"Guy, what the hell are you playing?"

Cliquil 1226

The title of this decklist is, in many ways, one of my reasons for publishing it. I have played this at enough tournaments, in some form or another, for probably over a year. My second reason for publishing this decklist, to follow on from that thought, is that I think I want to move on.

Ever since Da Vinci came out and I made a deck called "Da Vinci Source Surprise" I have loved installing the Source as a surprise card. I have also tended to like silver bullets across the spectrum. That explains a lot of the choices in this deck which I will go into later.

Ultimate the deck wins by remote locking and then winning off R&D if there is time. In the past I used Indexing for my R&D wins but now I am finding incubator / Medium with Mad Dash and Interdiction to appeal to me more.

A typical turn is Proco-Proco-Install (usually two resources)-Do something that gets money. You then decide when you want to contest an agenda. That's when the instant Source comes into play.

The Source- Fantastic in so many match ups when you can insta install it. It functions as a clot without the cyberdex out clause. Typically it has been a surprise for me; it is possibly to play around by throwing two fast advance tools at the same problem but by then the Source has usually put the corp off balance. What makes it even better is the times that a corp has "fooled you" and has put a 3/2 on the table to score out. This is mainly an HB tactic and this helps you avoid that. It gives you more setup time because you don't have to fear that the second or third (or even fourth in some really troublesome games where you are behind on tempo) will be calmly scored off the table because you didn't check the remote.

Film Critic- Supports the Source whilst also providing protection and attack to numerous cards that have annoyed me; Quantum Kitties, Future Perfect, Fetal AI, Midseasons and we now have Hunter Seeker. In the future if this deck does emerge again it will help against any Obakata that sees play.

Fan Site / Artist Colony - Fetches the Source. The other 2 Artist Colonies eventually become Aesops Fodder

Aesops - With so many potentially reducant resources in the deck it is useful to have some way to make 3 credits off them. That isn't nothing

Kati / Armitage - Both of these clicks help you with your final click of getting more money into the deck - Kati is best but Armitage does also work in a pinch. When both are installed they provide different utility

Beth - Is a good card. Most useful is the 5th click that is sometimes required on "big" Quest Completed or Medium run turns.

Quest Completed - One of the ways this deck loses is the ludicrous ice tower or pile or rezzed upgrades on the remote that makes attacking a remote so difficult - especially if you suspect your opponent can play around the Source (Biotic and already installed 3/2 is classic). The answer is, of course, Quest Completed. You work out you can't get into the remote and you poke around HQ and R&D "helplessly" and "desperately" before taking the agenda from right under their nose.

Incubator / Medium - With Interdiction out the old play of hiding a CVS somewhere on the board and popping it before Medium access no longer works. Corps have to pre-emptively purge the Incubator and it becomes a bit of game of how nervous they are. Is 6 counters enough for me to go or can they wait a turn? Is 6 counters enough for me or shall I wait for 7 and hope they don't purge next turn?

Interdiction - not only does this helpfully deal with unrezzed Caprices and Battys - forcing the corp to declare their defences or suffer the consequences - the more observant of you will have noticed that this is a current. Can you imagine how much Scarcity of Resources makes this deck sad? It is lots. LOTS AND LOTS.

All Nighter - Sometimes you want to Interdiction + run three centrals then Quest Completed. You need an extra click; very occasionally Beth is not around for that. Even more occasionally you need an extra click so you can Same Old Thing Quest Completed.

Turntable - It makes the huge dig on R&D sometimes an agenda point better. That is often enough

Mad Dash - Same. Nearly always held back for an R&D dig

Political Operative - Is partly here more to look like it is my anti Caprice deck than actually BE it.

Stealth but not Refractor / Houdini - I believe that stealth in shaper is great because it can plug the weaknesses in their breaker suite. Gordian is not a weakness, ergo I can take it and not need as much stealth. Three Ghost Runners is usually enough for the few runs I make.

NACH - My anti tagging tech.

Sacrificial Constuct - At best it avoids a Batty I couldn't deal with in a tutorable way, at worst it is something to sell to Aesops.

THE CARDS I HAVE TAKEN BUT DIDN'T TAKE IN THE FINAL VERSION:

Lemuria Codecracker - Amazing against shell game decks, especially as a surprise. It can pretty much end their game plan right off the bat. I took it out because I never saw shell games unless I was playing my girlfriend, and that was making me unpopular in the most important meta of all - the meta you share a bed with.

Raymond Flint - An influence free one off version of the above.

Eden Shard - Mainly to mess with CI7. I have stopped seeing it around but is a worthy include in any deck like this that expects to see it.

Misdirection - I found I could recover from HHN fine without it usually

Copycat - Because its brilliant and absurd but sadly, is influence and deckspace I don't have to spare right now, I have won games online with it, but never in person (outside of a jank tournament)

This deck has given me some wondeful memories, and entertained onlookers and opponents.

The most fun is always instant installing the Source to stop the win, then going on to win (preferably starting this process 6-0 down as I did once). Watching an opponent go from "This was a walkover" to "Oh God I'm actually going to lose to this nonsense" can be a fun experience for noth.

Quest Completed is also one of the best cards in the game.

...

Thank you all for the games.

4 comments
8 May 2017 emilyspine

"Guy, what the hell are you playing?! Dyper? Actual stealth? Pitchfork?"

Turns out as always, it's none of the above. Great write up, Guy. I'm looking forward to seeing a Quest Completed in the wild again at some point.

8 May 2017 Tolaasin

With just the ghost runners for stealth credits, how often do you find yourself stymied on barrier?

8 May 2017 Cliquil

The only time I ever had to look nervously at my Ghost Runners (I was still fine by the skin of my teeth) was stacked sentries - the Blackstone strength retention makes it completely workable. :)

8 May 2017 nutritionalzero

Wow! Scrolling through this list looked like Card Salad but your description is excellent. This is why Hayley is my favourite ID and Aesop's is great: the decks are packed with flexibility, cards rarely serve only one purpose and sometimes cheap, unloved, situational cards shine since they're trivial to install and provide some benefit if sold.