Sunny's Halloween Party

Ever since I left the planet, YOU ...

That's right, Pat's off-world, and Sunny's hanging wit some girls she never seen before (and Satan). Follow her on instagram @LebZilla. If the only hip-hop you listen to is Nujabes, you don't get these references, but I assure you they're funny.

I've now given due homage to the NRDB tradition of "fun" write-ups, and the rest of this will be terribly dry and Spike-y, and I will likely insult some cards you like. BE WARNED.

Anyways, this deck is built to smooth Sunny's power curve as much as possible (also, if I'm being honest, to play Calling in Favors in a deck that doesn't suck). She's well equipped to play Security Nexus, Underworld Contact, and Data Folding, and necessity compels her to play Kati Jones, Daily Casts, and Earthrise Hotel to have anything resembling a functional econ / draw package.

Career Fair is great support, basically serving as additional copies of Sure Gamble.

3x Earthrise is also nowhere near enough draw to get through a 50-card deck, so we have to drop some influence on draw. I dismissed the 2-influence options out of hand (25 inf disappears quickly if you're spreading it across 50 cards), leaving Drug Dealer, Off-Campus Apartment, and Quality Time as options.

Drug Dealer I dismissed because (unlike Gabe or DLR Val), Sunny really does need money, especially early, when you're trying to install Nexus ASAP while still getting your drip down.

Quality Time I think could be solid in a different build, but also suffers from being hard to afford early (and would probably require more influence spent on burst econ or Magnum Opus).

That leaves us with Off-Campus Apartment, and, let's be real, I was always gonna make an OCA Sunny deck, it just so happens that I also think it's the best available draw engine for Sunny. After all, she's practically guaranteed to have 5 Connections in her deck (3x UWC, Kati, Jak), and it's easy to justify a lot more.

Street Peddler is just a good card, probably in any Sunny build.

The Source is, in my opinion (digression incoming) a really underrated card right now. Back in Spin and Lunar, people were all "whatever, they'll just Biotic Breaking News and keep on Astro-training you, and 3 credits to steal is almost as bad for you as the extra advancement is for the corp". And this was a good point at the time. HOWEVER, I think it's much better post-SanSan / D&D. OCA, Fall Guy, and Film Critic all synergize with each other and The Source, mitigating its drawback, helping it stick around, and protecting OCA from random Breaking News / Lizzie Mills trashes (and giving you 2 credits if you really, really need them, although I can't say I have ever, once done this). Unlike Clot, The Source gives you a bunch of utility against Glacier decks, particularly ones that play 5/3s and never-advance 3/2s - all of a sudden Food is a 3-turn score and you have to telegraph Beta Test (although once The Source is out there are all kinds of bluff options, particularly for corp decks running NAPD, so you want to surprise the corp if at all possible). There's also the side benefit of preventing remote spam decks from scoring naked 3/2s. Which is pretty funny. DIGRESSION OVER.

Scrubber - In combination with Jak Sinclair, this card is crucial for keeping tempo against NBN remote spam and RP. You can definitely cut to 1 or even zero if those decks are rare in your meta.

Jak Sinclair - Great card. 1-cost Rachel Beckman against NEH. A+++ would put in deck again. More later.

So, yeah, that's the connections. But how do we break ice, Higgs?? Connections don't break ice!!

(This, parenthetically, is the part of the write-up where I insult cards you probably like, so harden your heart, dear reader.)

The Sunny breakers are pretty ass. They cost a ton to install and use. My first attempt at this deck had Inside Jobs and 3x Sunny breakers, but I found myself drawing a bunch of Sunny breakers I didn't want, so then I went down to 2x Sunny Breakers, but then I wasn't drawing them when I wanted them, so then I put in some Special Order (because 3 influence to pay even more for these things with SMC? Fuck that, amirite?) so I could actually find the one I wanted, when I wanted it, but the tempo hit of Special Ordering these things and installing them and using them was crippling, and I was tying up all this influence in blue cards that were supposed to help me fight early remote plays.

So.

I looked at my deck, with its sick draw engine, redundant copies of Kati Jones, Jak Sinclair, Security Nexus and Off-Campus Apartment, and had an epiphany. What's the best way for a deck with a bunch of redundant copies of draw /econ engine pieces to spend 6 influence on fighting early remote plays? Faust!!!! Now I know how Zoolander and Hans must have felt when they realized that the files are in the computer!

Upon reflection and testing, there's powerful synergy here with Security Chip. If you're just playing with the Sunny Breakers, often it's like a delayed, hence shitty, Sure Gamble, but with Faust it can easily save you 3 cards, making it a delayed, hence shitty, BUT influence-free Diesel, and sometimes (especially when Little Engine and Wraparound are involved), you save 4 or more cards, which makes it pretty awesome.

After putting in Faust, I was winning a lot of games with just Faust and Nexus installed, so I cut down to 1x Sunny Breakers, but then I started losing to wraparound, so I grudgingly went back up to 2x Sherman. Life is hard.

Anyways, this deck ideally delays installing Sunny breakers until absolutely necessary, (which is hopefully when your deck is gone, but usually the corp will figure out some way to force you to install a breaker before then). Once you have 5 credits of drip and Kati, it really doesn't matter if your breakers are shitty, and it beats playing Levy AR Lab Access.

And, now, I proceed to address your inevitable questions. First

Wherefore Multithreader!!??

If that heading made you grind your teeth, a) good, and b) put a "no" before Multithreader.

So, remember how earlier I mentioned something called a "power curve"? Sunny's is really, really back-loaded. Her card pool has a lot of cards that are strong if the game goes long, and basically none that present early threats to the corp or allow her to answer early threats from the corp.

Multithreader makes her power curve even more back-loaded. For the first several turns after you install it, its best-case scenario is "faster Daily Casts". It's only in a game that goes long, and only then if you have a worthwhile run to make every turn, that this card is better than Daily Casts.

My suspicion about these 'Threader Sunny decks going around (FULL DISCLOSURE: I haven't tested them) is that they punish passive corp play, but roll over and die against a corp that plays as aggressively as the corp should automatically play when they see your ID hit the table. Fast track is already this deck's worst nightmare, I don't want to add another slow card to make it worse!

Where's your multi-access?

This is a remote-lock deck. The first part of the game is spent frantically digging for The Source (and friends), pitching whatever cards you can spare to Faust to fight off cheeky Quandary-rushes, and trying to afford Nexus. When you're still in this phase of the game, you really can't afford to install R&D Interface, there's no influence for multiple copies of The Maker's Eye, and Medium is kind of a bad fit (you can't make that many runs on R&D with Faust), as well as influence-prohibitive.

Besides all that, I actually think the 1x Globalsec Security Clearance is all this deck needs to grab points off of centrals once it's set up (look at R&D, if agenda, steal it, if not, poke HQ), provided you can deny FA with The Source and contest the remote (which is a lot easier to do if you don't waste a bunch of money whiffing on centrals).

Parenthetically, if you really want to play Multithreader in Sunny, in tandem with Medium is probably the way to do it.

Isn't this just a shitty Nexus Kate!!??

(...and is any Sunny deck with Nexus just a shitty Nexus Kate?)

Uh, maybe. This question is harder to answer. Kate has Magnum Opus, Diesel, Quality Time, Cerberus "Lady" H1, Rabbit Hole (and an ID ability that makes it not worse than Access to Globalsec if you happen to draw 2 of them before you want to install them), and a bunch of other good shit in faction.

Here's what this deck does better (IMO):

• Play with no programs against HB. Jak gives you a free click to go through Bioroids, and the economy is clickless or click-efficient, so you can feel a lot better about clicking through Eli or Turing, ignoring Ichis and Assassins (paying traces where relevant), and Nexus-ing whichever of Architect and Turing stands in your way.

Random card selection thoughts

Calling in Favors is great to help you recover after installing Nexus. It's extremely rare to play it for less than 7, and 9 is common. At first glance, the self-trashing Connections are a problem, but Fall Guy hangs around until needed, and if Peddler clips Shrike or Striker I might not pop her all game. In practice, this card is usually awesome.

Access to Globalsec is a good economy card here, but it's bad if you draw it before Nexus, so I don't want to play 2. The same applies to Rabbit Hole, and I hate the extra cost and the inf.

Globalsec Security Clearance does work against Jinteki kill decks, and helps you get the last couple points once you're set up. This is mainly a remote-lock deck, and it's nice not to have waste money running R&D.

Data Folding is much worse than UWC (which sometimes gets you a draw off OCA and 2 credits off later Calling in Favors), but, if it's in your opening hand and UWC and Kati aren't, it's still probably the best econ card in your deck.

If you keep getting crushed by All-Seeing I, you can put in two New Angeles City Hall. This is the "no tech cards" version. 2nd Folding, Access to Globalsec, 3rd Earthrise, and 2nd Security chip are the best cards to cut, I think.

ANYWHO, I was asked to share this, my baby, so HERE YOU GO. You know who you are.