Hayley's Pawn Stars

This deck went 5-0 at the Store Championship at Labyrinth Games (3/20). That day, I also went 5-1 with a standard ETF deck. I've been playing this deck in variations since the MWL shakeup (it got me to around 15th in the last Stimhack League). I wanted to wait to publish the decklist, though, until I had actually won something with it.

Brief Overview of the Deck: This deck is a very slow deck. The deck wants to set up its economy (Proco, Aesop's, Tech Writers, Scheherazade, and to a lesser extent Workshop) as quickly as possible. Once you have a fair amount of credits and a reactive card like SMC, you can check ICEd remotes. Once you've got a permanent rig set up (David or Atman, LLDS/Chameleon on Workshop) you can focus on digging through R&D every turn and R&D locking your way to victory.

Mulliganing: You want these three cards in roughly this order: Proco, Aesop's, Tech Writer. Because you are only click-drawing, Proco will get you lots of value immediately. Aesops will get you lots of credits and it's very good to have early, but you have to make sure that other cards in your hand are pawnable. Tech Writers are great because they install with Proco turn1-click1, and the sooner you get them out, the sooner you can threaten a big run once you trash them. Personal Workshop is somewhat nice to have in your hand, if you have an interface or David to host on it early. Tech cards for certain matchups (Film Critic, Sac Con, Inti/SMC, Paricia, Astrolabe) are also worth keeping an eye out for.

Strategy: This deck wants to always be installing, and more importantly, wants to Always Be Pawning. You will have always extra cards that may not be useful in a certain matchup, but they install cheaply and clicklessly. There are always matchup-specific things to pawn, but in general, things that you can pawn include: Cache, Paricia, used/1 counter David, Cy-Cy, extra Personal Workshops, LLDS if you know you don't need it as an ICE solution, Astrolabe when you have another in hand, Proco when your deck has run out, and practically anything when you absolutely need 3 credits.

Once you've got Proco and/or Aesops up and running, it's important to prepare for pressuring multiple servers. It's very important to divide the corp between servers, and lovingly named Shaper Bullshit allows you to get away with running almost anywhere. To threaten any server, you generally need an instant speed installer, and some credits. You can install things at instant speed with SMC, with a Clone Chip (allowing you to use Hayley's ability to install a breaker like Chameleon from hand), or best yet with Personal Workshop (allowing you to either install a breaker, or install another program and install the breaker from hand). Having at least one LLDS ready is important, because then Chameleon protects you from <=4str ICE, and David can always protect you from >=5str ICE.

It's very important to realize when you can make profitable runs. Generally, corporations will stack R&D with lots of ICE, because that's your shaper specialty. For example, you may want to pressure a remote just to force an ICE rez, in order to get a profitable run on R&D with an interface or two out. If the corp hasn't been aggressively scoring agendas, it makes sense to run HQ to force them to protect it, and possibly get at agendas that have been piling up.

Schehrazade is important to get out in the early/mid game. Many times, when threatening a server with an SMC on board, you'll SMC for Schehrazade and install a breaker on it from hand. It makes installing programs pay, gaining you anywhere from 10-30 credits over the course of the game. By itself, it makes Chameleon installs much less awkward, costing you 1 instead of 2. Coupled with Tech Writer credits and Personal Workshop discounts, installing Chameleons can be very credit efficient.

In the late game, it's important to make powerful and efficient runs. After the midgame, you should have a good idea of what ICE the corp is playing. To make your breakers more efficient, in both clicks and credits, it's important to place Cy-Cy on a server with codegates (generally R&D or a big remote). It's also very important to set your Atman correctly, so that you can threaten multiple servers with only one or two chameleon installs. 90% of the time you install Atman, you'll have an LLDS processor out, so you need to make sure that you install it at the end of your opponent's turn (off of PW, Clone Chip, SMC, or Hayley install).

Deck specific strategies:

NEH FA: This one is pretty easy. You're going to want to find econ and SMC early. Having Astrolabe and Inti are great in your starting hand as well. Don't worry about assets as much early unless you've naturally drawn Paricia. The ICE is a joke, Tollbooth is the worst you're going to see. Check remotes for CVS and make sure to always, always keep the threat of Clot available. Upgrades on centrals are almost always going to be CVS -- so make sure to always trash these the turn after they install, and remember to sell clot if you have it installed. Once you've found Sac Con, you've closed out the game.

Foodcoats: A relatively hard matchup. They're probably going to be able to score once early. If they just get full value off of an Adonis Campaign, that's a positive. Try to get set up as quickly as possible, and challenge econ when you can. One LLDS helps a lot early to protect against Ichi rezzes -- always run cautiously before you have one available. As usual, you want your Atman set at 4. Keep in mind the techy play of installing Atman-4 with one LLDS to break through Vikram/Ichi2/Assassin. Notoriety is an MVP in this matchup, counting as one of the four agendas you need to score to win. If you can't score it early, always make sure to run HQ or R&D click one with a Chameleon or two stored on Personal Workshop, so that you can be sure to get into every central on your first three clicks.

Palana: Palana is a strong deck, and has many angles of attack. Generally, you're okay against all of them. If you see Braintrust / Medical Breakthrough, make sure to always check Mushins (after drawing up) and keep Clot available for Biotic / Trick of Light plays. Play it like NEH FA, check remotes for CVS and dig through R&D. If the deck is heavier (with Nisei MK2 / TFP / big ICE) you want to build your econ and find a Film Critic and R&D interfaces as soon as possible. Generally Atman 4 is most efficient (Eli/Ichi1/Lotus Field), but if they have lots of Tollbooths/Assassins, then Atman 5 can also be right. Bust into their remote and R&D -- they can't defend both with a Caprice. You probably want to keep Sacrificial Construct around (and keep some programs off of Scheherazade), to guard against Ichi/Batty.

SYNC: Not too much of an issue. Clot lock, get Film Critic to run through Data Ravens, fetch David for short term pressure but your Atman will 99% be set at 6 in the long game. (Gutenberg and Archangel). Don't worry about News Teams, the game doesn't revolve around you getting 7 points - it's about keeping them from 7. Eventually, HQ interface will make it easy to snap up their Global Food Initiatives from hand. If they're playing Reversed Accounts / Dedication ceremony, remember that you have a window before they can use it (so pull stuff off of your Workshop, etc.)

Blue Sun: This is a good matchup for you. David is a life saver, use it to deny OAI whenever you can. You need to find out their ICE suite so you know what you want Atman to be on for the late game. I've mostly set it at 8 (Orion and Janus). It's important to keep all 3 LLDS in this matchup, because you want to be able to deal with Tollbooth/Assassin/Archer and you don't have an infinite amount of Davids. If they're looking like a Scorch build, you should be able to outmoney them, just don't be afraid to take money off of Tech Writer on click 4 in the mid/late game.

Haarp (and other Midseasons): An unpredictable matchup, especially if they have a nut draw. Mulligan and draw hard for Critic. If they've scored first turn, try your best to keep Clot to stop them from scoring Breaking News (and setting up the 24/7 kill combo). Always unload Critic as soon as possible.

CI 7-point Shutdown Combo: Not a very good matchup. Pray that you get decent economy and Interfaces in your opening hand. Bonus cards in your opening hand are Sac Con and Notoriety (the agenda suite is similar to Foodcoats where everything is an x/2 for you).

Sol: Pray they don't name Chameleon. Run with LLDS / Atman4 available to prevent getting set back by News Hound. If the flavor is Ash, congrats, just run any remote that they build twice. If they're packing Midseasons, try to get Film Critic pretty early (and/or let them score out their first agenda while you focus on outmoneying them.)

Hinkes IG: Keep Film Critic and Interfaces protected by installing / hosting on PW early. If you're not having any luck, try guessing the Mushins correctly.

PE: Film Critics help a lot. Otherwise, just play smart like any other runner. Not having Levy hurts, but including Levy and Sot waters down the deck a lot with little benefit.

Gagarin / other Museum decks: Fetch both Paricias, and hopefully get an Astrolabe early. Trash Museums and Jacksons on sight. Check remotes religiously, guard against fast advance. The second you see Scorch, stay rich enough to deny the SEA kill.

Economy discussion:

There's reasons why I included all of the economy cards. But generally, the reason I chose them is that they provide a steady drip throughout the entire game. Proco provides +1 every draw, Tech Writer / Scheherazade +1 every tech install, Personal Workshop is +1 every turn plus a click bank. Aesops provides +3 a turn provided you have junk to sell (which you do about half of the time). It allows you to includes fringe cards that have use only in certain matchups, like Faust. I've chosen Cache over Harbinger because it is about the same amount of credits, but you get it one turn faster. Also, trashing Harbinger has anti-synergy with Hayley's ability. Paricia is similar to Harbinger/Cache, although the amount of value that it gives you before you pawn it is dependent on what Corp you're playing against.

Regular economy cards like Sure Gamble, Daily Casts, Dirty Laundry, etc. don't have a home in this deck. Simply put, they don't gain enough credits over the long term to be worth the include. Likewise, Diesel isn't included because, while it's slightly faster than click drawing, it takes up slots that could be filled with adding more cards that have synergy with what the deck is doing.

Tech cards:

I would say that the flexible cards in this deck shell are Film Critic, Sac Con, and HQ Interface. Notoriety is not flexible in my opinion, because there are too many top tier decks that play almost all x/2 (for runner) agendas. Film Critic is a meta call where I was expecting a lot of Palana and Midseasons. Sac Con is to help against CI Shutdown, NEH FA, and Batty trashes out of Palana. HQ Interface is simple, sustained HQ pressure.

As far as possible additions, there's room for swapping some cards. I would consider Escher, because it can wreck Foodcoats by putting all of the powerful ICE on HQ (and lining up Turings on R&D for Cy-Cy). A lot of times, though, it's simply a win-more card. Plascrete is an obvious inclusion -- I wasn't expecting a heavy Scorch field. That said, it's not as great as it is in other decks because it only buys you time, you can't Levy to get it back again. Artist Colony helps a lot versus IG and SYNC, and has general utility versus other decks. It counts as a Sac Con versus CI shutdown if you've scored even one agenda. With the rise of spags' Pitchfork in the meta, not a lot of Shi-kyus / News Teams are seeing play right now, though.

Looking to the future, I would absolutely experiment with Political Operative. It shuts down any chance of a scoring server for HB or Palana.