Are you watching closely? 2nd at ANRPC Wausau, Jul 18

Congrats on the performance and thanks for the writeup. I faced a similar deck on OCTGN recently and it seemed solid. Excited to give it a try.

nice deck. would you make any changes or have you made any updates so far?

@jrp Thanks, it's a lot of fun! Breaking ICE for free and then derezzing it is the best. It's like Parasucker out of Criminal :D

@siowy I haven't made any changes to it, but I'm debating -1 Cerberus "Rex" H2 +1 Same Old Thing. Most games aren't going to need both Rexs and in the ones that do, Clone Chip and Levy AR Lab Access should be able to make the single one last longer. Running two was a conservative play that might have been an over-reaction.

Other changes would be more meta-based (-1 Plascrete Carapace, +1... I dunno, Shiv? Bank Job? Maybe Femme Fatale if you have more glacier and want to have another way to say no to Tollbooth) so I'd say you can tweak them to personal meta/taste. Grappling Hook might be a fun 1-of, but I haven't tested it.

In case anyone is interested, the ANRPC stream has my last game vs Replicating Perfection in it at 2:23. It gives you a sense of how strong free Account Siphonhons are in this meta.

@linuxmaiersiphonspam.png Geist went 2-0 on the stream btw.

@Danwarr nice, you won, too? It was funny listening to the commentary and having them say they'd seen the deck already :) which match were you? Definitely an exciting day out for the Tech Lord.

@linuxmaier I was the 3rd match I think, right around 1:30 on the stream. Pretty much the same type game as yours against RP. Siphon + trash Corp econ = profit. It was funny listening to Soto and co talk about B&E.

@Danwarr Nice. Yeah, the rp match up feels great. I should have trashed more asset econ in my match, honestly, but i was up 6-0 and just wanted to close it out ;)

@linuxmaier Now you're looking for the secret. But you won't find it because of course, you're not really looking. You don't really want to work it out. You want to be fooled.

@gumonshoe First person to get the reference as far as I can tell :)

@Dydra They're definitely running economy cards (on the order of Dirty Laundry efficiency) with one pretty big bonus: they enable your first run. They allow you to Account Siphon/Legwork/Dirty Laundry/Security Testing earlier in the game than most Criminals can do, since the Criminal rush card is Inside Job, and that can't couple with a run event (and is sort of a waste with Security Testing). That sort of hybrid niche for the B&E suite really makes them tick.

I usually start running at 3 breakers, or at least running run events. I don't usually like to burn a Siphon without 4 unless I have clicks to spare to get through Eli, but if I feel like I'm not getting started quickly enough I'll do it. With 14 cheap breakers and a Special Order, you can usually get your full 3 breakers out by turn 2 or 3 in my experience, and often a 4th will be available too. I like Faerie early but some folks on Stimhack have convinced me that for almost all the reasonable early senty ICE, Shiv will do just as well (you can click through Ichi 1.0 and Architect and Caduceus are both 3 strength. Cortex Lock might be a pain but if you've got 3 breakers up, it's just 1 net damage.

Forged Activation Orders might be nice from an ICE denial perspective, but I'm not sure it's worth the deck slots to me. I almost prefer them being able to re-rez the ICE so I can make them pay for it again, and if it's a big painful piece of ICE they don't want to re-rez they'll often trash it anyway. FAO would be really nice for ice like Architect or NEXT Silver which are cheap enough you can't deny for long but can be a pain in the butt, but I'm not sure what I'd want to cut for it. Emergency Shutdown is definitely cool but I think I'd go to 3x Crescentus first; being able to use Clone Chip to threaten a clickless derez is really nice for, say, keeping RP's Caprice protected server cheap to get into. Emergency Shutdown is probably going to be nicer against Blue Sun: Powering the Future since you can shutdown ice without having to break it first, but I think that's probably a meta call.

The B&E suite is basically inside job on the rezzed ice you want at some point in the future so long as the types match, for almost all ice. So it makes sense that the cards are good when used that way; that they combo with run events adds all the more value.

@gumonshoe Yup, and you don't have to precommit them to use them. You do the math and if it's worth the bypass (that triggers Crescentus unlike Inside Job) then use it and gain a card. It's madness!

Have you found the Levy AR Lab Access to be necessary in most of your games? Would be very tempting to cut it, freeing up influence for a third Street Peddler (among other things).

@Shevek Good question! The answer is that Levy has won me no games and was not useful during that tournament. However, I haven't cut it yet. The reasoning is that this deck plays a bit like Pre-Paid Kate economy wise, where there is lots of money in the deck but none of it is sustainable. I played a game against RP where I decked myself about 3/4ths of the way through the game and won by the skin of my teeth before i had Levy in the deck. I also lost a friendly game against an IG kill deck where i let the Levy get trashed and then lost my SoTs to damage. I was up 6-0 and couldn't do a thing with no cards left.

Ultimately, Levy feels like 3 inf and one card to insure that the deck can keep its foot on the gas and last toe to toe with even the slower glaciers. I totally respect cutting it for more speed, but you should be aware that you're giving your opponent an opportunity to slow the game down and out last you. You'll have to hit then hard enough to make sure you win first.

Fair—I'll have to try playing it to see. I ask because it seems like those matchups in which you might need Levy will be those that where this deck is naturally weakest, so it might be worth using that slot & influence to make the deck more powerful and consistent in matchups where it's likely to have a higher baseline win rate. Thanks for the reply! As a relatively new player, it's tough for me to know whether I'm just missing something obvious. :)

@Shevek sure thing! The hardest matchup so far has felt like the Near-Earth Hub: Broadcast Center one, particularly Fast Advance. That's not a likely Levy game since it will be over quickly, and i think i would spend Levy's influence on Medium if i was seeing mostly that corp.

Levy will be most useful against Jinteki of all stripes (damage because you get extra life span and glacier because it takes a while to steal their agendas) and that actually feels pretty favorable to me, so long as you don't allow them to tax you out via your cards or economy (which is cards here).

This deck is definitely a real contender! Took it to my local game shop and our strange local meta, and it lost only one match, where I got scorched by GRNDL before my plascrete was out (it was literally my next card, and I was 1 credit short of the SEA trace)

When the corp sees you draw 3 cards MID run, they will freak. The speed is really surprising, and I NEVER felt like I needed the link to keep the breakers in play. My only serious mistake was twice thinking the Cresentus added strength to a break when it clearly does not.

LEVY was definitely not played, but only 1 Jinteki was in play (flip id!), and Street Peddler was definitely an MVP.

I'm considering sacking Levy for The Helpful AI which would have saved sped me up a couple times. I also feel 3 clone chips may be 1 clone chip too many, but only more practice will tell!

@zaknafean thanks! It's super fun and really feels abusive to corps :)

I used to play with two Clone Chip instead of three and moving to three felt like a big power jump. They really help you keep five breakers installed and yet still be able to pull Crescentus from the heap after burning Crowbar on Tollbooth. Aside from that power play, clone chips are basically like at-need Inside Job that can be used on interior ice in this deck that draws you two cards (since the breaker you play in will draw a card too). After playing it a bunch, i went to three and never regretted it.

Levy AR Lab Access is definitely cuttable based on your preference. I'm keeping it for security right now, but i rarely use it. Will The Helpful AI work well for you, though? It stops you from going tag-me. I've played the list with Dyson Mem Chip for link and its hardware nature felt freeing for Account Siphon.