The Batty Loop

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SubTric 432

Welcome to the Batty Loop! This is my take on an old classic combo, which has not been touched upon too much since rotation happened. The deck is built to be a full-on nose dive into setting up this combo...

The killer combo is Marcus Batty + Fumiko Yamamori + Crick, Many of you will have seen this before, but the core idea to to set up your scoring server with Marcus in it and a Crick as one of the ice protecting it, while also having Fumiko in another server. You rez crick and once the runner hits Batty, you trash him to begin the Psi game. Assuming you win, you select Crick's subroutine to fire and reinstall Batty again while doing 1 meat damage from Fumiko. You then immediately trash Batty again and start over... and over.... and over. If the runner is low on cash then start smiling and you can kill them off in one fell swoop. To add salt into the wound, you gain 1cred from your ID ability each time this happens.

So how do we get this set up? 3 card combos are often a pain. We run 3 copies of each card involved , 2 copies of Psychokinesis (to help us grab Fumiko or Marcus) and 1 Localized Product Line just incase we are struggling to find an element of the combo. We also run LOTS of econ - 3 each of Hedge Fund, IPO and Celebrity Gift as a single copy of Bryan Stinson who is often worth his weight in gold. It's also packing a pair of Preemptive Action to get back any combo elements of econ we may need.

Our ice suite is a tad odd, with a few Psi ice included to maximise drip economy from our ID - Aiki, Mind Game and Upayoga are all included. Mind Game and Upayoga work great spread out as Mind Game's subroutine allows us to push the runner onto which ever server has the Batty & Crick installed on it! We also run Architect as another early game way to find the cards we need.

Our Agendas are tough to steal until we pop them down, and once we do, we either score or (hopefully) begin the Batty Loop on that server run. I've also snuck in a single copy of MCA Informant to stop Film Critic (as that counteracts our 'hard to steal agendas' and 2 copies of Cerebral Static - during testing I ran into a few ID's whose built in abilities were problematic, but also many decks are built to play into an ID's granted bonus, and sabotaging that is always fun.

In testing this has been surprisingly effective. Partly because the current meta has left this silly (but brutal) combo alone for a while, but also because we can set up what we need fairly fast, maintain good economy and catch the runner off guard.

11 comments
18 Oct 2017 Illicit_Eeyore

Free Lunch? It seems to me that you might need a way to get the runner low on cash so he/she doesn't disrupt the loop.

18 Oct 2017 presheaf

I tried this in AgInfusion a bit with Heinlein Grid to deplete the Runner's bank. It's actually been ok! Aginfusion would also give you better chances of scoring out if needed, as well as force the runner into your kill server.

18 Oct 2017 SubTric

@MichiganMaster Free Lunch isn't a bad call, especially if I can get that down early enough. I might try dropping an Architect and another piece of ice to trial a pair of them.

@presheaf I assume you spent all your influence on Bioroid Ice to enable Heinlein? What ice suite did you use... Most of the highly effective Bioroid Ice is going to cost 2 influence a pop? Possibly using a mix of Enigma and Hourglass? Aglnfusion was a consideration, and you may be right... I might have gone down the wrong avenue with this, but I found the stream of credits from psi games clocked up enough that the psi game became pretty much free for me, and that felt to be the surer gamble. I might try this in Agln' and see how it feels, but it's worth noting that in testing, it's been pretty effective with Nisei!

Thanks for the suggestions.

18 Oct 2017 SubTric

@MichiganMaster Free Lunch isn't a bad call, especially if I can get that down early enough. I might try dropping an Architect and another piece of ice to trial a pair of them.

@presheaf I assume you spent all your influence on Bioroid Ice to enable Heinlein? What ice suite did you use... Most of the highly effective Bioroid Ice is going to cost 2 influence a pop? There's always Enigma.

Aglnfusion was a consideration, and you may be right... I might have gone down the wrong avenue with this, but I found the stream of credits from psi games clocked up enough that the psi game became pretty much free for me, and that felt to be the surer gamble. I might try this in Agln' and see how it feels, but it's worth noting that in testing, it's been pretty effective with Nisei!

Thanks for the suggestions.

18 Oct 2017 presheaf

No, just Enigma/Conundrum. You then need 2x Batty to win, but you only need to win one of the psi games.

18 Oct 2017 whirrun

Could I suggest Sandstorm as a redirecting tool. Good luck!

18 Oct 2017 presheaf

Another cool feature about the thing I suggested, by the way, is that if Runners run last click to prevent the Heinlein Grid from killing their bank, you're still AgInfusion, so you can just trash a piece of ice and send them elsewhere.

19 Oct 2017 SubTric

@presheaf Thanks for that... I've give it some testing. I've been running Heinlein in Seidr Laboratories: Destiny Defined with great success on another tactic, so I'm interested in this approach.

@whirrun this is a totally great suggestion that I overlooked. I've been testing with it for a few games and it makes a big difference! Sand Storm is in!

I've made some edits to the current running... -2 Cerebral Static, -2 Aiki, -1 Mind Game, +3 Sand Storm, +2 Scarcity of Resources

Scarcity of Resources has been added as during the last half a dozen games I've played, the combo of Earthrise Hotel, Daily Casts, Data Folding, Same Old Thing, Liberated Account, Sacrificial Construct, Underworld Contact has been plowed down onto the table... huge resource lineups are in, so giving the runner a tempo hit (giving me a couple more turns to get the cards I need in place) has been a godsend.

19 Oct 2017 presheaf

Not to keep tooting the AgInfusion horn, but if you're AgInfusion, every ice can be a Sand Storm if you want it to be. :) I really do think aginfusion with a bit more econ is the right place for this combo, and the fact that Sand Storm does work in this deck seems to suggest that as well.

19 Oct 2017 Council

Hey @SubTric, I made a rather similar deck a while back, and boy do I have a card preposition for you.

Executive Search Firm A crazy include? Perhaps. But it tutors your Fumikos, your Batties, and your Stinson. All you need is a few more Weyland cards, and Punitive Counterstrike is a great include when using Obokata.

The rest of the inf is filled up using Crisium Grid, a very all-around useful card that can act as a "Batty" before they run.

Now I get not having the Excec, but where are your Chetanas man? A Batty into Chetana fire will kill in two psi games, which is quicker than Crick will usually get.

Further points: C-Stat is good, but Scarce is better, especially when you want to fire the Stinsman. Consider a single "Clones are not People" to allow for two-agenda wins.

I've so far felt that Architect has been underperforming, and was considering cutting the two I was running for stuff like the third DNA Tracker. Interesting that you run Vanillas, I was on a 0 barrier plan (although mostly because there are no good Psi barriers).

Good luck with your deck man!

20 Oct 2017 SubTric

@presheaf I hear you dude. Will be testing this weekend! I certainly think it could be a better option.

@DonLoverGate Thanks for the feedback! I've been using Chetana for the last few games actually... 3 of have replaced the Architects, as I too have found them the least effective way of finding stuff! Scarcity of Resources is already in and proving it's worth (see comment above!). Executive Search Firm is a great idea that hadn't occurred to me... I'm going to have a serious mess with that.

I also quite like the '0 barrier' idea. I hadn't done it as in the early game a spread of quick ETR is very useful, especially if you have an unlucky draw... But you're right, Vanilla doesn't perform for very long in a game and given that most of my agendas are hard to steal when uninstalled, it's probably worth dropping them. Lots to think about. Thanks!