Checkmate Argus

Profiteering does not work unless you take the bad pub unfortunately

OK, this is really clever. The Profiteering combo in particular is genius, and the constant tax is disgusting. Couple questions though:

• How's your econ? You really rely on agendas. How do you combat an early Account Siphon?

• Have you been able to reliably stick tags without SEA Source or other proactive tag methods?

@rothri Wow, after reading that closely, you may be correct. I will have to think of an alternative.

@Chuftbot Maybe it was not clever enough according to @rothri, he may have a point, the wording is quite specific on Profiteering. But yeah, the Runner typically gives up on the Bad Pub after the first few tries and you get all these powerful cards without the downside :P I really just wanted to try and build a deck around Broadcast Square.

In my early play-testing, the econ seems okay until you get the Geothermal Fracking Hostile Takeover ball rolling, at which point it becomes crazy. Crisium Grid helps against Account Siphon, and I always throw an ICE or 2 on HQ (a Checkpoint on HQ can do huge work for 4 credits).

Tags do not typically stick much on a Runner who thinks carefully before he acts. Typically, a Data Raven tag means death later in the game. This deck doesn't aim to win with the flatline, it just stops them from being able to survive being tagged at the end of a run, which your Data Raven server causes. Even if it gets trashed, you can Interns the Data Ravens back.

I think @rothri was correct. Instead, swap out the 23 Profiteering for 3 Posted Bounty for the staple Posted Bounty Scorched Earth combo as another victory path.

Yeah, Lukas made a ruling (https://twitter.com/RukasuFox/status/449599541566648321) on Broadcast Square/Profiteering, you don't get the credits if you avoid the bad pub. I remember trying it myself back in the day :)

Geothermal Fracking still works very well though, and yeah Posted Bounty sounds like a good replacement.

Since the Broadcast Square combo doesn't work, would you drop in Midseasons/SEA Source to actively tag the runner? Also, why Grim over Archer?

Without the Profiteerings your only eco is Hostile Takeover, Geothermal Fracking, Hedge Funds and a single Shell Coporation. That's a bit low, especially since scoring an early Geothermal Fracking is often not possible.

@moondark89 That's a shame! Still an interesting concept for other single sources of bad pub though.

@Alakallanar That's not quite true. Executive Boot Camp is quasi drip econ, especially when you consider that all of his ice and installable cards are fairly cheap as-is. 3x Interns can effectively be 2nd, 3rd, and 4th copies of Shell Corporation, which should already be fairly safe behind a Data Raven server (although admittedly with only a single Shell Corporation and no way to tutor it, this is far from a reliable strategy).

My own concern is actually that there's too much econ, or more specifically, the entire deck concept seems to center around utilizing the giant econ-agendas while avoiding the drawbacks, which is very cool, but...what's your endgame for making all this money? You don't have a single card that leverages that economic advantage (SEA Source, Midseason Replacements, Punitive Counterstrike, Ash 2X3ZB9CY, Caprice Nisei, Corporate Troubleshooter), or a large or expensive ICE suite.

I think it's very cool that you wrangled together a deck around Broadcast Square, but consider that the reason it hasn't been done yet is because bad publicity is kind of a joke for the decks that run with it. Aside from a few pieces of interesting ice, taking bad pub is generally meant to be an economic trade off (huge temporary boost for the corp, minor long-term advantage for the runner). Unless you're going to make a bad pub glacier, most of the things Weyland uses all that money for are not at all hindered by giving the runner those free run credits.

Even with the deck you have here, if you just gave the runner those bad pub credits...what exactly could he do with it? Trash your Broadcast Square more cheaply? It doesn't help him clear his tags from Data Raven, nor does it mitigate either of the consequences of stealing an Argus agenda.

TLDR: Neat synergy, but you should probably just not stress about bad pub, and play Snare! instead.

@SneakdoorMelb which combo not working? The Profiteering combo? I think that swapping Profiteering for Posted Bounty gives you a nice tagging option. However, you and @Bigguyforyou518 make a good point regarding the need to leverage the econ in this deck into a SEA Source or Midseason Replacements. Originally, Grim was chosen as a moderately nasty face-checking ice that still works as a moderate tax. However, after looking at the Agenda spread and how there are plenty of 1 pointer targets for Archer, you have swayed me to swap Archer in for some testing.

@Bigguyforyou518 Thanks for taking the time to give such solid feedback! I think you have an excellent point regarding not having enough options to leverage the Econ into something. The only problems are, what do I cut to get some SEA Sources in there? The 3 Data Raven are very key to locking down the game state, and dropping 1 Broadcast Square only allows you to slot 1 SEA Source. I guess the logic behind the dodging the Bad Pub was, most of the ICE is already cheap and not hugely taxing, giving Bad Pub greatly lessens the tax each run. However, you make a good point about the runner not being able to utilize the Bad Pub very effectively. Thanks for the feedback, you have given me a few things to think about.