Paint It Black v1.1

I'd just drop the hostage altogether at this point. Your only connection is Kati so you might as well just run 3 of her. Then +2 Easy Marks? That puts you at 46 cards which isn't that bad.

Alternatively you can: -1 Kati +1 Aesops as he combos with Daily Casts nicely.

Very interesting idea though! Have you considered adjusting around for Indexing? Also how reliably are you able to get your Snitch out before Blackguard? What's the game plan against shell game Jinteki or NBN astro biotic/fast advance? I imagine Blackguard is of little use when the corp isn't playing much ice or if the game is over before Blackguard can even hit the table.

Thanks, ibis. I totally agree with your Hostage comment — I sort of smacked my head after publishing with it in there.

Not sure about Easy Marks (or 46 cards). I think I like the Aesops play better...I'll post once I have a chance to try it out.

Regarding Snitch/Blackguard: you're absolutely right that Blackguard loses it's usefulness when there isn't much ice, or in fast games. The early game play here is Gordian Blade (along with Kit's ability) and then Paintbrush, with Blackguard and Snitch coming into play late game when ICE piles up. I've built decks that really relied on getting Blackguard out in turn 1 or 2....this isn't those decks.

Here's how I tend to set up my rig:

• Gordian Blade – thanks to Kit's ability, this will break all servers with only 1 ICE. • Paintbrush – now I can break multi-ICE servers, but have to face check unrezzed ICE • Snitch – now safe against face checking 1 unrezzed ICE per run) • Blackguard – now able to force-rez ICE, making Paintbrush all the more useful • Into (if I've run into Wraparound)

More to come once I've had a chance to play test a meaningful number of times. So far it hasn't felt slow, but I worry that I'm just getting lucky.

Play tested 3 games against NBN FA today. 3-0, with no need to put Blackguard or Snitch in play. I had Gordian out by turn 2 in all three games, and was quickly scoring agendas. In the rare case that I needed to run a server with one or more unrezzed ICE (past the first), I was able to Tinker the problem.

I need to play more, but I'm wondering if the Blackguard and Snitch should come out in favor of Forged Activation Orders and Inside Jobs. Maybe even Crescentus. That's getting away from the original premise of this deck, though, and I'll need more play testing against bigger ICE decks before I can say for sure.

One interesting note: I did get hit with a Midseasons for 8 tags at one point today. Really screwed up my economy, as it's entirely Resource based. I spent about 6 turns gaining creds and dumping tags before I could re-establish an economy and get going again. Fortunately I was up 4-0 when it happened, which bought me some time.