Bloodlock: v2.00: (Tie)breakers and the Batty Barrage

I took this build to the Spanish Nationals, finishing in 9th place after tiebreakers kicked me out of the top tables with 14 points.

Brief tournament report (Corp side):

1) Quetzal: I draw a hand with Hedge Fund, Ashigaru and Vanity Project so I put it on HQ, play the operation and leave R&D open. He plays two money cards, makes two runs, trashing two cards (Sundew, Melange) and steals a Vanity on his third. I draw a Crick and play it on R&D, thinking it would deter him. Nope, he runs three more times, trashes cards I recur with Crick including a PAD Campaign, steals a Future Perfect and wins.

2) Shaper, don't remember which one: A very nice dude from Barcelona who apparently likes to read my blog. I start strong and I quickly set up some economy. I play a Susanoo no Mikoto in a remote put (unrezzed) Melange and Batty behind. He puts a Femme on it, but decides to roll a die for Batty so I simply bid zero. Without his Gordian he couldn't break the Crick in Archives so I kept recurring him as he tried again and again to get in. This gave me an opening to dump more pieces of ICE and by the time he was ready to run, I had 1 Caprice, 2 Battys on the remote behind the Excalibur. He tried R&D but I had another Caprice, another Batty and the newly recurred Batty there so he didn't get very far.

3) Noise: I don't draw any economy cards and the game progresses very slowly. He's very close to decking out and has to spend cards on Faust to run R&D but he finds an agenda and wins. I should have clicked for credits every turn instead of trying to draw into cards I couldn't afford to rez.

4) Whizzard: My opponent was Cartesius, a regular. I have a quite decent start with several Cricks to protect my R&D and a PAD. He sees through it before Running and plays Yog, forcing me to overwrite them. After a bit of back and forth I dump a Melange, a Caprice and a Cortex Lock in the same server. He runs and tries to bid 0 to make me spend money, but I just make it back with the Melange. Two turns go on like while I dump cards in archives, then I drop Sundews and he, pennyless, is forced to back up while I build. I take the chance to drop Ash 2X and a Vanity in an Excalibur remote and score, but he manages to destroy my junk, preventing me from safely scoring another agenda. Fortunately my Caprice-backed Melange is still there and I drop a FP. He tries to run R&D but all a barrage of Battys keeps him out, winning me the game.

5) Kim: He starts strong and steals a Vanity from R&D early on, but he quickly finds himself unable to match my asset spam and in a couple turns there are two Sundews on the table and two Ashigarus waiting for him in R&D. With over 80 credits, several Hostile Infrastructures and Ashigarus everywhere I think the game was done once I scored a Vanity but he suddenly plays Morning Star and turns my servers into junk. He runs R&D and I kick him with Ash. He then runs again and I put Snare! and other junk into R&D, he acceses it and then accesses an operation that he must trash, killing himself in the process.

On the Runner side (Stirling), I won all my games but one.

Decklist overview: Bloodlock has changed quite a bit since last version I published, though most of the changes were gradual in practice. Some thoughts:

1) Tsurugi and Komainu are gone because Parasite is everywhere. They have been replaced with Eli 1.0 which is cheap, powerful and non-porous when coupled with Enhanced Login Protocol, as well as Crick and Cortex Lock.

2) Vanity Project allows for a much smaller agenda spread, which has huuuuuuge benefits for Genomics. First, it prevents you from accumulating agendas in HQ, which means you don't need to use your Jacksons to flush them in as often. Second, it's much faster to score, you only need two scoring windows, not three. And third, it gives you additional slots and Chronos Project.

3) Batty rocks. Coupled with Excalibur and Caprice it seals up any server and unlike Caprice he can be played anywhere. Have a Vanity on hand and fear the Runner making that one run? Put him on HQ. Think the Runner might get an access on R&D? Put him there and force the Runner to spend another 18 credits on your Ashigarus. Two copies would be enough, but I run three because he can be used as a pseudo-Interns.

4) Hokusai Grid is no longer good, because the Runner isn't able to run. With the improved ICE spread, faster scoring thanks to Vanity and the Batty Barrage, the number of runs on R&D the Runner makes has dropped to just three or four per game which makes Hokusai very weak. The slots have been used elsewhere.

5) The third Sundew is vital. I used to worry about the Runner running on them to deny me the money, and didn't realize that the solution to that was not putting them behind ICE, but playing more Sundews. It's a very small change but an incredibly important one.

6) Enhanced Login Protocol is better than Cerebral Static, even against Noise. In practice when I lose against Noise, it's because either he dumped two quick agendas and I couldn't Jackson them back or because he kept me in check with Parasite, potential Lampreys and Imp. Cerebral Static doesn't help with the latter and unless you are very lucky and draw it ASAP, it won't help against the first. Play ELP, it makes your Elis better.

Future changes:

1) I'm going to try to replace the Ash and one of the Elis for something else so I can run Global Food Initiative. Winning unless the Runner steals two Vanity Projects seems awfully strong.

2) I should rearrange the ICE suite a bit. I don't like running Cortex Lock and dedicating 4 slots to big pieces of ICE is a bit suboptimal. Assassin is probably going in because it's painful to face-check, non-positional, pseudo ETR and can win games when coupled with Batty.

3) Hades Shard is pointless, if you can score it you can score another agenda and win so you never get to use its ability. Should have been a third FP.