This is an experimental concept that I will test tomorrow. As it is completely different, I felt it merits posting and hopefully discussion. It breaks current orthodoxy by including every Corp card draw in the current pool: Executive Retreat, Project Atlas, Green Level Clearance, Anonymous Tip & Archived Memories.

Project Atlas should be considered 2 point 5-advance that nets you 2 cards of your choice at anytime even to defend HQ. It tutors your Troubleshooters that can then be recursed via Archived Memories.

Executive Retreat is to escape agenda floods and tactically redraw a hand after a respite when your HQ will be safe, usually when you draw the next agenda.

To score 5-advance agendas, you stop the runner for 1 entire turn with Troubleshooter plus credit advantage (11 transaction operations plus 3 Hostile Takeover).

I use 15 cheap ice that end the run. As I include 2 Commercialisation to rebate advances, I added Woodcutter with Troubleshooter as an alternate flatline win condition. But the focus is on rushing agendas through with card draws that generate money and find your next agenda.

I avoided big ice (hence Oversight AI and Priority Requisition) because Criminal now destroys them (Emergency Shutdown, Crescentus, Forged Activation Order, Inside Job, Femme Fatale) but concede there is Parasite vulnerability (which destroy Woodcutters). However, the deck is hopefully too fast for the Noise deck (which may R&D win if prolonged to late game) and Shaper’s late game economy.

I also avoided the 5x 3point agenda format (where you score 2 of them via Troubleshooter plus 1 singleton, excess often used as Archer fodder) because of Notoriety and as the game introducing a Big Run strategy (All Nighter, Friendly AI, Notoriety, Medium, Impo or Demo Run) though I may be tempted to go back to this set up (replacing 3 Project Atlas with 2 Government Contracts and 1 Commercialisation). I just feel that flexibility of different agenda values is better as Notoriety destroys Corp strategy (e.g. the 10x 2-pt agendas of Jinteki). I may be convinced to change my decision but feel Atlas as 5-advance is just too pwerful, finding you key cards or economy at anytime.

The concept here is fast but not fast advance, which actually can be slow as it needs cash/set-up for SanSan/Biotic Labour/Trick of Light. Again, there is a variant where I swap 3 Anonymous Tip and 3 Archived Memories for 3 Trick of Light, 1 Commercialisation and 2 Shipment to Kaguya (no assets concept), as this allows fast advance 8 points of 5 agendas from hand. But that seemed a waste of Project Atlas, too good to be used vanilla. What I thought I would start with is the pure "card draw" concept detailed below.

Weyland Core (20#, 15*)

• 3 Executive Retreat (9#)
• 3 Project Atlas (6#)
• 3 Hostile Takeover (3#)
• 2 False Lead (2#)
• 3 Corporate Troubleshooter (3*)
• 3 Chimera
• 3 Ice Wall
• 3 Wall of Static
• 3 Enigma
• 3 Caduceus
• 3 Woodcutter
• 3 Hedge Fund
• 3 Beanstalk Royalties
• 2 Commercialisation
• 3 Green Level Clearance (3*)
• 3 Anonymous Tip (3*)
• 3 Archived Memories (6*)

Thoughts please? I am shooting for an “outside the box” concept here.

Ok, no replies in several hundred visits. Must be an awful idea and people are being polite. So I shall simply feedback what my findings were anyway. This is based on the thread title that, as a card draw concept, the Anonymous Tips and Green Level Clearance are intrinsic to the deck design.

• SHORT LIFESPAN ICE. The deck blitzes agendas early on but if it hasn’t won by when the runner’s rig is fully assembled, the runner takes control as its cheap ice is also cheap to break. All the low strength ice is very vulnerably to Parasite. As economy often outstrips cost of cheap ice, there is some leeway for better more expensive ice, mixed in with the cheap ice you want at the start.
• NO DETERRENTS. With only Troubleshooters to provoke a run on remote to drain runner credits, scoring a 5-advance agenda later is tricky as runner runs on any advanced card in server. Whilst running unrezzed ice has little deterrent as current ice doesn’t hurt the runner. Admittedly both these flaws only appear in repeat play, not in one-off matches. There is no influence for out-of-faction ice.
• ADVANCING ICE TOO SLOW. While Troubleshooter plus Woodcutter seem a neat secondary win option, it takes time to pull off as Woodcutter needs to be rezzed during a run. This is contrary to the simple deck principle of finding and rushing agendas as fast as possible before the runner stabilises. In fact Commercialisation, and the slow set-up just for a rebate, also needed culling.

So this how the deck has since evolved…

“Weyland Card Draw”

Weyland Core (21#, 15*)

• 3 Priority Requisition (9#)
• 1 Government Contract (3#)
• 3 Project Atlas (6#)
• 3 Hostile Takeover (3#)
• 3 Aggressive Secretary (6*)
• 3 Corporate Troubleshooter (3*)
• 3 Chimera
• 3 Ice Wall
• 3 Hadrian’s Wall
• 3 Enigma
• 3 Caduceus
• 3 Archer
• 3 Hedge Fund
• 3 Beanstalk Royalties
• 3 Green Level Clearance (3*)
• 3 Oversight AI
• 3 Anonymous Tip (3*)

The deck needed Aggressive Secretaries, installed and advanced 2 like a 5-advance agenda (Junebug advanced 2 is insufficient deterrent) which, if the bait is taken, allows a subsequent scoring of a large agenda. Archer (ideally via Priority Requisition or Oversight AI) is the best stopper in the game which if ever rezzed on approach (for Hostile Takeover) can often end the game. Hadrian’s Wall (also a fine Oversight AI or Priority Requisition target) is the other in-faction big ice that needed adding for more Parasite resilience and late game taxing of the runner economy. Oversight AI, as it uses 2 cards as a temporary stopper, also synergises with Anonymous Tip drawing operations and finding your next agenda, the key concept behind the deck.

So any feedback on this improvement?

Hey there,

I made a deck similar to this one myself, nice to see someone else had the idea too. I agree that advancing ice is too slow for this deck, you don't really want to spend any time on it. My personal deck is a little more aggressive than yours, I kept my 3 Scorched Earths in, and in addition to run ending ice I included tagging ice. Tagging ice is a good early defense as they tend to have higher strength than others and as such cost more, tags themselves will slow the runner down. The other thing about tagging ice having higher strength is that runner don't even want to parasite it.

Personally I don't like the Chimera or the Hadrian's wall, the Chimera thing is probably just because my local meta (Seattle) has a lot of Crypsis in it, which eats Chimera alive. For Hadrian though I think that a key part of Weyland draw has to be aggression, and as such you really don't want a card like hadrian's clogging you up on the off chance you can wing off a priority req. I think sticking with small ice is best.

My deck also uses Shipment From Mirrormorph. It's not a card I normally like, but for this deck I think it works. Ideal opening hand is hedge fund, 3 cheap ice, a shipment, and anything else for 6th card. Turn one you can end with ice in front of R&D, HQ, and a Remote, and have enough credits to rez it all.

I'll throw my current decklist up this weekend, I'd love to discuss this some more, I think it's a neat decktype, and it responds well to the current strength of aggressive criminal builds. Another thing to note is that with high card draw decks you can't be controlled by R&D lockdowns as easily, it's really nice to be able to burn through cards so that the runner doesn't know what you have in hand.

-Sam

Hi Sam

I too now realise that Crypsis is just too popular (for early game pressure or Noise decks) so Chimera is out for Wall of Static (yes, another barrier but it now has so much program trashing that you turn this into an advantage)..

I also found occasions when I was agenda flooded after an Anonymous Tip (which in theory is meant to draw your transaction economy). So I have actually totally diverged from my OP by replacing it with Rototurret - for 21 ice and even more program trashing. So now it's a slower program-trashing Control deck, not a rush Aggro deck.

I'd normally agree with you about Hadrian's Wall but this deck leverages the (any 1 of 6 cards) + (any 1 of 6 cards) combo of (Oversight AI or Priority Requisition) + (Archer or Hardian's Wall). In this deck, I assure you that it actually works well.

I'm intrigued with your build - please post so we can discuss. Linked to your reply, I am currently toying with the highly experimental build below.

"Rush Tag'N'Bag"

Weyland Consortium: Building a Better World (45 cards, 20 agenda pts)

15/15 influence: ••••••••• ••••••

Agenda (9)

· 3 Executive Retreat

· 2 Government Contracts

· 3 Hostile Takeover

· 1 Project Atlas

Operation (21)

· 3 Anonymous Tip •••

· 3 Beanstalk Royalties

· 3 Green Level Clearance •••

· 3 Hedge Fund

· 3 Rework •••

· 3 Scorched Earth

· 3 SEA Source ••••• •

Barrier (6)

· 3 Ice Wall

· 3 Wall of Static

Code Gate (3)

· 3 Enigma

Sentry (6)

· 3 Caduceus

· 3 Shadow

This deck will be tested next week but should work.

Features include:

• my first Corp deck with 45 cards to maximise Seas Source (3) + Scorched Earth (3) combo
• card draw in Anonymous Tip (3) and Green Level Clearance (3) to find missing/extra pieces
• no remote server (hence 15 ice in 45, 12 end the run), score 3 Takeovers as cash bursts
• protect R&D primarily as you Rework bigger agendas you don't plan to score
• cash-generating Sentries and Transactions to power your Sea Source to win

I always like trying out extreme builds (21 Assets Jinteki RP with 3 Janus in another thread, here 21 Operations).

I think Tag'N'Bag may flourish if there is less Gabriel out there (who runs with Carapace to ignore Siphon tags). The flip side is an anticipated preponderance of link due to new identity Andromeda's 1 link and Underworld Contacts. So I'm seriously considering going down to 12 ice, replacing the 6 tracing Sentries with 3 Oversight AI and 3 Archer. As currently scored Hostile Takeovers are wasted, serving only to worry the runner approaching unrezzed ice. But 12 ice (of which only 9 can be guaranteed rezzed) seems too extreme and combo-tastic even for me. Is 12 ice in 45 with lots of card draw too little?

In the end, I decided to focus on 3 principles

1. don't get distracted with remotes and scoring agendas which costs credits and clicks, protecting your big agendas with Rework
2. find your combo as quickly as possible (3 of 1 card, 3 of another, 45 deck, 6 cards that draw 12 cards thinning your deck further)
3. make money with transactions and ice to land your Sea Source - you only need to win that 1 trace, tax the runner to break others

It's not often I play purist Combo, preferring Control or Aggro decks, so I'm quite excited about testing this idea out.

Most importantly, I am very confident this deck will walk over the Noise Workshop decks still out there!

Edit: I am gonna replace the Executive Retreats (chosen to confuse the runner, also fitted the card draw/Rework theme) with Priority Requisition. My reasoning is you are never gonna score them (no remotes). So the only time time the runner sees them is when stolen. So the runner steals a Priority and this adds yet more suspicion that unrezzed ice is Archer (bluffing with the scored Takeover). I know it's a tiny psychological benefit but it still helps.

After a bit of thought, the deck is stronger ditching the Takeovers as it has no Archer support. The cash benefit of Takeover is tiny (+2 on just clicking for 3 creds) and Bad Publicity hurts.

So here is the quick amendment that thins the agenda count (7 in 45, runner needs to score 3 to win barring Notoriety) and adds a bit more cheap taxing ice (up to 17 in 45). The temptation is to add the 3rd Hunter and 3x Draco but for a Combo Corp deck, (I think) 45 cards is surely optimum size?

Weyland Consortium: Building a Better World (45 cards, 20 agenda pts)

15/15 influence: ••••••••• ••••••

Agenda (7)

· 3 Executive Retreat

· 3 Government Contracts

· 1 Project Atlas

Operation (21)

· 3 Anonymous Tip •••

· 3 Beanstalk Royalties

· 3 Green Level Clearance •••

· 3 Hedge Fund

· 3 Rework •••

· 3 Scorched Earth

· 3 SEA Source ••••• •

Barrier (6)

· 3 Ice Wall

· 3 Wall of Static

Code Gate (3)

· 3 Enigma

Sentry (8)

· 3 Caduceus

· 2 Hunter

· 3 Shadow

Yeah, this is definitely better. Of course if Noise fluke mills all 3 Scorched Earth (and/or Imp eats them in HQ with an aggressive Anarch build - see other thread), then you''ve got a big problem…. But the speed of the Combo set-up should be too fast for many decks, especially Noise Workshop.

In the end, all Combo decks suffer from the "win or lose miserably" polarised scores syndrome.

Here's what I'm working with right now. My only really strong Ice is Archer, it's only place it to make for truly punishable runs. Mostly I run this deck as fast as possible at all times, the shipments from mirrormorph let me play out a lot of ice within a few short turns. A piece of tagging ice in front of R&D is a nice early defense, and with the amount of card draw there's little chance that I <i>don't</i> have a scorched earth within the first 3 turns. It's been working well so far, I think I'll try out your build in the next week to see how the two compare and maybe I'll tweak mine based on it.

Ugh, I wish I could edit my own posts….sorry about that