8 Influence is Too Much Influence (1st place, Oxford SC)

Having rather unexpectedly won the Oxford SC, I figured I should write up these decks.

When the MWL was announced, I - like many others - curiously attempted to build various formerly "Tier 1" decks with the new rules to see how they fare. This one fared pretty well considering it lost 9 influence.

The Deck

Originally I tried keeping an Architect and dropping the NAPD Contracts for one of each weird NBN 4-2 I could find in the hope of discovering one which surprised me. The most reliably unterrible choice for a fast-advance deck was Explode-a-palooza, but the reason you run NAPD isn't the credit-swing, it's the tempo loss for the runner when they steal, and/or the inability to steal when they access with insufficient credits. So NAPD Contract it is. If your brand of fast advance is a tag-heavy Psychobeale play then clearly Palooza is better, but I was expecting a lot of Siphon-heavy Anarchs so wanted to be comfortable playing from low credits. Psychographics is off the table if you have no money.

We have just one Cyberdex Virus Suite on account of fewer Shapers less likely to recur Clot with their costly Clone Chips (seriously folks, slot Clot, even now! It buys you so much time!), and Shipment from SanSan as a slightly softer Clot-tech which also facilitates playing through Siphon pressure and winning from 0 credits. I prefer 3x PAD Campaign to running any Marked Accounts because again in Fastro I think it's more about tempo than credit swings, and with Marked Accounts I'd be wasting clicks for the same return.

The ice is all yellow and grey. Archangel and Assassin are both horrendous facechecks which mean I really don't miss Architect, and a known Archangel in HQ can do similar work to Snare! in discouraging those runs. Enigma is a good laugh to rush out an AstroScript Pilot Program with against Criminals due to the click loss. Less good against Anarchs or Shapers so there's only one. Tollbooth on an otherwise vulnerable Central or in front of a SanSan City Grid is pretty standard, nothing fancy. Quicksand gambles on fewer (or at least less accessible) Parasites as a reasonably strong counterplay to an R&D lock, which is usually how any fast advance loses. It's a bit rubbish vs Anarchs with Faust and Wyldcakes though, as it stays one card per run to dig with Medium for as long as it takes them to find the Parasite and Datasucker it down, so bear that in mind. The rest is very normal - Pop-up Window for light economy and to tempt Parasites away from Quicksand, Wraparound to rush and hate on AIs, Quandary because 1 credit ETR why not, and a lone Wall of Static mainly so Corroder has to pay 2 every so often.

The only other thing to say is that if I expect (or see) Turntable, I endeavor to get a second Astro token - even if I go completely broke doing it - rather than ride the train in the traditional way. This deck can score out from little to no money, so going broke with a relatively safe counter is a strong position to be in.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

Personally I wouldn't change a thing right now. Certainly not drastically. If instant Parasites become a problem again I may swap one of the Quicksands for a second Wall of Static, and if the Clot threat is made real again I'd swap one Shipment from SanSan for a second Cyberdex Virus Suite, but even with just 8 influence rather than 17 this deck, piloted well, absolutely does the business in the current meta. I don't think it's broken by any means, but popular runners at the moment are playing with toys which facilitate econ denial, remote control or Apocalypse, which NEH Fastrobiotics with Shipments couldn't care less about.