Glacial low-density, help needed!

superwill 2

I really love Government Takeover, and want to build a deck around it. Still new at this whole deckbuilding thing, but thinking of building a Weyland deck with really low agenda density. Was originally planning it as a punitive counterstrike deck, but would probably rather just play it pure glacial if that's an option.

Let me know what you think :)

4 comments
22 Oct 2015 Lupus Yonderboi

Think about something else than grail ices to spend your influence on, like protection upgrades (Ash, Caprice Nisei) which you really will need if you want to keep your Gov Takeover on a remote for a few turn.

Maybe also a Fast Track to take it out of R&D fast when your scoring remote is ready.

I've bever tried to build such a deck, though, so my advices are given without warranty.

22 Oct 2015 Krams

The first and most important question for any deck with Government Takeover is if you want to score it.

If you do, you need to REALLY shut out the runner, which is extremly hard, especially if you're not destroying their stuff, but simply use ETR barriers to keep them out. If they have something that's efficient against a lot of stacked barriers (like Battering Ram or GS Sherman M3 with Security Chip or a Sage with 7+ strength and a e3 Feedback Implants to back him up) you're in trouble. You can't really make a server so safe that no runner is ever going to enter it.

But even if you could keep the runner out long enough to score it, you'd still sit there with only 6 of 7 points and no easy-to-score 1-pointer (like Hostile Takeover, which can be scored from hand).

The only way I really see you winning with this deck is scoring a Vanity Project and a 5/3 in a scoring remote with a huge load of ICE while the runner desperately tries to multi-access your centrals and doesn't find anything because of the low agenda density. Well, that's possible, but it's still hard to pull of. Because as long as you sit there not scoring and building up your server the runner can build up too and prepare to break that server. And if he does, every advanced card he finds in a server will be an agenda. If he pulls that off 2 times he won. Because, well, he also only needs two agendas to win.

And there's another risk. While you sit there building up your defences you might draw multiple agendas. What now? If the runner breaks into HQ, there's a high chance he can score, so you need to defend HQ as well and split up your efforts, which makes you even slower. And you can't really get rid of agendas once they are in HQ. (That's what people use Jackson Howard for - even if he shouldn't be needed in a deck with such a low agenda density.) Your only way of preventing that from happening is Daily Business Show, which is a great card that helps you a lot! But you only have a single copy and if the runner trashes that copy (and he will!) or if you simply can't find it early on, agenda flooding is a thing that will happen.

Another thing I'd like to mention is Oversight AI. Yes, that card is great! But it would be even greater if you had more really expensive ICE. The only real targets I can see are three copies of Hadrian's Wall for your three copies of Oversight AIand 1 Priority Requisition. Why not add a few more really expensive ICE like Orion or Curtain Wall? Even a single copy of each could do great work for you. And adding them would bring you to 49 cards, making your agenda density even lower.

22 Oct 2015 Pikeman

With Government Takeover, I recommend having Fast Tracks and a few Punitive Counterstrikes, or Glenn Station, or both.

23 Oct 2015 superwill

Thanks so much guys! I'm gonna publish an updated version with everything taken into account - I think I'm feeling much better about it after your advice! :)