Shark Tank v1.2 (formerly P.E.A.R.N.A.D)

Previous version

This deck is my own variation on Toomin's N.E.A.R.P.A.D deck.

I renamed it Shark Tank, because I liked to picture Mr. Li going on a Shark-Tank-esque Daily Business Show. Plus, the imagery of treading water in a shark tank really captured the feeling of this deck from the runner's perspective, constantly trying to stay afloat on economy and watching out for the Snares/Data Ravens/DRTs that are lurking in the ocean of servers...

Summary of this deck's strategy:

• Try to install a server every turn for the free draw.
• Get a bunch of City Surveillances on the board unrezzed, and wait for them to go poor or force them to go poor with Reversed Accounts, then rez the City Surveillance to keep them either permatagged or poor for the rest of the game.
• Once the Dedicated Response Teams are installed, if they can't shake tags, they can't run without wolfing down damage.
• Snare! + DRT can cause a lot of instant-wins.
• Install something behind a Data Raven to bait a run if you have DRTs lurking (NAPD Contract and Reversed Accounts are great for this if you install-advance).
• Use Daily Business Show to dig for combo pieces and dodge Agendas if you can't take them yet.
• If they get a bunch of tags, start an Astrotrain with Psychographics, or win outright with Project Beale if they take lots and lots of tags from City Surveillance.
• Don't be afraid to try to sneak out 1-pointer agendas unprotected (or even 2-pointers), since it boosts the mind game (Is that unrezzed card a Beale? Or a Snare? Or just a PAD Campaign?).

My personal record for number of simultaneous remote servers with this deck is 20, though my record for Diversified Portfolio is only net +15c. Diversified Portfolio is an MVP in this deck, usually with an average gain of 7-8c with each use. Goodbye, Hedge Fund.

Video of 3 games using this deck: http://www.twitch.tv/dodgepong/c/5640224

New changes in this version:

• -1 Interns, -1 NAPD Contract, +2 License Acquisition: It's a risk increasing the agenda density, but License Acquisition feels like a more rewarding way to retrieve trashed assets than Interns. It also lets me make a new server for a free draw on a turn where all I do is advance x3 and gain an Agenda point. This is an experiment, but I feel good about it. It feels great to let it sit on the field, unrezzed, and score it the turn after they trash a combo piece like City Surveillance or DRT and return it to the board, rezzed for free.

• -1 Eli 1.0, -1 Encryption Protocol, +1 Architect, +1 Reversed Accounts: Architect gives another a very fun way to quickly build out servers and fetch things from Archives that were trashed. It makes me sad to lose 2 important taxing cards, but I hope having Architect will help me offset that loss by making those trashes moot. The Reversed Accounts is a good way to bankrupt the runner into a position vulnerable to City Surveillance without requiring the first tag. It remains to be seen just how much I will miss the 3rd Encryption Protocol, but hopefully License Acquisition can get things back quickly if they are trashed.

• -1 Enigma, +1 Wall of Static: With Eli gone, I wanted another Barrier to replace it. Wall of Static is the same rez cost, though not as taxing. I'm also considering Bastion here instead. Perhaps this slot would be a candidate to switch back to Rainbow, though Rainbow has anti-synergy with Mother Goddess so maybe not. Honestly, I think this ICE slot could be a wildcard. Maybe Universal Connectivity Fee? (More on that later, I kind of perfer an ETR in this slot)

• -1 Information Overload, +1 Data Raven: Information Overload is fun, but it doesn't hit very often. My goal is to get the runner tagged, and Data Raven is the most reliable ICE to do it with. Also, it makes me feel more comfortable putting a Data Raven both on a bait scoring remote as well as the most pressured central, whichever is more dire in need of protection first. And while it's fun to kill a runner's whole rig, I usually don't care if they have a huge rig because my game is in the unprotected remotes. Security by obscurity, if you will. And threats of Snares/DRTs. Plus, if they wind up tagged, I can take out their economy resources pretty easily on my own.

Threats:

• Whizzard - This deck dies to Whizzard. He kills all the things. Toomin's solution was to trade the Snares for Cerebral Statics, which I don't really want to do. Snare keeps the runner scared to run every remote, and can give a lot of outright wins. Perhaps this version of the deck increases the asset recursion enough to keep pace with Whizzard? It still sucks, though. Luckly my meta doesn't have any Whizzards...yet.

• Imp - This card overcomes Encryption Protocol shenanigans, which is sad. It's a great tool for trashing assets without taxing the runner. There's not much to do about that except to somehow get them tagged with DRTs rezzed to prevent them from running so much, and recur assets when possible.

• Keyhole - Imp for R&D but worse, because they can target combo pieces. This is a pretty ICE-light deck, so it's hard to protect all 3 servers well. Generally the strategy is to ICE up the most-threatened server with the big ICE like Tollbooth. Now that there are 2 Data Ravens, you can use one for the bait remote and one over the most-threatened central. Architect over R&D can also help see what the runner will see in their Keyhole run, and choose the thing you most want them not to trash, too. If they run again, use Architect to grab the thing they trashed.

Future thoughts:

• Universal Connectivity Fee: I could see this replacing a 1x of Pop-up Window as a means of a 1c tax, but with the added benefit of potentially bankrupting them. Either that, or I could trade the Wall of Static of static for it, since that is kind of a wildcard ICE slot. What I expect to happen, however, is that if I rez it when they are not tagged, they will happily go through it just fine, but once they are tagged, they will only go through it if they are already broke. What that means is that I would feel a lot of pressure to keep it unrezzed until they run it while tagged (or maybe if I put it behind a Data Raven); otherwise, if I rez it while they are untagged, they will run through it just fine until they are tagged, and then the card deters all running altogether. My fear is that it will either never bankrupt them (because they won't run it if tagged), will only fire if they are already bankrupt, or will be hard to set up a trap for. Plus, it's one less Pop-up to gain money from. I don't think this could replace Closed Accounts, since it's harder to land. I should probably try it anyway, just to see if it turns out to be more useful than I thought.

• Shell Corporation: This could be a fun one. I could host a Snare! on it to keep it protected, or bluff a Snare with something else. I could also put it in a Data Raven'd scoring server to bait runs on that server as much as possible, forcing them to take a tag if they want to trash my banked credits. It would probably replace a Marked Accounts. However, I'm not sure if the click-for-credit cost is as palatable as Marked Accounts, since Marked Accounts is something I tend to click if I have an extra click with nothing to use it on, while Shell Corp is something I would want to spend a click on every turn. Perhaps it's too click-intensive for me. It also requires at least one Encryption Protocol, maybe 2 before its trash costs begins to deter runners from trashing it, while Marked Accounts is nearly like that from the beginning, with no rez cost. It's a hard sell, but an interesting thought. Perhaps I should at least try it before I dismiss it.