Titanium V1.0

Jashay 715

I was quite the fan of the original Uncorrodable deck by CrimsonWraith, (here) but at the same time I felt that it suffered slightly from inconsistency. If they sniped your Will-o'-the-Wisp from R&D or HQ, it made things much harder. If you didn't draw it, also a massive pain.

I also felt it struggled with actually firing destroyer subroutines; the ubiquity of Sharpshooter and Faerie often meant that you couldn't quite land the punches.

However, I also feel that the Lunar cycle and Order & Chaos have provided options for addressing my previous concerns.

The Identity

Titan Transnational seemed like the perfect option. Compared to the original GRNDL deck, it has less starting money, and no initial BP. In return, you get more influence, plus fantastic synergy with Project Atlas, Geothermal Fracking, and High-Risk Investment. I also considered Blue Sun for its powerful economy, but space in the deck was actually far tighter than I thought it would be, so I didn't want to waste space on combo pieces like OAI. It is an idea I will try out, but first things first!

Agendas

Hostile Takeover is a fantastic agenda, and good for Archer. Project Atlas is likewise excellent, particularly with this ID; a tutoring 3/2 probably ranks up there as the best agenda in the game. Everything else is money, and has been chosen for the synergy.

ICE

The original deck had about 75% Barriers, with the rest being Sentries (all Destroyers). I've cut down to 50% barriers; with the advent of Quetzal and Lady it pays to be a little less reliant on Barriers alone, but it's worth noting that both of those can be overwhelmed by enough barriers.

I've used the extra influence to put in Galahad and Lancelot, and swapped a couple of the very large barriers for Wormhole. This changes the dynamics in a number of interesting ways:

1) Galahad and Wormhole can act as Destroyers that aren't, neatly avoiding Faerie and Sharpshooter. You need all three breakers to be able to ensure that you're safe from ICE destruction, particularly as I can theoretically use an Atlas token to pull a Lancelot into my hand mid-run

2) If it seems that my opponent has a good handle on the Barrier situation despite my best efforts, Using Galahad on Lancelot and Changeling means I have access to 6 ETR sentries, 5 of which are still Destroyers

At least, that's the plan. It remains to be seen whether my sacrifice of barrier consistency on the altar of flexibility actually pays off.

Money

Hedge Fund is pretty much an auto-include, so no surprises there. 70% of my agendas can turn a profit, and Mark Yale can add a little extra on top. Helpfully, he can also get a fair amount of money from Geothermal Fracking without incurring any BP, and he can get money off of any agenda without spending any clicks. Great for throwing off maths. To top it all off, he can trash for more than his rez cost.

The Root is a nice, continuous flow flow of pseudo-credits. I've always found it very easy to get my money's worth out of this card, and it can be a good enough target for the runner that it's often worth installing a Will-o'-the-Wisp on it.

Shell Corporation is not the most popular choice ever, with fairly good reason. However, to compensate for my slightly lower ICE density I plan to make fewer, taller servers, whereupon the fact it's an upgrade outweighs the inefficiency compared to Melange Mining Corp. or Capital Investors. The other advantage is that it gets more tempting as time goes on; stick it in a server with Will-o'-the-Wisp and you'll either end up nabbing plenty of money or one of their breakers.

Bells and Whistles

Everything else is geared towards breaker-breaking. Will-o'-the-Wisp is the primary there, with Power Shutdown acting as an occasional backup. To be honest, I think I've trashed more Clone chips than breakers with it, but that's still effectively one less breaker for them in the long run.

Corporate Troubleshooter is there to make the destroyer subs land. Firing an Archer fully, or a Galahad with double Lancelot, will give you all the time in the world to score while they scramble for replacements.

Interns and Reclamation Order are to get back the Will-o'-the-Wisps and Corporate Troubleshooters, or the grail ICE if you've run into a heavy destruction deck.

The Future

I'm still not 100% sold on Shell Corporation, but that might just be that I need more practice. I think I'm just nervous about the economy; once you score pretty much any agenda you'll generally be okay for money, as you've either just got some, or you can dig for it in a pinch. Shell Corporation rarely helps you score that first agenda, though, which might be biasing me.

A separate consideration is to drop the Reclamation Orders for Aggressive Secretaries. This would give me the ability to fake-out agendas, as well as adding to the overall destruction theme of the deck if not assisting the specifics, and could work as excellent Shell Corporation protection.

Comments, criticisms and suggestions are welcome!

1 comments
9 Apr 2015 Jashay

Oh, and if anyone was wondering about the name, it's because titanium is highly resistant to corrosion... ;)