ExChanger Danger aka Near-Earth Dub (3-0, 6th @ Lazy Worm)

Overview

This list carried me to 6th at the Lazy Worm standard tourney and I really couldn’t be happier with how it performed after extensive testing the past month or so (my runner play on the other hand was awful, losing two games and drawing on time after being up 6-0 most of the game). Round reports and replays from opponents who have so far agreed to share are at the bottom (will update when I hear back!).

Special shoutout to @raouldukelives who helped me playtest this annoying deck idea a lot against him and helped refine a lot of slotting decisions that shaped its current form. I’m very interested in refining this list further so give me your honest feedback and please reach out if you’d be interested in getting a playtesting group together.

The short version is that this is basically Spombo out of NBN, and it is a blast to play.

While Game Changer can just win you the game on its own, it is a bit more venomous than usual in NBN excellent agenda suite in combination with cards like Exchange of Information. There are 4 tagging agendas (Fly on the Wall and Tomorrow's Headline) so you can immediately swap after scoring for a Bellona or another 2-pointer, ideally Cyberdex Sandbox to get it online.

Nitty Gritty

The early-to-mid game is plan is to rush out Jeeves Model Bioroids, Daily Business Show, Amani Senai, and Marilyn Campaign, sprinkled with a few News Teams and maintain a tempo advantage, keeping the runner occupied and keeping the heat off of centrals. If they let installs float and just develop their pieces, jam out as many agendas as you can. If they rush and trash everything, they’ll be on the poor side and will have spent a lot of clicks not developing their rig and, importantly, not diving into your centrals to trash your Game Changers and Spin Doctors.

Near-Earth Hub: Broadcast Center provides nice click compression and card draw that, along with Spin Doc, DBS, and Attitude Adjustment, gets you to most of the important cards in the deck (and the limited ICE) rather consistently and efficiently. The 17 influence also allow us to slot 2x Game Changers and still have enough influence to get the HB alliance for Jeeves and slot a very clutch Stock Buy-Back. Archived Memories gives you easy access to the Stock Buy-Back, Game Changer, Exchange of Information, or even a timely Cyberdex Virus Suite. Attitude Adjustment really shines in this list and allows you to focus core recursion cards (Spin Doc and Preemptive Action) on combo tools, Archived Memories, and Stock Buy-Back rather than agendas. So even if things get trashed, you can get it back into the deck and draw it out quickly.

The interaction between Daily Business Show and Spin Doctor is particularly notable. Rezzing Spin Doctor before the start of your turn lets you trigger DBS twice, drawing 5 cards and recurring 2 by the start of your action phase. Combined with your ID, if you just need one piece for a combo turn, there are a lot of ways to burst draw into it.

While you are constantly curating your hand for your main combo, there are a few other lines to pursue along the way. For example, with Jeeves online, you can score an installed tagging agenda and Exchange of Info w/ just 3 credits. License Acquisitioning back SanSan at the right time, especially behind a piece of ice, can create easy scoring threats. Amani Senai is also very annoying in this list, and can helps your defense out a lot.

You will absolutely lose games getting agenda flooded and whiffing on early ICE, but the deck is well positioned to recover from a clumsy start. The three games during the tournament showed the deck’s good side, thankfully, against a nice spread of Crim, Anarch, and Shaper decks.

Round Reports

Rd 2 v. Steve Cambridge

Steve is generally an annoying matchup generally because of the emphasis on HQ pressure, but an early Tollbooth install on HQ was clutch. This game was a good example of how the deck can overwhelm a runners credit pool if they (correctly) try to trash most things you install. I got a lot of things trashed early, but the barrage of installs eventually overwhelmed them, allowing for a credit advantage that let me score and use Amani to bounce the few pieces of their rig (Aumakua + Sneakdoor Beta) back to hand.

Game Changer w/ 3 agendas in score area + live Jeeves + 10 credits gave me just enough score a Cyberdex from hand. Then after doubling up on Stock Buy-Backs w/ Archived Memories, I was able to hard rez SanSan behind a Slot Machine and rattled off a few points before they could afford to get in and trash it. Because they needed the money, they floated the tag from a Fly on the Wall I scored from SanSan to use a Falsified Credentials for the coin. I drew into an Exchange of Information and swapped to put me on 6 points, and the next turn I drew into Game Changer and scored out the last Fly on the Wall for the dub.

Overall, very lucky on the draws, but having a live DBS all game makes a world of difference. Even though they stole quite a few agendas early, the remote aggression also drove them into a timely a News Team that ended up juicing the Stock Buy-Backs and eventually enabling 2 agenda points from SanSan, which turned into 3 points after the pressure to trash it forced a floated tag. The early game draw engine also only left me with 12 cards left in R&D when I top-decked the winning cards.

Rd 3 v. Apoc Val

Replay: https://www.jinteki.net/replay/3f1af8da-b682-4d17-b199-fcc01d12f373

Any Apoc deck is a tough matchup for this deck, so this was a good test. This game was my opponent’s only loss on their way to 2nd at the tournament. After trashing a Jeeves, Spin Doc, and a Marilyn Campaign, they stole an early Bellona and trashed a Game Changer from R&D. I was able to jam out a License Acquisition to get Jeeves back online behind ICE when they were down on credits and waiting for double Daily Casts to pay out.

Followed that up with a quadruple install turn including two 1-point agendas and a News Team that were all rushed, resulting in 4 cards in score area and 4 total points. Tried to jam out a Fly on the Wall + Exchange straight from hand behind an IP Block but forgot that Paperclip was in the bin, so after the steal they were up 5-1.

Then the Game started to Change…

Turn 8 was Archived Memories into the trashed Game Changer, allowing me to score out Tomorrow’s Headline from hand and use Exchange of Information to swap Bellona for License Acquisition. Suddenly, I was now up 5-3 and they still had 5 agendas in their score area. With extra clicks left over I drew into a SanSan that was installed behind ICE. They had to spend half their next turn clearing the tag and running the installed card for a hefty price, leaving them on 5 credits without much counterplay.

Drew into my 2nd Game Changer, which they accessed in HQ next turn and trashed. Installed Spin Doctor behind ICE to bait a run, triggered DBS on their turn, and popped it to shuffle Game Changer and Archived Memories back. Drew into the Game Changer the next turn and needed a turn to money up and set up Spin Doc for burst draw to find a 2 pointer. They ran HQ, I popped a defensive Spin Doc draw and, of course, they still got the Game Changer again and trashed it. Next turn was the Apoc turn, so I Spin Doctor’d the Game Changer and Stock Buy-Back beforehand. Top-decked the Game Changer(!) installed another DBS and drew into the winning Cyberdex Sandbox on the ID trigger. On 9 credits, Game Changer gave me enough just enough clicks to install, click for 1 credit and advance to victory.

Again, very fortunate top-decks and the draw/recursion engine really carried the game, ensuring my key cards were in deck ready to draw with 11-17 cards left. Kept the runner consistently low on credits and while they got a lot of central accesses the mid-game Game Changer/EoI turn was pivotal and put me in position to avoid a prolonged post-Apoc grind.

Rd 6 v. Tao

Replay: https://www.jinteki.net/replay/23880848-4a58-467c-9cee-2f46c83e566c

This was my best win of the tournament and was a also a good showcase of how the deck can play around Clot effectively.

First turn is a triple install of Marilyn, News Team, and DBS. After poking HQ, runner checked the server with a News Team on the last click, causing them to take the -1 agenda point. Attitude Adjustment smoothed over the rough edges by drawing me more assets/upgrades and shuffling the the agendas piling up in hand. Ran the runner into a second News Team on turn 3, taking tags instead of a second -1, tying up more runner clicks and money while I try to pump out more installs.

Was also able to tax a 15 minutes steal w/ Amani Senai, applying even more econ pressure as they were forced to trash for 4 more coin. They floated the tag on 3 credits. After a triple install of Tomorrow’s Headline, Marilyn, and Jeeves, the runner was simply overstretched. Needing to clear tags and money up, I was able to float all 3 installs. This let me get Jeeves online, score out 2 agenda points, land another tag, and using the extra Jeeves click to trash a much-needed Beth. This forced the runner to clear the tag and do something about the Jeeves, taking them from 7 credits following a Bravado to 0. Drew into a second Jeeves next turn and followed it with a quadruple install to try to jam out an agenda or, at worst, juice the scoring area for the Game Changer in hand.

Runner ended up stealing both 1-pointers and I see Clot hit the bin for the first time. One floated install was a Cyberdex Virus Suite so I knew I only needed enough money to purge it after it was Simulchipped into play. This made it safe to Game Changer and jam out a Bellona from hand (14 credits, 5 cards in scoring area).

After drawing into the second Game Changer on 5 points I was just digging for a two-pointer to finish the game. DBS drew me into a much needed Project Beale. At 10 credits, this allowed me to Game Changer to 7 clicks.

install (1), advance (1), advance (1), have Clot hit the board from Simulchip, purge (3), advance (1), score out for the win.

Again, DBS being online the whole game made a world of difference in terms of deck filtering, and while things looked dicey after the Cyberex steal, I was able to get myself in a position where giving away those last two 1-pointers was exactly what I needed to make both Game Changer plays land.  

Random Thoughts

• Originally, I built and tested this extensively out of Reality Plus w/ Public Trail, Funhouse, Thoth, and AMAZE Amusements, and I think the more tag-heavy version has potential. Ultimately, R+ felt way too reactive and while I could defend pretty well, a runner that sits back, prints money, and runs judiciously on remote installs on first click was a problem without a great solution. NEH both solved that problem and opened up the list to a lot of new power cards like Jeeves with 17 influence.

• Predictive Planogram was in early versions of the list, but Attitude Adjustment is better given how many agendas you will likely need to juggle and its hard to find other slots for it.

• Amani Senai is amazing and there should probably be at least 2x in this list.

• The SanSan more often functions as an expensive distraction rather than a win condition, and could likely be cut for more copies of consistently active cards. It did its job this tournament but its hard to find the money for a hard rez when you’re saving for 12c to pop Game Changers too.

• Not particularly happy with the ICE suite. Turnpike deserves a hard look, as well as Magnet and F2P but I hate it all. Maybe Enigma is the way to go, but idk. Any advice here would be especially appreciated.