Siphon Smoke

BobAloVskI 334

Siphon spam is always good especially when they are not expecting it. I have played many games with this deck where the Corp puts one ICE on HQ (sometimes not even one) and fortifies their other servers. Against this deck, this is a good way to lose.

Ideally you can land a siphon on the first turn. This can be done with an opening hand of Hedge Fund, SMC and Siphon (or hold off until the second turn if you are worried about tag punishment). More realistically, you will poke R&D to rez their ICE there. Run their remote if they play that game and even put a Temujin on Archives in the hope they put ICE down there to stop you. Then when they think defending HQ is the lowest defensive priority, start with the Siphons.

With Temujin and Siphons you should be able to keep the credit advantage. However, I have included 2 Plascretes because of 24/7 winning even when they are low on credits. I am pretty sure the second Plascrete should be something else...probably Misdirection for those Hard Hitting News plays.

Economy

Account Siphon, Sure Gamble, Dirty Laundry, Temujin and being on stealth is enough to make sure you always have enough credits throughout the game.

Breakers

Corroder, Refractor and Dagger seem to be the best breaker suite for Siphon Smoke. Switchblade is arguably better than Dagger but the influence is needed for Siphons and Temujins.

The good part about this breaker suite is that every breaker can be used to effectively move one recurring credit to Net Mercur every run. This is why I have gone with Corroder over Blackstone and Refractor over Houdini. When the big scary barriers come out next cycle Blackstone can be used but in the current meta Corroder is better.

Recursion

Levy AR Lab Access is rarely needed but I like having the safety net of it there.

Clone Chip is the same. In all my games I have only had one program trashed so it is not needed but I also like to ditch a Cloak in the heap and get it back once I have found my Astrolabe or SMC'd for my 3rd breaker with the the first Cloak installed.

The third Same Old Thing can be switched out for something else but once again, I like having the safety net of it there (the first two being for Siphon and the third for Levy).

Draw

Diesel, Astrolabe and Net Mercur is enough draw power. I have heard other Smoke players say to always put a credit on Net Mercur when you can. I disagree. I think you only need 2-3 on there and with Smoke and your two Cloaks that is generally all the stealth you need. It is better to draw into your Siphons and Temujins than just get another stealth credit that you do not really need.

Miscellaneous

Notoriety has been an MVP. So many times it has given me the win when my opponent is not expecting it.

Three Maker's Eye is good to keep up the constant pressure on R&D these can also be recurred with Same Old Thing if needed.

Plascrete is needed for meat damage defence. The second copy can probably be changed out for a Misdirection.

Net Mercur is vital. It is a three-of because the sooner you get this engine up the sooner you will start to win.

Ghost Runners often get installed and rarely used once Net Mercur is online. It is useful early on but the third copy could be something more useful.

Self Modifying Code is great for the early pressure. I usually just need the one, sometimes two, but having three in the deck allows you to see it early and get setup. If you can get one down and have > 8 credits, any one-ICE'd server can usually be gotten into. Quite handy for those Siphon plays.

Game Plan

This deck has the ability to play to whatever tempo the Corp sets. The trick is to pick up on the Corp's tempo as soon as possible and play to that pace. If they are playing fast and racing you, you should be able to Siphon them down or pressure their remote. They may score but it will slow them down and allow you the time to get on top. If the Corp takes their time to setup, that is probably better for you. Because mid to late game you will have pressure on all servers and the credits to go after them. Remember: it is the Corp who has to make that first move. Otherwise both sides will just improve their board state and the Corp will eventually run out of cards.

Astrolabe is enough for memory. Mirror can help you win quicker but I believe by the time you can run twice on R&D you are almost destined to win either way. Not worth the extra credits and the extra memory has not been needed in any matches so far. The draw power also helps you get to the position where you are fully setup.

The first Temujin should go on Archives to try and spread their ICE a bit thinner. If they dedicate an ICE there you can usually still get through once a turn for free with stealth. If they put a bigger piece of ICE there, it is not on R&D or HQ so that is even better. If you are worried about a Closed Account and Hard Hitting News play, keep 8 credits on a Temujin to be able to bounce back quickly.

There is no HQ multi-access. If you control their remotes while still maintaining the R&D pressure and keep them poor with Siphons, the agendas will eventually pile up in HQ so poking around in HQ after a while can usually get you some points.

Closing Thoughts

I would like to add Misdirection to the deck. I think that card is going to be good going forward with the tag heavy Corp decks. Memory should not be an issue as in those games you should be right with just one Cloak.

-1 Corroder, -1 Plascrete, +1 Blackstone, +1 Clot is good for Fast Advance but I believe it will make the deck slower in general. As I said before, when these big scary barriers come out next cycle, this might be the way to go but for now I have not had any issues with the current iteration.

The deck is at an 80-85% win-rate - although this is not all against top tier decks. While I am pretty happy with the deck in its current form , I know there are better deckbuilders and players out there so who could improve it to be something even better so any feedback is greatly appreciated.

5 comments
13 Nov 2016 TattleTayles

Just had to write quickly, you can just increase the strength of any breaker you have installed on a run (be it stealth or a normal breaker) even if there is no ice, and still trigger mercur. You are allowed to buff icebreaker strength even if it isnt used for breaking ice.

13 Nov 2016 BobAloVskI

@TattleTayles That is one of the reasons why Net Mercur and this breaker suite is so powerful. Even during the Temujin runs on archives you can just spend a your Smoke/Cloak stealth credit to pump any of the breakers' strength to put that credit on Net Mercur. You can then use it many turns later when you actually need the stealth credits. It is such a powerful engine.

5 Dec 2016 jjjrich1

@BobAloVskI Thx for great deck bro Beating almost every corp in j net with this, haha. I've made some changes for currunt meta

5 Dec 2016 jjjrich1

Siphon Smoke

Ele "Smoke" Scovak: Cynosure of the Net

Event (16) 1x "Freedom Through Equality" 2x Account Siphon ●●●●● ●●● 3x Diesel 3x Dirty Laundry 3x Indexing 1x Levy AR Lab Access 3x Sure Gamble

Hardware (4) 2x Astrolabe 1x Clone Chip 1x The Personal Touch

Resource (12) 2x Citadel Sanctuary 1x Ghost Runner 2x Net Mercur 1x New Angeles City Hall 3x Same Old Thing 3x Temüjin Contract ●●●●● ●

Icebreaker (4) 1x Blackstone 1x Dagger 1x Dai V 1x Refractor

Program (4) 2x Cloak 2x Self-modifying Code

14 influence spent (max 15, available 1) 40 cards (min 40) Cards up to Intervention

I felt ur list is almodt perfect at tempo hitting, But there was little hardship against yellow-cancer. So i changed this deck for more agressive tempo.

Markers eye> indexing U can fuck up corps draw with it, and its 0 cost. Perfect for tempo hit. If their jackson is gone, that'll be another tempo hit. Additionally, with 40 deck, we should avoid ambushs if possible. (I hate pu)

For same reason, Notority-> FTE. For currunt war. If ctm scores news for it, 1 fewer tag chance. Also, just like notorioty comboed with makers, FTE works well with indexing.

Plascrete carapace> citadel sanctuary. First, i don't expect situation im midseasoned. We have shiphon. Against 24 7, this is 1 chance protection as same. And counters ctm very hard. Yeah, smoke is 0 link runner, but even in that case, non click 1 credit cost tag removal is pretty attractive. Fuck the raven, gutenberg too. There will be a problem if corp is richier than us, But shiphon. It can ne efficient tag removal with shiphon, too. We really don't wanna lose our murcur. With this, u can avoid being taged if u install sot 1 click shiphon immadiately.

Corroder> blackstone. (2 -> 3 temu) Yeah, the big barrier meta is came. -Data ward behind raven -increasing eli 1.0 put in as faust arise again.

blackstone's basic power is 3. And with 1 personal touch, u can make it power 4. 2c for eli. 7c for data ward.

Yeah, without touch,corroder is far better. But i needed 3rd temujin to get it early. Maybe i need i more slot for inti.

5 Dec 2016 BobAloVskI

@jjjrich1Thank you! I am glad someone is enjoying it other than me.

This deck really does struggle against CtM. Most others I would say I am favourite but CtM is clear favourite over this.

They are some nice changes to the deck. I think Indexing and "Freedom Through Equality" works better together. I have found myself needing a current and FTE does the job. It sucks when you steal an agenda early and lose it but you get closer to winning which is never a bad thing.

I must say I have not tried Citadel Sanctuary but I think it definitely has some merit with Account Siphon and just picking up tags in general. I am definitely going to try this out.

How is Dai V working out for you? Is it in the for anything specifically? Being rushed with against a Mother Goddess is not ideal but with Account Siphon you can stop them from being able to score and win on HQ/R&D.

Three Temüjin Contracts is obviously better than two but I am still not convinced with Blackstone especially when you need a second non-tutorable card to make it better. Although even without The Personal Touch down, the credits you get from the third Temüjin Contract would at least offset the extra you pay for Blackstone. The big benefit I find Corroder has is it is cheap to get out early game and you can pump its strength to trigger Net Mercur.