Citadel Preacher (1st Berlin Store Champ)

5N00P1 833

This deck went 5 - 1 in the 12 player Berlin Store Champ (together with my Outfit Deck).
I was looking for a deck for a Store Champ and was first considering EStrike Val but then @tugtetgut made me think about 419 & Security Nexus and as I'm a Nexus Fanboy I gave it a go.
This deck is a combination of Scamshop 3 and Itchy Index Finger. I liked the Datasucker so I went for 2 of them instead of The Maker's Eye but don't liked the ProCo Engine. Hot Pursuit was not a good fit, there already so many tag tools you don't need another one and they might defend (or should) HQ anyhow to prevent your DoFs. The main spicy include was based on tugtetgut feedback of putting in a Hernando Cortez man this boy, paying 9 credits for FC3 is just brutal or 7 for Mausolus...

It really came together although I'm not the best pilot of this. But losing to @RotomAppliance at Euros in the last round of swiss has teached me some things... This beast can become unstoppable.
It's amazing as soon as you get 2 Power Taps out, it means you get break any ICE (except of Anansi) for 1 Cred, or you can run on a Central, maybe force a rez, fire a trace, gain 2 get a TTW Counter and a tag, that you remove end of turn with Citadel for another 2 Creds. 1 click, 4 creds & 1 TTW Counter... Same applies early game for Rogue Trading get 6 & a tag that you remove for money. ICE like Data Raven is nice, you get a tag, you get a trace so go for it. You will earn money as long as you are not afraid of Judges.
On the same time you can keep your opponent bankrupt. DoF, you ID ability, Corporate "Grant" and Amina are amazing and then add some Hernando Cortez spice. Corps need to stay above 10 to threaten a score that means ICE costs a lot. FC3 = 9, IP Block = 4, Ravana 5 ... 2 Datasucker as you have the MU and you'll find one early or 2 is even better, they get your Aumakua ready earlier as you don't have a fractor.
Have to say I made some big mistakes and got lucky with them.

Game 1: EFE on Jinteki PE rough match and i regretted immediately that I cutted the Caldera. He scored a House of Knifes early to be able to clear my Corporate "Grant". I exposed a Psych Field, but won the psy game. Bankrupted him to check the unadvanced stuff, trashed a Snare. He mushined out a Show of Force, but I was afraid of Junebugs, ended my turn with 3 cards.... He scored the Show leaving me with 0 cards in hand and Neuraled me. Well deserved.

Game 2:
Saan on CtM wo let's trace!
Turn 1 he sneaked out an ARES & Bankers, buuh and scored them turn 2. I was trashing the Bankers with Deues to remove the tag and stabilized. Got the Nexus out, a citadel and one Power Tap. But then I got greedy used Nexus & Rogue Trading the same turn, ending the turn with a tag by my mistake.... He closed my accounts & HardHitted me. That was rough, I was sure he would try to kill me next turn & I was on 1 Credit due to Taps. Luckily I kept a Falsified Credentials to check his servers later. So I used it to get to 5, removed 2 tags, took a credit. Trace to remove another tag & gaining a credit. So 2 tags, 3 credits and an installed Citadel. After my mistake he did his, he played for all his 6 Credits Consulting Visit into Boom to kill me. But Citadel boy, it saved me. Discarded some cards including a second Citadel but I survived and cleared all tags next turn. We were both bankrupt I found a Falsiefied to stabilize and another Power Tap and run through his IP Block to get 1 cred & a Turning Wheel Counter, while he rezzed his lady & scoring another ARES & a Beal with her, but luckily no 3 pointer, but I was going for his hand. Luckily I got the win out of an open R&D. I had this game very much, but was to greedy.... but people forget Citadel.

Game 3:
Igor on Outfit.
He only put his iCE on the scoring remote and he tried to play the money game, no not with this deck, it eats Econ Warfare. Needed some time to setup and he could go to 2 Agendas scored, Broad Daylights. Man... I should think. Ended my turn with 3 cards and he was like.... use both. I was almost dead, but Citadel.... eat the first 2 meat and then used Citadel to save me. Lost an Aumakua this way. But he was not able to find another Agenda, while I went next turn to draw 4 as he still had one Counter on each Agenda. Was able to find my Aumakua as he was playing at least 2 Barriers in the remote and got in for.... + 9 credits, going through a Raven, tracing through a Blockchain and using the 5 bad pub for everything (including the trace to remove the tag). At that point i got the game and he was locked.

Game 4: Blanket on AoT, uh lot's of ICE and no EStrike... He build a remote with 7 ICE and defended R&D with 6.... of course with Jinja, I killed the Jinja on R&D once and he got it back with Archived. Got out Hernando early, rezzing FC3 for 9 was hilarious, but his ID ability it sucked. Was able to snag his second scoring attempt, cleared his hand for an Ikawah and then got the win on R&D with TTW. Was running on click 4... this was stupid, leave one click for Ikawah, it almost costed me the win.

Game 5: lazychef on SSO, oh no again lot's of ICE. Was able to steal a Hostile from an empty R&D Turn 1. Got fast my Citadel, Taps & Rogue and left the Nexus in hand, while he was slow rolling a Hollywood Renovation in his remote. I though I go for it, him on ~ 14 creds. Click 1 & 2, take 6 & a tag from Rogue, click 3 install Nexus his favorite console, click 4 Deuces Wild, expose ICE & make a run, Revealed a Mausolus with 3 advancements. Uh... but it costs 7 to rez with Hernando Cortez his majesty. I calculated a bit and made the run. He rezzed for 7, leaving him on 7. I got 2 creds from Taps (or 1?) I think he could have beaten the trace, but in this case I would have removed the tag, fire Citadel for the other one and would get it next turn, as he would be on 0.... so I got this one and was on 4. He was able to Biotic, Red Planet a City Works clearing all his counters and I was able to hold him down with DoFs and found the next Hostile. Was able to find the other 3 pointer, but I think there was little to no chance to win this for him.

1st after swiss.... nice. We did a top 3, meaning 2nd was playing against 3rd. Then I had the choice against the winner and was feeling more confident in Nexus against Azmari.

Game 6:
Jojo on Mwanza, Snare Azmari with Ravens & IP Blocks. I was able to get out my tools, giving him only some credits and having the lead to use Citadel & Taps. He was slow rolling a Kitty, which I don't cared about but it gave me time to setup. He then tried to score an SSL, which I got. The remote with IP Block & Raven was no issue with Nexus out. Even gaining credits. I went for HQ and grabbed a Snare, uh what? 3 cards survived but very close again. Avoided running any central last click. Grabed a Food from HQ and then went into R&D to face Mwanza... what? I was not aware of this. But it gave me the win. I think my deck was pretty brutal against his.

6 comments
3 Mar 2019 adquen

Oh boy, this deck again. Actually seems like a pretty good choice in this meta. Is the CF recycling real in this deck? They are obviously good even when you play them once, but how many times can you do the run-three-times thing with Nexus as your primary breaker?

3 Mar 2019 5N00P1

Really good question! Sometimes you do, sometimes you don't. Not as strong as others, but when your turtle is loaded or you can run for cheap you do it. I was usually combining it with power turns like: DoF, Run R&D run HQ getting 3 TTW, 3 Sucker, 2 access and using Nexus once to successful go in the server when it made a profit.
I think one thing that is very important you want to fire your Nexus once per turn, to get into something, make them rez ICE and to profit from traces.

14 Mar 2019 rattkin

"It's amazing as soon as you get 2 Power Taps out, it means you get break any ICE (except of Anansi) for 1 Cred" - can you elaborate? I'm not seeing the thought shortcut here.

15 Mar 2019 5N00P1

Sure @rattkin, you are welcome! When you have Security Nexus out, you have a link of 2, with 2 Power Tap you gain 2 creds which means breaking any ICE only costs you 1 credit. I assume I was not clear enough that you need Nexus & Taps.

21 Mar 2019 rattkin

I still don't follow. You don't break, you bypass; not any, but just one; 1c is only true, if the corp doesn't decide they increase the trace. Right?

21 Mar 2019 5N00P1

OK... I see what you are referring to.
Yes you bypass, which is in most cases better then breaking (e.g. Tollbooth or Data Raven) as you don't need to deal with on encouter effects. As said Anansi and also Kakugo still fire their ability. So I was not very precise.
What I wanted to say is once per turn, you can break (bypass) any ICE and this for just 1 Credit. Usually this is the difficult thing, what is it? A DNA Tracker? Which is pretty expensive, a Fairchild 3.0 with Nexus you can go beyond for 1 cred (in my scenario) or you can also decide to take the tag, take the credits from the trace and hopefully a The Turning Wheel counter.
The corp has the choice, they rez the ICE and you deal with it, one way or the other, or they don't and you might check out take the TTW counter and do this again. So you try to put the corp in a lose lose situation. As you have Nexus, as long as there is only one ICE on the server you can go in for very cheap and when you can keep the corp poor, you can reduce their credits even further. It helps you to land Diversion of Funds.
When the corp increases the strength, this is perfect, it is called they siphon themselves. So if they do it just to deny me an access I'm totally fine, I take the tag, take the credits and get money to remove it. If they do it when I try to DoF them, and they go down to 0, nice mission accomplished, as I get 2 creds for the attempt to get them to 0. When they are on 0, they don't score :D. When the corp increases the trace, it's in 95% a big mistake, as they need to pay first.