Eye Spy

Publishing for historical reference more than anything - if you've seen this archetype before, you know the deck, and it certainly isn't my creation.

I played Spy Cam Hayley through Regionals, Nationals and now (won) a GNK and she did really well for me. I didn't make a note of my overall record, but at Nationals I went 5-1-1 (timed win versus IG kill with three cards left in R&D - all Future Perfects) at Nationals, and wasn't far off that at Regionals.

There's not much flexibility here after you've got the core sorted out, but in my opinion the three flex slots are the two New Angeles City Hall and the Aesop's Pawnshop. The former is a pretty obvious meta call to prevent Breaking News into shenanigans, and if you're running it you really need two to both find it in time and pop down the second one after stealing an agenda. The Aesop's Pawnshop is a luxury that can help smooth out your economy after a slow start, or to recover from resource trashing, but it's not a must have. Those slots have been any combination of Dirty Laundry (I don't like it in a HHN meta), a second Atman (really nice against people trying to tax you out of their scoring remote, but who's playing glacier any more?) and Chameleon (to stop you getting rushed out by bullshit binary ice). Of these, I miss the second Atman the most, but you don't need it against ice light decks anyway. Any of these slots could be Sacrificial Construct if you want to really hate on fast advance.

The Political Operative lost a lot of its utility after Rumor Mill scared everyone off Caprice. It could be a Stimhack for early game acceleration, or even Employee Strike, but that's a bit awkward with the "Freedom Through Equality" plan.

Clot: you can pull it from my cold, dead hands. It's amazing against Breaking News shenanigans, and CTM/Sync generally. It also gives you a much stronger HB FA (in its various guises) matchup. People are cutting their CVS. Punish them for it. With Clot lock, the remote locked and Spy Camera keeping tabs on R&D, the Corp doesn't have many scoring options. I'd love to have the slot and two influence for Legwork, because the deck is sorely lacking in HQ pressure, but you need the Clot.

The CTM/Sync matchup is pretty horrible. BOOM! is going to be a problem. Ark Lockdown is going to be hellish. You'll always be vulnerable to rush decks, too. Yout strongest matchup by far is any kind of glacier, and that's all but dead now. So I'm retiring the deck for now.

If I have one tip on how to play this deck, it would be to not tunnel vision on the Replicator/Bazaar/Spy Camera combo. This is still a runner deck like any other, and you need to apply pressure on remotes and HQ when appropriate. Sometimes the best pressure you can apply is getting your ridiculous engine set up, but try to recognise when you're going to get rushed out by the Corp playing solitaire and pressure the remote. Challenging remotes early game wins games, because people expect you to play solitaire for six turns. Don't.

Anyway, I love this deck. It's gloriously absurd. It's the best kind of jank - the kind that actually works.