6 Ping Sync - 5-0 at Ntscape SC

Sanjay 3561

I haven't built many Corps lately and my best pal Osclate gave me her extremely functional Sync deck to try out.

I really enjoy Sync, so I was pleasantly surprised to find how powerful Osclate's list was. Osclate, me, Jantivist and tolaasin swapped ideas and refined the deck. The deck did the classic Sync fork putting stuff on the table that if the runner doesn't deal with it's a problem, but if the runner DOES deal with it you Hard-Hitting News them, and then maybe later hit em with a BOOM!.

Unfortunately for poor Sync, they were also refining a quite functional Apoc Hoshiko deck, which when piloted correctly ate our Sync deck alive.

I decided to make some pretty big changes with it, focusing on single-tag punishment, cutting the Boom! and building the agenda suite around Exchange of Information. This also paved way for Prisec, which is basically just another, different, Ping.

With no Booms, I had some influence to spare so I spent it on silly, cool stuff.

  • There's no Slot Machines in here.
  • There's only 2 Hedge Funds
  • I forgot to spend all my influence.

Regardless, I didn't drop a game at the last store championship I played it in. I definitely was advantaged by my opponents having the wrong idea of my corp, so your mileage may vary if mostly-vegan Sync takes off.

That's a little less impressive in a corp-dominated meta, but still, what else can I ask for from my deck?

Gameplay recommendations:

  • You win the game by rushing out early points under threat of Hard-Hitting News. This lets you play a late game of scary never advance threats and NGOs in the remote which take all the corp's money. So don't dawdle.
  • Pings and prisecs on centrals vs Apoc and on the remote vs everyone else.
  • You don't have a lot of ice so be very intentional about where you put it. The threat of Hard-hitting News is sometimes all the ice you need.

Future things I'm gonna explore:

  • osclate's original deck had Market Forces and I really miss it. Slots are, of course, tight, but I'd really like that card back in here.
  • Anything else I can do with 2 spare influence? PROBABLY!
4 comments
10 May 2021 Jai

Absolutely adore Maus in Tag NBN but could never really justify it when Slot Machine is already a thing. Glad to see you've solved that problem by just leaving out the Slots entirely! ^.^

On a serious note, I really do love the ICE in SYNC/R+, but am really terrified of the Atman5 coming down. Or am I just being paranoid and is Shaper really not a thing in this meta?

10 May 2021 Sanjay

@Jai I adore Atman 5, especially against Jinteki. But if you are on SYNC or Reality Plus, if they put down an AI, it might make some of your ice less efficient, but now it turns IP Block into a nightmare.

You definitely see some shaper, but you beat them by going fast, giving them tags at awkward times, and sometimes just accepting that them finding a Misdirection, spending two clicks and a handful of credits is enough of a tax.

11 May 2021 Jai

@Sanjaythanks for the insights! I'm on Boom! R+ myself and have found the deck to be incredibly resilient vs everything except Apoc (as you've probably also discovered). The worst Apoc matchups are the surprise ones where you setup the Prisec/Ping remote and watch them run Archives click 3... :(

Government Subsidy or Crisium Grid is the standard choice for the last 2 inf if you're interested in playing Visits. no idea what to cut for them though. Maybe NGOs...?

12 May 2021 NtscapeNavigator

2 inf spare....for snare?