Countered! V1.1

Jashay 715

Some slight updates: Dirty Laundry has been dropped in favour of 2x Kati Jones (no, I don't know why they weren't there to start with) and a third Imp.

I was completely screwed for money in the game I played; Two Tri-maf Contact was all I saw, and they just about saw me through. I spent a good 8 turns with only one. I actually got an Overmind out on turn 2, but never used it. D4v1d smashed through all the Wraparounds, and Ichi was combatted via clicks and e3 Feedback Implants. And that was all the ICE that got rezzed; I trashed no less than 7 econ assets (3x Mental Health Clinic, 3x PAD, 1x Marked Accounts) for a total cost to myself of 5. I grabbed 2 agendas by R&D Interface runs on R&D, one from HQ and one from a remote with a surprise D4v1d run.

Right at the death, he gambled everything on scoring a Breaking News and trashing both Tri-maf Contacts; cost him all his money, and I've Had Worse just chuckled at him.

I never saw most of my econ, but Whizzard had such a good run suppressing their econ that I was still doing okay.

Deck still feels clunky, though; so many things seem to need playing, and I never seem to quite have the money. I should probably spend more time setting up, but I'm usually not inclined to let them have the early game all their way.

I need some more playtime with this to see if the econ is as bad as it seems, or I've just been unlucky these last few times. I might drop the third Imp in favour of another Daily Casts. I think Spinal Modem has a place here, too; those recurring credits would have been a godsend in the cash-strapped games like this.

5 comments
11 Mar 2015 Pinkwarrior

Seems to me that with all that spare MU Data Folding would easily fit in here as a never ending daily casts.

11 Mar 2015 Jashay

@Pinkwarrior: Quite possibly! I went for the Daily Casts initially because of the slightly higher rate of return, but given the length of the games you grind out without much multiaccess, I wonder if Data Folding would win out in the long run

11 Mar 2015 Catsodomy

Personally I would loose the R&D Interface for a Medium And drop the Uninstalls for Scavenge. Now this poses a problem with influence. I would drop the three Tri-maf Contacts and the Utopia Shard. Thats your 6 right there. A Data Leak Reversal could make up for the lost Utopia Shard. Maybe a Hard at Work or Liberated Account?

One of Feedback Filter dosnt seem good to me, either, since you said you were constantly cash strapped.

Personally Im not a fan of Inject Id replace them with Grimoires or better yet Ekomind. It would take a couple turns to manage, but you could potentially put out a 12 counter Overmind with just Ekomind and two MemStrips. Thats if you dont use I've Had Worse then toss your extra cards and Déjà Vu them.

I agree with the Data Folding idea as well.

And dont forget, youre running without Plascrete Carapace, Scorched Earth bait.

11 Mar 2015 Catsodomy

I forgot to mention you can sacrifice Overmind with Scavenge to re-install Overmind. Its in the FAQ, regardless of the fact I dont think it should work like that, it does. D4v1d and Imp as well, one would assume.

11 Mar 2015 Jashay

@Catsodomy: I'd have to significantly retool the deck to get the Ekomind to work; without any hand boosting it's very unreliable. Grimoire is a possibility, as it is actually a relatively cheap way of boosting and synergises with Imp and Parasite.

The Utopia Shard is fantastic; I can sometimes install it for free, it kicks the hell out of combo pieces held in hand, and it can be used off-turn. DLR requires me to be tagged, and is slower, and doesn't target already-held combo pieces.

I could be persuaded to drop the Tri-maf Contacts, but not for Hard at Work, which is more expensive and less flexible. Liberated Account is very good as burst econ, which I could well do with. I need to find a balance between drip and burst here.

Inject is pretty nice in a setup like this, although even less programs would be optimal. It is very efficient card draw when you don't have to worry about programs. But again, I might drop it.

Feedback Filter can be helpful, but yes, not when I spend the whole game on about 4! An alternative would be nice, but perhaps I need to just trust my breakers and trashing abilities to see me through. It could be that putting in Liberated Accounts would give me enough money to run them.

Scavenge is more efficient than Uninstall, so I could try retooling the influence for that replacement. The Interfaces are an obvious choice, but given that I only have 3 boosting cards in the deck at the moment I wouldn't like to rely on getting more than one.

I have no fear of Scorched Earth here. I've Had Worse trivialises it; if you have even one in hand they need to triple-hit you. Whilst Plascrete Carapace works better with the Uninstalls, I think I'd be more likely to use Qianju PT to avoid the tags. It seems more flexible.

Thanks for the suggestions; I'll have a twiddle and see if I can't improve things!