Purple Weenies

FourLeaf 94

Concept

When I originally saw the ability of Stronger Together I immediately thought of some of my favorite tribal and weenie decks from MTG where a bunch of small things add up to a big problem. I had to use this ID to replicate that concept in a different game.

I knew that to make this concept work I had to have a few things. I first needed a bunch of weenie style ice that was low cost. I then needed in my head 70% of them to be Bioroid to make use of the identity, or I'd just use ETF. I wanted them to mostly tax but also have hard stopping power on some of them. Lastly and most importantly, I wanted ice that needed to be respected. I was then left with a bunch of options that actually played out better than I thought it would.

The Build

It is a glacial style tax build, running 20 ice and intends on icing up every central before creating a scoring remote.

I ended up with:

  • 15/20 Bioroid Ice
  • 13 ice that costs 4 or less
  • 4 ice that costs 5
  • 2 ice that cost 8
  • 13/20 with ETR routines
  • 20/20 with double routines

I ended up with a mostly weenie deck, with some mid curve costs and 2 fatties for additional pressure if I need it. Everything I wanted. Next I worked on influence

Influence

I borrowed concepts from both Theodorelogan and Jashay when using my influence from their stronger together decks.

  • Caprice Nisei is great in this deck.

  • Inazuma is great as a taxing card. There isn't a single card that you could put behind it that wouldn't do something worthwhile in this deck. I'm finding people willing to pay every credit necessary if the next card isn't flipped when I have credits to threaten a follow up. Either Ichi 1 or 2 does work in this deck behind one. This combo sits anywhere but my scoring server.

  • Jackson Howard stays in here as 3 because he is always good and we can abuse ABT by just pulling the trigger with no regards if he is on the table. This deck is weaker with ABT than other decks due to having smaller ice, but free is free.

Playing the Deck

The style is pretty easy to pilot.

  1. Spread your ice across all centrals at least 2 deep on on important centrals to start
  2. Get a remote set up for economy first, later scoring
  • I typically ice up a remote with a single enigma or eli preferably to put Adonis Campaign in there. Always leave PAD Campaign unprotected. If they want to trash it, that's fine. We have 11 economy cards and the 2 pads are there for taxing or a little bit of drip. We're not dependent on them.

    • Mid-End game build up your servers and make scoring windows. I generally have 3-4 ice deep on at least one of my centrals, 3-4 on my scoring server, with the rest being 2-3 unless they aren't interested in archives (no Sneakdoor or Noise).

Choices and Flavor

My agendas are missing something most other lists are, Priority Requisition and that's because it actually is terrible in this list. I don't plan on getting lucky on Accelerated Beta Test and flipping into Janus 1.0 or Heimdall 2.0. I'm playing for consistency and scoring a Project Wotan will put a single Eli at 5 str and 5 ETR routines on it.... kinda good I think. A corroder pays 8 credits for this piece alone if not clicking through 2 of the 5.

  • Markus 1.0 I think is actually a bad card to have 3 of. I had 2 in this list and wanted something else, but when I thought about it, it's better than Wall of Static by 1 power and 1 routine and better than Bastion by a subroutine. It's actually not too bad, it's just not eli, so I went to 3.

  • Enigma is run in most decks. Other ST decks run a singleton of him. I think he is strong because of Heinlein Grid so I run two, besides, hitting it early is always good for corp if you can't find your economy

  • Enhanced Login Protocol took the place of Lag Time but I like both. I think ELP is better, so I'm sticking with it.

  • Successful Demonstration I've never seen a deck use it better than this one. I can fire it off like it's a Hedge Fund basically and it's worth more. Perfect addition.

  • Eve Campaign made the cut in other decks but I find her to be slow. I often have windows to score earlier than I thought this deck would since things are cheap for me and expensive for enemies. This is a mid game deck, it doesn't want to win later than it has to, so I went with Adonis Campaign for tempo and I'm really liking him.

  • PAD Campaign no other ST deck is running this. No idea why. It's taxing, strong drip , comparable to Mental Health Clinic and we don't even need it to stay afloat. It's pure benefit for attrition.

  • No Heimdall 2.0, Janus 1.0, Wotan, and only a single of Ichi 2.0. They really have zero synergy in this type of deck. I dislike Bioroid Efficiency Research a lot because that's a two card combo, requiring me to find both of them and takes up a spot that I can use for more ice, or assets or operations to make money.

Changes

One thing I want to find is a better use of influence. 8 on Caprice feels amazing and it should probably stay. The 3 on Jackson is needed if you're greedy like me and always want to fire off Accelerated Beta Test, but that leaves us with 4 left to spend.

I tried Data Raven and I hated seeing it in my opening hand. I don't care about tagging and trashing their resources. Let them run a 15 credit run end game only to hit caprice or realize that I have a scored Project Wotan and their math was off.

I would like to get an Ash 2X3ZB9CY in here by cutting something but I'm not sure what.

I had an Aggressive Secretary in this to have some bluffing power since after you play this once, you realize everything I put down is a money card, or an agenda, neither of which is bad to run into.

I might eventually drop a pad and put in a Project Junebug or something evil to just drop people.

The Future of Stronger Together

I'd like to think that I'm onto something here and that this ID is meant to be played with a weenie style concept. I have found this version to be stable and perform how I want it against every faction. Shaper is the hardest only because of the opus. kati is the next best thing and she works too. A rich runner can get in, but that goes for every deck right?

Thank you for reading my long entangled mess of thoughts. If you have suggestions or questions, feel free to list them. I know there is room for this deck to improve. If you disagree with something I have in here, state why with another suggestion or sound reasoning. Thanks again everyone

4 comments
8 Jan 2015 Jashay

Well, thank you very much for the credit!

I'm incrementally cutting the Eve Campaigns out of mine, and I'm replacing them with Successful Demonstrations, so I'd say you have the right of it.

As for why I don't use PAD Campaign; it feels even slower than Eve Campaign to me. They both take three turns to profit, but Eve Campaign can rez over half my ICE in 2 turns payout, but PAD Campaign cannot rez any until turn 3.

The point may be moot with Successful Demonstration; it seems to be very effective burst economy. Testing continues!

As a nitpick, I'm not sure that a deck where the lowest cost ICE is 3 can be called 'weenie'. For a lot of NEH decks 3 is one of the more expensive bits...

Also, with Project Wotan, they can still click though it. It is a subroutine on the ICE, so they can all be clicked through. Well, unless there's just too many.

My next iteration is going to change the agendas slightly; I'm going to drop the Priority Requisitions, perhaps for a Project Wotan and an Eden Fragment. I'll drop the Janus 1.0, but I'm going to keep the rest, I think. I find Heimdall 2.0 pretty darn excellent. It's less of a stretch to get the rez cost with the Successful Demonstrations too.

Looks solid, though! Hope it works well for you.

8 Jan 2015 FourLeaf

Yeah the Pads feel pretty good against people only because I have the Successful Demonstration and Hedge Fund. I imagine that if I didn't have the burst, I'd hate both eve and Pad, but it seems like either is a good choice as long as your economy is stable.

It's as "weenie" as bioroids can be lol... I didn't realize the interaction with Wotan. Regardless, it's strong. How is Heimdall 2.0 working out for you? Why would you consider it over Heimdall 1.0 for the setup that I have running?

8 Jan 2015 Jashay

I think you get more out of the 3 extra you pay than for any other 2.0 bioroid. Heimdall 1.0 is still a luxury for you, more or less. But if someone hits it, they can feel no pain for one click. Given that you are paying twice as much as most of your bioroids, I feel like it shouldn't be just as easy to dodge the punch.

For the extra 3, you get an immunity to Knight, the double-click ability, and the runner has to break two subroutines at higher STR to not get brain-stabbed, or two to not end the run. If it's behind Inazuma, they take twice the pain compared to 1.0. If you've got ELP out and they've already spent a , they're in for it. If Heinlein Grid is behind 1.0, they'll usually take the single BD. If it's behind 2.0, it's a much bigger hit whatever decision they make.

It's better than the other 'big ones' because people can just bounce off Wotan, and everyone prepares for Sentries. A single Faerie robs Janus 1.0 and Ichi 2.0 of any danger fairly cheaply, and Janus 1.0 is really hard to surprise someone with. Heimdall 2.0 is only really vulnerable to Quetzal with e3 Feedback Implants, and Deus X.

Yes, I'm quite the fan of Heimdall 2.0. I think a 1-of in your setup would be a powerful backstop, and I think your economy could handle it.

8 Jan 2015 FourLeaf

I'll definitely do some testing and let you know how it goes. All of your points are sound and I'll be replacing the 1.0. I have actually considered dropping the Ichi 2.0, but I'm already low on sentries as is. It's kind of filler as I don't often rez or play it. I mostly use it to threaten D4v1d counters. I'd be interesting in chatting with you on reddit or skype about ST as it progresses if you would be and bounce deck ideas back and forth. We're approaching the identity different, which is fun as well. My name on Reddit is the same as here.