Introduction

"Greeting protocol. This is Ash again. I am calling to inform you of our failure to evaluate your performance. Please, return to your station. ...We need you." The voice changed - a slightly less robotic sounding woman toned, "PRESS 7 TO DELETE THIS MESSAGE."

"Was that the bioroid again, Caprice?" Keegan said, feet up on the desk in front of him, playing a game of solitaire.

"Of course," she said with a scoff. "You don't need to be a Nisei clone to see that coming."

"So, why don't you go back?" Keegan turned to look at his new coworker. "They pay pretty well over there, right? I hear that sexybots are making a ton of money down by the university."

"You'll see in just a moment," she replied, a slight grin touching her lips.

The alarm sounded in the sysop control room. Red lights flashed and auxiliary screens jumped to life with trace data.

Mere seconds later, they say together, "Access denied."

Mechanics

Turncoats is a midrange deck.

This deck exploits the tools of the glacier style combined with cheap gearcheck ice and powerful upgrades. There are several driving strengths to the deck which should all be exploited to their fullest during the mid-game for decisive wins. Each particular card's role in the deck will be discussed in detail below, along with general guidelines for strategy:

Agendas

Global Food Initiative: As with Foodcoats, this is the star of the agenda suite and is absolutely worth the 3 influence points.

Project Beale: Just as critical as GFI, this agenda improves the chances you can score 3 or less agendas to win.

Utopia Fragment: Perhaps the most unexpected inclusion in the deck. This agenda has excellent synergy with the ice suite and as a 5/3 fits nicely into the standard two-turn scoring window for the deck. If scored first, it enables a nearly un-checked over-advanced Project Beale.

Explode-a-palooza: The ugly duckling of the agenda suite. The 5 credit swing it can provide can turn on most of your ice, which is actually quite handy. Installing it unprotected (especially to proc the NEH draw) is also an option, whereas that would probably be ill-advised with any of your other agendas.

Guidelines

The standard scoring pattern for this deck is to rush one 5/3 and follow with either an over-advanced Beale or two standard Beales. The goal is to only score two agendas with this deck, while the runner will be forced in almost every case to score 4 agendas.

Assets

Daily Business Show: Daily Business Show will help to smooth out your draws and to protect agendas if you find yourself flooded. It procs your NEH ability and is a must-trash for your opponent.

Jackson Howard: Jackson can be pulled from your heap with Interns which can help if he is milled in matchups versus Noise.

Launch Campaign: While we don't have glorious sexybot asset econ in NBN, this card offers enough of a boost that it can enable many crucial plays in this deck.

PAD Campaign: The good ol' fashioned PAD works wonders out of this identity and helps to keep the runner poor if they decide to answer it. Having even one PAD on the board will boost the effectiveness of your turns considerably. That being said, it is just as useful if your opponent trashes it with real credits.

Guidelines

Your assets are a source of both economy and tempo. If you intend to install anything in a turn, do so first to ensure your NEH draw can be utilized properly. If your assets are being destroyed with real credits, they are doing their job; but, it may require you to lean into your own clicks via event econ or just clicking up.

Upgrades

Caprice Nisei: Caprice is our glacier tool. She's turned her back on Foodcoats and RP and decided to try her luck as a contractor in NBN. Caprice synergies very nicely with the taxing ice of this deck. Runners without deep pockets will often find themselves unable to pay for their psi-game.

Cyberdex Virus Suite: Cyberdex is a standard anti-anarch tech. Especially in a meta that leans heavily towards viruses this card is essential for preventing the deep R&D digs, especially with Medium or Imp.

Keegan Lane: The newest hero upgrade. Keegan has one job - destroy those fracters and decoders. Your scoring server should optimally start with a gearcheck in slot 1 - Enigma, Wraparound, or even Turing or Tollbooth. Above that, include at least one Data Raven (use two against Nexus Kate or a runner using Hunting Grounds). Early game, a Turnpike can also have this effect - serving as a gearcheck for Mimic.

Guidelines

Your upgrades will keep your scoring server safe from almost any assault. The art to this deck is in properly constructing your single scoring server to take advantage of Keegan and Caprice working together. Keegan is preferable to Ash these days due to the strength of Nexus Kate with its native 5 link. Caprice also helps to reduce the utility of Security Nexus since its ability can only work once per turn.

Operations

Hedge Fund: Money!

Interns: This is used to recur trashed Caprice, Keegan, and Jackson. Not normally worth two clicks to choose any other installs.

Psychographics: This card can save you in the late game against an opponent that goes tag-me. It's something of an emergency bail-out mechanism if you're more pressed for clicks than you are for credits.

Sweeps Week: More money!

Guidelines

As explained above, save your interns for Caprice, Keegan, and Jackson and you should be fine. Don't be afraid to put Psycho on the bottom of R&D with DBS, that's where it belongs.

ICE Suite

Wraparound: This ice is vital to our success. It is strong versus Faust-only decks. Since most of them run Corroder, these days, we find ourselves in a happy position where Keegan can turn Wraparound off and on again. Makes a great first ice on a scoring server, and can protect HQ or R&D in the early game.

Enigma: Another nasty gear check. Excellent early game and with Keegan.

Pop-up Window: This card belongs on R&D, or if you have enough ice on your centrals it works nicely as ice #2 or #3 on a scoring server.

Tollbooth: The single most important ice in the deck. The 3 credit tax up front helps to keep runners from building a massive fortune. If you manage to set up your scoring server un-contested, you can sometimes trick runners into using Endless Hunger or Security Nexus on a Tollbooth and rez the Data Raven behind it.

Turing: Nice Faust and Atman tech that also works as a good tax on a remote. Sometimes prompts D4V1D tokens, which is wonderful.

Data Raven: The Keegan combo card. Scares off runners early on, so can work nicely on HQ early game. If facing Nexus or Hunting Grounds, be sure to install two on your scoring server to turn on Keegan.

Turnpike: Good mimic gearcheck early. Works best as second or third ice. The 1 credit tax helps to keep the runner poor and improve your psi game chances.

Guidelines

The ICE in this deck are plentiful, but there are several configurations which are optimal. It's okay to throw suboptimal ICE on centrals early, but don't ICE your remote unless you do so in the correct format. In general, I limit ICE to R&D, HQ, and one scoring server.

1. Gearcheck (Wraparound, Enigma, Tollbooth, Turing)
2. Tax (Pop-Up, Tollbooth, Turnpike)
3. Data Raven
4. Another Data Raven or Tollbooth

The size of your scoring server depends on the matchup. Three ice normally stops the anarchs, but sometimes 4 or more are necessary to put a stop to Shapers, especially those with strong decoders like Gordian or Study Guide.