Anatomy of Anarch: Variation

The changes are okay, but I think that it will be markedly slower, and thus start losing to NBN. Without the DLR attack, you lose a pretty valuable attack on archives. I think adding corroder and mimic to the base build are a better step towards keeping the original strategy in tact, and still effecting HB.

That said, as a new kind of build, this is probably very effective at fighting HB. I'd almost stick in 1 chakana instead of the drips which are less effective without Hemorrhage and the dip in siphon count.

I am very interested in this, how often do you use the DLR attack in a game? I found that it wasn't really getting me the mileage I wanted for 5 cards in the deck. Maybe I should be focusing on getting it off more often.

I thought about the corroder and mimic. The problem I found was that a) now you need at least 2 corroders and 2 mimics. b) mimic requires charged datasuckers vs HB which means you both need to have drawn mimic and datasuckers as well as hit some runs. It just seemed that this would really dilute the deck whilst also not being overly reliable. I am going to go back and take another look at it though, since you know what you are talking about!

Last question, why do you think it will be so much slower? It still retains the same overall chance of getting that first siphon off early. What problems do you see arising vs NBN?

Many people will say that it's "win more" to run DLR + joshua B, but I don't believe in that in Netrunner. This game is about pressing edges and capitalizing on advantages until you win. Thus, DLR and Joshua B work when the corp is 0'ed out. I would siphon 1-2 or 3 times and get them to 0, THEN install josh b an DLR as further denial. Essentially it's "trash this or I'll hurt you" which basically gives you an extra turn to develop your board state and gain money for your next attack, or assault R&D with keyhole/medium.

I don't like planned assault for the same reason I hated to do SOT for siphon, you really don't always want to float the tags, and the gain of spending 2 and 2 clicks and then burning tags is significantly worse than just drawing into siphon. A drawn natural siphon is several orders of magnitude better than a tutored one.

I'll be honest I'd look at 2 siphon 2 E3 really, rather than adding planned assault. I would just resign to having to draw more often and harder to find it. I'm not 100% certain, I'm trying to crack the HB problem myself, and I'm not having a lot of luck.

As for it being slower, I think taking the time to install djinn, losing the 2 credits, and then sometimes tutoring viruses all slow the game down, but improve your board state. I find that against NBN they're too fast to develop board state much, you have to rip into them as hard as you can. So I guess maybe using PA with siphon is kind of the same thing. I found a lot of my positive results against NBN though were due to milling jackson and SanSans to slow their drawing and FA options, and I milled with DLR, Keyhole and ID, so removing DLR hurts that attack, as well as the times I ended up scoring agendas after DLRing.

Keep in mind that the actual card effect of DLR isn't the intended purpose, rather it's the 2 clicks for credits and 1 click to trash that you're after, it's essentially a free turn for you. If they don't acknowledge the threat, thats when you start doing it. The idea is resource based denial, not necessarily to gain the effects printed on the cards.

Hopefully that's semi clear and discussion worthy.

Absolutely discussion worthy, thanks for the solid response.

The reason I think it is a win harder combo is because several conditions have to be met before you can get it off the ground. You have to hit AS (once or twice) get them to 0, and then hit archives and install the DLR (assuming you have Josh B already sitting waiting).

This means a run or 2 on HQ and 1 on archives. My problem is that I often find this doesn't work in practice. What if a run on HQ is going to cost 10 and 2 crypsis token to get in (say a not unreasonable eli and tollbooth). What if archives also costs 6 or so to get into and needs even more crypsis tokens. What if they are HB and are just sitting on 20 credits, so event 2x AS will only take them to 10? In any of these cases either you cost yourself a horrific amount to get the combo up, or they still have money at the end and just trash it. Sure, it's inconvenient for them, but if they weren't on 0, it's not the end of the world.

It feels like just too many times getting the combo off is more trouble than it's worth just to mill a few cards and then have it trashed, especially against CORPs who have increasingly solid economy... which seems like all of them.

I guess my issue is that once I get behind the combo is nice, but it certainly doesn't feel like it's actually going to actually win me the game. Thus what I mean by win harder, when I'm ahead it puts the CORP in a horrible bind, when they are ahead it's a nuisance, but I may well spend so much getting it to happen that they really aren't too bothered.

One thing I am relatively resigned to is just floating the tags. My meta isn't crazy scorched heavy, and the tempo and money hit of clicking to remove them just kills me dead, especially if I'm going to repeat siphon. Once I don't remove the tags this releases some of the pressure based around SOT and PA. However obviously this is sometimes going to come back and burn me badly.

I will vary between 2 siphon and this current idea and just see how it goes. You may be right though.

I've may well take the Djinn out of my next variation, I think you are right about it slowing things down too much.

Ultimately, the 'combo' pieces are fine on their own, and unless the corp can stay ontop of you econ wise all day, I'll be happy to install josh b or DLR for free / 1 credit to make them trash. They just really shine when they can actually do work/ finish the job. The fact that they stand on their own is just an alright addition. Maybe their power level is too low though, I'm just not sure what will 1.) add to the strategy when it does work, and 2.) contribute strong enough on it's own.

I suppose if you're looking for something that always helps, cyberfeeder isn't so bad, it always reduces your cost to run (effectively lowering the str. of the first ice by 1 per cyber), and they help install viruses. Oft overlooked or forgotten about, and normally quite worth the investment. I'd put in 2.