Celebrity Nasir (v.2 - with Weekly Update)

A tightened up version of my previous build. As with before, the deck is incredibly resilient, but needs to find Kati and ProCon or a Desperado. The wins and losses at this point in Nasir's life are useful to learn what he's good at, and how to play around certain types of situations, some of which I'll explore below. {My Jinteki: PE deck went unbeaten, and has been undefeated for a few weeks, but I lost once with NEH (because we all want to know how to beat it) to a random two-agenda dig the turn before I would've won.}

Games played this week at my local store:

1) vs. Weyland: TnB. Loss. This game was depressing, as I didn't draw any Desperados/ProCons/or Katis until turn seven or so. I score an early Private Security Force, which saved me from a hell I couldn't dig out of. Justin, my opponent, was playing Data Ravens, which are bad for Nasir (obviously). The game went really long and I didn't get Scorched this game. Had a plascrete out, somewhat early on. I never really got set up in time and made a few stupid errors: 1) not playing my Gordian Blade when I drew it to get through a potential Enigma (he was running several, and cost me 2 clicks over the game) and 2) setting my Atman at 2 early to compensate for lack of Gordian Blade. Valuable lesson: credit up early, get SMC out, and be patient.

2) vs. Scorched Imaging - Win. Right off my loss, I was cringing to see Cerebral Imaging. My opponent, Johnson, was a newer player who was quick to pick up the game, and played very well. I got an early set-up with Kati/ProCon and drew into a Desperado, basically the best thing I could do. Once that was online, I started pillaging HQ and hit an early Priority Requisition. After that, setting Atman at 4 wrecked the deck very hard, with a Datasucker online, there was little to stop me hard-locking RnD, which I did. Johnson played it about as good as he could after that, double biotic into Efficiency Committee, which he did again later. One mistake he made was using EC's tokens to get extra clicks to install ICE, fearing that I was just going to win through RnD lock. He kept my Sucker tokens low with a Heimdall on Archives (which I femmed). That play did buy him some time, but he probably could've used those clicks to double-shipment-from-San-San another EC out (I am not sure that he had two Shipments at that point though). Some well-timed parasites lessened his ICE layers down to a manageable amount, and I won with a simple run on HQ after he biotic'd the second Efficiency Committee.

3) vs. Jinteki: PE (variant on the Cambridge version) - Win. This was a teaching game, so I can't rightfully call it a win. I was explaining to him (and my previous opponent) how to beat PE, what not to do and so on. My opponent, Cosmo, was just learning how to play his deck, which I have extensive practice against (and with). He played it well, though could've been more aggressive with his Ronins to threaten a flatline. Before he could, I sniped a final Future Perfect, bidding 2 for the win.

4) vs. NEH. - Loss. God damn this deck. I hate it. I didn't score a single point the whole game due to variance and NAPD being a real thing. My opponent, Chuck, is a skilled player, but this was one of his first times playing NEH. Basically, he played things that I couldn't trash quickly enough. I trashed two San San City Grids, one Pad, and still couldn't keep him from winning. RND had Tollbooth on it, HQ was pretty open. One of my biggest mistakes here was not going straight for HQ. After the game, Chuck mentioned that after he pitched Fast Track, I should've gone straight for HQ, knowing that he was flooded. I lose a few turns later, trying to contest the last San San.

Some things that I like/want to improve about this build:

Things I like:

Cash and efficiency. It's extremely rich once it gets either Kati or ProCon or Desperado. It's brutally efficient when it gets all or two. Later in the game, having Personal Workshop to power out a Femme is excellent. Quality Time was an awesome addition. Not sure I want more than one(?), but it helps with consistency. This deck wants Astrolabe, badly.

I didn't miss Disrupter. The extra Plascrete keeps me from dying to Scorched more effectively, and if I'm buried in tags, the game is probably over anyway. I don't like not having a way to deal with Midseasons, but I'd rather not die and have tags, than die with a single tag.

The rig is very quick to set-up, usually by turn four I had full rig or close to full (missing the Femme). I just wish Shaper had a better answer to sentries in-faction.

Going to 2 Net Celebrity was the right number. This prevoius Sunday, while doing a few more tests with the deck, I noticed I had a dead Celebrity in my hand frequently. In other words, I was either winning with it out, or losing and it wouldn't help me get back on my feet. It's a great boost when you get the rig out and especially against RP, but it's not a must-have in all match-ups.

Escher was good. I used it to hose the PE matchup entirely. I had it in my grip against Scorched Imaging, but didn't need it. I wish it didn't cost 3.

Ghost Runner continues to impress me.

I would not trade the one-off Parasite for anything.

Things I wish I could fit in, or have been considering:

Security Testing seems great with Nasir. As any zero-cost thing is generally great for a guy with no cash, it also punishes the corp for not-rezzing, which is what you want with this build. Perhaps Testing + Akamatsu Mem Chip as a pseudo-console? Would this be better than Desperado?

A third desperado because desperado.

Legwork because while I have an easy time locking RnD, I hate going after HQ and whiffing.

Possibly cutting 1 Atman because I'm not sure I need two.

Comments appreciated.