Same Old Andy: 1st Place at London Regional

A classic Andy-sucker deck, with a focus on leveraging the versatility of Same Old Thing to recur key events. Most of the time, your SoTs are Account Siphon's 4-6, but against decks packing big ice, illicit ice or Archers, I can use SoT to play several Emergency Shutdowns. Against decks that stockpile agendas while setting up a remote, I can close out games by recurring Legwork. It could even be used for something as simple as a Special Order to get your rig out that much faster.

Planned Assault is probably the most notable card that I chose not to include, and the reason for that is that, against certain decks, I found myself really riding the line between "dispossessed" and "ristie". Those 2 extra credits can sometimes be a tall order.

For me running as Andy is about picking your battles. If you try to go faster than your rig allows against the wrong deck, you could eat net damage that knocks out key cards from hand, or else die to Neural Emp or a Scorched Earth combo (which I did in one game at the regional). Luckily, the deck is able to apply early pressure to turbo-fast decks like NBN Fast Advance, and it can sit back and rig up for a strong late game against Jinteki or Weyland once the flatline threat has passed.

The most important card for your opening hand is Desperado, followed by Datasucker, Security Testing, Same Old Thing, Special Order and Faerie, and of course some economy events to make everything playable.

Card Choices

2x R&D Interface - I chose RDI over Maker's Eye because the primary win strategy is to threaten HQ using Account Siphon and then turn the credit swing into punishing R&D pressure. Being able to rely on multi-access every turn is preferable to having to draw and recur an event.

2x Legwork - Legwork compliments this strategy by allowing me to attack the cards in HQ effectively once I feel the agenda density in R&D is too low. As I'm not running HQ for points very often, only when it counts, Legwork is more effective than HQ interface.

2x Security Testing - the trinity of central server pressure is completed by Security Testing. After Desperado, Datasucker and economy events, Security Testing is a card I definitely want to see in my opening hand. Helps hugely against Jinteki who rely on Shocks to defend Archives, and also punishes asset economy reliant decks like HB:EtF and some NBN decks. I think of it as a reccuring Easy Mark that can force out some premature ice rezzing. I credit this card with winning me a key game in the fourth round of swiss at London.

1x Mr Li - I find that playing Criminal is all about giving myself options with which to surprise the corp and change the game state quickly. A sudden breaker with Special Order, a tempo swing with Account Siphon or an agenda steal with Inside Job. Mr Li enables you to pick and choose which of these options you want in hand, without sacrificing them to the heap like you often have to after a Quality Time. If your economy stalls the 3 install cost looms large, but if you've got a good thing going with Security Testing and Desperado, Mr Li is one of the more welcome mid-game cards.

1x Kati Jones - sometimes I just really need a big burst of economy to get a Femme down or break through a server that is locked up tight. Kati is my primary Hostage target and a key piece of your mid-game economy.

1x John Masanori - the final, and possibly least important, part of my super rig, which is otherwise made up of Suckers, Desperado and Security Testing. The free card draw helps against Jinteki net damage decks to reduce recovery time, but he can be a dead draw when you are locked out of servers or if there is still unrezzed ice everywhere.

2x Faerie - beyond it's obvious use as an Archer-shield, Faerie servers as early protection for my suckers, both from Rototurrets and Power Shutdown.

1x Femme Fatale - my solution to Tollbooth and Komainu, two of the most taxing ice in the game, which would otherwise make short work of my hyper-efficient rig.

1x Test Run - one of the key surprises in the deck. The power of Test Run in Andromeda can't be understated. It allows for some truly great plays that would otherwise be difficult or impossible, like setting up a Femme that allows you cheap access into HQ, running Siphon for click 2 and clearing the tags for clicks 3 and 4. Then, you can use the earned credits to draw and install Femme for realsies next turn, either on HQ for more Siphon or on R&D to get you lock going. Also, when you're running singleton breakers I find I am sometimes really thankful for the recursion that Test Run offers, and it combos wonderfully with Same Old Thing to ensure that I can recover from a surprise destroyer or Power Shutdown even after I've played the Test Run.

1x Scrubber - allows me to keep up in the economy war against anyone relying on asset economy, and makes trashing SanSans more palatable when I know that I'm saving 2 credits for each additional SanSan after the first. It also allows me to dig a little deeper into R&D. This is something of a meta-call card though, and could be traded for any number of great 1-influence cards like Stimhack or Deus Ex.

At the regional this deck went 4-1 in the swiss rounds (effectively 5-1 due to a Store Championship bye) and undefeated in the knockout rounds. The loss was due, as aforementioned, to a Scorched Earth out of Cerebral Imaging. The Test Run always came as a surprise and was, in all but one game, a big tempo shift. The most Account Siphons I got off in a single game was 5 if I recall correctly, but I was able to win games without a single Siphon thanks to the versatility of Same Old Thing and the other strong event cards.