Divested Drone Message [Startup]

Here's a Startup list I've been playing quite a bit lately. It usually has around a 70% win rate, but I think it could be a bit better with someone who plays it well. The core of the deck is the crazy interaction between Divested Trust and SDS. The runner has to pay to steal SDS (by trashing a program), and then you can forfeit Divested Trust to add the stolen agenda back to your hand. This does a couple of things: 1) The runner has to repeatedly trash their programs to steal SDS which can be game winning in itself. 2) The agenda has been stolen so it gets Game Over and Punitive Counterstrike online. 3) it gives you 5 credits for forfeiting Divested Trust. That makes it much easier to win by flatline. 4) If Send a Message was stolen we get a free rez without losing the agenda, or we get two if it gets stolen twice. That's good value.

If you don't have the money to kill with Punitive, Game Over can frequently take care of that if they have a lot of stuff installed. Game Over seems to hurt Shaper and Anarch more than Criminal. Saving 3 Hardware costs a whopping 9 credits, resulting in a 10 credit swing with the forfeited Divested Trust (+5 for Divested, -4 for Game Over, and then 9 credits in this example that the runner spent to save their cards). A 10 credit difference is a lot when it comes to winning with Punitive.

Our gameplan is pretty straightforward: we want as much money as we can get quickly, and we can't at least 1 Divested Trust scored as early as possible. Starting the game by scoring a Hostile takeover takes up to 12 credits thanks to our ID, and it's my favorite way to start the game. It gives us money to rez some ice to protect a Divested Trust, Regolith Mining License, or Roughneck Repair Squad. Most often our central servers are fairly lightly guarded with Engram Flush, sometimes one other ice. Increased Drop Rates often goes in Archives to trigger when the runner inevitably runs it for Dirty Laundry, Leech, etc. It's even better when it triggers from HQ, R&D, or a remote server, since the runner usually pays to trash it. Usually the runner will take a tag so it only serves to slow them down a little bit, but from time to time the runner will remove a bad pub.

For ice, we Akhet and Pharos are the stars, with Archer coming after that. These usually go over our remote. If there's a server that get's hit a lot it's good to have a fully advanced Akhet there. It makes us a credit and can help us fully advance our other ice and can even be used to advance an installed agenda or Reversed Accounts. It can even be used to advance a card than can't normally be advanced. This would be excellent if you wanted to bluff another card as an agenda to force an expensive run through our mighty remote, but that rarely lines up. Pharos is excellent in Startup (and in general). Cleaver is common, and without help costs a ton to break a fully advanced Pharos. It also helps protect it from being trashed by Chisel + Devil Charm (which Archer sadly does die to a lot). And even if you end up with 3 or 4 bad pub, a 10 strength ice is expensive to break. Avoid sacrificing a Divested Trust to Archer unless it'll be game changing or the runner already has 4 points scored. Divested Trust can't be used to stop the winning agenda from being stolen. If you're tight on money you can forfeit Divested Trust to add a 1 pointer to your hand and get the 5 credits, but there isn't as much value as using it with SDS. Magnet is helpful against virus programs and just kind of goes wherever we need it at the time. It can end the run so it can be used early to protect a vital server. Engram Flush and Colossus are our first choice for central servers: they are porous and can be walked through, but they're fairly taxing to break. Engram Flush usually fires the first time it's encountered. I usually name Program even though it's less likely to trash 2 cards than naming Event, but losing a program early can be game winning. Against Shaper and Anarch I always call program early in the game and almost always trash one or two. Colossus is also a good option for extra advancements after others are fully advanced. All of our ice are pretty vulnerable to Boomerang, but Archer at least does force the choice of saving programs or getting into the server with Boomerang. Winchester, our last ice, is great when it hits. It's a bit taxing to break (especially over HQ), but if the runner has enough money they can get through it without a breaker, the weakness of all Tracer ice.

As for our last include, Digital Rights Management; I'm not sold on it. It's nice to have sometimes, especially when we have a strong remote and don't want to have an agenda swiped from R&D, but most of the time it just takes up room in HQ. You can't score agendas after using it so it isn't a fast advance tool. That being said, sometimes it's very helpful to use it to pull a Hostile Takeover when you need some money and have your remote well protected, or even to install it in the open for the runner to steal, followed by Game Over to drain their money or trash their cards. I'll probably drop it down to 1 Digital Rights Management or eliminate it altogether.

I may add a second Roughneck Repair Squad. The removal of the bad pub is great, but we need it mostly for the money to rez our ice and threaten Punitive Counterstrike. Most often it gets trashed before we get to use it, so a second one could be useful. If the runner knows what you're doing and sits back to earn money before running, Reversed Accounts can do a lot of damage. We also get our ID bonus from the first advancement (it's also really great to be able to score a Hostile Takeover with only 1 credit). You can add another Magnet if you'd like; it may be a good choice. I've also wanted to try using Cayambe Grid (since it's legal in Startup), but I don't know if it would slow us down too much. I'd probably cut the Digital Rights Management and 1 Reversed Accounts for more space and influence. Sprint could also be a good include.

This deck loses when the runner steals 4 points early in the game. Also, it's usually a bad decision to try to score and SDS in the first couple of turns - especially not undefended. That's often how I've ended up losing. It rarely works.