What does The Authenticator do?

esutter479 322

Fixed version: -3 Vanilla, +3 IP Block

"Makes people tell the truth." - Severn Darden, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes.

This started off as a Making News deck. That incarnation had a few different pieces, and added up to be not nearly as oppressive as I had hoped it would be. I figured, part of the reason was that 44 cards > 49 cards when it comes to getting your game plan to unravel in a timely fashion. Another reason may have been my reliance on PAD Campaigns and Primary Transmission Dish to fuel the mission/ID ability.

In an effort to make the plan of oppression more effective, I decided to drop in a couple Scarcities, just in case my opponent depends on them to fuel their engine. Even if they don't, it's good defense against Employee Strike and the like. Biased Reporting seemed like a natural replacement for PAD Campaign here. This way, money falls in my lap quicker, and that's much better when you're holding a Hard-Hitting News in hand and the runner just blew his wad rumbling into a central.

I figured I'd have more success in this day and age going with 2x Batty and an Ichi 2.0 (be cool to rez no matter the time) than, say, 1x Consulting Visit/1x BOOM!/1x Fairchild 3.0. Can't run Food and Fairchild 3 anyway, unfortunately. Rigshooting at the right time can really make the runner sweat, and that's on top of the tag threat you're already going all in on. If Ash ends up not pulling his weight down the road, I could sub him out for maybe Mumbad Virtual Tour, or Manta Grid or K. P. Lynn...something that taxes them just as much.

I guess my question now, would be is Scarcity of Resources impactful enough for control, or would it serve me better to use Targeted Marketing instead?

2 comments
8 Oct 2017 RubbishyUsername

I'm a little confused. What's the Batties for? End the Runs?

11 Oct 2017 esutter479

Well, they're intended to use with Ichi for rig-shooting...but ETRs is another option, certainly. I am already, however, considering changing things around in the deck. The main idea will stay the same, but it's still not winning games. It's not setting up fast enough, and runners are getting rigged and passing my ICE too easily. All it takes is one DDM or Indexing and I'm totally boned. :(