Board Man Was A Ruse (4-0 1st of 13 @ Madison SC)

Ajar 1624

Not too much to say here. This is just the False Lead Gagarin list that's been floating around in various incarnations for a couple of months. I personally didn't like the version with Hostile Takeovers and more copies of Project Atlas, because even though Atlas is crazy good, I kept drawing Hostiles when I didn't have 6 points. I looked at the Death & Taxes version, but 2c for a current just seemed like way too much in the early game vs something like Paywall, which has the other problem where you want to play it early to get value even though you're supposed to hold it to dunk opposing currents.

So I took the denser agenda suite, slotted the third Preemptive, and added a third Tour Guide for a total of 7 ice, giving me just a little bit more of a long game than the other variants of this deck.

That ended up mattering a lot, since although I killed Apoc Val pretty fast in round 1, in round 2 @ctz on 419 slammed down a Hijacked Router early on, which kept me in prison for ages. When I finally managed to get enough money, I fired an HHN, but was off by 1 credit, which let him pay into it and get us both broke. Not long after that, he slammed down a fresh Router, and I started to think about hitting the concede button despite having 2 False Leads scored. I took a little time to take stock of my outs, since even though I had no money, I did have multiple Daily Business Shows online. It seemed like my only line was to try and play Econ War enough times to keep his money down until I could finally drag myself into a position to land one more HHN.

I fed him an SSL to get myself any money at all, and that ended up working out when CTZ returned the favour I'd paid him earlier and missed his math by one credit, giving me the HHN into double False Lead forfeit into click trash Citadel HPT for 6 win.

Round 3 was @x3r0h0ur on MaxX, with an early Stargate for pressure, but I'd drawn the nuts and got Eco War into HHN with a scored False Lead quickly.

That set up round 4 vs @spags on Stealth Leela. At first I thought I'd be able to go pretty quickly, scoring an early False Lead, but I only had Jeeves and one Marilyn for econ for a long time, which let him get his board set up. I ended up with two Tour Guides on R&D, Border Control + Tour Guide on HQ, and an Afshar remote. I jammed a Lady Liberty in the remote and netted a False Lead with it to pressure. He let it go for a turn, and I held an SSL in case he let it go, but he ended up trashing it. I landed an HHN and used one False Lead, but he was able to Doof me down low enough that I couldn't close the game. I spent the next many, many turns fighting to get any economy going, but eventually I was able to stick an HHN with him broke enough that I could forfeit False Lead and then Consult for HPT.

I'm honestly pretty surprised that False Lead was reprinted into an environment that revolves around HHN. False Lead is what makes this deck work at all. Season to taste, although I'd be pretty wary of cutting the Jeeves. It's a priority Preemptive target for me and kept me afloat in every long game I've played with this deck. I'm quite happy to recur it and make runners either pay to trash it multiple times or let me have 4 click turns.

3 comments
18 Apr 2020 MergeBandit

Any opinion on vulnerability audit to cheese out a no advance score with Jeeves? Is it common for runners to check most of your face downs?

19 Apr 2020 Saan

Paul (@adquen) showed me the first version of this deck when he was making it because I'm the local degenerate Gagarin guy in our meta, so he was looking for tips. It had a lone copy of SIU in it, which he kinda thought did nothing, which I agreed with. He said he had no idea what else to spend the influence on, so I was like, Throw in a Jeeves. Screw the alliance requirements and just pay the inf cost, it's almost certainly worth it. It's cool to see that it's still in the deck, even after revisions.

And for what it's worth, I expressed concern over the Hostiles as well =P

As for Vulnerability Audit, the idea is sound, but I don't think it's worth spending an influence in order to occasionally score a never-advanced Audit using the 1-of Jeeves in the deck, because of 3 reasons. 1 - I don't think it would happen often enough, since you have to get both Jeeves and the Audit and have an opportunity where you feel okay laying it out. 2 - It doesn't actually do anything when scored or stolen, so the points are good, but it doesn't advance a game plan or help you in any way except drain your money in a deck who's #1 gameplan is murder. 3 - With 1 and 2 being true, I don't think spending influence on Audit is better than what the influence is already spend on. You really want 3 HHNs, Daily Business Show finds the cards you need, Marilyn is the money the deck relies on, and without Jeeves you can't never-advance the Audit anyhow.

20 Apr 2020 adquen

I'm actually a bit proud to see this deck still kicking and winning. Well, ofc it's only partially the deck and mostly the player, but still. And congrats! :)

I personally didn't like the version with Hostile Takeovers and more copies of Project Atlas, because even though Atlas is crazy good, I kept drawing Hostiles when I didn't have 6 points.

I think no one except me ever liked the Hostiles, and even I have come around to cutting them. They were fine in the beginning, but I see that you probably want lower agenda density and more slots. However, I really like the Atlases, as they make both Lady Lib better and cheesing out a counter with Jeeves can be game-winning. Having a third Preemptive and another piece of ICE sounds tempting, though ... but I think I stick with 6 ICE and more Atlas. ;)

I'm honestly pretty surprised that False Lead was reprinted into an environment that revolves around HHN. False Lead is what makes this deck work at all.

There is nothing more to add. Without False Lead is deck would be garbage, and HHN was already pretty present, so I also don't understand why NISEI decided to give it an extra-push.

@Saan: For the record, in my book you are the local degenerate Weyland guy, not the Gagarin guy :P I associate you actually more with Blue Sun and Jemison.