A Ramp to Mars

This is one of three different Jemison builds I've been messing around with, and the one that I ultimately decided to bring to our final SC here in Portland. I didn't have any illusions about it being really good or anything, I just wanted to have fun with a new style of Weyland. The games that I lost I lost due to really, really bad hands to start with, and playing real 3-pointers makes terrible hands extra bad. However, I don't see that as a sign of the deck being bad, just that I need to be more considerate of when to mull with this deck. The games where I won I won fairly convincingly.

I think the most important decision in making a Jemison deck is what agenda composition you are going to use and how you plan on ramping your agendas. The obvious play is that you can turn a 1-pointer into a 3-ponter with an unrezzed Oberth (click one, install agenda on Oberth, rezzing Oberth, saccing 1-pointer, proccing Jamison to put 2 advancements on agenda, advancing click 2, using Oberth to place an additional one, advance click 3 and score). This means that I need 1-pointers and 3-pointers. Turning a 1-pointer into an Atlas with 2 counters also feels amazing, so playing Atlas makes sense (as it does in almost all decks, though), and is also nice since once I have a rezzed Oberth I can FA the Atlas's as well. I also chose to run a couple False Leads, since they can be used to never-advance a 5/3 by saccing them after the second runner click if you don't have an Oberth in a server.

I kind of wanted at least 5 1-pointers to increase the chances of seeing them early, since they're my most important first agenda, and that dictated that I needed 3 of each of the rest of my agendas. I could have dropped a 3-pointer and a False Lead to run a couple 4/2s, but there's no real reasonable way to FA a 4/2. Weyland also doesn't have any 4/2s that are good if you can FA them; the only real reasonable 4/2 is Oaktown, and that one you really want to advance regularly to get it's benefit. It's still great for rushing, so is not a bad inclusion, but doesn't do much to advance the kind of "agenda curve" wer're aiming for. Geothermal also isn't terrible, but we're already taking bad-pub from Hostiles and you really don't want to go overboard with that shit. As for what 3-pointer to run, Global Food just sits there like a lump once you've advanced it, leaving you feeling poor and empty inside, and scoring a High-Risk investment from hand and never needing to worry about money again is a pretty sick feeling.

The FA tools I decided to include were the insanely obvious Oberth and the probably less used 24/7. As I said, you can turn a 1-pointer into a 3-pointer with an unrezzed Oberth. Once Oberth is rezzed, it's really only good for FAing 3/2s and 3/1s (and blasting off Hostiles in 2 clicks, which is still an increase in efficiency).

The basest level 24/7 play is that you can use it to turn a 1-pointer into an Atlas in 1 turn, but that doesn't really do that much other than gain 1 point (which can be enough, if that's all you need, mind you). More fun uses are to use it and a rezzed Oberth to turn a Hostile into an Atlas with a counter on it, since Atlas counters are godly. The other side of 24/7 requires you to fire off a When Scored of another agenda, and the best target for this by far is High-Risk investments, which you will almost certainly score at some point in scoring games (and several murder games). This makes Midseason's a terror. There was a game I played while testing the deck where I baited an opponent into stealing an agenda by using my High-Risk counter to match their money (I was only barely ahead after the counter use) and laying down a False Lead and advancing it once. They saw that I could no longer threaten their money with my High-Risk counter, made a bunch of money then ran the remote, stealing 1 point. I then used 24/7, saccing Atlas to get another counter on High Risk (using the Jemison counters to make Maus a hard-break ICE), got all their money again, and dropped a massive Midseason's on their face. It's really, really good. You can also 24/7 to get 7 bucks from Hostile in a pinch as well. It doesn't work on Atlas, though, and that makes me sad =(

As for the kill package, I really think that the only kill plan that is reliable enough for Weyland is Midseason's Boom!, and I also think that Weyland decks right now will probably pick up more wins by being on the kill than not, so I went for it. I usually end more games with a dead runner than by making it to 7 points, so I think the decision is correct to play it. I'm going for it pretty hard, with 5 slots total dedicated toward it (2x Boom!, 2x Consulting, 1x Midseasons). Really all you need are the Midseason's and one Boom!, but I like the added consistency. Getting Boom! RFG'd by Slums feels bad, so having another somewhere is nice, and knowing you can tutor it or Midseason's up with Consulting feels even better.

Friends is there to bring back Oberths and killed ICE, and strait up one me a game at the tournament because of that. Most of my ICE is chosen because either I can rush early behind it (Ice Wall, Enigma) or because it has a fairly high number of subs for it's rez cost. With so many decks relying on ICE destruction, Mid-strength, multi-sub ICE seems to be fairly decent right now, since if they can kill it it didn't cost a ton to rez in the first place, and if they can't it'll be taxing to either breakers or Faust. Sapper is the obvious exception to both of these, and it's in there basically as a sentry gear-check (since you can just walk through Veritas without actually needing a breaker) and a R&D trap (kills mediums; seems good).

Before the tournament I meant to change a Mausolus into a Quandary to help a little bit with the "too much chunky ICE early game" problem (everything costs 4!) and to add another ETR to help rush behind. Maus can be an ETR with advancements, but that's kill-yourself kinda slow, and insanely expensive, which is the opposite of the route you usually want to take.