A newbie's farewell: Rome's trash fires (aka good Nero)

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pouchsurfer 334

A newbie's farewell to rotating IDs: Nero Severn: Information Broker

Nero, the emperor who allegedly set Rome on fire...lots of ...Rome's Trash Fires!?...Yeah, this title is garbage...

I'm exploring yet another rotating ID (check the others in my published lists for more!), and this one was a struggle. It's hard building a deck with an ID ability that, if we're lucky, fires once or twice a game and, instead of helping us win, at most saves us from losing the game. I tried building on with Sunny's tech, then making just a good-stuff crim...but they weren't that exciting/effective.

Then I decided to just embrace the ID, and wow this has been a fun deck to play with! Here's the thought:

  • The only card we can really capitalize on with our ability is Reflection, which gives us knowledge of HQ when jacking out. I really wanted to make this console work, for the deck to be truly Nero-flavored.
  • With 2+ , Citadel Sanctuary is mandatory. Our console is not installed yet? Sports Hopper gets us the link, and we can pop it for card draw when we do find Reflection.
  • If we're jacking out for value, why stop at our ID? Flip Switch allows us to facecheck into anything with impunity, and we get more value from Reflection (which is a "Whenever" ability). Switch also doubles as tag removal, so let's throw in Hot Pursuit for big money on those HQ runs we're taking anyways to pick up the agendas we scoop. And we want to make sure we hit them on our runs, which Docklands Pass and The Turning Wheel help us achieve.
  • Now, why not lean into the information theme some more? Another fun rotating card is Spy Camera: now we know the top of R&D and run it only when we want to pick up an agenda. And when we do, why not get as much value as we possibly can( pun intended, see next point)?
  • With all these trashable hardware, it would be a sin not to have another rotating jem, Tech Trader. Let's throw in a Fermenter for crazy money, Simulchip to recover lost breakers (which we run 1x), and Light the Fire! to deal with glacier and above all Skunkvoid. Abagnale might not be as good as out-of-faction decoders, but look at that shiny ! Plus we can recur it at will while making even more money. Valuetown!

Full disclosure

I was building this deck while Andrej at the Mètropole Grid was tuning the Az list with which he ended up winning a Montreal store champ (congrats Andrej!!!). So his influence is pretty evident...Also, additional credit to Sanjay and Ed, and their Eggsploratory romps, which prompted the initial idea!

Additional Q&A

Q: Is it a top-tier deck? A: Absolutely not.

Q: Wouldn't it be better to play Az? A: Probably!

Q: Will I swap ID? A: Heck no! The whole bloody point of playing this deck is trying out my man Nero, so please put your complaints in the feedback box --> .

No, I'm kidding. Please comment along! :)

3 comments
6 May 2022 pouchsurfer

Errata: if you want to make Sanjay happy (and you should): this list -1x any card +1x AHAB

6 May 2022 m.p

Interesting deck! For me, Nero was just about going aggresive early without your breakers. At the time Nero was printed, the nasty ice were usually sentries (DNA Tracker kinda ruined him tho), so the ability to drain the corp´s creds and get away with almost no punishment might have been useful (not enough to make him widely played tho). In that aspect, he was kinda like Kit - Nero can facecheck with no breakers (but can´t get through a sentry without a killer), while Kit could facecheck with a decoder (and get through any ice). I kinda don´t see the point of playing tech trader here unless it´s for mumbad cycle nostalgy, if I was playing Nero I´d rather make it a goodstuff criminal deck with emphasis on aggresivity

6 May 2022 pouchsurfer

@m.p Thanks! Yeah, his ID ability is rough in the current meta, with a few bad non-sentry ICE, and even sentries for which jacking out helps only marginally). His ability is such a nombo with stuff like doof and turtle, since you're not making successful runs when jacking out. So imo the aggressive playstyle doesn't really work.

Sure, Trader is mainly for nostalgia (or rather, for me- a newish player- to try another rotating card), but also to squeeze out a little extra value when leaning into the information game with Spy Camera and Flip Switch+Reflection. Also popping Boomerang while making feels so good! Yum!

This is by no means an optimized deck in the current meta, but I've had a surprising amount of success with it. But to your point: if you're not playing Nero for nostalgia but for aggressive goodstuff, you're probably better off not playing Nero (wink wink) ;)