[Concept] Rig Armor

oasis 90

Where your rig, like it's a suit of armor.

Sahasrara might finally be coming into its own... well maybe. This is a bit of a schizophrenic mess, but it's an attempt to deal with something my other dumpster breaker decks haven't, which is dying to damage. Apparently that's how netrunner games end these days.

So, the solution here is simple. Heartbeat turns your rig into a stop gap and the dumpster breakers can be reinstalled as you encounter ice to give yourself a sizable and instant speed protection from every type of damage a corp deck can throw at you. The penalty is that after getting shot at, you may need to spend several terms reinstalling cards from your archives, and as maxx, the number of shots you can take are pretty limitted, even with this tactic.

So, this is yet another proof of concept deck, but it maintains the possiblity of using sahasrara as an engine with aesops to gamble every turn. It breaks things normally. It builds board state, and then if for some reason you're going to die that board state can save your life.

It uses the console slot to protect against damage so you don't have to spend a lot of extra deck slots figuring out how to protect yourself. And for a damage deck, a solution as strong as heart beat can just turn them off. So, at that point money & breakers may just win you the game with a medium dig.

I've got it in max right now because the reality is that that this is a really weird concept. The right thing to do might be to put it into shaper with a single heartbeat that you'd trade in for over astrolabe in the right deck. At that point, sahasrarah is in faction and your biggest concern is sentry breakers.

If mumbad delivers a dumpster sentry breaker, which seems likely, it could potentially really improve this archetype, depending on it's stats. Having 3 damage protection, that's reinstallable, just from your breakers is most of a plascrete... It would also make playing as maxx a bit safer; but there are some obvious concerns still with all of these piece you don't want to discard.

6 comments
20 Oct 2016 killj0y

You're already running same old things and a ton of recursion, why not use Noble Path for on run damage. You've already eschewed Faust so having a hand isn't a pre-requsite for running. having heartbeat around is nice but lacking something to clear tags quickly you're still vulnerable to things like boom! which is going to blow through a lot or installed cards. And far better to toss those to aseop when you need cash than to be forced to use Deja vu to pull them back. Also I'm seeing a massive amount of influence on 2 cards, no levy and no clone chip. If you don't pull that heartbeat you don't have anything to go get it, and if maxx rolls it to the heap on a draw you'll have to wait for your 1x trope to show before you can do anything about it.

Maybe an upgrade to citidel sanctuary when it comes out?

20 Oct 2016 umbralAeronaut

This is a good start, and it's always interesting to see a mini-faction card make it out into the wild as a strategic cornerstone for something. I kind of agree with @killj0y that our meta is half about losing horribly to surprise damage, and the other half about losing horribly to a slower death by tag suffocation... Shaper does seems like a great home for this with Trade-In and Misdirection coming soon. Paperclip is a totally fine import for them too, but I doubt Black Orchestra makes the cut. We'll have to wait and see about the stats on the Killer-flavored 'Conspiracy' icebreaker.

20 Oct 2016 oasis

If you keep your handsize up you only have to prevent 2 damage to survive a boom, which is black orchestra & paperclip to heartbeat. I've had worse in hand will fill your right back up. So long as you have money you can run again next turn.

Citadel Sanctuary would eat slots, only save you from meat damage and not do a whole lot beyond that.

Deja Vu can pull back heartbeat; at the worst, sot > vu can get you heart beat. And if you only need it for a portion of matchups, that's probably fine. You probably see it quicker if you pitch it & have to retreive it than if you play something other than maxx.

But, maybe you have a point, maybe apex should just figure out how to run and pay for these dumpster breakers, could be easier on the influence.

21 Oct 2016 overlord midas

Might this not work better out of Kate "Mac" McCaffrey: Digital Tinker, using Paperclip, Clone Chip, for recursion and taking advantage of the in faction Sahasrara and extra Aesop's Pawnshop to get things rolling? Scavenge could also be interesting here. I'm not sure what to do for card draw though.....

21 Oct 2016 Crauseon

There was something wacky being done with Exile: Streethawk to a similar effect - Aesop's Pawnshop a Conspiracy breaker of your choice, reinstall mid-run with Sahasrara, and net a lot.

Exile helps you with drawing back up, but then again he loses I've Had Worse. Could you fit Heartbeat into that?

The idea's excellent, I'll give you that. All of the identities have their own merits to bring to the table for this to work. I guess it's a choice of preference after testing.

21 Oct 2016 beladee

Could this finally be the archetype where Emptied Mind fits? I keep looking for a way for it not to be suicidal (or just ineffective) and perhaps having some rig armor is the right way to go about it. As I understand it, you could trigger Emptied before you trigger Maxx at the start of your turn. It's a bonus that it costs 0 and can be sacked to Heartbeat if needed. Then again, you're still back to the Boom problem, since it's not likely that you'll be able to easily trash 7+ cards.