Robots in Disguise

Halarith 290

This deck is a variation of the one I played at my local Store Championship. While that deck had me go 6-0, including the eventual loss in Top 8 (I won the Corp side, but my Runner deck was definitely subpar), this deck tries to cut out the non-Bioroid ICE and give my defenses a much needed upgrade.

This deck, like its predecessor, has no tricks; the deck is purely an Agenda Factory. While some might think only having one win condition makes the deck too narrow, you more than make up for the weakness by the strength of your ICE, as well as the increasingly annoying Caprice/Ash combo. They can blow all their resources getting in, only to lose to Caprice; and if they guess correctly on Caprice, Ash has a near guaranteed chance to give them restricted access.

Because of the inclusion of more Bioroids, I cut a Pri-Req and added a Project Wotan. There's only two pieces of ICE that aren't affected by it, but they're Tollbooth so they don't need any other bonuses.

The early game is going to revolve around Eli 1.0 and either Viktor. You can play Adonis and Eve unprotected; make them waste the resources. If you fear Bank Job or desperately need the credits, keep Adonis behind one ICE. Eve isn't worth protecting; the 5 trash cost is enough of a deterrent in most cases. If you stick a Melange and use it for 1-3 turns, you're set on credits for the rest of the game.

Hudson is the only yet untested card in this deck. My original train of thought was to surprise the Runner if they decided to Maker's Eye/R&D Interface. A 6 strength code gate is basically guaranteed to get clicked through, but if they're wasting 3/4 of their turn on that then it's almost beneficial.

Even when the Runner has their suite out late-game, you'll find that as you've been installing ICE on your servers (and outside of the 3 centrals, you'll have 2 remotes with ICE at the absolute most) them clicking through the first couple Bioroid ICEs still makes each run expensive as hell. That's when Caprice/Ash come in big. Keep them out, score your points, win. The formula still works.

I realize that this deck still has its weaknesses; Magnum Opus can neutralize a lot of defenses, and the new Unregistered S&W ends Caprice and Ash. But Magnum Opus still takes time, and the gun takes them an entire turn if they take out both upgrades to a server. The deck can definitely push through those cards.

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