Always be Advancing

kalib 27

Runners can't stop you, they can only hope to run faster than your advance. Narcissist got you in a R&D lock? Bust through it with Atlas/Fast Track/IAF. Felon Diverted your funds? Make'em choke on those last 2 credits when you score an Atlas with Audacity/Reconstruction or a Hostile outright. This is a race, when you hit 7 points it doesn't matter if the runner had 4 or none, they lose just the same.

This reliably strong deck was inspired by Titan Trainsnational (1st @ Starlit Citadel SC). That write-up was thorough, so I'll only comment on changes.

Agendas

No more SSL Endorsement, because having it stolen loses games. Global Food Initiative is a huge tempo suck in this deck so I went +1 Corporate Sales Team and +1 Illicit Sales. The only reason I didn't go 3x illicit sales is because I couldn't spare the deck space.

ICE

Most games ice will protect one installed agenda, the other agendas are FA for the win. Do not attempt to out-economy the runner, either they can get past your ice or they cannot. Not all ice is worth rezzing, especially if you are using Mother Goddess or need the credits for a Biotic rush next turn.

Battlement over Spiderweb because some games are very tight on credits, although Spiderwebs has an advantage vs Yusuf.

Tithonium is excellent in games where you have lots of credits, but I wouldn't sacrifice an agenda to rez it unless facing a Divide and Conquer or other potentially game ending run. Together Tithonium, Excalibur, Swordsman and Hortum discourage Turning Wheel counter farming and face checks.

No Little Engine because the influence is needed for News Team, to help to reduce the average agenda point density. Also, News Team is one of the few helps against multi-access.

It is true Swordsman does not ETR, but it provides a lot of tempo versus runners without backup for their Aumakua. Always use on centrals and you'll also get an effective ETR if it gets exposed. This replaces Reverse Infection since AI's are usually more trouble than viruses.

Excalibur on HQ prevents Maxwell, on R&D it prevents Indexing, and it doesn't hurt Mother Goddess. Games without AI's can be won only rezzing these two ice. Don't hesitate to rez a second copy of either of these unique cards (trashing the first rez) in order to adjust to the runner's game state.

Economy

No Hedge Fund or Beanstalk Royalties because Too Big to Fail and Stock Buy-Back help you more when you need it. It hurts that TBTF is trashable but SBB is enhanced by having 12 agendas + 3 News Teams in the deck, making it often playable with 3 agendas in the runner's score area a few turns into the game.

Sometimes this deck accumulates credits fast, that is what Tithonium is for, but this game can also be played never having more than 10 credits..

  • 7 credits to FA a 3/2 using Biotic
  • 4 (or 3) credits to rez ETR ice
  • 2 credits to FA a 3/2 using Reconstruction + Dedication
  • 2 credits to score a 2/1
  • 1 credit to FA a 3/2 using Audacity
  • 0 credits to FA a 2/1 using Audacity

Assets

For a time I used Team Sponsorship in combination with Rashida Jaheem, which works well but since centrals will only be lightly protected this deck needs to withstand an average of 5-7 turns of accesses. This makes easily trashable cards such as NGO Front and Rashida hurt more than they help. Even cards with high trash costs should be minimized as you can easily accumulate 4 or more bad publicity before the game is over.

Tech

High-Profile Target over Cyberdex Virus Suite because Liza is such a powerful deck. Mulligan for HPT or get an Atlas counter to make it available. Combined with a Archived Memories (or second atlas counter) this will also flatline runners who take the News Team tags rather than the -1 agenda point. Speaking of which, second Atlas counters are always worth it when it doesn't delay scoring by a round. If Clot/SMC/CloneChip make a come back then I'd find room for Cyberdex again.

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