Tracing A Better World

The Weyland Consortium is importing a few strategies from the development teams over at NBN's corporate security division. This deck focuses on getting tags not through the happenstance of a Snare, but by making the runner interact with taxing, trace-heavy ice. Tracing A Better World doesn't fly at the breakneck speed of Supermodernism, but it doesn't need to. Runners, by default, have to respect Weyland, because there are plenty of ways for Weyland to kill you. So they come into the match-up fearing the Scorch, wary of Snares, knowing they might need to slow their game a bit; and this is something we can capitalize on with a host of fun tools.

Since we're going trace-heavy, Primary Transmission Dish is an absolute star of this deck. Pair it with a lightly defended Root, and you'll find yourself saving cash with almost every run the runner makes, and every time you advance an agenda. It couples exceptionally well with the Dracos and Vipers, and it's a free hardware trash with Taurus. On top of it all, it already pays it for itself and then some the first time you rez it and costs 3 to trash. What a beautiful card. Even The Root is too good for a runner to leave sitting, so expect a solid return on investment there, too.

I've one-offed a Closed Accounts to be tutored up with Atlas if need be, but in a deck like this, it works wonders as the runner tries to tackle trace ice that ends the run. At one influence, it's a great include that can blow a game wide open, and I almost wouldn't mind dropping a Jackson for another one.

TABW doesn't run as much program destruction as most Weyland decks, but so far, I've found there to be enough in the form of Archer and Grim, as well as the one-off Aggressive Secretary, and I have to say, this is another one of my favorite cards. People aren't used to seeing Weyland run many advanceable traps (an advantage of everyone fearing the Snare and only the Snare), so this is another trick that opens major windows. As far as only packing one Grim, I'm actively avoiding bad pub in this deck, though I could certainly see the case for adding a second one. It is a nice piece of ice.

Scorched has been dropped in favor of Punitive Counterstrike, a perfect fit for a deck that loves traces as much as this one. Runners have learned how to play around the Scorch, mostly by staying tag-free. So I've gone away from that path, and have instead tailored my agenda suite to pack more 5/3s than most; four in total and with how good this deck is at opening scoring windows, I'm not opposed to adding more which comes with the added benefit of thinning the agenda density. Geothermal has been dropped as part of the desire to avoid bad pub, and I'm strongly considering replacing the Hostile Takeovers with Gila Hands. That means no out of hand agenda scores, ergo a little more work for Archer fodder, so that's something to consider when making that call.

Other pieces of ice I've had my eye on include Data Raven and Information Overload, but both would be limited to a one-off at two influence if I didn't drop AgSec, and for the price neither offered enough of an improvement over what Draco already does.

I'd love some feedback on this deck. I'm still not as comfortable building corp decks as I'd like to be, so I'm open to any and all suggestions.