CyberSculptor Nasir v1.0

Card draw simulator
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Repartition by Cost
Repartition by Strength
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None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
CyberSculptor Nasir v2.0
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BTrain 2971

This deck capitalizes on everything Nasir is good at, and does its best to smooth over everything he's not. Priority number one is to get your Personal Workshop and Professional Contacts chugging away. As long you have something hosted on the Workshop (aka the Bank of Nasir) you've given yourself a safe place to dump your money and advance your rig before your credit pool resets. Make a run, corp rezzes ice, spend your money in pocket on whatever is on Workshop, and then gain a new credit pool from the encounter.

The problems then becomes what to do after your credit pool resets and you're now left to encounter a potentially nasty piece of ice, and for that I've built this deck around recurring credits used specifically for icebreakers. The Toolbox and Cloak, once all online, will provide you with 5c per turn to be used during runs. In earlier versions of the deck, I packed in 3x Cyberfeeder, but I found the extra recurring credits weren't worth the deck space and 3 influence. I reworked a few cards and got 2x Datasucker, which once stocked with tokens, essentially act as recurring credits as well as pairing well with Parasite to nuke ice standing in your way. Don't be afraid to SMC out a Datasucker if you're comfortable with your current breakers, because it will only pay off more the longer its on the table.

Cyber-Cypher is your star breaker here. I use the two of them to lock down centrals as quickly as I can, and if I need to later in the game, I Scavenge one or the other to allow it to attack other servers. It's ideal though if they sit on HQ and R&D while you rely on Gordian Blade to fill in the gaps.

Your Liberated Accounts and Armitage Codebustings are to be used sparingly, and they will do the most work for you in the late game once the corp has rezzed most of its ice. You won't need them in the early game, even the mid, because up until that point, you should be using the corp's money to get your rig set up through your Personal Workshop. Keep your late-game econ cards in your hand if you think you can spare the room, or get them on the table and save them for later if you can't. Just be extra wary of taking tags and having them cleared.

On another program-related note, I've toyed around a lot with Crescentus and the likes, and its cohort Forged Activation Orders, and I've found any form of ice manipulation to be underwhelming. It relies on too many factors. Is the ice a high enough rez cost to be worth using Crescentus on? Is Crescentus even on the table? If I derez the ice, how likely is the corp to just trash it altogether and replace it with something I haven't seen yet? Am I ready if he does that? Even Social Engineering, a card that seems custom-tailored to Nasir, is so situational that it ends up being useless the majority of the time: first click only, so you have to hold it a turn, it costs 2c, and then the corp laughs as you approach the ice you've marked, and they say "yeah, no rez."

I don't know whether it's been an issue of people not putting together decks that synergize with Nasir's ID, but I don't think he plays as differently as everyone seems to think he does. A lot of the criticism I've seen leveled has been from people operating under the assumption you could plop his ID in a CT or Mac deck and expect it to run just fine. I've played a lot of games with a number of Nasir decks on OCTGN, and this is the one I've started to see a lot of success with. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

8 comments
30 Jul 2014 EwMatias

I'm curious, what do you do about Caprice and Ash? I found them to be the bane of Nasir's existence. I found unregistered S&W to be the right tool for the job, but a heavy toll on influence and card slots nonetheless.

30 Jul 2014 BahnCalamari

The thing people always seem to over look is that the Nasir ability only trigger on the run in which the ICE is rezzed. If you hit an Ash or Caprice and are broke, take some kati or liberated money and run again.

This deck is significantly different than the one I am testing but I like the look of it.

Also, FYI Social engineering (in your notes, not your deck) actually doesn't work with Nasir anyways. The timing structure results in you losing that money to his ability.

30 Jul 2014 EwMatias

"Take money and run again" is easier said than done, when the server is adequatedly protected. Most likely you won't have enough clicks to get in in the same turn, giving the Corp time to score or plop down a new piece of Ice and you're back to square one.

30 Jul 2014 wswan

@BahnCalamari I find it immeasurably hard to believe that the card with Nasir on it that reads not unlike his actual ability does not work with him at all. Mind, I'm not even sure that I understand the timing of his ability as it is, but I'll have to wait for a new FAQ before running that or Nasir himself.

Also, @BTrain described Social Engineering as 'not working' when the Corp decides instead to not rez, but that's part of the point. If you disincentivize rezzing ice, the corp won't and then you get to walk by it for free. That or getting double the money are both good things for the runner.

30 Jul 2014 CJFM

@BahnCalamari A couple things: Social Engineering works with Nasir if you have a way to dump that money immediately (e.g. Workshop, CMC, Clone Chip, Savoir-faire). You get the money on Approach, and have a window to use card effects. Yes, you can't use that money on Encounter, but usually you won't need to, since you're using Cloak/Toolbox. In any case, I agree that SE isn't a great card, but for me (was testing x2 in my Naisr deck for game night yesterday), the problem is that you need to know what that ice is beforehand. It might be ok in a dedicated Shutdown deck with Crescentus, but I too find that strategy cumbersome.

30 Jul 2014 CJFM

@BTrain Also, Gordian Blade is superior to Cyber-Cypher since you can boost Blade's strength during Approach and it retains its strength for the whole run. You can't do this with Cypher (well you can, but its strength would return to normal on Encounter). I suppose Cypher has the extra 2 str, but losing some flexibility is a problem.

Last night I played my Nasir with MOpus instead of Kati and I REALLY liked it. That sort of forced me to play Modded as well, but getting that extra cash so that I could empty PW or pop a CMC felt SO good. I'm going to try to fuse some of your ideas here into my deck. I think since you're Shaper, Liberated Acct is strictly inferior to MOpus (you have 2 Toolbox and 3 Mem Chip anyway!). If you go that route, I'd just cut Contacts anyway, but I DO like that card in Nasir. Such a tricky runner...

Great build! Looking forward to v.2.0!

30 Jul 2014 BTrain

@CJFM I also thought running Gordian would be preferable to CyCy, but by running strictly GB you're banking that they'll stack multiple code gates on a server. I tried plenty of games without my Cyphers, and I now have to say now that they're in, they are the ONE card in this deck I would never even consider getting rid of.

But you're right, I think Liberated Account is about to go. The 4 inf can be better spent in this deck, and I'm looking to add in a Morning Star. I had cut some Sure Gambles right before posting this as a matter of fact, but those actually did some really good work for me, and that was even in a game where I had forgotten to add Levy in! It's incredible how little outside-the-run money Nasir needs to generate on his own.

As for the Mopus/Kati argument, I can see the merits in both. But the deck is already so program heavy that running Mopus doesn't appeal to me (and I'm not adding in Leprechaun - the last thing this deck needs is to be slowed down because a program hits the table before its host. Plus the intermittent bursts from Sure Gamble in the late game were plenty once you factor in the recurring credits), and Kati always struck me as just too darn slow. There is always something better you can be doing than clicking her for credits you're going to lose down the line.

And Professional Contacts stays as well. It's a duel credit/draw engine that I just wouldn't play Shaper without.

Thanks for the feedback!

31 Jul 2014 DrunkenGineer

Have you considered Dirty Laundry or Inside Job? I don't know what you'd cut to throw them in (Mem chip or Toolbox? Extra parasite?) but I feel like they synergize well with an aggressive Nadir - the former because if the corp rezzes an ice, the initial cost doesn't matter, and the latter because you can choose whether or not you want to activate Nasir's ability if the ice you bypass was just rezzed.

Another card to look at is Stimhack, especially if you've got something on the workshop that you desperately need off but can't afford.

Also: Have you had trouble playing against NAPD Contract?