Biotic Labor Shortage v3.1 [5-0, 1st Empire Central SC]

This is the final version of the Adam deck I've been playing through store champs this year. It went 5-0 at the Empire Central SC, finishing 1st (14 Players). Overall, through five store championships this and previous versions have compiled a 20-4 record, with three first and two second place finishes. Quick notes on changes from the previous version.

Beth Kilrain-Chang

After dropping special order and scrubber, I had some influence to burn and very few slots to spend it in. After trying a lot of different things (Ice Carver, Bhaghat, Femme Fatales, etc), I eventually settled on Beth. In addition to the obvious benefits, she can be extremely awkward to play around in combination with Corporate Defector. Twice today my opponent had one click remaining and 14 credits, and was left with the unsavory options of potentially revealing a drawn agenda or giving me 5 clicks next turn.

Gordian Blade

After the ET store championship I was pretty down on Gordian Blade, but the recent popularity of Jinja City Grid decks with huge stacks often featuring multiple large code gates has changed my mind. It is a pretty big liability, however, and I've lost it to destroyers twice when it was awkward to keep it in hand.

No RNG Key

This is going to be an unpopular opinion. Let me start by saying that RNG Key is a good card. It takes little effort, and with some luck it can have a decent pay out. For zero cost card, that's a pretty good deal. Given that, combining RNG Key and Find the Truth is bad. It throws away the primary benefits of Find the Truth (spreading your R&D pressure over all servers and protecting you from Neutralize All Threats) in return for a 3 credit rebate on your first R&D run. THIS IS NOT A GOOD TRADE.

Example: Imagine the scenario where the top card of R&D is Pad Campaign with a single architect. If we have RNG Key installed, we run R&D, pay 3 to break, pay 4 to trash pad campaign, and then get 3 very shiny, very expensive credits. Conversely, without RNG key, we run archives for free, see the pad campaign, and go about our business 4 credits richer than we would have otherwise been. While I've been working on this Adam deck I've spectated a lot of Jnet games. This sort of thing is quite common, and the math only gets worse as the stack of ice on R&D gets larger.

Wrap Up

I'm really happy with where this Adam deck is right now. It feels strong in most match-ups, and I don't think its a huge underdog to anything. Hope people who have tried it have liked it as well. Also, quick shout out to Empire Central for hosting the tourney and for being supportive of ANR generally, even though our group is small.