L'espionnage

PaxCecilia 293

Get Snitch and Au Revoir's up. Run to check what Ice is out then jack out for cash. Use Knights and Parasites to get in for cheap accesses or force the Corp to trash their own Ice. Late game you'll have Blackguard out, and your runs will force them to rez any Ice you expose with Snitch. Emergency Shutdown and Forged Activation Order help you keep wasting their cash. Slowly start replacing Au Revoir's with Sneakdoor and real programs throughout the game as required.

Any suggestions are welcome. Notoriety is included because I figured without multiaccess you need a way to guarantee points. If you know all of the Ice out on the field and you can trash them reliably then Notoriety might be a good way to ensure a few 1 pointers. Recon is sort of a shit card but I figured it gives a little flexibility. Might replace it with Express Delivery to help get the pieces you need sooner.

7 comments
8 Jan 2015 krystman

Interesting deck. Have you tried it already? I like the Au Revoir + Snitch combo!

It seems like you'll need at least 2 Au Revoirs to make this worthwhile. Takes some time to set that up. And you really can't do much without that combo in place since you lack any other kind of economy. You don't even have tutors. From messing around with the card draw simulator you will need to draw around 10 cards to have this combo up and running.

Also, this is 3MU to match Magnum Opus in efficiency. Ideally 4MU. You can have a maximum of 6 MU in the deck. You need more MU of you want to play your breakers, Sneakdoor and Parasites.

Not sure if you really need Sil for this either. With Snitch in place, her expose isn't doing too much.

I agree that Recon is a waste of space.

I would consider Bribery instead of Inside Job. I think it goes better with Sil.

8 Jan 2015 PaxCecilia

I probably should put a disclaimer that this deck is totally a thought experiment at the moment. I haven't tested this and frankly it could be the worst deck anyone has ever created. Aside from those /tg/ decks. My original idea was to use Au Rev + Snitch + John Masanori + Data Leak Reversal. I did test that, and it turned out to be waaay too many moving parts without doing very much. I simplified it down to just Snitch + Au Revoir with some normal Criminal tricks to compliment it.

I think that comparing it with Magnum Opus is sort of... odd. I've always thought of Magnum Opus as a way to double down on an Action. Rather than clicking for 1 credit, Magnum Opus lets you click for two. Cool. To compare it in this deck, I'd prefer to look at 1 Au Revoir, and 1 Snitch.

The first obvious difference is that it's two cards, and therefore harder to get both. I chose Silhouette for the 40 card deck size; a leaner deck would be easier to get both in hand. Two cards also means it takes 2 clicks to get into play. The MU requirement is similar to MO, and together they cost 1 less credit than MO to get out (admittedly lots of people cheat MO out, but we'll ignore that for now since we're Criminal and not Shaper right now). I think that the final result is actually pretty powerful. Just like MO, Snitch + Au Revoir lets me down double on actions: exposing a piece of Ice and gaining a credit. This is good because it let's me know what's going on face down, and also isn't slowing me down too much by spending too much time on runs. However, once I know what the corporation has out, I'm pretty much just clicking for credits.

This is why I've included Knight and Parasite. Knowing what the Corporation has installed lets me put on pressure when and where I want. I don't have to jack out for cash, I can continue on and bait the corporation to rez ice. If not, then I can get a few free single accesses. If they do, then I can throw out Parasite or Knight. From time to time, these both trick the corp into trashing their own ice, and Knight can let me in for more accesses (or Siphons). If they've trashed their Ice and put a new one in it's place, then I just Snitch + A Revoir again and go on from there.

Bribery could be a good alternative to Inside Job, since Snitch will be exposing most of their Ice. I will know what the corp can and cannot afford. On the other hand, as you said, the deck is actually sort of weak in economy. I don't know how realistic affording Blackguard around the mid-game is going to be.

8 Jan 2015 PaxCecilia

Considering your comments and expanding on my thoughts a bit, this might be better as Gabriel with some modifications to get the combo out sooner, and a little more sustained economy (something as simple as Armitage Codebusting). Unfortunately, I didn't have time to put this deck together last night, so I'll have to shelf the idea til next Thursday's game night.

If you're interested in trying it out or modifying it a bit, then please share your results or decklist!

8 Jan 2015 steevo15

My friend and I were just playing around with a deck like this yesterday. The snitch/au revoir combo is a lot more powerful than I thought it would be, and doesn't take as long as one might think to get set up. We first tried Silhouette with blackguard, but once all the ice was rezzed the already tight econ fizzled out.

We ultimately decided that this combo was better in Leela. Also we use desperado instead of blackguard. You can snitch around seeing what their ice is, gaining money for jacking out, then when agendas are scored you know what the nastiest ice to bounce back is. We used the extra 5 cards for econ and memory since au revoir eats up your memory.

8 Jan 2015 Fridan

I've been looking at something along these lines myself. Have you considered Doppleganger for the console slot? 2 exposes and 2 credits for 1 click seems pretty nice to me. Almost like an alternative security testing. Almost.

I think Silhouette is a solid ID for this. The 40 cards really helps you see the combo early, and if you go with Bribery and Forged, her ability let's see as much ice as possible. I think the possibility of an expose effect can really change a corps plans. Forcing that interaction in the same vein as Noise, Leela etc. can give you a big advantage. Especially against Jinteki.

8 Jan 2015 Fridan

On further reading, Doppleganger of course requires a successful run. Still, potentially good click compression to check out another remote/central after a run.

8 Jan 2015 Snake Eyes

I played a similar deck to this when I was in Ottawa. (It was against a guy from Montreal, strangely enough!)

imo Recon is a wasted deckslot here since you're running so much Snitch. The Snitch combo doesn't really pick up until Blackguard gets installed anyway.

With one of those deckslots, I'd strongly consider going back up to 3 Account Siphon. With the other one... I dunno. I'm thinking Emergency Shutdown pairs up perfectly with this ability, since this whole combo is designed to give you ultimate control over what the corp has to spend their money on.

Worth considering here for the whole Snitch/Blackguard combo, is a little seen card from Upstalk... ,,, I'm actually going to have to look it up it's been so unseen....

Ah yes... Social Engineering! Since you already know what the piece of ICE is, and you already know that they're going to be forced to rez it, it's a match made in heaven for a little burst economy if the corp ever finds themselves to be rich enough to rez one of their big pieces of ICE... Combos with Au Revoir too, since the run doesn't need to be successful or anything like that. This combo could potentially excel if Emergency Shutdown were played in the same turn for maximum lols.

Also minor pick at your deck here, but I think you're shy just a liiiitle bit of economy here. Blackguard is expensive yo! And your combo isn't really set up until it's there. Something like Kati Jones might help out a bit...