Boreal Bioroids 22.07 [StartUp Berlin Aug-2022 2nd]

Background

I tried to build a Bioroid deck in the startup format before, with little success, but with the arrival of Midnight Sun's Trieste Model Bioroids I decided to give it another try, and after enjoying some games in Jinteki.net I decided to give it a try in a small tournament in Berlin.

The main idea of the deck is to take advantage of rez/unrez mechanics. Élivágar Bifurcation and Hákarl 1.0 will happily unrez your Spin Doctors to draw more cards, re-target Trieste Model Bioroids or give Magnet another opportunity to catch something.

How this works

Bioroid ICE is specially porous and Trieste Model Bioroids is there to help, but also Hákarl 1.0 and NEXT Activation Command will do it in some situations, changing how the ICEs can be broken. A Trieste left alone can be really punishing for the runner. With Hákarl's effect in place, Trieste's target bioroid is literally unbreakable. With Týr on the table, every Ravana 1.0 is scary. Forcing the runner to click on Týr gives you additional clicks for the next turn.

ICEs in this deck are expensive, but you can leverage Haas-Bioroid: Architects of Tomorrow to make it cheaper. All ICEs in the deck are bioroids, except for a couple of Magnet (that I would reconsider in future editions of this deck). The rest of the economy is based on Hedge Fund Nico Campaign, and the brilliant Fully Operational. The latter works well because you want to have several remotes up and running.

Regarding servers layout, this deck works best with several remotes, and a thin layer of ICE over everything (as any corporation exploiting the Artic knows). An scoring server with more ICE helps, but most of the agendas are 2/1 or 3/2, so you can install them without pre-advancements and hope that the runner don't want to risk facing Trieste's or Snare! consequences. Project Vacheron is the exception, but you can save Seamless Launch for them, and if the runner steals it, you have still time to score some other agenda.

Some deckbuilding notes

I tried different agendas combinations, with Architect Deployment Test and Offworld Office, but I found that with Élivágar Bifurcation I had too many agendas, leading to agenda overflow and easy steals on R&D, so I decided to include Project Vacheron and it has worked quite well.

Manegarm Skunkworks and Anoetic Void could have a fit on this deck, and I tried them, but I found that if the setup is working well, they are not so needed, and when it is not working well, the Runner has enough economy to overtake them, and they were an additional cost for me, not helping a lot.

I considered other campaigns, but I found Nico Campaign working better. It can be installed on your best protected server if you don't have agendas at sight, and it gives a good economy boost.

Facing the real world

Some things I have found out after playing this in the tournament:

• The deck is deadly slow. Some rounds time-outed probably because of this, winning at least one game at the end only because Project Vacheron hadn't triggered and I had more points.
• I didn't have the chance to play Trieste Bioroids, they are trashed on first sight. So it only served to make the Runner spend some clicks and credits, maybe I should have chosen better timings for my installations.
• A re-targeting Magnet looks like a good idea, but the truth is that after Midnight Sun's release I haven't seen almost any virus installed on my ICEs, so you don't take any advantage of them. Also, they are anti-synergic with Bioroids. I had some starting hands with Magnets and Ravanas, and this doesn't bring you very far. Also Magnet doesn't trigger AoT's ability nor benefits from it.
• Few people expects Snare! on this deck, and this gave me a flatline-based victory. Ganked! was a possible alternative that could synergize well with Trieste and Ansel 1.0, but Snare! also covers your R&D and HQ with less setup. And if the setup is working well, it is possible that the Runner has also received some core damage, making it even more dreadful.