Magical Nasir 9.4.14

It's been surprising how powerful this archetype is with Nasir. Any future tweaks will probably have to do with specific numbers of Magnum Opus/QT/Scavenge/Akamatsu/SOT. I've been very pleased with how the deck has performed so far, and it's a nice alternative to the Kati Nasir decks.

Are you considering adding anything (read: Order of Sol) from First Contact? Also, has the lack of HQ pressure ever been a problem?

Hi @DrunkenGineer! Sadly, yes. I think in this version, it's a choice of Imp or Nerve Agent (+ something else at 1 inf.), or I could just drop Desperado(?). I prefer Imp because it helps me get NAPDs out of hand as well, and that has been a life-saver. Usually multi-access is most needed against CI or NBN, but you can outpace NBN if you go for HQ early and then try to lock down R&D. The problem is really Fast Track against NBN. It stops R&D lock and lets them just durdle around until with PAD campaigns and Sweeps until they find it.

Here's an example from a game I played against TWIY tonight. I snagged an early Astro, then a Beale, then a NAPD (with the help of Imp), I took out a LOT of ICE with Parasite and kept hammering at the centrals. Eventually though, I exhausted my IMP and he got a San San up behind a few ICE. By then, it was a race, and, unfortunately, he won. That's just how NBN has always been, though. It would've been the same with any other runner. That game I didn't draw or install a single Desperado or Magnum Opus or R&D Interface. I got very unlucky with my draws, though I got lucky with my early pulls. Just couldn't find that last agenda in time.

In this game, HQ Interface or Nerve Agent wouldn't have helped, because once NBN gets set up, they just score every agenda they draw immediately, leaving nothing in hand (which is what my opponent told me he was doing). He's a very good player, and knows that it's hard for Nasir to get lucky on HQ runs, So he reinforced R&D, which kept me out JUST long enough for him to Jackson, draw, Biotic, score.

The SHELL of this deck is very strong, but I'm yet to be completely satisfied with the 1-offs. That's not to say this deck can't win: because it can. And it blows away RP. Even against TWIY, I only lost 6-7, which is promising (and there were probably some play errors on my part)! It has a strong matchup against Black Tree because it's got standard Shaper inclusions. NEH is the same as TWIY, but NEH has more ICE.

TL;DR version: I wish I could fit in both HQ access AND Imp AND Desperado. Against slower decks, this build is dangerous. Against FA, it has the same problems that Shapers and Anarchs seem to have (except maybe Noise right now).

To answer your question about Order of Sol: My gut is telling me to take out Desperado for it. In many ways, Order of Sol IS a Desperado for Nasir, AND it's unique. I'm going to test with it. It frees up 6 influence, allowing me to play x3 Parasite and x1 Nerve Agent! Or perhaps x3 Datasucker, x1 Nerve Agent, x2 Imp! The question then is: what to cut!

:)

Also, sorry for the crappy grammar/syntax tonight.

Also, sorry for the crappy grammar/syntax tonight.

Very interesting. Swapping Desperado for Sol could be a thing, I hadn't even thought of that. I have one suggestion, if you find you're hitting a wall at 6 points and can't close out games vs NBN: Notoriety. Another consideration could be Sneakdoor, letting you snipe things from hand with Imp even after the corp thinks he's locked you out of HQ (or instant-speed installing to turn on Notoriety!).

Not a bad idea, though Nasir has trouble making more than 2 runs each turn against unrezzed ICE. It's a different story if you've got all the ICE rezzed and your rig set up.

Yeah, it's definitely a mid-late game win condition, not an early-game play. Femme/Parasite on a Workshop will let you force it through, though.

Date-fixed. For some reason I thought it was October already :P

Ah, I was confused about that. It's still 10.4.14 in the description, btw.

Also, why are you going out of faction for a code gate breaker? The first couple times I looked at your list, it didn't even hit me that you don't have Gordian.

I've not settled on that last influence point: either a Datasucker, Yog, Femme, or Mimic. I've tried Mimic the last few weeks and rarely used it. It was in an Atman shell, but the deck was similar. Yog has been good. Femme might be better, but that would require more Scavenge. Datasucker is always welcome. I like Gordian Blade and I was playing it for a long time. Unfortunately, it's just not worth relying on it when I'm Atman'ing at 4. The Yog covers 2s in Enigma, and can serve as another way through Pop-Up and Quandary (when you are slow to set up the Atman 0 for whatever reason).

I played about three games with this build last night and was 2-1 (loss against NEH, Win against NEH and Stronger Together). Small sample size, but here's what I found: Atman is still my main breaker, and I never played Yog. I used Femme (and it was great), but there were not moments when I wanted a Gordian Blade. Atmans seem to have it covered, even against something like Stronger Together, which makes some very hard to get through servers.

So, in short, Yog.0 could become something else, and I wouldn't fault you for playing Gordian (or even Zu13 instead).

Cards that have done a lot of work for me:

Imp, Ghost Runner, Scavenge, Desperado, Parasite.

in two of the three games, I neither drew nor installed Magnum Opus. When I finally got it installed in game 3 (which I won), I was victim to "score breaking news on San San + Close Accounts", which sucked. I bounced back, but it took a while.