Revenge of the Sil (Regional Winner RPC Cologne)

krystman 2831

This is not my Deck. It's by Jaro aka MonkeyML. I'm posting it with Jaro's permission. Jaro piloted this deck winning a small Regional (17 Players) at the RPC Convention in Cologne. It won 2 out of 4 games. The two losses were against the same player.

alt text

I’m crazy and I don’t pretend to be anything else.
- Rihanna

There has been an awakening, have you felt it?

Sil decks are starting to place surprisingly high in the European scene. As the cardpool for ice becomes more varied and face-checking becomed more dangerous the value of expose rises. The current rise of Horizontal decks creates a favorable environment for runners who can put a lot of pressure on centrals quickly. This specific deck focuses on a handful of surprising and powerful deck-building choices to catch the corp off-guard and push them into making bad choices.

On Expose

Enter Silhouette. Her expose effect can secure an an HQ access 1st turn. Her ability is the counter to the Steven Wooley defense. Run on HQ. If corp rezzes an ETR ice, Special Order for a solution, install and get in anyway. If they don't rez the ice, expose it, Special Order for a solution, install and keep running. Generally, the expose effect is a lot more powerful on ice than on cards in servers. It allows Sil to stay ahead of the corp game by getting only the tools she needs and making calculated runs. If corp defends HQ too much you can shift the pressure to archives with Sneakdoor Beta or make money on less protected remotes with Bank Job or Security Testing.

It's worth noting that this Sil build does not feature Account Siphon but corps will think it's coming.

Blackmail is the new Inside Job

The deck features a Corporate Scandal + Blackmail combo. This gives Sil free access to remote servers. Because of the HQ pressure, corp will be inclined to get their Agendas out of HQ as soon as possible into scoring servers. Sil can identify the agendas with expose and grab them with Blackmail. This is a similar idea to the Notorious Daily Quester but one that requires less clicks and less runs on centrals to work. It's also a huge surprise for players not familiar with the deck. You prepare for Blackmail against Val, but not against Sil.

In addition, Bad Pub compliments Desperado greatly. A singe Bad Pub turns Sil into a small Whizzard - giving her 2 net credits every run. The deck features Investigative Journalism to make the Bad Pub stick beyond the lifetime of the Current and allowing her to go to up to 5 Bad Pub max.

Panchatantra + Gingerbread

The breaker suite is unorthodox. We have a typical Corroder, Mongoose and Passport. But we also have a Gingerbread and a Panchatantra. This combo is basically our AI breaker. With those two installed we should get past any single ice we want. In many cases Gingerbread will actually work alone as it covers a majority of currently played Sentries. With Panchatantra it also covers our inability to get past Code Gates on remotes in cases where we won't be Blackmailing. There breaker suite is old school with each ice type being potentially covered by at least two breakers. Due to Levy AR Lab Access it's also robust and not as vulnerable to Markus Batty as other recent Criminal builds.

The Power of Jank

Jaro is a well known Meta-Agnostic among the runners from Cologne and this deck is the culmination of an art he perfected. The decks features a lot of weird and unusual choices that have the potential to surprise the corp and catch them completely off-guard.

  • The ID
  • Corporate Scandal + Blackmail
  • Panchatantra + Gingerbread
  • Lack of Account Siphon
  • Stimhack
  • Data Dealer

This results in a deck that can be difficult to play against. It's a match-up people are completely unfamiliar with. By the time they figure it out it may be too late.

17 comments
29 May 2016 Kelfecil

So proud of Jaro. People might eventually start seeing the worth of Silhouette and other non-meta ID picks. I wonder how many tournaments need to be won until people realize it's not just about playing the same shit all the time.

29 May 2016 Pinkwarrior

Nice deck looks a little bit like something I was trying with Armand "Geist" Walker: Tech Lord with the Corporate Scandal, Blackmail & Investigative Journalism. Glad it worked out for you.

29 May 2016 piszczel

I really like the card choices in this deck.

Though, no multi access? Is the idea to blackmail your way into scoring servers? Seems ok against slower decks, but it seems to me this deck doesn't respect fast advance at all. I'm interested in how this works.

29 May 2016 Snake Eyes

Awesome!

29 May 2016 Ehill

So the deck had a 50% win rate....? that seems... kinda bad

30 May 2016 herod1204

As a long time Sil player, I am overjoyed to see more of her in the meta!

Having played this deck precisely twice against my partner, my gut (and emphasis on gut) feeling is to - 1 bank job, -1 data dealer, -1 sports hopper, +1 Kati, +1 special order and +1 symetrical visage, as the econ felt... fragile I guess. But that is after only two games, so take it with a pinch of salt. Data dealer is obviously highly relevant in a news team heavy meta, which I am not currently in.

My other concern is multi-access which is kinda needed against FA. I'd be tempted to drop both investigative journalisms for the Turning Wheel, but I definitely need to play the deck more before committing to that.

30 May 2016 monky

I missed multiaccess too. I play this this deck on regionals for the first time. I wanted just make somethung different as all this whizzards. In germany was turning wheel not allowed, thats why I didnt play it. But herod1204 - you're right. Economy is fragile. I try play it wirh your suggestion.

30 May 2016 herod1204

Ahhh, how would you make space for the turning wheel? Drop the two investigative journalism's perhaps, or are they necessary for asset spam?

30 May 2016 monky

I´ll drop one investigative journalism for two wheels. Journalism is Kind of defense from corp current or FA agendas. I like to heve a plan B in my decks :-D

30 May 2016 monky

Sorry - for one wheel. Journalism costs one influence, not two.

31 May 2016 Alakallanar

What about Political Operative for Caprice/Ash? The meta may be a lot more yellow than red/purple, but these two can be quite annoying for Blackmail as well as Panchatantra.

31 May 2016 Ralphus1701

I kind of want to replace all the Symmetrical Visage, Kati Jones, Earthrise Hotel, Stimhack and Bank Job with 6x Exclusive Party. And swap the Data Dealer with another Investigative Journalism. And just use the Bad Pub as the run finances.

31 May 2016 ANRguybrush

@Ralphus1701 You might do that, but the ressources are way more effective. Exclusive party is not a bad card, but it's not that great either.

2 Jun 2016 aero

Seems like fun! Played a couple matches; this gets WRECKED by fast advance. Definitely could use some multi-access.

2 Jun 2016 monky

Absolutely. The turning wheel male it stronger. Just tested.

28 Jun 2016 SavageOne316

When you have your full rig out, what do you do if you need to install sneakdoor?

28 Jun 2016 krystman

@SavageOne316 You don't. Sneakdoor is for early game.