This is a fun little deck I've been playing recently (while I still can :D) and I want to share it, because I think it's actually quite decent and it's fun to play.
Any critic and comments welcome :)
The deck started out as a NEXT deck, but you all know the old song... ETF is just better. Even though the deck is trying to rush out many ICE, the ETF money is just too valuable, because it allows to rush out ICE that matter instead of just Quandaries. (Sorry, Quandary, I know you matter in some decks.)
The game plan is as simple as it goes. Draw aggressive and spam agendas in remotes. Score 1 GFI and 2 other agendas before the runner can find any 4 agendas (or pull off their other shenanigans to get that 7th point or mill you). Use Hunter Seeker whenever you can to hamper the runner setup. Seriously, use it, it's basically the only card this deck has that is not an agenda, a piece of ICE or a pure economy card.
Most of the time, agenda floods can be answered by simply attempting to score them.
If the runner doesn't run, you get points. If he runs and fails, you get points. If he runs and succeeds, but is left broke, you can score the next one. And if he steals agendas, you can use Hunter Seeker to set him back and try to score again. (Unless you don't draw it or the runner uses his Film Critic. Both happens. It's bad, but doesn't kill you.)
There were games where I installed an agenda in a remote in one turn. Next turn Hunter Seeker, install next agenda. Next turn Hunter Seeker, install next agenda. It's stupidly efficient if you have some taxing ICE out. Yes, you loose points. But most of the times, the runner can't keep up the pace.
Most decks end relatively close, one way or another.
Agendas
3/2s to never-advance (paired with 9 assets to bluff). These are the easiest to score. Vitruvius is the only recursion in the deck, butis almost never used as such. ABT can be great with 19 ICE in 49 cards, but is scored as a blank agenda half the time, depending on the amount of agendas and ICE left in R&D. GFI to be able to get to 7 with just 3 scores, while still not running "real" 5/3s, because if the runner can get to 7 just as easy you loose way too fast. You need those Hunter Seeker triggers. Best case scenario is landing all 3 of them.
No FA backup plan. If you can't tax them out, you're lost. But this deck should be able to tax them out.
Economy
Illegal Arms Factory is a beast. I was skeptical at first, but the card is so powerful. Yes, even when it's trashed by the runner while active. Because then, it usually leaves him broke enough that you can squeeze in an agenda. The extra draw can be scary and force discards and agenda floods. But forced discards are no problem in a deck with only ICE and economy and I already addressed how to deal with agenda flood...
Blue Level Clearance is another great draw engine. Together with Illegal Arms, well, I still click for cards. A lot. But at least, Blue Level helps a bit.
AAL is awesome in ETF and can get rid of cards quickly. Lateral does the same, basically. Hedge Fund is basic stuff and Marilyn Campaign has proven extremely valuable in a deck that draws so much.
ICE
19 pieces of ICE seems a lot and most of the times, ICE start clogging in HQ at some point. But it's important to get out ICE fast and build up a defense for centrals and at least one defended remote. Most games I end up with two relatively well defended remotes that can potentially score agendas. In some games I end up with one 5-7 ICE layer deep scoring remote.
More than half of the ICE are in the 3-4 price range, which I think is a pretty good spot. Affordable, but still taxing.
The Sentries are big.
- Eli 1.0 is still okay, even with Paperclip everywhere.
- Seidr can be pretty awesome late game with 5+ strength. Yes, it's expensvie as an early game gear check, but this deck can usually afford it.
- Vanilla, because sometimes you just need that 0 ICE that enforces a 4 fracter install.
- Enigma isn't bad. It's a hard ETR, it can tax more than Quandary against some breakers and occasionally it steals a against a runner that was facechecking, expecting bioroids.
- Fairchild 2.0 is better than it's reputation. It's annoyingly taxing against most decoders. Does Yog.0 wreck it? Yes. But usually, you have enough backup ICE in case of Yog.
- Fairchild 3.0 is pretty much standard issue for reasons. I run only 2, because I found myself unable to pay for it quite a few times and I feel I don't really need 3. Stacking 2 bioroid 2.0 models is usually better than 1 3.0, because most runners can't click through both. And this deck has enough 2.0s that matter.
- Turing doubles as AI hate and a simple, but taxing remote ICE. Yes, it's porous. But ICE isn't really stopping anyone, anyways. Turing's tax on a remote is nice, no matter if broken or clicked.
- I really like Sherlock 2.0, because it is unexpected and outplays some mechanisms (SacCon, heap breakers), simply by not trashing. The strength is awesome for that money and the tag got me some nice resource trashes and can also be a decent click tax.
- Zed 2.0 is also quite unexpected and very nasty. It's basically a bioroid that can't be clicked through. Think about it. If you click him you either lose a piece of hardware or take 2 brain damage and if you don't click him, he trashes 2 pieces of hardware. Is he useless without hardware installed? Most of the times. Unless you put him behind another bioroid and the runner is stupid enough to fall for it. In more than 20 games I don't remember him dealing any brain damage, but that's okay. It's the threat that counts.
Cards that didn't make it.
- Ultraviolet Clearance is fun, but was cut for consistency reasons. Didn't try Violet Level Clearance, but the same thing applies. I want steady draw and not a lot of cards at one time. You could, of course, use them instead of the Illegal Arms...
- NEXT Bronze and NEXT Silver did an okay job as cheap ETR gearchecks that scaled into late game. But I replaced them with bigger ICE as I didn't get too much value out of running only 6 NEXT ICE.
- Holmegaard is actually quite awesome. At some point I was running 1x Holmegaard, 1x Ichi 1.0, 1x Sherlock 2.0 and 1x Zed 2.0, but then I cleaned up the 1-ofs for more consistency.
- Ichi 1.0. See Holmegaard. Basically, I didn't stick with it, because it's expected to be in the deck.
- It's a real pity I never had the influence to test Architect in this deck. But GFI, Seeker and Illegal Arms are too important, they need to be 3-ofs. If you ever try this deck with more Clearances instead of Illegal Arms, consider Architect.
- EDIT: Totally forgot Ark Lockdown. Yes, it's a card and it can shut some runners out when they get hit by an unexpected Seeker or when they try to be smart and save a click by discarding their Paperclip. It might be worth a 2-of, but I wouldn't know what to cut for it. The card is good in some matchups, but a strong economy is good in all.