Measured Regards (1st May AMT#2)

As promised, the long awaited* Nuvem writeup is finally here! It's been by far the most fun I've had playing Corp since rotation hit, which was genuinely a shock to me considering my pedigree of semi-horizontal nonsense, and the overall power level of assets in this meta.

Various iterations of this deck went undefeated over the tournaments I've played at since Elevation dropped, going 3-0 at May AMT#2, 2-0 and counting at Elevation Async League, and 1-0 at May AMT#1 (I dropped after a garbaggio runner performance).

Runner was Reg Sable, heavily inspired by Whiteblade's list from the Showdown cut, with an absolutely unhinged inf spread. More on that at some point, maybe.

*citation needed

There've been some Nuvem lists published to some success in the past weeks; their agenda suites and influence spreads share some similarities, but the genesis of this deck came from a very different place: Firstly, the Nuvem list I played more than a year ago on RWR's release, and secondly, the analysis I made of the Weyland agenda suite during Elevation scoops season:

• Seamlessing an Off the Books and popping the counter for another 3/2 agenda is 4 points in 2 turns, and is one of the most direct routes to winning if the runner can't present a remote cracking solution within that time period.

• In my opinion, this might be one of the best use cases for Seamless in Weyland, and executing an OTB loop is comparable to pushing out a Basalt, at least in terms of runner pressure applied (especially if it helps you reach Measured Response threat!)

• Similarly, we're not here to fuck around with Eminent Biawak or whatever; we're here to win the game in 3 scores. Give me tempo or give me death!

• This list was actually running with 23 points for a period - the spare Slashes over the SDS. The FA closure ability was decent, but when they're bad they're really bad, so they got axed. The resultant suite leaves us with an actually pretty impressive 9/54 density.

• Tangential: stop playing Plutus in your lists! It clogs the remote, exacerbates the card draw problem, baits you to play Greenmail in a scoring deck, and incentivises you to leave clickless Hedge Funds in Archives because 'you might need them later'. Take your money, score points, kill the runner if they interfere; simple as.

It's not a secret that I'm a rush deck enjoyer, and in this runner-favored environment, Nuvem is the deck that I've been most comfortable setting the pace of the game with, simply by virtue of being Rich As Hell. It's unfortunate that pure scoring rush decks seem to have completely fallen off this rotation; W is really the only faction that can rush 7 points, and I'd attribute that to a) having an agenda suite actually worth a damn, and b) having the default kill fork piece in faction.

I've flatlined far too many people over the past 2 weeks to call MR a bad card, but it's very relevant to point out that much of its power here comes from its Basalt synergy and just being able to chamber more bullets than the runner can deal with. That said, having the entire kill package be able to be compressed into a single influence-free playset is extremely welcome, and frees up inf, slots, and hand space to go about the business of actually winning the game instead of waiting for the runner to fuck up or whatever.

That's all for now, friendos! Shoutouts, as usual, go out to TAIB for the analysis and camaraderie in the post-rotation period, and the various collaborators (@Kror, @Kikai, @Foilflaws, et al.) who reached out for deck tech and discussion; your contributions are greatly appreciated.

SHAABR friendos

Jai out