Biotic Labor Conspiracy - 1st Place Emerald Tavern SC

DoomRat 2370

This is pretty similar to the list that I won with Asgard a couple of weeks ago. I've been told that the write up I did last time was inadequate, so I'll try to do better this time. Since the basic premise is pretty straight forward (early game pressure from directives, easy to play economy to keep Safety First going, building to a crushing late game with Data Folding and Multithreader), I'll use this space to talk about a couple of things people always bring up about the deck.

Choice of Directives

Almost always take Find the Truth, Neutralize All Threats and Safety First. Without the first two you don't have multi-access, and the last one should be a free draw almost every turn (who doesn't want that?). Exceptions: Titan and CI if you know its brain rewiring in advance. You need ABR vs. Titan to prevent the first turn Priority Construction Install Atlas play and the Rewiring CI Ice suite folds super hard to ABR. Drop Safety First in both cases, as the game will probably be too short to get a lot of mileage out of it.

Unicorn

When I originally built this list, it actually had Inversificator as a restricted card. Inversificator powered by Multithreaders allows some rediculous plays, like using DNA Trackers to move Chiyashi to archives and similar, but its 6 install cost is a pretty big liability vs. CI, so I decided to tech in that direction with Employee Strike instead.

Reg. Breakers

At the Asgard SC I didn't install Gordian and Na'Not'Tok (I played against nothing but CI, where this deck leans heavily on Strike and NAT and ignores most of its other cards), so I was already considering making a change. But the thing that really convinced me was a jnet game vs. AgInfusion where I saw a Obokata Protocol on top of R&D with two cards in hand click one, went to draw up and steal and drew Gordian Blade, so I had to let it go. 1x breakers you can't get back are a huge liability in a meta where you might need to take 4 net damage on any given turn, so conspiracy it is.

Crypsis

This is the first thing everyone asks about when they look at the list. Why Crypsis? The answer is sometimes you just need to get into a server. Turtle might not have counters (and I think Lister is pretty anti-synergistic with safety first), Overmind runs out of tokens and Mammon has to be down when the turn begins. Install Crypsis, place token, place token, Stimhack will get you there almost every time, and will probably get you there again next turn if you need it to.

Multi-Access

But DoomRat, where is TopHat/Turning Wheel/Equivocation/Other weird R&D pressure people like in Adam? My goal is usually to never run R&D unless there's an agenda on top. Let that DNA Tracker/FC3 sit there unrezzed until you need to deal with it. Instead, set up a soft lock where you hit HQ hard to clean it out of agendas, then see their mandatory draw with FtT and any subsequent draws with corporate defector. Nothings better than the look on your opponents face when they draw click one and show you a Obokata Protocol they have no idea what to do with. Obviously less effective vs. CI, but playing strike then running HQ a bunch is pretty strong in that match-up anyway.

Wrapping Up

Thanks to Emerald Tavern for hosting a great tournament. Having a coffee shop in the store is pretty handy, as I'm not sure I make through the tournament without a couple of lattes (one of which came with the entry fee). Also thanks to the Austin players for not being to upset about the out-of-towner coming in and snagging their one SC this year (not sure what gives with this, its one of the biggest Texas metas). It was a blast, hope to see all you guys again soon.

13 comments
30 Jan 2018 rubyvr00m

This deck looks sweet, congrats on taking down the Store Champ!

I see a lot of Adam decks running 2 ABR and then 1 copy each of Safety First and Neutralize All Threats. Did you ever regret not having back ups of the other directives or did it work out pretty well without them? I'm always worried they'll get hit with Best Defense or something.

30 Jan 2018 DoomRat

@rubyvr00m Extra copies of directives (and tech cards generally) gum up your hand and keep safety first from firing. Losing an important directive can be frustrating, but its both infrequent and survivable, so I prefer that to losing a little tempo in every game.

30 Jan 2018 Voodoofly

How often do you install ABR? I've been running Adam off and on for a month or so and I ended up ditching all my extra copies of directives because I rarely wanted to play them and they ate up hand space.

30 Jan 2018 Doomrat2

@Voodoofly I think I installed it every game at the SC. It slows your set up too much to start with it, but by mid game your trying to trigger FtT every turn anyway, and ABR gives you a lot of room to be reckless and aggressive.

31 Jan 2018 DoomRat

I think I installed it every game at the SC. It slows your set up too much to start with it, but by mid game your trying to trigger FtT every turn anyway, and ABR gives you a lot of room to be reckless and aggressive.

1 Feb 2018 shazzner

Great work! Thoughts on how this deck might evolve once Emergent Creativity gets released?

1 Feb 2018 shazzner

Great work! Thoughts on how this deck might evolve once Emergent Creativity is released?

1 Feb 2018 DoomRat

@shazzner My plan for the next pack is tentatively: -1 Special Order, -2 Scrubber, +2 Emergent Creativity, which leaves 1 slot and four influence I'm not sure what to do with. Ice Carver, Bhagat and a second Paperclip are all worth testing in that slot I think. It also might be worth considering some cards that help in the CtM match-up (particularly Deuces or Misdirection since EC can tutor it out, but I'm not sure where the slots for that come from).

4 Feb 2018 Iron_Soul

What if you went -2 scrubber, -1 special order, -1 black orchestra for +2 emergent creativity, +1 paperclip, +1 inversificator? The install cost of inversificator can be offset by emergent creativity if you ditch a conspiracy breaker and an extra brain chip or something.

4 Feb 2018 Iron_Soul

What if you drop the scrubbers, special order, and black orchestra for inversificator, an extra paperclip, and two emergent creativity? Emergent helps offset inversificator's install cost and you get a redundant barrier breaker which can be tossed to tutor with emergent.

4 Feb 2018 Iron_Soul

Dammit, rewrote the comment after an internal server error...

4 Feb 2018 wait what

@Iron_Soul Inversificator is restricted; can't run it alongside Employee Strike

8 Feb 2018 Ziziros

Congrats on the win! Playing against this was the most fun/stressful game of the day.