Nero & Friends

I'll be honest. I simply can't resist Oracle May. If I can build a deck that uses her... You can bet I will.

At heart, I am a Sunny Lebeau: Security Specialist player. I started playing her months before she even released with proxies, and I haven't stopped for longer than a couple of months since. Lately, I've struggled with my style of playing her, and rather than experience total frustration at a Store Championship, I decided to try to port my favorite Sunny Money tactics to someone else.

Iain Stirling: Retired Spook was the obvious initial choice, but his influence handicap limited me harder than I could deal with. Nero Severn: Information Broker jumped out when I was looking for a Criminal with at least one starting , and after playing him this weekend, I actually think he might be the right choice even ignoring influence.

I built this deck the night before the tournament; I'd played it twice before I started. Considering that (and my own limited skills), I was legitimately shocked when it won 50% of its games. Of the two it lost, one was to the SC's Second Place winner (and was my first game of the day - I count at least two significant misplays that weren't the deck's fault), and the other I never found Off-Campus Apartment, nor played Drug Dealer, and it took four turns (of mostly drawing) to find Oracle May while my (excellent) opponent scored like crazy.

Opening hands, I look for Off-Campus Apartment or Oracle May primarily, with The Supplier and Aumakua as nice bonuses. I try to only play Drug Dealer if necessary (usually against ping damage decks) - generally, it's better have the money. Once I find Oracle May, I try to use her every turn - it's an almost 90% (88.88%) chance that naming "Resource" will earn me a card and two credits once a turn. Like a standard Sunny Lebeau: Security Specialist, Underworld Contact and Data Folding are the main money in the deck, played at reduced cost by The Supplier (who seriously pulls his weight). Maxwell James or Security Nexus turn on the Underworld Contact quickly enough, usually.

But can I really have an AI as my only breaker? Well, no. But I don't. Between Charlatan, Security Nexus, and Nero Severn: Information Broker himself, I can deal with most threats. A triple Turing on a remote might keep me out of that server - but just that one server, and just that one situation. Same (or even less problematic) with most AI-hate ICE.

The Turning Wheel is the main win condition, obviously, which can be charged with Nero's ability in addition to normal methods. Altogether, my experience was that this was a really surprisingly good deck.