Yellow Flash (Undefeated Bratislava Regionals)

@benticurusthis is seriously the best TWIY deck I've seen in a long time. TWIY is the first ID I ever played and I have missed playing as it seems like it has just fallen by the wayside. I also love having Psychographics as a win condition as you really just can't beat the threat of going from zero to 7 in one turn with enough money. Thank you for posting the great writeup and congrats on your success with the deck at regionals!

Congratulations, this looks like great fun. I have to try it out.

How have you fared in testing vs PPVP Kate with clot? I'm thinking that they can just pressure for early steals, take the midseasons, then go crazy with multiaccess for the win. And in the meantime installing clot on every new remote install to prevent/delay psychographics. This is assuming they know how the deck works, surprise psychographics is something different ofcourse.

@aphid I have played against Clot decks, though not too often. I will say that I do not remember loosing to a Clot deck, and that you can always create scoring windows for yourself by playing quickly. For the runner to really stop this deck they would require three CloneChips on top of the clot and all the economy to also get into a good Wrap/Tollbooth server. This may sound simple, but it wont alway be the case that they have all things out at the same time and with enough frequency. Hence, you can often find the time to purge the Clots. If the runner is tagged and no Clots are fetch-able at the moment, you can easily Psycho-Beale into the win. Plus, given that this deck FA's in just one click (by playing Psychographics) the runner doesn't have time to Clot due to a first advancement token giving it away that the card is an agenda. You can bluff an agenda with a Jackson, installing and forcing the runner to Clot just to avoid allowing you to one-click advance through Psycho and then automatically scoring the agenda (the runner doesn't have time to fetch the Clot after all advancement tokens are placed simultaneously on the agenda).

@benticurus agreed on the sentiment of clot, especially with Midseason backing up a failed agenda score, they have to consider a 7 point Beale if they blow their load trying to play the control game with their 1 clot. That being said, with this deck size and massive draw, I feel like sneaking in a singleton Cyberdex Virus Suite would not go unwelcome.

I wonder about errand boy, I feel like I am most worried about a power turn running R&D, The new Quicksand might be pretty good for getting those repeat runs on R&D taxing quickly?

This looks awesome, congrats on the wins and for making TWIY a thing again!

@Dydra Edward Kim has never been a nightmare for this deck, curiously enough. Maybe I haven't played against enough versions of him, but a friend of mine plays Eater Kim, and this deck still gets most (all?) the wins. Kim in general can maybe slow down this deck a bit, killing my Restructures and the like. But again, this deck sets up so fast that by the time Kim gets in and trashes some Operations, I'm already in a position for an easy Midseasons punishment play.

@Dydra Yeah, Eater Kim isn't designed for all access, but given my ice spread, just a D4v1d and something to pass the Quandaries is enough to get into any of my servers, so Eater Kim gets in without too much trouble when set up.

@falseidol I believe that adding a Cyberdex or Quicksand would slow down the deck, which would be contrary to its style of play. I recommend that you test it 'as is', and then try the changes you mention; I suspect that this version will be much more efficient overall (especially against runner that have no viruses and make few runs early game).

Having played a similar deck with a bit different ice makeup (Popups, more Tollbooths and 2 Ravens instead of Errands, DBS instead of Jackson due to lack of Opening Moves), I absolutely approve of this deck. A 7 point Beale is a thing of beauty.

Pure awesomnes!! Love this type of deck, very staright forward

I would change 3 influence for 1x Power Shutdown and 1x Acc.Diagnostic - to accelerate 7point beale with JH on board; so in fact 1 turn to win

@eXister interesting idea, though i believe that would make the deck a bit clunkier, but the idea in and of itself seems really fun to pull off. I might just make a deck like that just to try to pull of the combo at least once :D

I tried this deck last night; I feel that it is screaming for a Fast Track or two. Yes you have the draw, but I played a Leela Patel: Trained Pragmatist deck who had 3 R&DI by turn 6 yesterday and it's hard to break that R&D lock, even with Jackson and Blue and Green level clearance.

@Phoenix there will be times when the game just wont go in your favor, such as the small odds of having a Leela RnD lock with three RnD Interfaces on turn 6. But, all things considered, that is an unlikely scenario, and for that very reason, it is better to keep the deck designed to work in the more common cases, not designed for fringe situations such as the one you describe. It is a small deck with a lot of draw, you are bound to run into agendas (perhaps even more often than you'd like sometimes —hence the Corporate Shuffle inclusion). Play the deck 10 - 15 times, and then consider whether two Fast Tracks would make it better overall. I wouldn't know what to take out for those two cards; it cannot be economy and it cannot be any of the few ICE it has; hence, this deck works best as is: to make a few changes is to look into making a whole other deck i think.

Awesome.

Maybe switch out quandary for enigma? It doesn't instantly die from parasites and it pretty effective in rushing out early agendas.

@mcpba im ok with Quandaries dying to Parasite; the thing is to slow down the runner and force them to search and pay for solutions. For example, I'm more than happy to see the runner pay 5 for installing a Yog, but then the Enigma would have been 2 more creds lost. Believe me, it often comes down to a difference in a few credits, and i prefer saving my money for the Midseasons.

I have played TWIY* in over 300 games before NEH was released and always preferred it over Making News because I thought the 6 hand size allowed you more ways to win. I must say in playing this for 3 games this is pretty sweet. The only change I might make is to add in a Cyberdex Virus Suite for deep R and D digs. But other than that this is definitely one of the best economic decks I've ever played and most consistent Psycho Beale deck ever.

any thoughts on thinning this deck down to 40 cards?

the number of 3x cards in this deck is so satisfying

@prozz it has crossed my mind to thin down to 40 cards, i might give it a try later. For now i suspect that Green or Blue Level Clearances (or some combination of the two) can get cut (since the deck will be even smaller, less draw will be needed). Who knows what one can then do with three extra influence?! maybe change up the ICE a bit? I dont know, haha. Im not good at coming up with ideas on the fly, but it would be cool to try and make it even faster.

@marauding_antisec yes it is!!!!!!!

My friend took this deck for today's practice. I liked it a lot! Pedal to the metal. Even my MaxX had huge problems to catch up. Strong stuff. Recommended.

If you gonna cut to 40 think about single Scorch. Since I'd seen influence I was sure there is no killing threat. That might be a surprise win condition.

@iloveMRT you can then attest at how fast this deck can be, even Maxx has a hard time keeping up!

I play this deck a few times and i have very high win rate. Great Job!!!

inb4 deck of the week.

Faced this earlier this week. Was pretty easy with Noise. Just Imp all agendas and it lacks a win condition.

@markusjarlstig Yeah, Imp is a great play against this deck, but it seems that the game state needs to be such that at the moment the Corp installs the agenda, they have no quick ICE to protect it, you can easily get into the server, and you won't steal agendas at any point in which it will be possible to Midseasons.

This deck, as any deck, has its weaknesses, but it is possible to play around them with a bit of luck and some understanding of the runner one is facing. I know that my agendas can get Imp'ed by a smart runner, so I keep that in mind when deciding whether to install agendas naked, or whether to create a taxing server (e.g., with Tollbooth & Errand Boy) so that even if you Imp it, you had to pay a heavy price for it. Of course, Noise adds an extra difficulty with the mill, but that just boils down to who has the best luck in the milling. This deck has an 'ok' agenda density, so agendas won't be falling out from RnD too often, plus if I know I might be getting milled frequently, I may allow myself to secretly get agenda flooded just to avoid loosing them from RnD; and given that I have a bit more hand size and so many Operation cards, it's not too hard to continuously play cards an seems as though I'm not agenda flooded (a play that has helped me in quite a few games).

I had something of an advantage becasue I had seen the deck posted here so I had a fair idea what I was facing. Also if someone opens up with a copuple of blue levels and a restructure you know what the gameplan is. Maybe the deck was poorly piloted by my opponent but it seems unlikely that a deck with 10 ice where 6-9 dies instant dies to parasite would be able to create a scoring serevr should the main plan fail?

I'm not convinced that the extra hand size and smaller deck are worth 5 less influence than NEH. If I switch, it would probably look something like -1 Errand Boy, +2 Celebrity Gift, +3 Pop-up Window, +1 Market Research.

neh ability would be wasted here.

The ability, yes. But 5 influence is fairly significant

I'm looking forward to playing this deck, but I've only got 1x core, so can't 3x Astroscript or 3x psycho (can only 2x both)

Have added 1x extra corp reshuffle, 1x chronos project, 1x profiteering, and ditched 1x sweeps week to keep the agenda point down.

As the Irish Store champion Leela player that @benticurus mentions that he beat twice, I can testify to the speed of this deck and how tricky it can be to play against it.

As Runner, when you get in for a couple of accesses early and see the Midseason Replacements, you instantly think it's a kill deck - which was very common on the day. So you go off looking for Plascrete Carapace. His deck makes a LOT of money very quickly and no Runner can really keep up with it. At some point he will play a naked agenda. So now you have a catch-22 scenario - do you take the agenda and open for the Midseason/PsychoBeale, or let him start the Astrotrain?

First game I thought it was a kill deck so I slowed down and lost. In Double Elimination, I knew the secret of the deck and tried to pressure more heavily. I went 6-0 up, but every agenda I hit was a NAPD Contract which drained my economy - setting him up to drop the Psychographics on me, but not with enough tags for the instant win. He did get one Project Beale for 4 points. My Sneakdoor runs on HQ constantly showed me Green Level Clearance and I assumed he must have multiples in hand. It was too late that I realised that he had it but wasn't playing it - he must have had too many agendas in hand and was just digging for either a Psychographics or the Beale. On my own turn, I pulled a Legwork and had a Faerie in hand with two clicks remaining. I planned to go in the next turn - but that was all the time he needed to score the Beale for 3 points and make the top-4 and for me to curse my fear of running his hand (HQ was protected by a Quandary and Errand Boy I later found out :( I also found out that the legwork would have guaranteed me hitting the winning agenda, grrrr! :)

It is an older idea of how to play NBN but is certainly original in the current meta. No-one expects it and it's definitely a surprise the first time you see it. Really enjoyed the games against this one and learned lessons I really should have known (if he's not playing a Green Level Clearance then run his damned hand!!!)

@Rodge I agree with your take on it, the deck strongly benefited from the Runner not being clear on how strong the economy can be and the absence of Scorch. When i was play-testing the deck, i found runners often spent time looking for their Plascretes when seeing the Midseasons or getting tagged, which bought me a great amount of time to get the pieces that i needed for the win. Now that the deck has become more widely known, it will probably loose much of its competitive capacity; I might have made a mistake in publishing the deck, now I won't be able to use it again efficiently, haha.

@haerik Celebrity Gift -- I don't think I want to show my hand. A lot of times I'm holding a Beale and waiting for Psycho/Midseasons. I think Celebrity gift is going to be unplayable sometimes.

For that extra influence, what about Mushin No Shin? Mushin out a Beale when you have Midseasons in hand. Gives you 4 points even if untagged if not run, 5 if you have an astro token or if you mushin advance.

I'd advise against cutting this deck to 40 cards. Card draw for Corps (this one in particular) comes very cheaply, with the main cost usually being the progression toward agenda flood. Having those four extra non-agendas in your deck is a much greater upside than the real, yet very small upside of running 40.

@Glitch29 Agreed, I tried testing a 40 card version, and unless i start putting in 3pt agendas to lower agenda density, the agenda flood happens very quickly.

I would also like to add how great this deck is. It is simple enough so it would be good for teaching someone the game but also powerful enough that it can dominant in a competitive environment.

I have only played a few games with this deck but some of the things I have found is not to go for the big 13 tag Midseason Replacements and seven point Project Beale. If it can be done, by all means do it. But even just slapping the corp with seven tags and then using those tags to Psychographics an AstroScript Pilot Program, then another Psychographics to get a three point Project Beale and then using the Astro token to get the last two pointer is probably the more realistic and likely way this deck will play.

Once again, I am really enjoying playing this deck. Well done @benticurus for the deck and great results with it.

@MrBobAloVskI Thanks a lot. Yes, I failed to add in the explanation of the deck that the goal is not to tag the runner for the 7pt Beale, but enough to get out one or two good agendas. Your explanation, for example, is the ideal play, just one 3pt Beale together with an Astro is what I generally hope to achieve (or just two Astros through Psychographics are just as good! haha).

I brought an NEH version to the FFG Event Center regional yesterday and went 6-2 overall, including 4th seed going into top 8. I think I do prefer it out of NEH with the Celebrity Gifts. I also cut the other two Errand Boys for an Ichi 1.0. I actually never rezzed it, but it definitely changed the games where the runner saw it out of HQ or R&D, so I liked having it.

What do you think about using Market Research? I have a deck idea similar to this and found it scores for three pretty easily. Just wondering your thoughts. It would be less taxing obviously but has some nice upside too.

@mjortman the oldest version of this deck (that i played with a year ago) had three market research instead of the NAPDs; however, NAPDs win me more games from taxing the runner than Market Research wins me games from scoring it for one more point. I have another version of this deck with core set NBN, and that one plays with three NAPDs and one Market Research.

Did a making news version and it seems to be doing great.

-3 EB + 2 Viper + 2 caduceus + 1 tollbooth + 2 breaking news and Swapped quandaries for enigma.

NA breaking news kills key resources cheaply while the ice spread makes both central and remote more taxing / punishing, setting up a lose lose situation for the runner.

Been really enjoying this deck also, as someone who loves to draw and money up (Cerebral Imaging: Infinite Frontiers is my love) it's been a really refreshing way to play.

I must admit I've struggled to get a lot of use out of Errand Boy as it tends to get Parasited fast but grabbing 3 cards from the top can be super handy at speeding through the deck.

For agendas I've found that Astro, Astro & a 3pt Beale have been my most common combos, usually started by dropping a single Astro in a new remote undefended.

Thanks so much for the deck list and new NBN lease of life for me :)

Az

Thanks for the reply @benticurus. I can definitely see that being the case, and was just curious if you'd tested that way. Glad to hear you'd tried it, and I probably don't need to. :) It just can be nice to get 4 tags on the runner (fairly easy, really), and then be able to score out with one Market Research and two more 3/2's (or a Beale + advance.....etc etc etc). It seems to open up more options than just waiting for that 1 Beale you need. But it's definitely less taxing, too, making it harder to have Midseason Replacements hit.

@wakkawakka ive published version of this deck before that were with NBN Making News and that was more taxing, but it was much slower than this version. I won't say it was clearly worse, but i find that this last decklist that has become so popular is by far the most consistent of the MANY versions of Midseasons/Psycho decks that ive made before

@ThisIsAzrael happy you like it , ive never played HB CI myself, but have always had my eye on it if only because it is the only other deck that i know of that can run Blue Level Clearance as a kind of Staple

I don't think that this deck has enough ice to keep up with a MaxX keyhole/eater deck. I've played against it quite a few times and early siphons interrupt the tempo too much. Sure, you can usually recover your own econ fairly quickly, but you won't have much luck outpacing the runner, especially since you will be too busy desperately searching for ice to counter the continual pressure from keyhole, wantons, and ice destruction. If MaxX can just trash 3 or so ice from rnd after siphoning down the corp, the ice density in the deck becomes too low to win in most circumstances.

Nor sure I agree with the siphon mentality. Siphon decks, especially in shaper are able to land consistent siphons on this deck, and clot does a lot of damage when you know psychographics is being played. No cyberdex, no clot resistance in my opinion. I landed many siphons one after another and basically rode that, plus my magnum opus to victory leaving the corp very little to actually do. But I'll admit that it was a left field siphon deck, again out of shaper, that may be why I didn't have much trouble playing it. Publishing decks is a sure way for them to die a slow death haha. Nice design though, I do like it.

I love this deck. I kept hearing "Yellow Flash" and figured it was some sort of variant fast advance. This is so much different. I was thrilled when people were using Psychographics at the Regionals. ;)

Also, Surveillance Sweep has to go in this deck once it's out. Midseasons is so much funnier if the runner has to spend first.

@Wookiee Sadly Surveillance Sweep won't work for Midseasons as it only applies to traces that happen during a run.

After having payed this quite a few times now I can say for sure that Noise beats this deck with ease. Not to take anything away from the deck at all, but if you have trouble with it just play Noise-shop and imp those agendas.

I just played against this deck online and a clot with clone chips really murders this deck. As soon as I had clot in play with at least one clot chip, I ran freely everywhere looking to score agendas with legwork and maker's eye and paying 1 credit to break wraparounds. Got 18 tags in the process, so what? No ice to protect remotes, but the corp can't score Beale from hand. It's just a matter of time until the runner finds 7 points. It really needs cyberdex.

Blacklist would possibly even be more useful than Cyberdex Virus Suite in some situations. Both could be installed on the relevant turn. Cyberdex would kill the Clot, but a second Clone Chip could just bring it back. But it also allows you to fire after you install it, and the Runner installs Clot, then runs it on their turn.

On the other hand, Blacklist stops any multi-clone chip shenanigans for Clot as well as being a pain for anyone trying to multi-parasite or the like. But it can also just get trashed next turn.

Theorycraft suggests that having a bit more ability to draw out Clot by playing Assets which also help is good. But I dunno. I went 5-1 with NEH Fastro last weekend, and Clot wasn't nearly to common as I expected.

So. Utopia Fragment for an NAPD? If you're typically scoring by dropping a Psychographics anyway, getting a Utopia Score basically makes your agendas bulletproof against almost anything but Singularity. A Beale with 9 advancement counters on it pretty well protects itself. "Oh, Clot? Okay. I'll leave it until next turn. Do you have 23 credits to get through Tollboth then pay 18 to steal?" Even if they do, the odds that they can do that and then get to whatever you put in there next turn seems really slim. However, it makes getting sniped much more painful before it's scored, and means that unless you can score it out early on, it's a big swing for the runner if it's in R&D (3 vs 4 stolen).

I like the Utopia Fragment idea! But how do you score it if you cannot Psychographics it out of hand and all you have in thr deck to ETR is 1 tollbooth and 3 wraparounds?

With clot in the heap, first click install Blacklist and rez immediatly, then Psychographics-Beale for the win. That seems like an easier solution. I like these suggestions!

Been playing with a 40 card variant of this deck, took out the jacksons and a green level clearance, seems to run even better. Things come out even more quickly. it does suffer against noise though.

Trying to figure out a deck to use against a guy who plays AndySucker and Siphons. Was considering a swap of ID's for Haarpsichord Studios, and then adding a Cyberdex Virus Suite, some Pop-up Windows, Market Research, and maybe a Scorched Earth with the extra influence just to be mean.

Took this for a spin at my local game night this week as my first time playing NBN and this was amazing! A really refreshing change from the Weyland weird combo decks I've been trying to make work the last 6 months...

I'm just wondering though what your plans are to deal with Film Critic? Old Hollywood hits my meta this week, and I'm worried that without some sort of counter to it I could be in serious trouble. Snatch and Grab or SEA Source to land a tag and then trash it?

@Metaphorazine Clot and Film Critic give this deck a really hard time. This deck was hard to play when Clot had just come out; but now Film Critic makes it even harder. Your recommendations are potential solutions, but I think this deck has suffered greatly as part of the collateral damage that those two cards have done in trying to give solutions to the RP and NEH obsession. I think that if Film Critic eventually becomes ignored, then this deck might be able to come back: but with both cards so popular at the moment, then it all comes down to some really good luck.

I dont understand how this deck can have three copies of AstroScript Pilot Program when it says limit one per deck on the card? Am I missing something?

``@Chillstad`it was errated

Woah, activity on this thread after 8 yrs! As Purusha said, Astroscript used to not have any limits back in the day, that limit was added much later in the card's history.