[Neo TAI/Standard 23.08] How In The Groove Got Arissana

Summary

Make In the Groove work better than a Diesel.

Originally a Lat: Ethical Freelancer deck (Khusyuk 1 Khusyuk fast), with Arissana now released and her Scoops story directly referencing the card, how could we resist upgrading our In the Groove deck with her?

Deck idea

In the Groove requires many installs with non-zero cost. Cheapest is installing 1-cost cards. If we have many 1-cost cards then Khusyuk is great. It is also fast to set up (intuition: 1/3 the price of Khusyuk 3). Add in all the 1-cost cards and Voila! We have an aggressive deck, allowing us to Khusyuk as early as turn 5-6.

With Arissana Rocha Nahu: Street Artist and Prognostic Q-Loop, we get up to 5 installs a turn after our priority to Groove. This can be further boosted with Pichação and Simulchip, if you desperately need the rapid card draw to hunt the 3 Khusyuks.

Previously, our main breaker is Propeller with Pelangi. But with TAI we get new tools to play with, and Slap Vandal provided a lot of versatility for early game runs, serving as a better Boomerang. Still we're using dispensable breakers (power/virus counters), the number of runs we can make is limited, so one recursion that is Harmony AR Therapy is added to give one more chance to Khusyuk, and additional breakers/Simulchip in the late game.

The aggressive game plan is thus: Install a lot of 1-cost cards fast and cheap, refuel with In the Groove and dig for Khusyuk. With Environmental Testing and Dirty Laundry building up credits, unleash multiple Khusyuk in one turn, aiming to end the game fast.

TAI upgrades and other cards worth considering

LilyPAD replaces Supercorridor for the great MU and even more install-based card draw. Extra draw if you pop Q-Loop on Corp's turn is really nice, sometimes worth a blind loop reveal for 50% chance to hit.

Hush is the best card against all the fancy on-rez or on-encounter effects. This deck dies to Border Control, so a Hush is great to just spray on R&D ICEs before committing. Make sure to install on approach, otherwise the Corp can rez and pop the ICE instantly in their rez window.

Aesop's Pawnshop and Spec Work: Econ cards to recycle spent programs and enable Simulchip, but not the most attractive econ options to concede board presence for early Khusyuk given Urban Art Vernissage is similarly good.

Paule's Café: While nice with In the Groove, trading 1c for a card (beyond the first install) may not be the best option. The good thing is it increases our effective hand size, allowing us to hold on to Pelangi against purges or Mayfly to save MU, but it's tricky to justify the doubled install cost for our 1-cost pieces.

World Tree: good to tutor out the console or Q-loop after getting DZMZ value, and to upgrade Telework Contract into Environmental Testing. Though MU has been tight and rather expensive. Also same reasoning with Spec Work.

Self-modifying Code: while it doesn't Groove since it's 0-cost, can be used to set up for an explosive grooving turn and fetch the missing half of the P-P rig (Propeller/Pelangi) or Clot. MU-intensive though.

Diesel: if you're boring and not grooving.