Sparkle Motion - GLC Modded Tourneys (2nd at some point)

bowlsley 673

[Modded is System Core 19 + the latest cycle (currently Ashes) only]

After a long and arduous search to find a successful corp in this format that doesn't involve just stacking up 15+ ICE and hoping the runner can't find your agendas before you can pay for anything, I finally hit the paydirt (is this a pun? I'm not sure) with asset spam credit denial Spark, a very rude deck, and a whole lot of fun*.

If I'm being completely honest, this deck possibly isn't as solid as others that I've built, and I've almost certainly benefitted from my opponents' inexperience against horizontal corps. But that said, if you can weather the early fragility I think it's an incredibly strong deck that soon traps the runner into a lose-lose scenario. Either they check all your remotes and run out of credits (and clicks) trashing everything, or they sit back and you get very rich.

As usual, an overly expansive and largely unnecessary breakdown of almost all the card choices now follows:

The Advert Assets - Obviously the backbone of the deck, ideally you want to see at least two in your opening hand, so that you can knock the runner down to 3 credits before they even have a click. Tiered is the best at this point, as it costing nothing to rez is vital early, and immediately makes the runner think twice about running. Soon after that you'll want to get the Marilyns and PADs online to get your credits flowing, and some CSRs to stop you wasting clicks on draw.

Product Placement - Like Tiered, also useful for its 0 cost rez, I've found that the best place to put these is on unprotected central servers in lieu of ICE (which is very light in this deck).

Bass CH1R180G4 - If the runner isn't contesting your remotes (or they are only infrequently), use these to install and score Beales in one turn (or even a Remastered, if you're feeling cheeky).

SEA Source - If they are contesting your remotes, hit them when they're poor and trash their key resources to stop any recovery.

Ghost Branch - If they're managing to both deal with your assets AND stay too rich to trace, then jam this into your scoring server like it's a piping hot Bellona (paired with an Ash for extra value) and hopefully they'll end their turn tagged, and you can bankrupt them.

Tollbooth - The first one should ideally start scoring remote, as it's the only hard ETR in the deck, and extremely costly to boot. A Tollbooth + Bellona + Ash remote will cost 16 credits for a 0-link runner, even before you have to think about boosting the trace on the latter.

Gold Farmer/F2P - These should initially go on R&D and HQ, where their job is not so much to keep the runner out but rather make the cost of repeat runs not worth trying. After that, stack extras in front of the Tollbooth to make your remote more taxing.

Pop-up Window - Cover vulnerable assets or bluff them over centrals, wherever seems best at the time really. Don't try to anticipate when the runner might run on them just because they're adverts and leave a juicy asset un-rezzed, it's almost certainly not worth it.

Hedge Fund (or the lack thereof) - A pretty bold choice, I'll admit. I imagine the early weaknesses of the deck could be vastly improved by its inclusion, but I refuse to, because I am a proud fool and I like installing things.

Once again, thanks to Dirjel and the lovely people of the GLC Discord for another fun tournament! I'm not sure what I'll play now but it probably won't be as fun*.

*Fun for the corp, not the runner.

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