, it revolves around Lakshmi Smartfabrics and asset spam. Playing horizontal in Custom Biotics allows you to have enough cards to almost indefinitely use Smartfabrics, while having the influence to spend on NAPD's, and other taxing cards. Complemented with Mumba Temple, this deck requires little money to work, and if needed, Diversified Portfolio will allow you to net 10-15 credits alone.

Note: I have tried this deck with 54 cards and Museum of History. While it is nice to have extra recursion, I have found the extra consistency to be very useful. However, which 54 cards, it does allow you to add another 2 point agenda that can synergize with Smartfabrics. I can't say one is necessarily better than the other.

The two main "combos" when playing this deck:

• Main Strategy:

Prereqs: At least 2 of the same agendas in hand, Smartfabrics and enough cards to rez to protect that agenda you plan on scoring. For this combo, depending on the agenda, it can require you to rez 2 or 3 cards during the runners turn. This can be achieved easily through Advanced Assembly Lines for 2 easy rezzes, Encryption Protocol for increasing trash costs, or an advanced Test Ground. When the runner tries to run it, spending the power counters on Smartfabrics prevents it from being stolen for the ENTIRE turn.

• Side Combo:

Prereqs: At least one Research Grant, Team Sponsorship and Lakshmi Smartfabrics installed and Research Grant in your Grip or Heap. Protect your Research Grant with one power counter from Smartfabrics, triple advance and score it, and then use Team Sponsorship to install the other agendas from your Grip or Heap for a risk free 3/2 or 3/3.

Mulligans:

What you should be looking for:

• Cybernetics Court: A must have to be able to hold agendas and extra assets in Grip

• Jackson Howard: Drawing more cards allows for you to find the cards you need.

• Encryption Protocol: A great tempo hit when the runner wants to trash your assets.

• One or two pieces of ice: Prioritizing central servers to slow down aggression.

• Mumba Temple: Great for rezzing your assets and ice when you are low on money.

What you should be avoiding:

• Lakshmi Smartfabrics: In the early game, this card is almost useless, and if it is trashed early, lowers your chance to finding this card when you really need it.

• Agendas: Without Smartfabrics and the little ice in this deck, holding agendas in your hand before you can get Cybernetics Court and the other main assets out is very risky, especially against aggressive decks.

Cards or Decks that counter this strategy:

• Whizzard: He can be very problematic for trashing your early assets, however with Encryption Protocols and constant asset installs, it is possible to out tempo him.

• Apocalypse: If the runner is able to play Apocalypse, there is very little chance of coming back. However, Crisium Grid is very useful against this card and can save you the game, especially in the late stages when you have 10-15 remote servers

• Early Aggression: Decks that run frequently is problematic as this has little ice density. Hudson is a great early game card on R&D or HQ that can prevent multi card accesses.

• Imp: This card is great against horizontal decks in general.

SPOILERS FOR THOSE WHO ARE UNAWARE OF THE FUTURE PACKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

• Councilman, and Political Operative: In the upcoming data pack, these two cards will bring this deck a lot of trouble, however, if you use Smartfabrics preemptively and can predict when the runner will play these cards, you can still pull off the main strategy to this deck.

I have not yet played this deck in a tournament, however I have played it against well experienced runners, and I have not lost a game so far. It's biggest strength is the surprise factor and ability to completely stop runners from stealing agendas and can I can definitely see Lakshmi Smartfabrics becoming one of the "Must trash" cards the corp has at their disposal.