Make Every Click Efficient (AKA "The Never Die Solution")

Gerrark 198

Murder is everywhere. FA, even after all its nerfs, is still strong. And Glacier just keeps getting stronger. You want a deck that can deal with all of this, and more. This is the deck for you.

I'll be honest with you--This deck is not easy to play. There's a lot to keep track of, and little missteps can and will add up over your turns, costing you the game. That being said, I have yet to play a deck that has so many creative solutions to almost any problem the corp could throw at you. So buckle up. Hayley's driving, and for a Shaper, she drives fast.

-THE GAME PLAN-

Get the following out ASAP: Artist Colony, Fan Site, Professional Contacts, and Aesop's Pawnshop. This is your main draw, econ, and tutoring. Once this is all out you can start having fun.

Once you've got your ProCo out your deck will assemble itself in front of you VERY quickly. Use Hayley's ability to install two free resources per turn while clicking for credits and cards at the same time. Use Artist Colony, Street Peddler, and Self-modifying Code to fly through your deck faster and grab other key pieces, using all three of those on the corp's turn for even more Shaper-y time nonsense your opponent will hate.

Even when your rig isn't fully set up, your opponent has to fear you. Your tutoring cards and powerful economy make the corp unsure whether they have a scoring window or not. In fact, many corps will spend much longer than they should to score their first agenda once they see a Fan Site out, and while they waste their time setting up strong glaciers you can continue setting up your stronger rig.

-ECONOMY-

MOpus. ProCo. Aesop's. You've got every good tool there is for generating money as a Shaper. Every click ends up being worth anywhere from 1 card and 1 cred to 6 creds, which is very hard for the corp to keep up with.

Sure Gamble gives you an econ boost to burst through scoring windows, and are nice to hold in your hand until you need them (if you can). Ghost Runner may seem like a strange include, but with Aesop's destroying them once they're down to 1 cred they're essentially three more Sure Gambles in your deck and they help you threaten runs earlier than the corp would like too.

Using Aesop's to get the most out of your rig is KEY for this deck. Trashing the right pieces in the right order is what will allow you to keep the corp afraid of your instant speed installs while still keeping lots of money in your hand. Some choices are easy--Extra Fan Sites and Colonies can be trashed without fear, as can Ghost Runners with only 1 cred left on them. Other times the choices are tougher, and trashing one of your Akamatsus or SMCs may not seem like an attractive prospect, but remember that nothing is off limits. Everything can and should be destroyed when needed; that guaranteed 3 creds at the start of your turn is how you keep the corp sweating.

-BREAKERS-

Not much to say here, as there's nothing terribly original or interesting. Cerberus "Lady" H1 and Inti are as efficient as fracters get (and both fantastic Aesop's targets in the right situations). Gordian Blade just gets better as big code gates become more prevalent, and Femme Fatale handles both problem ice (like Mother Goddess or Data Raven) and any sentries in your way.

-CREATIVE SOLUTIONS FOR PRESSING PROBLEMS-

KILL DECKS: You have Heartbeat, which, combined with this monstrous, mostly free to install rig, makes you invincible. Jinteki kill becomes a joke, while Weyland and NBN immediately lose their teeth and will abandon that strat to rush, which they'll do poorly. Just remember to take it slow, and keep setting up pieces to sacrifice to the heart to keep your hand safe. Be very careful about letting your Levy AR Lab Access stay in the heap for any amount of time--Chronos Project and Ark Lockdown are finding their way into every kill deck lately, and they will make your life miserable. Lastly, if you're having trouble getting your Heartbeat and suspect it's deep in your deck, just make sure you've got a Colony and Site out, then play one of your two dreadfully debilitating currents. The corp will have to score to go with their game plan.

FAST ADVANCE DECKS: These are harder to deal with than the kill decks, but not much more so. Once they see your ID, they will rush like no tomorrow. That being said, once you've got an SMC out (or a Clone Chip with your Clot in the trash), they're screwed. With 2 Clone Chips, 2 Sacrificial Constructs, and a Levy they can purge all they like. It won't help them, and every time they do it you just got a free turn. Conversely, if they try to be sneaky and use Cyberdex Virus Suite right as they're about to score, it won't matter; SacCon keeps Clot alive anyway.

GLACIER DECKS: These are without a doubt the hardest to deal with, especially ETF. They'll have lots of money to rez lots of costly ice, and running every turn to check costly remotes is not something Hayley likes to do. Still, Rumor Mill does fantastic work, so draw draw draw until you get it (and its recursion pieces), grab your breakers, money up, and wait them out. They'll have to ice up deep to create scoring windows, and after you've shown them that any server they make is locked down, they'll try to Biotic Labor that last agenda out, which as we already fully demonstrated will not work. Plus if they're really making that scoring server impossible to attack, just slam into R&D instead. Three R&D Interfaces makes it easy.

TAG PUNISHMENT DECKS: You've got MOpus and ProCo, which means you've got money, which is what they fear most. Just make sure you've always got at least 8 creds (12 vs Sync) at the end of your turn and you'll make them waste tons of money to land a Hard-Hitting News you'll recover from immediately. Best part is, you don't actually need to end your turn with 8 creds--You can end it with 5 or more if you've got your Aesop's and a target for it out. This is a move that tends to mess up corp math pretty bad. Also, in case you find that there's a Global Food Initiative in your score area and they're about to trade it for a Breaking News, just sacrifice it to your Artist Colony. Show them that if you can't have the points, neither can they.

-CLOSING THOUGHTS-

Well, that's the deck everyone. If you have any questions or suggestions, I'd love to hear them. As for changes that could be made, that's a hard question to answer. When it's available Misdirection may be worth slotting for even more tag hate, but I'd hate to go up to 46 cards to help a problem that's already pretty well taken care of. Net-Ready Eyes is another 46th card that I've been considering (to help keep Femme cheap), but I've got the same issue with that as I do Misdirection. The only influence that's available is Employee Strike, and even if it's not the strongest inf choice it's still saved my butt a fair few times. The only thing I could think of to replace it would be a Mimic to get through 3 strength sentries easier, or a The Turning Wheel to threaten HQ better.

5 comments
24 Oct 2016 Dzerards

I like it a lot. Heartbeat looks like an inspired choice. Though with 23 resources Scarcity of Resources is going to make sad sometimes.

24 Oct 2016 Gerrark

@DzerardsScarcity is a huge problem, definitely. Thankfully with two currents and lots of recursion for them, it never stuck around long, and that was when I even saw it in the first place (which is rare).

26 Oct 2016 Dzerards

I tried it out tonight, was a really fun deck to pilot. Up against 24/7, power shutdown, BOOM, NEH. Heartbeat completely shut the combo down. It was a shame my opponent seen it in my hand from an early Salem's Hospitality forcing me to install it. Otherwise a surprise install using either a Street Peddler or Artist Colony, and Haley's ability, after they had power shut downed their entire deck would have won the game on the spot! I had to sack 10 points worth of agendas to the them hungry, hungry artists and still won on points!

I cut a Ghost Runner to fit in an Atman at there is a heap of Jammy HB on the go around here and Ichi 1.0 is a bitch to break with femme.

27 Oct 2016 Gerrark

@DzerardsI've definitely been thinking about an Atman, and that sounds like a good cut, because I've been having trouble with Ichi too. However my solution has been to cut an R&D Interface and indeed add in the Net-Ready Eyes, which has been a tremendous boon. It makes Femme work so much better as your only killer, and can save tons of creds over the course of your with your other breakers too. I'll try your way as well, but I'll be honest, I feel like one AI breaker AND the NRE would be a smart include.

24 Jan 2017 Dzerards

I'm still running this deck, it straight up hoses nearly every deck it plays against!

I've settled on - 1 R&D Interface -1 Aesop's - 3 Ghost Runners - 2 Street Peddlers +1 Atman +1 NRE +1 Film Critic +1 NACH +2 Paricia +1 Slums.

I would really like to free up some influence for more Street Peddlers. I'm really tempted to cut Lady