Chrono Trigger

PureFlight 1068

This is absolutely a work in progress. Give it a swing and holla at me with suggestions. Much of the influence is flexible as long as Salem's Hospitality gets to stay. :-)

In Chrono Trigger, you rush out agendas to create pressure. The runner runs in response to the pressure, which turns on your scored House of Knives and Neural EMPs. This means they have to slow down to regroup - if you snipe a fracter, they'll need to find another one or a recursion card, meaning they won't run. Subliminal Messaging is the best for this situation - your hand gets padded to protect agendas, they'll just want to run even more, and you get some much-needed econ.

There's several NBN cards in the Mumbad cycle that punish the runner based on the corp's knowledge of the runner's grip. These obviously work with Harishchandra Ent., but I thought they might give CP a boost as well. Most notably, Salem's Hospitality acts as a situational super-EMP. An EMP-Salem combo is a great 1-2 punch that easily drops the runner down 3 cards. More importantly, it lets you get rid of more of the stuff they need to keep up with your rush.

The Good

The synergy in this deck is great. Notable card choices:

  • I can't stress how sweet 24/7 News Cycle is in here. Primarily, it can combo with EMPs for a Philotic Entanglement flatline. Sometimes it doesn't even need the EMPs. It also becomes the perfectly timed Chronos Project fire or the for 15 when you're broke. Usually I just drop a HoK with no tokens left for these fires.
  • Archangel+HoK is a trace 6 - trash an installed runner card sub for a 4 rez or a 3 ambush card in your hand that can't be trashed.
  • Cortex Lock is flipping great in the early game, and I can often hit it on turn 3 or 4 and wipe most of their hand, slowing them down a bit.
  • Shock! is a surprise, can often bait runs, is extra-punishing in CP, and costs nothing to fire.
  • Swordsman is actually pretty good here, as the runner can find a Faust early, but usually not their 1x Mimic. They also often feel pretty safe because they've only seen gearcheck ice and aren't too scared. The 1 net damage is solid with the ID.
  • I love to use Celebrity Gift after my Subliminals just came back from archives, so I give away selective info without showing the whole hand. I have this agenda here...but you didn't see the Shock or Archangel I have...
  • Only two Jackson Howard because agenda flood is usually not the worst thing, and doesn't happen often because I try score every other turn. In fact, when I lose, it's usually because I have to dig for more agendas. I dropped the 3rd for a Fast Track.
  • Waiver is an experiment, as I usually have a good sense of what the runner has in hand and can make educated boosts to the trace. It's also fricking brutal, and the runner basically has to jack out if they have 0 or 1 cards in hand because of the risk of hitting a Fetal AI.
  • Fetal AI is great for a pseudo-PE effect, but is pretty costly to score. I usually keep them in hand and pretend they're Shocks.

The Bad

  • This is loosely inspired by Weyland Argus Rush decks, which are significantly better at rushing because so many of your agendas give you cash with which to score more agendas. Without things like Hostile Takeover and Geothermal Fracking, I'm relying on Profiteering pretty heavily. Most games that I lose, I didn't score a Prof, and most games I win, I did.
  • The bad pub from Prof often hurts the traces from Archangel and Waiver. If I can, I'll stack those two so the runner has to actually spend credits on the second one.
  • If I lose, it's usually because of variance. They got 2-3 points by their second turn because R&D was open, or I can't find an agenda to score out.

Wish List

The biggest problem is econ. Profiteering's BP is rough, but Gila seems really slow to me. I also think Medical Research Fundraiser is too helpful for the runner to get set up in the first several turns.

I'd love to try Shi.Kyū in here, as even paying 2-3 is nasty in CP. If they have a Levy, a breaker, or whatever in hand, they have to think twice about taking the -1 point.

7 comments
15 Jul 2016 umbralAeronaut

Some pretty cool choices here, especially 24/7 News Cycle. I would probably drop 1 Subliminal Messaging because of the diminishing returns on multiples, and go for your third Celebrity Gift in replacement. If you can try out Yagura to enhance the prickliness of your centrals, in this identity it's excellent. I'd also look for a way to fit more Hokusai Grid because they are among the best identity triggers that you have. Let me know how it fairs!

15 Jul 2016 Shockeh

I ran a CP Salem's deck for a few months (It's here. Now illegal under the new MWL!) which might be worth a reference, if it helps, although it's much more heavily asset based. I found that Profiteering just encourages their running on your (difficult to defend) centrals, as the BP means they can do it 'for free' every turn.

I can't recommend Hive enough in the archetype; It usually buys you the breathing room to get set up to start doing damage, although your version seems to have much more of a scoring plan, so YMMV.

Love the Arcangel/HoK interaction - Never even considered that!

15 Jul 2016 mawa

I'd reccomend Sweeps Week over Special Offer to make that econ more reliable, even though I know how valuable having face down ice is. Also, I'm really, really of the opinion that you want Medical Research Fundraiser instead of Subliminal Messaging. Think of it working like a third of a Profiteering, but gives your opponent 3 credits once instead of every single run. I'm also certain that Green Level Clearance isn't worth the influence here: I think you're better off with another Sweeps Week.

15 Jul 2016 PureFlight

Can I just say that I appreciate how all three of you have the Jinteki red usernames? :-)

@umbralAeronaut mmmmmm, Yagura... Yes, totally agree. Yag rocks. And Hokusai has been doing some work, so I would love to find room for another. It really wards off siphons and keyholes quite well, and when I get it early I put it on R&D and leave it iceless for a few extra turns.

15 Jul 2016 PureFlight

@ShockehYes, your deck is much more lateral and lacks a scoring plan. But, getting early EMP and BEA pings is as beneficial there as it is here, sniping rig pieces before the runner can install them. Love hearing about what worked for you. BEA seems great bc you don't need the runner to run like EMP or HoK. And yeah, if they have the right breaker, me having BP basically shuts me down. Hmmm...

Hive would be stellar! Or even Spiderweb if I'm feeling like I'm losing subs too fast. I think Hive is strictly better, as the first few encounters will have +1-2s and +1 STR as compared to Sweb. This could also let me actually score out a Fetal if I needed to. Thanks for the suggestion!

15 Jul 2016 PureFlight

@RubbishyUsername Ah, yup, Sweeps>Offer here. I thought it might be a nonbo in a damage deck, but the sniping doesn't really shrink their hand at all. The GLCs were just the "I need to draw for agendas sometimes, and money is good, sooo...". I think I would much prefer a Sweeps and a Fast Track over 2x GLC.

Both you and @umbralAeronaut aren't crazy about the Subliminals, so I'll try adding 2-3x Medical Research Fundraiser and see how it feels. I'm worried about what happens when the runner just sets up for 5 turns and doesn't run. Maybe I can play with a "Clones are not People" and see if that helps increase the pressure.

15 Jul 2016 mawa

Well me and @Shockeh are part of the Jinteki alliance who are always publishing silly non-Palana/IG decks, so of course we'll be around on every Chronos Protocol list :P

If you want to increase the pressure, why not swap out some of the agendas for Braintrust (particularly eyeing Fetal AI here). It stops you being nearly as dangerous, so you may have to run Snare!, but it lets you find scoreable agendas much faster.