Architect of Sunset, Undefeated @Ferrara CO(standard)

Since Sunset banlist came out I started playing it. I didn't find it more enjoyable than standard, but the more are the restrictions, the better creativity works. Most of the times.. Not really this time.

I simply picked again an old junk archetype that i always loved to play with mediocre results at best, and tried to turn it into sunstet banlist. It worked suprisingly well, at the point that i started playing it against standard runners (not to brag or something, i was just sick to wait long for a sunset game to start).

This allowed me to go through several iteration of the deck, explore different playstyle and tech, and face pretty much any runner dozen of times to improve both the list and the playstyle and this is the result.

It sucks right? Yeah, I mean. It's just a bunch of bioroid..

But let's dig a bit into the deck. Yes, you are poor. I can remember only few times i got more than 9 credit. But playing poor corps is my comfort zone, and most of my deckbuilding works around this rule: poor runner vs poor corp, poor corp wins. Rich runner vs rich corps, rich runner wins. So you have to get used to make choices, dont fall into runner's bait and find smart ways to counterbait (i'm not talking about putting somethin in the remote and hoping for a check..). You have to make value of your being poor to make the runner feel confidant to make some exchanges, because AoT revolves around that basically countersiphon the runner. Make him spend X so you can gain Y in value, that will for the runner to spend Z again and making you gain N value and so on.

You won't make money, you will make value. And any choice is relevant, untill they doesn't matter anymore because the runner is locked out. Yeah, believe it or not, lock-out a runner is still possible. The concept of scoring windows isn't only alive in the heart of old farts like me.

Let's talk about the testing iteration. I'm part of the Dothraki playtest group. We love trash, but high standard trash. Some of you probably watched or read Alita, and we are basically digging into piles of trash relentelessly untill something as ancient as powerful, or not from this world is found. Then we polish it, cuddle it, study it, and most of times trash it starting all over again. There are also other peculiarities that identify a dhotraki, but they are not relevant at the moment.

Choices: No Bran. Yeah, as soon as that bioroid becase a powerhouse in the meta looks obvious include it into this decklist. WRONG. First, you dont want that much etr, else you wont be able to trigger your ID as often as you need. Second, you have to carefully balance costs of your bioroids to squeeze the most, and adding another 6 cost would clunk the engine. You could argue that a Tyr is even worse, but force the runner to made some awful choices when rezzed first time, while bran is just a "duh, click first sub", and is way more challenging as the games goes on to the point that tyr server will be ignored by the runner as long as possible.

Adrian Seis over manegarm and anoetic. I tried them a lot, all of them. Adrian won because: -Is not played, and Dothraki loves this thing. -It works with only 1 credit. This is crucial, because during important turns you will be often at that amount during breach. -He protect himself when psy fails, allowing you start over again stronger than before with a poorer runner in front of you, and one more ice rezzed. -IT MOVES. This is his bigger perks. You can lure the runner to think that you are protecting HQ because you have agendas, tempting him to check and making great value. Or discourage a check on a central with one or two unrezzed bioroids before you can rez them via ID. It works as sable's mark, or in the opposite way.

Nico campaign over other assets. This is simple, we don't have rashida. Here nico beats maryling because of the instant gain 1. You are not really afraid of the runner trashing him, he wont go through 2 bioroids just to deny you gaining 3-6 credits, allowing you to rez for 4. I used to play Daily quest, but it tricked me into holding it way longer than actually needed, and a runner mind is set to go trash it. Plus cannot be faked for an agenda unless you drop the income. I used also to play cybersand harvester. VEEEEEEERY FUN! And it actually works really good. But i opted to put influence in seis, because manegarm would allow me to lure the runner as stated before. And also noticed that being poor is better to lure the runner and make value rather than capitalizing on rez and derez.

I'm writing a lot. I'll spend few words on hakarl. Huge card. It can proc your stegodon again out of nowhere after the runner forced you to proc them by derezzing another ice ice, or allow you to draw again via spin. He made bioroids unclickable untill the end of the TURN, and can be derezzed via stego if you dont need credits. MVP by far, and often lands one or 2 brain damage in a game, that help you to slow down the runner.

Next activation command. Insane. Stego+NAC is +4 str on already huge ice, and the runner has to pay for them. No shenaningans except bypass. Suck it, botulus!

And there is more i can tell about this deck, blah blah blah, matchups, blah blah blah, ice priority, blah blah blah, agenda set, blah blah blah.

But a Dothraki don't write. A Dothraki must fight to add a bell on their bride.