Titan • Space Train • Version 2

Pyjam 523

This is a new version of this deck.

I have played and refined this deck more than 100 times against Andromeda.

Notes for the original version (updated) :

This is a rush deck using the ID's ability to score and chain the Project Atlas. The Atlas counters serve to search R&D for another Atlas or a Trick of Light (ToL).

You may also use Archived Memories to retrieve a ToL previously played.

If you manage to chain 3 Atlas, you easily win the game with a Hostile Takeover.

Supporting this strategy, you have a mix of binary (Ice Wall / Quandary) and very taxing "space" ices (Asteroid Belt / Wormhole / Nebula / Wendigo).

Thanks to the nature of these ices, you can rez them with very few credits (often 0 or 1 credit).

Install the space ices with no counter, the next turn you add 3 counters on one piece of ice. This makes the space ices indistinguishable from the binary ones when you install them.

Using 3 clicks and 3 credits for a discount of 9 credits on the rez cost is really great. It acts like if these ices have a built-in Melange Mining Corp. For this reason, this deck has a very good economy despite the lack of assets.

These ices are also imune to derez if you keep the counters on them. So you don't care if you're siphoned.

So, all you need to score an Atlas in these conditions is 2 credits + at least 2 counters on a piece of ice. Very easy.

I use to stack 7 counters on a single piece of ice. This gives me a reserve for 3 three Trick of Light.

This reserve serves also to gain 7 credits with Commercialization.

In the best case, you are lucky enough to draw Atlas and ToL with regularity and the Runner is kind enough not to steal any Atlas.

Half of the time, it does not work so well. So, if possible, try to score an agenda early in a remote behind Paper Wall, Ice Wall, or Quandary with (or without) Wendigo.

If you manage to overscore an Atlas with 5 advancement counters, it's perfect. That gives 3 agenda counters. Now, if the Runner fails to steal an Atlas from R&D you're unstoppable. Use 2 counters to tutor an Atlas + a ToL and score it. Do it again. Then tutor Hostile Takeover. Game over. But even an Atlas with no extra counter behind a binary ice on turn 2 is already very good.

A perfect opening hand is Hedge Fund / Beanstalk Royalties + one binay ice on HQ + Asteroid Belt on R&D. Next turn, 3 counters on Asteroid Belt. Without Asteroid Belt, use Wormhole instead.

Obviously, Jackson Howard is an essential part of this deck. You use them to quickly draw an Atlas, a ToL, or an Archived Memories and to reshuffle all these useless agendas.

There is no Mark Yale but, seriously, I don't want to sell the agenda counters. No Firmware Updates either. Hostile Takeover is better in this rush deck.

I have tried to include a Archer but each time I have rezzed it I have regretted to forfeit a Hostile Takeover for it, plus it has been derezzed, so...

New in this version :

Paper Wall is a cheap and simple way to score a NAPD Contract on turn 1-2. Even if the Runner installs a fracter he might be too poor to steal it. And unlike Chimera, it resists one turn to Parasite. I've also tried Hive but it's a too expensive solution.

In many occasions, I've also scored an Atlas behind a Paper Wall on turn 2. It's a risky gamble, but it can unblock me for the rest of the game because I win an Atlas counter immediately without spending a ToL. Against a difficult match-up like Leela, I recommend it.

More "big" sentry, and 1 influence saved.

I believe it will become a mandatory defense against Wanton Destruction and Eater + Keyhole.

Another possibility is to play an agressive card like Power Shutdown or Snatch and Grab.

With the removal of two Hedge Fund, I need something able to give me more credits than a simple Hedge Fund. Also, this card is fun and a possible counter against a Runner current.

The Stations were rarely useful and I need a replacement for the Hedge Fund.

I've tried this card instead of Commercialization (because they have no synergy together). That was not bad, maybe better against Leela. The problem is that I need three copies in the deck to get one early but only one copy (maybe two) is really useful. In the end, I prefer Commercialization.

16 comments
30 Jan 2015 Pyjam

I'm still thinking about it. Maybe I should replace Caduceus by Swordsman if Eater is a very popular.

31 Jan 2015 Oisin

Nice deck, and I like the Paper Wall play here. But I was wondering, with the Fork/Knife/Spoon cards and the emergence of Leela, would you consider losing the Commercialization for something like PAD Campaign. While it opens up Security Testing/Bank Job, it also gives a bit of economy that doesn't rely on ice (it seems like putting more than 3 counters on a piece of ice is asking for it to get trashed (if rez'd) or bounced back up to your hand.

31 Jan 2015 Pyjam

We'll see but I don't believe Knifed and Spooned are a big problem. Remember that they work only on the first piece of ice encountered. It suffices to protect the space ices with the binary ices like against Inside Job.

31 Jan 2015 Mungo

Love the deck, yours and mine are very similar. Love the paper wall love

31 Jan 2015 Glitch

@Pyjam actually, the cutlery set works on the first piece of specified ice broken, not encountered. This means that if you want to protect something like Asteroid Belt you'll need to stack an Ice Wall or Paper Wall infront of it. Those events are going to make ice placement tricky.

I would honestly swap the Commercialization for Hedge Fund because of the cutlery set. The Galaxy ice are going to be a huge target for ice destruction going forward.

31 Jan 2015 Pyjam

@Glitch : Installing Ice Wall / Quandary / Paper Wall (unrezzed) / or Wendigo, in front of a space ice is already what I do, usually.

Believe me, replacing Commercialization by Hedge Fund is not a good idea. When I play Commercialization, I'm way too poor for a Hedge Fund. And I mean poor like 0 in bank.

4 Feb 2015 wishmaster317

So how exactly do you play Commercialization? More than once I ended up with 2 of them in hand with only one piece of space ice with 3 advancement tokens on it. Do you play both and click to draw? Advance, Advance, Commercialization? I'm curious. Thanks.

4 Feb 2015 Pyjam

It depends. Usually, advance, advance, Commercialization for 5 credits. Against Criminals, I keep 3 counters on each space ice as a defense against Emergency Shutdown.

The counters above 3 are used for ToL. I stack up to 7 counters like this in the beginning when there are still 3 Atlas to score, then 5 counters for 2 Atlas, then 3 counters for 1 Atlas (+1 HT).

But against Leela Patel: Trained Pragmatist, it's not a good idea to stack more than 3 counters on an unrezzed piece of ice and more often Commercialization gives only 3 credits.

Did you play my deck? I'm sincerely interested by any reports.

4 Feb 2015 Pyjam

@wishmaster317 : See my answer above (I forgot the recipient).

4 Feb 2015 wishmaster317

I got a chance to play it 2x last weekend. It's the first FA deck that I've ever tried, so I made a ton of mistakes with it. I lost both games, but they were close both times.

I found it hard to keep more than 3 counters on the ice, and only managed to have 1 piece of space ice out due to either not drawing them, nor not having the money to advance them. The one I did manage to advance and rez got hit with an 11 counter Parasite! The second game one of my Atlas got stolen and I was trying to get the economy to a) get a 4th advancement token on a space ice, and b) have the credits for a double ToL. I had an Atlas counter, but no ToL or Atlas at one point. Jackson only lasted me 1 turn each time he came out, so I had to install, rez, draw, draw (dump 4/2s), then burn when the runner hit him. When I finally had the Atlas + ToL, the runner hit R&D and took a Geothermal to win. If he whiffed, I would have won with the double ToL.

I do understand now how Hedge Fund doesn't fit in this deck as I was very poor most of the time, and the 5cr just wouldn't happen! I'm still determined to keep playing this, as it seems like a lot of fun. I just need to learn how to play FA and learn how to pilot this better. Also, The Source is a pain against this deck.

4 Feb 2015 Pyjam

@wishmaster317 : Thanks for your report.

It is possible that the deck isn't as easy to pilot as I thought. After all, I learnt how to pilot it while I was building it.

In the first game, it sounds like you were very unlucky. 11 counter Parasite !!! I don't understand how it is possible. Did you advance an Ice Wall 10 times ?

You were unlucky in the second game too. It has happened to me too that I lose when I was able to win the next turn. Sometimes, I have used an Atlas counter to get a Subliminal Messaging only to gain 1 credit I needed to play ToL.

4 Feb 2015 wishmaster317

`@Pyjam: The 11 counter Parasite was due to Hivemind. Now that I'm thinking about it, my opponent totally mis-played it and I missed it due to just getting back into ANR after a 7 month+ break. He counted the counters from Hivemind AND Virus Breeding Ground, but didn't remove the counters (and he couldn't have used the Breeding Ground counters). He also MTG burned my space ice (instant-death) instead of waiting until his next turn for me to lose the ice. He then encouraged me to purge counters (that should have already been gone), which I did.

The biggest thing I run into is I can only protect 1 server when I'm piloting this, and I have to choose HQ, R&D, or my 1 remote. I have been choosing HQ since I got agenda flooded both games, but that poor Quandry didn't see it coming!

What cards can you easily throw away? I pegged Wendigo and Paper Wall as my go-to when I needed to thin my hand. I realize that Paper Wall, even if I knew they could walk through it, still costs them 1cr to do it. Since Wendigo isn't an ETR and the runner was getting pretty much free run of my servers, which usually only had 1 ice on them, I figured preventing them from using something on the next, nonexistent ice it wasn't an issue.

I only saw Archived Memories once, 2x Jacksons per game, all 3 ToL each game and at least 2 - 3 space ice. First game I put Crisium Grid on a remote and they just pounded R&D and HQ. Second game I put Crisium Grid on R&D and they installed RDI and since Crisium Grid doesn't stop that, it was a wasted play/rez. Also, with so little ice showing up, they just took what they wanted most of the time.

I'm still learning a lot about how things work in this deck, and I'm sure you're facepalming some of my mistakes (I know I am), but it was fun to play and I plan on playing it more to get better and stop making stupid mistakes. I need to shuffle better is the first thing I'm going to do!

4 Feb 2015 wishmaster317

CORRECTION: I just re-read Patasite, he can insta-burn my ice, but he would lose the Hivemind counters.

4 Feb 2015 Pyjam

@wishmaster317 : I think you were (very) unlucky both times if you drew so few cosmic ices because there are enough (eight) and most of the time I'm flooded with them. Play more and your problems will disappear. You can't really judge the deck with such bad draws.

Usually, I put 2, 3, sometimes 4 cosmic ices (or Wendigo) on R&D if the game drags on. HQ is more lightly defended against Criminals because I don't really fear the Siphon. Against Anarch and Wanton, it's certainly a good idea to defend it more.

I don't understand why you chose to install Crisium Grid on a remote. It works against Wanton and Siphon on HQ, and against Keyhole and Indexing on R&D.

Hope this helps. Have fun and good luck.

4 Feb 2015 wishmaster317

I acknowledged that I need to play it more, and have better shuffles. It's my belief that most of the problems I ran into with this deck were mine alone and not the decks. I'm excited to still play the deck, I was just letting you know my experience with it as you requested. =)

As for Crisium Grid, I didn't know how to properly use it (which I've mentioned was part of my problem). Knowing where it goes is going to help me learn to pilot this better. I'll let you know once I get more games under my belt with it. Thanks again for sharing this fun deck.

5 Feb 2015 Snake Eyes

Hi @Pyjam!

Just carrying over the conversation from our Titan ToL discussion in another deck. Thought I'd share mine here too! netrunnerdb.com