13 Reasons Why Not To Consult Akhet

Please check out the original list by Mpascall.
This is just my humble take on trying to wrap my head around it.

I made this a while ago and forgot to publish it, despite doing a write-up :D

Main changes

I was horrible at piloting the original deck, because it completely goes against my intuition of how to defend myself as a Corp. Most of the games I lost were to the runner just stealing one agenda every turn from all three centrals while I try to prepare the tokens for the combo.
At the same time I was pulled between clicking for credits and amassing tokens that didn't really defend me, because I didn't rez the ICE. (And if I did rez, surprise, can slot cutlery, too...)
So I made a version that is slower, but has means to protect itself better, hold the runner at bay a little bit and even pull off a counterattack occasionally to further slow down the runner.
All of this moves the deck away from it's pure one-trick form. Which, in turn, disguises what the deck is up to for as long as possible.

Advancing tricks

I tried to add stuff that builds on advancement tokens, in order to both make a more resilient deck and to obscure the fact that all tokens are eventually going to serve the main combo.

• Award Bait works great and is kept from the original list.
• Slot Machine never places 3 advancement tokens on an installed card. But that's okay I guess.
• Akhet is both source and target for tokens and hard to turn off or avoid for the runner. Hint: Use it to advance non-advanceable ICE!
• Mass Commercialization disguises what the tokens are for, which helps to obscure the plan a bit longer. I usually hold it back until I have 3 or more advanced cards. (Not like in BoN, where I wait for 5+ cards.)

ICE

I wanted my ICE to keep the level of non-porous protection from the original list, but add more facechecking punishment against TTW.
Also, I tried to cram in some economy into my ICE. The idea is that I need to go faster the more the runner runs, so their runs should accelerate my game plan. (This is a very way of using ICE in my opinion!)

• Akhet greatly benefits from the tokens you put on it and is hard to trash, which helps a lot. My favorite addition to the deck (hence the deck name!), I just wish I could run a full set.
• Slot Machine is just a great tax and the occasional 3 gain helps much.
• Data Raven is kept from the original list and is doing a great job!
• Ice Wall is cheap in influence, advanceable and provides a much needed ETR.
• Herald is weird and I'm indifferent about it. Can work early game, but was too inconsistent and got taken out recently. It did however fire from centrals in some games.
• Congratulations! was doing okayish, but got cut for deck slot reasons.

Economy Cards

I'm back and forth with how to scrap the resources I need to pull off my combo if the runner is not stupid enough to use my ICE to advance my plans.

• Hedge Fund is Hedge Fund, obviously.
• Mass Commercialization is good money with little prep needed. I tried 2 copies and they worked so well, I raised to 3. I don't use Preemptive on it, though, as I would in BoN, 3 copies is it.
• NGO Front was taken out, but put in again. It both provides much needed economy and running incentive and hey, it can even combo with some of the advancing tricks.
  Installing NGO behind Akhet, advancing it once and playing MassComm is just funny.
• Rashida Jaheem was tested, but got cut. I liked the draw, but she doesn't really work without protection.
• Medical Research Fundraiser was part of the original list, but as I started to try to tax the runner, the downside of giving away free money became a no-go.
  That, and I'm so glad I freed up that inf for Akhet.
• Biased Reporting works well, gives roughly +4 to +6, but needs setup time (on the runner side) and lies in the runner's hand. Got cut.
• Standard Procedure sounds like easy money, but I'm just very bad at using it without hand reveals as support.

Operations

I toyed around with many different tricks to put in the deck, which wasn't easy, because the deck has so few slots with all those agendas.

• Red Planet Couriers is a main combo piece and obviously needed.
• Consulting Visit is the one reason it's possible to have all those (well, 3) 1-ofs around. In a pinch, it can be a punischment or a combo piece.
  If only it would work on Red Planet Couriers... sigh
• Digital Rights Management was a 3-of in the original list and I use Consulting to make it a 1-of, which worked fine for me, so far. It's part of the main combo, because it is often needed to pull out the 2nd Beale for the setup.
• Preemptive Action is doing it's thing. Nothing special to say in this deck.
  Sometimes I use it to make sure my 1-of operations are back in R&D where they can be tutored if needed instead of clogging up my HQ.
• Closed Accounts is my only real tag punishment, currently. And it can shut down unwary runners hard, if they thought it was a good idea to float 20.
  It's hard to pull off with only Raven and News Team as tagging option, but a single tutorable 1-of doesn't hurt.
  Sidenote: I just realize this deck could really use TGTBT. Kinda sad that it's rotated.
• Punishment against full tag-me didn't turn out like imagined. I tried Market Forces and Psychographics and was underwhelmed.
  I originally put them in because one runner pulled that off, but noone ever tried that again.
• Game Over is nuts in a deck where stealing agendas can happen that often without ending the game. It is a very brutal late game punishment that can destroy rigs or at least strip away 15 to create an opening. And the bad pub is laughable if you are in a situation where you want to play this.

Main Problems

The deck either works or falls apart and I'm having trouble to stop it from falling apart.

• I have no idea how to handle Leela Patel: Trained Pragmatist. I just don't. Even if I get 13 tokens on rezzed ICE, it's hard to pull off the combo. She can just steal one Beale and bounce the other, so I need to install all three Beales in one turn, which so far never worked, because one gets stolen sooner or later.
  Plus, Diversion of Funds is forcing me to click for credits turn after turn and loose a lot of time.
• Inconsistency is really a big deal, especially in the firt few turns. I either find no economy or no advanceable ICE or no way to stop the runner long enough that they don't steal an agenda every turn from Archives or flooded HQ. And let's face it, with 17 Agendas our of 49 cards HQ is always flooded until you can start stockpiling your agendas in archives. Which kinda needs at least News Team or Data Raven.
  Another bad thing is to draw the 1-ofs early.
• Imp, Edward Kim: Humanity's Hammer, Hippo Stargate and other trash-lusty stuff is putting pressure on the deck, which can only really be countered if I manage to score an early AR-Enhanced Security.
  Yes, Akhet is Hippo tech and yes, Preemptive is a thing, but it's still hard to play against an that find out what's going on in time.