Nasir - you got to pump it up v.1.6

bazyn 22

After lots of testing games with Nasir this is the version that I am currently most happy with. I still would like to see a lot of cards that I was not able to fit in the deck (clone chip, I miss you!).

First of all, Nasir needs his Personal Workshop. No doubt about it. He needs it so bad you should always mulligan for it. It is the key card to fully use Nasir's ability - you want to pump on it all of your money after the corp rezzes a piece of ice but before you encounter it.

3x Diesel and 2x Quality Time - they are here to find you the Personal Workshop if you were not lucky enough to have it in your opening hand. If you have already played it they work well thanks to finding programs and hardware you can play on the Workshop.

Economy - Nasir's ability + Armitage Codebusting is often all the econ you need. Kati is great in here as you can store credits on her and take them when everything is already rezed. There is also a ton of economy in recurring credits (Toolbox, Cyberfeeders, Silencer, Cloaks) which will be used during runs once the corp rezzes a new piece of ice.

The Toolbox - he ideal console for Nasir - it provides both recurring credits which are essential to get past ice once the corp rezzes anything and also gives me two memory which I also need a lot due to tons of programs I want in play.

Multi-access - Interfaces work great here thanks to the synergy with Personal Workshop.

Tricks - I picked Test Run + Scavenge over SMC + Stimhack for two reasons - Scavenge is great for abusing Femme and the Stimhacks usually are needed get stuff quickly off the Workshop and I rarely used it on SMC.

Icebreakers - Gordian's Blade and Battering Ram are here because you can abuse Nasir's ability and pump their strength after the rez but before losing credits. Dagger is the main sentry breaker with a supporting femme to deal with stuff like Tollbooth. Atman is a back up, against a lot of decks it turns out to be a MVP.

I love to play Nasir but I still think that he is a bit unstable, you are really relying on a not unlucky draw at the start of the game (you need to have quickly a Workshop and something big to put on it). I see him as a tier 1.5-2 deck, maybe all the breakers that break using power counters not credits will change that.

3 comments
3 Jul 2014 wswan

I like this a whole lot. All of your references to timing make me feel like I need to check the timing structure of a run, but otherwise the deck itself looks great.

3 Jul 2014 bazyn

Thanks!

IMO the most important thing when building a Nasir deck is finding ways to abuse the paid ability window during step 2.3. This is the moment when the corp rezzes ice and you still can spend money either on Workshop or on your "until the end of run" breakers (or in other decks SMC). What you want to do is spend all your money during this window so you don't lose any when you encounter the just rezzed ice. I think that this is the only tricky part about the timing during a run :)

8 Aug 2014 CJFM

@wswan yep, you can do that with Nasir. You could do it with other runners, too, but we've had no incentive to do so before. Also, if you pump a non-end-of-run-breaker before the encounter, it can pump, but goes back to normal immediately. Consequently, if you had 3 cred and ran into a Tollbooth, you could pump any breaker once, going to 2 cred, and not lose any money to the Booth.

@bazyn Nice build! I've always opted for SMC to use during the run, but maybe you're on the right track. That might be too many Stimhacks, and too few Plascretes, but it's a solid shell. There are a few things you will have trouble with: trashing assets/stealing NAPD and Fetal and getting through Pop-Up (without Femme-ing it). You have plenty of recurring creds and plenty of memory. Glad to see Armitage included, as it's amazing for Nasir.