Brutality 1.0

Aaaand this is the one that's doing well.

It still has weaknesses: I'm not sure the agenda mix is correct, it's still not scoring consistently (mostly, likely, my weakness as a player) and it needs just a little /something/ to make primary servers a little more taxing.

But... yeah. This thing is /mean/.

It's a glacier that tries to roll out massive ice walls, while merrily running up vast piles of cash. Combos like Shell Corps over a Cerebral Overwriter, melange with Valley and Ash, and the constant threat of self-destruct chips tossed out in an open server make it swim in cash and keeps the runner guessing.

how do you play it?

In the early game, focus on getting your centrals protected, dig to a Jackson, and try to get a Cerebral Overwriter on the table to make things interesting. Constantly be looking for the right combo to enable your econ - once a Melange or a Shell Factory is running, you're good.

What's a shell factory, you ask?

Cerebral Overwriter with three advancements, coupled with a pair of shell corporations in an empty server. It's a thing of beauty.

Anyway - I spend formative turns simply loading up on cash, outmoneying the runner at every turn. Slowly, I build into a scoring server - Valley Grid, Ash, usually a Melange... and then, when my cash reserves are high and a scoring window opens? Replace that melange and start advancing.

Keep in mind hand sizes - the runner will be terrified to run on a four-ice valley-grid-enabled server. Once they see a Neural EMP in your hand, they should be terrified of you. Snares keep the runner truly honest, and can fill in for any other trap asset in a pinch, once you've damaged the runner's hand size that much more.

The weakness of the deck seems to be in protecting centrals; it's likely my ICE isn't actually strong /enough/ to be a threat over centrals the way it needs to be.

That said? People /quail/ when you rez a Janus in their face. It's astounding.

The deck is winning - and would likely be more winning in the hands of a better player. So far, it's doing about 50%, and that's quite good for me with a corp.

Good luck!