Helios v2.5 - Top 16 NorCal Regionals

llama66613 753

Helios

This deck carried me 6-1 through 7 rounds of swiss, to finish in the top 16 out of 89 competitors. Of the victories, 4 were Flatlines and 2 were on agenda points. The single loss was due to agenda flood, first turn Medium with no R&D ice, and misplays.

Interesting, very few people were playing Titan at the tournament, and I really have no idea why. I think it is easily as competitive as Blue Sun with the right build. I would have finished higher if I wasn't held back by my Leela build that could not deal with RP.

Keep hands with Scorch or SEA, enough Ice (one is often fine), and economy in Agenda, Asset, or Operation form. Start preparing a remote: if you draw into SanSan, a single piece of ice will be fine; otherwise, go for two. An Archer is always terrific.

If they are too aggressive, you'll often be able to Scorch them before they can get enough points to win. If they back off, you should be able to Atlas train a win in just a few turns. If you can't find Atlas, Posted Bounty and High Risk investment will also do just fine. Both have won me games.

Some people criticized the deck's economy, but in practice I have found it to be just enough. The ice is cheap enough that you are rarely hurting for cash, and SEA Scorch opportunities usually open through the Runner repeatedly trashing Assets. In the one game I was behind economically, I scored a High Risk, which turned into 40 creds.

Because you have essentially 3 different entirely viable paths to victory, neither Clot nor Plascrete are a major concern. Clot in particular will barely slow you down, and Plascrete will simply make you redirect. The worst is playing against Anarchs and not knowing if they have I've Had Worse in hand.

Individual Card Choices:

  • Private Contracts: This is a great economy card that really provided just what this deck needs. It used to be Capital Investors, but was far to hard to protect. Recommend use: install it one turn. Next turn, rez and click three times. You have already broken even on your investment, and if they trash they are down five.

  • SanSan City Grid: I don't think this is too mysterious or anything, but it's worth mentioning not only how it enables an incredible three turn victory with Atlas train, but also how well it combos with SEA scorch. If you FA out an Atlas, they have to make a successful run to trash it. Since you now have an Atlas counter, you are in prime opportunity to kill them dead. If it's behind an Archer or something they have to install a breaker for, even better.

  • Hostile Takeover: Love love love it. Some people seem to have a paranoid fear of Bad Publicity, but I've found it to really not be so bad. It's really the best 2/1 printed. Netting you 5 creds and turning on Archer, it serves as an economic centerpiece of my deck. Plus, it provides the perfect finish to the Atlas train.

  • Wraparound: Best binary ice in the game. For an extra credit over ice wall, you get terrific AI/Parasite hate that can really save you against an Eater anarch in the early game.

  • Power Shutdown: Absolutely great for getting of just about anything from Faeries to Corroders to SMCs to Clone Chips to Zu.13s to Datasuckers to Silencers.

14 comments
1 Jun 2015 Dracon_ian

Looks really interesting. I'm interested, do you only keep hands with Scorched/SEA? How much do you ice up centrals? Do you go broke for playing SanSan FA-Project Atlas?

1 Jun 2015 llama66613

All good questions!

SEA/Scorch isn't mandatory for a keep, it just strongly influences me to keep hands I would otherwise mulligan.

Centrals rarely get more than 1 or 2 ice each. HQ always gets ice against Crim & Anarch, and R&D against Shaper, but depending on my draw I might leave the other open if it means I can score sooner. I might not re-ice even if they get the proper breaker out.

I used to go broke on the FA, but I've learned to wait a bit and click for creds. If they don't know that the card in a remote is a SanSan, it's better to wait a bit until you have enough credits to both protect it and and score out 3 consecutive Atlases. Failing that, you want enough to Scorch them if they do break in and trash it. If they have already accessed it, well, they're already probably rushing to trash it, in which case building up for Scorch may be a better plan than trying to score (unless you need the Atlas to find the final component).

2 Jun 2015 Saan

How much work did the Power Shutdowns do for you over the course of the tournament?

3 Jun 2015 llama66613

A fair amount. I think I shut down a Corroder and a Silencer over the course of the tournament. Silencers in particular are important to get rid of, because if you don't keep them in check Switchblade will cut through your Archers like butter.

8 Jun 2015 LazarusTaxon

Hey! I really like this deck. I have been focusing on Titan since Order & Chaos came out. I adopted Titan in an attempt to make it work. For a while I was running a version using Trick of Light, Space Ice, and no Scorched. While this did OK it really seemed a bit to slow and the ice suite made it kind of cumbersome.

Anyway..... I tried your version of Titan and really like it. I have since tweaked it a little but I love the way you are adapting to the situation to either score out an Atlas Train on a SanSan, or go for the flatline, and it still does a decent job of scoring out agendas the hard way.

I love the SanSan play. There is no way its not good for you. Put it out early. If it gets run on they have to dump 6 creds into it making them weak for a flatline. I did have trouble with the economy, but that might just be my skill level. I made the following changes.

-2 Power Shutdown -2 Private Contracts -1 Caduceus +2 PAD Campaign +2 Restructure +1 Checkpoint +1 Errand Boy

I respect the Power Shutdown. Taking out a Clone Chip at the right time was awesome but it just wan't my style. I think I am OK without it. I took out a Caduceus for an Errand Boy and it felt like it needed more Code Gates so I am trying Checkpoint. Wraparound can be a beast but I have had it become a problem mid-late game. Once it is shut down I feel like the ice suite gets really weak. I had Quetzal ruin me. So I might continue to tweak the ice.

What are your thoughts on Oaktown Renovation? I thought about taking out a Firmware Upgrades and a High-Risk Investment for 2. I think it might be stronger as it is though especially withe the Mark Wale/Firmware combo

I also thought about running Corporate Town but I guess that is meta dependent and I am not sure what I would take out for it.

8 Jun 2015 llama66613

Thanks @LazarusTaxon! Glad to here you're a fan of the list!

None of your changes are unreasonable. Private Contracts v. PAD Campaign is basically just personal preference, but I always did like Armitage over Daily Casts. I also personally strongly dislike Errand Boy, especially compared to Caduceus which I love, but if you like it find it works for you go for it. Remember that Wraparound works really well with Power Shutdown, because if you can take out a Corroder it's monstrous until they get it back. Checkpoint is also sensible, seems pretty good for protecting SanSans or R&D.

Oaktown Renovation is very interesting indeed! I think I'll try it out, putting it in for two Firmware Updates and taking out a Yale. I'm not actually a huge fan of all the Firmware Updates, despite being a 3x in this deck, and in general I'm a bigger fan of 4/2s than 3/1. If I like it, it'll be in the next version of this deck.

Corporate Town is also a cool thought, to really fuck over anyone with a resource based economy, but I think it's not reliable useful, yeah.

20 Jun 2015 fevve

I played it, against stealth andy..corroder, carapace, 2 silencer and a switchblade. gg, u can't keep them out from servers.

20 Jun 2015 llama66613

Hmm I haven't had any trouble with Stealth Andy @fevve. In the case you've presented, you'd want to use Quandaries.

20 Jun 2015 llama66613

To elaborate, @fevve, there are many options out of this situation if you don't draw the code gate. The ones that come to mind are Power Shutdown a Silencer to turn Archer back on for at least a little while, layer Archer with Caduceus or Rototurret, or put a SanSan in the remote instead of trying to score directly. Hopefully you've already scored 3/4 points, meaning closing shouldn't be too hard, unless something went wrong in the early game.

20 Jun 2015 llama66613

Oh and @LazarusTaxon I've got to hand it to you, you had a lot of really great suggestions for the deck that I've been liking a lot!

I'm now absolutely in love with Oaktown Renovation, and there's now 3 copies in the deck replacing 3 Firmware Updates and a High-Risk.I've also been loving Corporate Town though it's only used in ~10% of games, when it does help, it's helped BIG TIME. It's so much fun to completely demolish their econ, destroying ST, Earthrise, and Kati at 12. Oh, and I tried PAD Campaigns instead of Private Contracts, and I like it better too.

I'll post the updated list after the next tournament I go do (though that may be a while).

22 Jun 2015 LazarusTaxon

Thanks @ llama66613. I am glad they were useful. I love Renovation now as well. Its great scoring one out turn two under one piece of ice, its such a good footing if you can get it off. I am hesitant to run 3 though. I still like Firmware b/c it and Yale are a 8credit/1 agenda point return, which is huge. Are you still running Yale after the change? It is a extra card slot though....

I haven't tried Corporate Town yet but I am going to. So many Resource based economies right now.

I was wrong about Power Shutdown. Its one of the best cards in the deck. I just had trouble early on trying to use it once they had a full board. Snipping Faires, Clone Chips, SMCs, and of course Corroder is great. I have to ask though what do you do if they drop Corroder and they already have a bunch of Programs or Hardware on the board?

I took out Checkpoint it was silly, and am now running your basic ICE suite. I run a GRNDL Refinery. I love using it to bait out Inside Jobs, Blackmails, etc.

I will agree with @fevve I have had the most trouble with stealth builds. Once switchblade is out I struggle but maybe I just need more experience.

I will probably be taking an iteration of this to regionals next month. I will continue to tweak it until then. Thanks again. I am loving the archetype.

2 Jul 2015 llama66613

@LazarusTaxon

I am still running Mark Yale. Think about this: Both Firmware Updates and Oaktown get an extra counter when scored. So if we discount that extra token, Firmware Updates earns you nine credits and some point in the future if you draw Yale. Oaktown nets earns you eight credits immediately, as soon as you advance it! Plus, in general, I just find 4/2 to be a much better return than 3/1, especially in rush decks where you want to capitalize strongly on any scoring windows you get.

GRNDL Refinery is an interesting include to be sure. I'll try it out. I've been testing with Subliminal Messaging and I like it quite a bit.

It's very cool that you'll be bringing this to a regionals! Where you at?

You know what? My list has changed considerably since last month. I'll publish a new one, even though it hasn't seen any tournament play.

2 Jul 2015 llama66613

Here's the newest published version: netrunnerdb.com

24 Jul 2015 MGK

Great build! I took an adjusted version of this to the ANR Pro-Circuit qualifier in Phoenix, Az and got 2nd with it (paired with my Ken "Express" Tenma: Disappeared Clone deck) ((17 influence for the win!))

My changes were the following: -3 Firmware Updates, -1 Posted Bounty, -3 Wraparound, +3 Eli 1.0, +2 Oaktown Renovation, +2 Elizabeth Mills

I found Elizabeth to be nice against the early BP Hostile Takeover can rack up and even used it to kill things like Aesop's Pawnshop throughout the day. I liked Eli 1.0 as the more taxing ice mid-late game, as my local meta isn't very heavy on Eater or Faust right now.

I love the duality of the the win-con threats, and it's my favorite Corp deck at the moment. I've already checked out your newer versions and am doing more tinkering myself.

Overall, kudos and thanks for an awesome deck!