Andromeda Rebirth - GNK 2016

Greetings! I haven't played many tournaments this season but with the anti-Faust/Mumbad City Hall/Museum of History hate going around, I wanted to do something different. With NBN being the best corporation faction to battle the resource dominated runner meta, I was a little weary to play criminal again. Thankfully, the gamble pulled off. I took this and my New Angeles Sol and placed 2nd.

Card Choices

Standard stealth Andy setup. I chose to play 3 Switchblade to increase my chances of drawing it naturally, thus not needing to spend a Special Order on finding it when I needed to use them finding Refractor and Corroder. I opted to play the Earthrise Hotel and John Masanori draw engine. Earthrise gets set up early and John only hit the table once the rig is set up.

The deck HAS to draw a lot, sacrificing the early game aggression leading me to one standout choice: Rolodex. After watching an ANR: Blackhats Deckbuilding Derezzed with Timmy Wongs "Credit Clicker 3000" discussion on Making an Entrance, I thought to apply a similar card to "fix" some of my draws. Stealth rigs suffer from requiring so many pieces that Rolodex seemed worth a try. Oddly enough, this card did tremendous work games 1 and 2.

I saw Rebirth all three games at some point. It gives a lot of unique flexibility, but doesn't feel like a "must have." Playing the majority of the game as Andromeda is fine, but having an ability after turn 1 is nice too.

Game 1 vs HB: EtF Glacier w/ Biotics & Jeeves

His deck was not specifically designed around Jeeves, rather just using him for value when he could. Three basic actions and gaining a click provides some fairly aggressive tempo. I had a great opener and got my stealth rig up by turn 3 and had good Security Testing targets without repercussions thanks to the efficient rig. Rolodex set up my Desperado and Dirty Laundry turn, and then my Sure Gamble and Special Order order turn afterward to fully assemble my rig. I Rebirthed into Leela Patel: Trained Pragmatist and got several solid procs with her ability. A clutch R&D run with R&D Interface sealed the game. Political Operative also proves clutch in glacier matchups to combat Ash.

Game 2 vs HB: EtF Glacier w/ Braintaping/Surat Combo

I again drew a good setup hand consisting of money and an Earthrise Hotel. Security Testing pulled its weight, as I had an open archives all game, while the other servers got stacked deep. Rolodex set up a Desperado, which I immediately drew, and then a Dirty Laundry and Cloak, and finally a Special Order and Account Siphon. I Rebirthed into Leela again and got several quality procs off to score out.

Game 3 vs NEH: FA

Classic matchup. Unfortunately I prioritized the Switchblade only to realize later, he had very few sentries. I also couldn't find a Security Testing early, therefore I Rebirthed into Iain Stirling: Retired Spook for the credit trickle since I was down by 4 points, when I drew it. Two Account Siphon turns slowed him down but I also never saw the R&D multi-access cards. The Turning Wheel is good when drawn early with an aggressive criminal. In this deck, I think the raw R&D Interface is just better, and I would cut the Film Critic and The Turning Wheel. In the end he scored out NEH style, while I was sitting on 4 points. Rough draws.

Conclusion (TL:DR)

Overall, this deck has nothing terribly new and I'm just adding to the vast knowledge already out there. Rolodex is best when you 1) are not spending actions drawing the rearranged cards and 2) have lots of moving pieces, such as a stealth rig. The Turning Wheel is best when drawn and installed early in an aggressive runner. It takes too long to get any solid value out of when installed late.