HB FA O&C Streetcar - 1st Place @ Covenant Store SC

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squash957 574

Hey everyone,

I don't make a habit of publishing deck lists, but I have had enough people asking for this one that I figured I'd post it. I should first mention that this is a modified version of my buddy Brodie's Sleeper Car build that has won him 2 Store Champs. You can see his list here: https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1308093/store-championship-game-cafe-independence-mo. When I originally copied down his list I missed the pun (Sleeper Car being the HB version of Astro Train... Domestic Sleepers... get it?!), and misremembered it as Streetcar. It's Streetcar now.

HB FA is my bread and butter, but I left it for a long time for a perceived relative weakness to other Corp strategies. I think we have had a meta shift that has made Archer extremely good again, so I was ready to try out Domestic Sleepers again. I've always liked HB ICE and the taxing nature has been what attracted me to the faction since the beginning. This deck is certainly a taxing Fast Advance build.

Rather than tell you how I play the deck (because there are many correct ways to pilot any deck and mine might not work for you), I'll just mention the reasons certain cards get deck slots.

ICE Suite:

I originally tried this deck with the NEXT ICE suite and found that there is just too much ICE destruction going around to reasonably build taxing servers. For this reason cards such as Wall of Static and IQ were included. Wall of Static is a nightmare for Atman decks that love 0 and 4 versus HB and sticks around for a good while when Parasited. It's also a very reasonable 2 credit tax against Corroder. Eli 1.0 is still amazing even with Lady and other counters in the meta. 1 Wraparound is nice against Eater decks, as well as other AI builds, and dirt cheap ETR always has a function.

IQ is amazing. Let's just put that out there. The ability to let me dictate the rez cost of my ICE cannot be understated. It also has the unique ability to avoid D4vid, Atman, and becomes an enormous tax against breakers such as Zu.13 and Passport. It takes a bit of practice to maximize it's efficiency, but big Code Gates are solid right now and this is one of the best. 3 copies gets me one as early as possible, when it is easiest to force a rez for 1-3 credits. Viktor 2 is another wonderful big Code Gate, albeit a little less versatile and therefore happily fits as a 1 of. A quandary rounds out the Code Gates, because early dirt cheap ETR is still good.

Oh sentries. This deck runs the good ones. Architect and Archer. I don't think I need to justify the inclusion of these two at this point. Architect firing in this deck often gives me more than 4 credits worth of efficiency and Archer just ends games sometimes. An Archer protecting a SanSan will sometimes force the Runner to just ignore the SanSan for 2 or more turns. By the time they're ready to trash it, you may have already won the game. Ichi 1.0 rounds out the ICE suite. I'm actually pretty unhappy with Ichi a lot of the time, but a new wave of 0 Link Runners getting play has increased his value markedly.

Economy:

I think Adonis and Eve have been well explored at this point, but this ICE suite gives added incentive to push them out aggressively. With cards such as Architect, Archer, and IQ which have distinctly optimal rez windows, the Runner might not be too keen on face checking unrezzed ICE only to see an unrezzed Eve. Punish their hesitancy by getting filthy rich off of your asset econ. That or keep them occupied long enough with remotes to Fast Advance your way to victory. Don't be afraid to rez Eve. Even if they trash her right after you rez it, it's a 3 credit cost for you and a 5 credit + a click cost for them (in addition to any ICE protecting it). If Eve manages to drip unmolested, it is an incredible 11 credit net gain for the Corp.

2 Gila Hands replace 1 Domestics and an Efficiency Committee. This is a personal preference and one that might not be shared by many. I think Gila is one of the most outstanding cards ETF can play. With your ID ability and Gila scored, it becomes realistically impossible for an Economic Denial Runner to keep their boot on your throat. I will often Biotic/SanSan out a Gila very early if at all possible. This deck clicks for credits frequently and the consistent 1 credit increase in efficiency should not be dismissed.

Upgrades/Tech:

I'm in love with Cyberdex Virus Suite. It's probably unhealthy at this point. 3 suckers and a Mimic means you're safe to break Archer, right? Wrong. Hivemind/Medium/Chakana/Darwin lock down? Not this turn. Running Archives to build Datasucker tokens still works though... oh wait. Put Cyberdex in your most secure server and let it sit there until it matters. Better yet, put it on HQ and bluff a Crisium Grid. Put it in your scoring remote and bait a run. Put it ANYWHERE and gain 1 credit because you're ETF. Crisium Grid gets a slot because Eater Keyhole is still a thing and it's great against a lot of other things (Legwork, Maker's Eye, Indexing, Criminals in general). Archived Memories retrieves whatever you need, when you need it. I regret not playing 1 earlier.

I think that about sums it up, if you have any questions, feel free to ask! Good luck and Happy Netrunning!

15 comments
13 Mar 2015 aphid

Congrats on the win! Interesting how good you think IQ is, as I haven't seen it often here. Will have to try it out, thanks for sharing

13 Mar 2015 johncraven

very nice deck, similar to what I use to play pre-neh, at that time I thought hB FA was more reliable than nbn.

Have you thought of using NEXT ices? GLC/BLC instead of hedge funds? card draw is important in this deck.

I agree Gilas is MVP in hbfa.

13 Mar 2015 squash957

@aphid Thanks! I give all the credit for that find to my buddy Brodie, who I mentioned above. I don't think it fits every deck or every player, but I highly suggest taking it for a spin and seeing how it feels. Big Code Gates are in.

@johncraven The NEXT ICE suite is great in theory and unsatisfactory in practice in the current meta. This is at least true for what I play against. NEXT Silver dies to parasite almost immediately (worse if your opponent plays Grimoire) and that is the taxing workhorse in the suite. If your opponent plays neither Parasites nor Knifed, it's going to seem like the best suite you've ever played. The problem is the frequency with which those cards do get played.

I also don't find card draw an issue in this deck. When I need more, I'm perfectly content either drawing manually or using Jackson. The economic efficiency and early game power of Hedge Fund is superior in my opinion. I have played GLC in HB FA fairly consistently, but I don't miss them in the slightest in this deck.

13 Mar 2015 Oisin

Great looking list. I played HB FA for a longtime, and I too moved away from it. I have been playing the Transformer NEXT deck--which is fun too, but the inclusion of Archer in a FA makes me want to switch back. Thanks for sharing.

14 Mar 2015 p3t00h

Thanks for the list, I tested it intesively and came to following results: Deck is awesome :) I changed Wraparound for Marked Accounts which is a good taxing singleton, but I really want to dismiss Archer :(. It is often irrelevant because of Faeries and Switchblades. Could you suggest anything else? Tollbooth, some operations maybe? This also frees space discarding Sleepers.

14 Mar 2015 squash957

@Oisin Thanks, Archer is a beast right now and something Runners need to be increasingly aware of.

@p3t00h I'm glad you're having success with the list. I would probably add a third Eve before I added Marked Accounts, primarily because of it's vulnerability to Security Testing. HB doesn't need much help with economics assets, but if it has been working for you then go for it! I also feel like Archer's good match-ups compensate for games where it's useless. I'm not sure what I would replace Domestic/Archer with, as the ICE suite suite is currently built with them in mind. All of the Sentries you replace it with will have similar problems with Faerie and Switchblade and all the other program destruction has their own disadvantages. I'd be interested to see what you come up with!

16 Mar 2015 jdbartee

How do you deal with Cyber-Cypher and spamming early Indexings? :P

But, seriously, great list. Obviously it runs well, but I'd be so nervous running that few econ cards.

16 Mar 2015 Oisin

I've played 13 games with this deck on Jinteki.net and have gone 10-3. I took out a Jackson and the Wraparound for two Daily Business show. I also play the ice a bit differently--I went with NEXT Ice, so I have x3 Eli, x3 Silver, x3 IQ, x3 Bronze, x3 Architect, and x2 Archer.

Given the amount of love for Leela and Reina right now, I find win a lot of games with Gila Hands Arcology. I will do anything to Biotic one of those out vs those match-ups.

But I win even more games blowing up people's rigs with Archer. Unless they peek one in R&D, they just don't see it coming--even if I have scored a Domestic Sleepers. And if they do peek the Archer, then every face down piece of ice begins to terrify them. I can tell they saw an Archer in R&D when they spend the rest of their turn digging through their deck. Good times.

16 Mar 2015 Oisin

@kaizerjd Economy is almost never a problem--when I lose, it is usually because I don't draw enough ice early in the game. The ETF ability and Gila Hands Arcology can produce 4 credits a turn. Against non-security testing decks, I'll throw my Eve Campaigns out in hopes the runner will waste credits trashing them.

20 Mar 2015 squash957

@kaizerjd Haha, they're clearly my achilles heel. As for economy, I'm pretty aggressive trying to push out Adonis and Eve early to keep solvent. Like Olsin mentioned, Gila goes a long way. If you get one early, you're unlikely to have money problems during the game (especially considering the cost curve of the ICE suite). I also spend my fair share of time clicking for credits without Gila. It's also important to remember that the ID is arguably the best Econ card in the game.

@Oisin I think there are a lot of legitimate meta-specific changes that can be quite easily made to this deck. Daily Business Show was one I considered since at least 2 influence is very pliable. I don't think they help me enough in my bad match-ups to be worth it, but it's good to know that they have been useful to you. I also couldn't agree more on how useful Archer is right now. It's impossibly good when it connects and still very powerful as a threat. Glad to hear you've been having fun with the concept!

22 Mar 2015 Oisin

Still working for me. I ended up switching the Archived Memories, which I love, for an Aggressive Secretary. As great as Archived can be, I like having one trap in the deck.

15 Apr 2015 SneakdoorMelb

Hey! I think this is fantastic. Have you been testing much post-Clot? It looks like you'd still be able to put a pretty solid remote together.

15 Apr 2015 squash957

@Spider Thanks! The deck certainly fares better against Clot than many FA lists, because just as you mentioned it can build scoring remotes. I haven't had as much time to test lately as I'd hope, but I think there are definitely Clot lists in Shaper that would give this deck a hard time. The thing to keep in mind though is that Clot has a lot of workarounds. First and foremost, Cyberdex Virus Suite is a hard counter for only 3 credits (if you can keep it safe on the board). A second copy might be worth testing in a heavy Clot meta. Secondly, the Runner has to be able to constantly threaten Clot via Clone Chip or SMC for it to cause any real trouble. There will be windows in which your FA tricks will still get through. SMC is memory intensive and will often be used when face checking your punishing sentries. Clone Chip is easy to get on the board and leave, but it requires Clot to find it's way into the heap before it matters.

Also because HB has such a strong base, the influence can change pretty radically and still play fairly similarly. For example, the SanSans or Archers can become Caprice Nisei with some added Ash 2X3ZB9CY and you've shifted the focus to Never Advance or Glacier with Fast Advance as a still very threatening backup. I'm interested to see how much or how little Clot changes this list in the coming weeks myself!

30 Apr 2015 DukeOfLizards

Do you think Turing has a place here? It's brutal against Zu, but falls pretty hard to Cyber-Cypher or D4V1D. I was considering -1 IQ, -1 Archtect, +2 Turing.

7 May 2015 squash957

I think Turing is an amazing piece of ICE and easily replaces 1-2 IQ. I actually think this deck's time has come and past. In testing for Regionals I moved on to a more glacial build, as I found that an extra Cyberdex was insufficient to reverse the stymying power of Clot. Also with a resurgence of Shaper and therefore Sharpshooter, Archer simply isn't as debilitating of a threat. That being said, if you're not seeing the meta shifts that I am, this deck can still be amazing.