Weyland Skorpios - Real Death

lunchmoney 268

Nothing needs explaining as you all know how it works..... A line I hate. I don’t, other new players don’t. Don’t always assume everyone knows everything you do. It's better to assume the opposite.

With that in mind...

A brief history of me: I don’t play online. Meaning this deck has only seen table top play. This exact set up has seen 2 evenings play - 6 games. 4 kills and 2 runners who folded after all their breakers were subject to Real Death (removed from game). Previous to that it was doing very well; over 75% win rate. But I can’t recall the cards that were swapped out for this list. The original aim was to score out, with a flat line as a backup win condition. Turns out I missed the original goal and hit the secondary one.

ID – if a card gets trashed that help with recursion late on, get rid of it, otherwise get rid of their breakers.

Agenda:

Stand Off - clears runner currents if you don’t have Housekeeping to hand. Makes a little money. Feeds Archer and Corporate Town.

SSO Endorsement - It is said money makes the world go round.

City Works Project - possibly the worst of the "self-protecting" agendas (eg Obokata, Ikawah Project, Degree Mill) as it only works when installed. Personally I think the others are over powered and City Works is the most balanced, but that's another discussion. You dont want this to linger in R&D or HQ. Get it down asap and get an advancement on it asap. Preferable behind some ICE :) Soaking meat damage is not as easy as it once was (Plascrete RIP) but it is still possible. If the runner has built their deck to soak lots of meat damage they may not be that efficient at other things.

Do not despair if Film Critic lands on the other side of the table.

Assets:

Corporate Town - Wow, this card. I put this in purely to deal with Film Critic (which is everywhere as it's needed to get hold of the self-protecting agendas). Only get it down behind ICE that the runner will have to spend a lot to get into. Once this is rezzed the runner will have to deal with it (unless they do not run any resources). The longer it takes them to build the rig and/or credits to get it and trash it the more resources you can remove from the game (with the ID ability). I like to sit this behind Tithonium and Flare to mess up their console and programs as well. Remove their support network from the game.

Urban Renewal – puts the runner on timer. Rez it as the end of a runner turn to give them only 2 turns in which to deal with it. Put it behind some taxing ICE to give yourself plenty of time to score an agenda. (I have got a kill from this, but it was pilot error on the other side; they knew it was there and knew they had to deal with it, but dropped to 3 cards in hand on click 4 thinking to deal with it the next turn).

Rashida Jaheem – very handy to get a burst of cards and credits. I’ve taken to installing her in the open. If the runner trashes her it’s no biggie as you can then punish them with Trojan Horse. Otherwise she can sit there until you need her.

Marilyn Campaign – Mo’ money, no problems.

Psychic Field – a meta include. There’s lots of Aumakura and expose effects in my local play group. This is simply a punishment for exposing everything with no thought.

Snare – always a fun include and yet another way to gets runner cards out of the game.

ICE:

Some opponents thought that only 12 ICE was not enough, that I would not see it in time. I never had a problem with ICE placement.

Archer – scoring remote and Corporate Town’s remote. A facecheck into this and the runner can kiss goodbye to their rig. As for which to remove from the game you will need to assess their other breakers and your ICE.

Hortum – to mess with Aumakua. I was placing this on the server that I felt they would use Aumakua to get into.

Ice Wall – a simple barrier to slow them down. It can be advanced to keep a runner out, but you have better things to do with your credits and clicks.

Masvingo – has the same job as Ice Wall.

Tithonium – This is a beast. Whether you rez with credits or an agenda is dependent on your board state. If you need the agenda to rez a Corporate Town or Archer then you should pay for it; however if you can’t afford it and rezzing this will stop the runner for getting in anywhere else then you should go for it. This ICE has been the straw that broke the runner’s back and caused a concession or two.

Enigma – early, low cost, ICE. An alternative to Ice Wall and Masvingo without the scaling ability.

Envelope – a spiky barrier .Yes it only costs Paperclip 2 credits, but if they don’t have a fracter yet this is another card from the grip into the Real Death pile. This was added on a whim and can probably go to free up 2 inf.

Miraju – install on R&D only. It’s job is to mess with Indexing.

Flare – this is another beast. Very expensive, but so worth it if you can afford the trace. It should also be pretty expensive for the runner to break, meaning the asset it is protecting (Corporate Town) might be safe from trashing (if they get below 5 credits).

Operations:

Housekeeping – I love this card. You want to see it early and I would suggest using your mulligan if it’s not in your opening hand. The tax on the runner is great and you want it running as much as possible.

Punitive Counterstrike – another expensive card and becomes dead weight if Film Critic is around and not sniped by the Corporate Town yet. Don’t use just one. I know it seems a bad idea to hoard this in HQ but firing one of these is generally a waste of time other than to sap cards from the grip. Two of these are generally a kill. Time to pop Rashida is now.

Trojan Horse – the MVP lately, but possibly the most expensive to get off. Runner’s must access cards to do what they do, with this you can snipe out a breaker and RD it.

Hedge Fund and IPO – as you can see this deck runs some EXPENSIVE cards. You will need your Ponzi schemes and insurance fraud in order to pay for it.

Overall I have enjoyed playing this (and its previous versions that had a few different cards). But as I am going to change faction I don’t mind others seeing and using it.

I hope I've explained my choices and suggestions on how to play, but if you have any questions, please ask :)

24 comments
14 May 2018 captaindrift

This is a great deck and when your combo it out brutal

14 May 2018 Ulkrond

I am William Brown. And I approve of this deck.

14 May 2018 lunchmoney

I would love for some folk to take this deck online and give it a load of plays. I'd like to know how it fairs in the wider world :)

15 May 2018 ladybunne

You misspelled Aumakua. Otherwise, deck seems real cool! I'm tempted to have a play with Skorpios now...

15 May 2018 lunchmoney

Thanks, corrected that spelling :)

15 May 2018 Frye

I am a survivor. This deck...man, the things I’ve seen. Barely made it out alive. RIP Resources.

15 May 2018 gallilama

@lunchmoney thank you for such a thorough write up. I'm a new player, and appreciate all the context and insight. Cheers

15 May 2018 FreqKing

Great write up, thanks.

19 May 2018 LynxMegaCorp

Not sure why I'm asking, but, why exclude Hunter Seeker?

19 May 2018 lunchmoney

Hunter Seeker was in at one point, but I found it to be less reliable for getting rid of cards. Cheaper, in terms of credits yes, but loss of agenda to fire it was too high.

20 May 2018 Saintis

This is fun. If you have a Urban Renewal on 1 counter and well protected you can get away with IAA a Naked City Works Project.

21 May 2018 lunchmoney

Has anyone taken this to the wider world of jinteki.net?

22 May 2018 gilesdavis

Richard Morgan fan?

22 May 2018 lunchmoney

Yep. But it was one of my opponents who started calling it the Real Death pile :)

23 May 2018 gilesdavis

Love it. Most of my friends that play NR have read Morgan, totally going to steal this :)

23 May 2018 lunchmoney

I've renamed the deck, "Real Death". Seemed more appropriate :)

7 Jun 2018 Vortilion

Always having eco probs with this deck ;(

11 Jun 2018 lunchmoney

@Vortilion Money is tight, yes. You have to play smart and only fire the expensive stuff only when it will stick. Keep up the practice.

12 Jun 2018 Vortilion

I will, cause I really like this deck! I'm a beginner, so I guess that's also a reason for my problem. ;-)

12 Jun 2018 Vortilion

" If you have a Urban Renewal on 1 counter and well protected you can get away with IAA a Naked City Works Project."

How? It still costs 5. Or do you mean because the opponent will loose many cards from his hand and has to take a draw phase which you can use to AAA again after IAA?

12 Jun 2018 Saintis

Yeah, stealing City Works will cost them 4 cards which will often be too many cards for them to also survive the Urban Renewal trigger at the start of your turn. So if they do not steal City Works you score it out on your next turn.

15 Jun 2018 Vortilion

Im not winning with this deck, dunno why. It’s either money or missing ice... I’ll keep trying though. I’m thinking maybe hunter seeker would be a better card in here than Punitive Counterstrike?

15 Jun 2018 lunchmoney

Give it a go and see how it works for you.

15 Jun 2018 lunchmoney

Give it a go and see how it works for you.

I spent a long time refining this and had many games before it got this stage. Practice, practice, practice.