HQI Val (3rd in Swiss and Cut, Aldershot Store Champ)

This Valencia build went undefeated in swiss and the cut at the 2017 Aldershot Store Championship.

• Early game, build your rig while locking remotes and / or threatening multi-access on centrals with Blackmail and Faust.
• Mid to late game, use your abundance of cards and money to get through rezzed ICE, often with multi-access.

Questions:

• Why no En Passant? In testing I found En Passant was leading to me making inefficient decisions. I would often have Blackmail in hand with a prime opportunity to use it, but hold off until I had En Passant. I swapped 2 En Passant for 2 Queen's Gambit, which did significant work for me on the day.

• Why no ICE destruction? With the amount of money and Blackmail in this deck, you can usually convert a sufficient number of accesses to win paying through ICE at the end. This deck started with the standard ICE destruction packages (cutlery and Parasucker), but I found this version a lot smoother with Friends in High Places and Macrophage in the meta.

• Why no SIFR? See above point. Also, for the 50 card deck and reliable HQI multi-access, the incremental draw off Obelus is incredibly valuable for getting through your deck. Also, the conspiracy breakers are sufficiently expensive that you're probably not saving enough credits to justify SIFR over Obelus. Finally, with Obelus, Plascrete, and I've Had Worse you're well equipped to withstand a Power Shutdown BOOM!

• Why HQI and not Nerve Agent? The short answer is because the rig with Obelus can't support it. Not being vulnerable to purges is also nice, as you are guaranteed to get multi-access - and more importantly 2x draw - off of your HQ accesses the rest of the game.

• Why Eden Shard? I was really afraid of Cerebral Imaging 7 point combo, but it should just be another Employee Strike.