Whoops, All Sentry!

snowman 56

So this is the corp deck that I took to a regionals event that I travelled for with a few good friends from my local scene. I'd been testing the deck a lot, and was confident that it would fare well against a new crowd. With a record of 4-1 with my this deck, I couldn't have asked for much more. Lets delve into how this mess of cards comes together to confuse and surprise the runner.

Lets start with the elephant in the room, the All-Sentry suite. I know what your thinking, this is madness. There is hardly any ETR, how do you keep the runner at bay? I feel this is balanced by the low agenda density, and the possibility of recursion making trashed assets not game-ending. Most of the ice is fairly taxing to get through if all you're using garotte.. Imagine having to use Femme to break every piece of ice in a 4 or 5 deep server. The ice strength is spread out nicely, making atman at 4 not necessarily ideal. The lone Swordsman over R&D can do wonders as well. Lots of program destruction to catch nosey runners early, and potentially cripple them.

Agendas:

With only 7 agendas in 49 cards, it's the lowest you can go in ETF, making multi-access runs rarely fruitful and often disappointing. Whatever you score first helps your game immensely. Using Priority Req to res Janus, NEXT Gold, or Flare is the start of a mean scoring server. Using Eden Fragment to build giant scoring servers, while making a credit on the install, is crushing.

Assets:

The real stars of the deck. Junebugs and cerebrals make great traps late game, but the most amazing, unexpected, game changing card is Thomas Haas. Having him early is amazing. after a few turns of setting up, making creds, you Install, gain one, advance, advance. The next few turns consist of corp draw, install either ice or asset for a cred, double advance. There have been times I've trashed him for 24 credits. People just don't know what to make of a super advanced card. It also acts as an amazing trap. You spend most of your credits advancing him, getting as low as 3 or 4. The runner, assuming your broke, decides to make a ballsy run on your R&D. Surprise! I have 26 credits. Rez Janus. Tech startup is also crazy. Using it to get melange is out of this world (ha..ha), and finding EBC in the case of the valencia match up is crucial. Finding JHow is also nice.

The operations speak for themselves. Interns to recur ash, will or melange. Even agenda's that've been pitched, waiting for JHow to work his magic, into the scoring server when an opportunity presents itself.

19 comments
17 Jun 2015 llama66613

Cerebral Overwriter and Thomas Haas in an all sentry deck and yet no Aggressive Secretary?? ¿¿¿Por qué???

17 Jun 2015 LynxMegaCorp

1) How do you deal with aggressive / early Mimics? What if they get NRE out once they figure out the deal?

2) Have you considered one or two Chimera, if only just to force the install of other breakers?

3) How does EBC help against Valencia? I'd think Elizabeth Mills is the one you're looking for.

17 Jun 2015 ANRguybrush

All sentry sounds like fun, but I think switching out the guard for enigma,markus,wrappi or something is worth it.

Crims are not popular(in my meta) right now and mimic is. Digging for corroder/yog and having to install it is a big tempo loss.

Okay one more thing:

Did you try susanoo-no-mikoto? I think it fits the place a little bit better than Flare, since Flare is kinda awkward too play if you are broke.

17 Jun 2015 Greasythumb

@Lynx Kuroneko. EBC helps against Val because it rezzes ice that she could otherwise Blackmail past. For this reason it turns off her absurd remote pressure and the possibility of a Vamp+Medium combo. It's better tech than Lizzie Mills because it's not a dead card in other match-ups.

17 Jun 2015 Jashay

A very sneaky one you could try is Changeling. It still fits the theme, but forces another equipment check. Also, a STR4 ETR sentry is nothing to be sneezed at.

Grim, despite the bad pub, is certainly worth the slot.

17 Jun 2015 kandiru

Why are you using Interns instead of Archived Memories?

17 Jun 2015 cdwolstenholme

surely tech startup for EBC doesn't work? There's no rez window after the tech startup fires before EBC would trigger, so val gets a turn to get in before you can fire it

17 Jun 2015 Greasythumb

That's true - you don't get to use EBC the turn you tutor it, so Val can spend a Blackmail to get in and trash it. Blackmail is a pretty limited resource though, and this deck has two interns to bring the Bootcamp back once you've found it.

17 Jun 2015 umchoyka

Biggest downside to only having sentries is that the runner can now save clicks and credits /not/ installing the rest of their suite. Especially true in Criminal where you're often running with little to no rig, installing only what is needed.

Still, glad to hear you were successful with it! How'd your runner deck fare in the tournament? How'd the rest of the 'Peg crowd do?

17 Jun 2015 Satellite Uplink

@umchoyka not just avoid installing other icebreakers, you can pretty much avoid installing ANYTHING against this deck. Don't play a program or hardware for him to trash and you can basically ignore all but 4 or 5 of his Ice.

@snowman I'm a bit worried about the way you talk about Thomas Haas. you do realise he's not an economy card, right? You spend a credit and a click to advance him then get 2 back when you trash... which is what you'd have if you didn't advance him and just clicked for credits. Haas is a bait for a run, but he doesn't add money.

Now, I do kinda like the all-Sentry plan but if you're going all Sentry I think it has to be Jinteki (Tsurugi, Cortex Lock, Komainu, Pup, Unorthodox Predictions).

17 Jun 2015 umchoyka

@Satellite Uplink True, but you'd have to know that going in. I actually played with @snowman against an earlier version of this deck. I'm not suggesting that you'd win Worlds with this, but if you're not suspecting sentry-only, it can be annoying (and possibly game losing) to have your rig reset after spending a bunch setting up. At the time, I was playing a Snitch/Savoir-faire economy so I was able to scout it out but those decks aren't exactly viable now either (and who really plays with that much expose?). Again, I think most criminal decks are the problem as you're often running early with little to no rig in the first place.

If you switch this to Jinteki, then most people will automatically install their killer and won't have to consider their fracter or decoder until they hit a barrier or code gate (which they won't).

As far as Haas goes, he's more run bait and "surprise credits" than economy. Again, unless you're running expose effects (which you aren't) then you might faceplant into Janus thinking that the corp is too poor to rez him.

17 Jun 2015 cmcadvanced

yeah, I just used thomas haas to get me 36 credits. it could be a project ares at that point, which I would suggest in this spot. Cause once you use thomas that way once, they just end up ignoring your giant remotes.

17 Jun 2015 SlayerCNV

u know that thomas haas is useless, advanced manually? U advance him spending 1 click-1 cred and then use for gain a cred for each click. EXCATLY how make 1 click for 1 cred...so which is the sense?

17 Jun 2015 snowman

@umchoyka Chris won the tournament :P

17 Jun 2015 snowman

@SlayerCNV Thomas haas works wonders in a deck where you make money off installing cards. a turn of "install making a credit, make a credit, advance once" still puts you ahead :P it's mostly used as a ruse to trick the runner into thinking i have WAAYY less credits at my disposal then i actually do.

18 Jun 2015 Dydra

I don't like thomas .... the Math doesn't add up. Let's leave aside the 1C install in ETF with 1c for Rezz ...

You install and double advance for 4c. That means 3 clicks and 2c. For a total of 4c. Assuming that you have 2c. Without Thomas, and u do the most simple thing - click for credits, for the 3 clicks you will go to 5c.

So unless you win from the runner checking that remote (most likely draining him from credits for the run) you aren't gaining much. Or in other words, he is exactly what the card says - a trap, not an econ card.

18 Jun 2015 DarkTsunder

Thomas is a great trap against the current Headlock Reina I see a lot. It lets you bait a vamp and recover from it somewhat.

I love the idea of this deck, I have been experimenting with single ice type decks recently and love the idea. I think the code gate suite has it hardest with the recent resurgence of YogI know it is influence heavy, but what do You think about Susan in this type of deck?

19 Jun 2015 KitsuAeryn

Haas is a great addition folks. Runners don't expect the burst economy something like that provides. On paper sure you could have clicked for credits... But then the runner would be able to plan around your wealth or siphon it off. The math in a vacuum doesn't tell the whole story. Nice deck!

21 Jun 2015 snowman

Thanks @KitsuAeryn, you've got Haas totally right. I'm glad someone gets it.