The Big One - V1.0

joemillions 7

This deck has only one real way to win - pull off a huge Accelerated Shutdown combo, and hit the runner with up to four Scorched Earths in a row. Even if there are two plascretes out, you can blow through them both, and the runner too. Obviously there are hard counters to this deck (3 x Plascrete, or Decoy, or NACH, or a super-rich runner), but we are hoping that our runner opponents won't be playing those cards, and won't know what we are up to until it is too late.

The BIG combo requires 21 credits plus whatever the runner has (creds + link), and the three key combo pieces in hand, Accelerated Diagnostics, Power Shutdown, and Jackson Howard. It is done as follows:

  • Install Jackson #1
  • Power Shutdown the whole deck
  • AD for Interns (Jackson #2), Reclamation Order (ADx3), Biotic
  • AD for Interns (Jackson #3), SEA, Scorch
  • AD for Scorch, Scorch, Scorch

Note that you cannot use Jackson Howard during the game to recycle cards, otherwise the combo is wrecked. If a card you need for the combo is in hand, use Subliminal Messaging in its place in the combo to give you an extra click to play it out of hand. Of course, shorter combos are possible if you don't need to deal 16 meat damage and you don't have enough credits. Here are the main combo thresholds, although you might need to adjust these somewhat if you have to or can play cards out of hand, or have Jackson already in play.

  • 16 Meat Damage - LINK + 21 Credits (see above)
  • 12 Meat Damage - LINK + 14 Credits (use Hedge Fund instead of 1st Scorch)
  • 8 Meat Damage - LINK + 8 Credits (Sea+2xScorch with 1st AD)

Why Custom Biotics? You need 3 x Scorched Earth, 3 x Jackson, 3 x Accelerated Diagnostics, and at least 2 x Power Shutdowns to pull off the combo reliably. Not possible with any other IDs other than Weyland, but Weyland is missing some other useful stuff, like Archived Memories and Reclamation Order, which make things a lot easier.

Why a 59 card deck? The combo pieces use up a lot of deck space, and once you put in agendas and an acceptable amount of ICE, there isn't enough space left for economy, of which you need lots. With a bigger deck, the combo package takes up a smaller portion of the deck, leaving you with more space to insert economy cards. Also, a 59 card deck requires 24 minimum agenda points, which is divisible by 3, meaning you can get away with only 8 agendas. 8/59 is pretty much the lowest possible agenda density, and the runner will need to hit 3 to win. Also, after reworking a few agendas back into the deck, the agenda density will increase, but having a larger deck mitigates the effect of this.

Rework - since you are collecting combo pieces in your hand, that leaves less space for agendas. Reworks are maximally efficient in this deck, as they are sending back 3 point agendas, and they can be recycled with Archived Memories or Reclamation Order. Remember, you can't use Jacksons to do this, because you need them for the big combo.

Research Station - This is experimental, but I think a larger hand size could benefit this deck quite a bit, as you will probably be holding 3 combo pieces for much of the game as you build up your credit level. Closed Accounts is an alternative, since you can recur it, but Scorched Earth (also can be recurred) is probably good enough punishment for tags, Closed Accounts is probably overkill.

ICE - I just threw together a bunch of random ice without too much thought, I will adjust the mix in the future after play testing for a while.

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