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0
Tech Talk - COCONUT RADIOS FOR EVERYONE!
Nov 19 2013 06:25 AM |
Scud
in Android: Netrunner
Android: Netrunner Tech Talk Scud
All the TechHeads in the house say, "Tech!" All the TechHeads in the house say, "Talk!" Say, "Tech!" Say, "Talk!" Yeeeeah, boyeeee, Tech Talk is in the hiznoulie-ouse! And this week, we're revisiting one of our most popular past articles as we try to make use of that broke-@$$ Shaper Resource, Motivation.When Opening Moves was released, you could often find us sitting around the Ranch looking all forlorn, just like poor Exile: Streethawk (Creation and Control) in the art for Motivation (Opening Moves). The only difference was we weren't staring at a picture of our deactivated Bioroid ex or the parents that were killed by Weyland "consultants." No, we were staring at a copy of Motivation, trying to figure out just what the hell use it was.
The question of what the smack to do with Motivation haunted us from GenCon (we got our Opening Moves early) until just a week back, when Second Thoughts was released and we got a gander at Eureka! (Second Thoughts) For those of you who don't know (and, apparently, can't follow a link), Eureka! is a double Event that allows you to reveal the top card of your Stack and install it if able, lowering the cost by 10 credits. So, here's an actual, honest-to-Wotan (Second Thoughts) use for Motivation, a reason that knowing what the top card of your deck happens to be would be good. Ish. Goodish.
Ok, we have an article now, because we've found a use for Motivation, which is a Tech Talk kinda' card if we've ever seen one. But how to best leverage the combination? Well, Eureka! wants expensive, installable cards, Programs like Femme Fatale (Core), Morningstar (What Lies Ahead), Hardware like The Toolbox (Core) and... oh... my... god...
Monolith (Creation and Control)
*cue Also Sprach Zarathustra and bone-throwing monkeyman*
But what deck could we put together that would run Morningstar AND Femme Fatale AND enough other Programs to make Monolith worth it AND be able to run all those cards in the first place...
Yep, that's right, we're going back to The Professor: Keeper of Knowledge (Creation and Control) + Monolith. Long-time readers will remember the original deck, but just in case, here it is:
MY GOD, IT'S FULL OF STARS!
Identity:
The Professor: Keeper of Knowledge (Creation and Control)
Total Cards: (45)
Event: (17)
Sure Gamble (Core) x3
Test Run (Cyber Exodus) x3
Scavenge (Creation and Control) x3
Levy AR Lab Access (Creation and Control) x1
Stimhack (Core) x1 (1 Inf)
Eureka! (Second Thoughts) x3
Diesel (Core) x3
Hardware: (5)
Clone Chip (Creation and Control) x3
Monolith (Creation and Control) x2
Program: (16)
Corroder (Core) x1
Imp (What Lies Ahead) x1
Medium (Core) x1
Sneakdoor Beta (Core) x1
Faerie (Future Proof) x1
Femme Fatale (Core) x1
Gordian Blade (Core) x1
Magnum Opus (Core) x1
Self-modifying Code (Creation and Control) x2
Ninja (Core) x1
Datasucker (Core) x1
Nerve Agent (Cyber Exodus) x1
Djinn (Core) x1
Morning Star (What Lies Ahead) x1
Deus X (A Study in Static) x1
Resource: (7)
Kati Jones (Humanity's Shadow) x2
Motivation (Opening Moves) x3
Personal Workshop (Cyber Exodus) x2
When we debuted it, the deck made a big splash, one so big that we're all better off forgetting said splash. However, the deck itself was workable, and with a few tweaks, ran fairly well. Unfortunately, one of the best tweaks, at the time, was dropping Monolith completely.
With the Motivation + Eureka combo, though, we think it's time to give the deck another whirl. We'll leave in the Personal Workshop (Cyber Exodus) + Stimhack (Core) combo (which uses up The Professor's one Influence) so as to more reliably see Monolith in play. We'll keep both the backward forward tutoring, because being able to switch up your threats on the fly, even to threats you've already used and discarded, can be a huge advantage for the deck. The biggest change, and the one we are most reluctant to make, is dropping Professional Contacts (Creation and Control), but some things have to go to make room for our new cards. With a few other tweaks, we are happy to present the newest iteration of our Professor + Monolith deck, which we should call MY GOD, IT'S FULLER OF STARS but instead are calling...
COCONUT RADIOS FOR EVERYONE!
Identity:
The Professor: Keeper of Knowledge (Creation and Control)
Total Cards: (45)
Event: (17)
Sure Gamble (Core) x3
Test Run (Cyber Exodus) x3
Scavenge (Creation and Control) x3
Levy AR Lab Access (Creation and Control) x1
Stimhack (Core) x1 (1 Inf)
Eureka! (Second Thoughts) x3
Diesel (Core) x3
Hardware: (5)
Clone Chip (Creation and Control) x3
Monolith (Creation and Control) x2
Program: (16)
Corroder (Core) x1
Imp (What Lies Ahead) x1
Medium (Core) x1
Sneakdoor Beta (Core) x1
Faerie (Future Proof) x1
Femme Fatale (Core) x1
Gordian Blade (Core) x1
Magnum Opus (Core) x1
Self-modifying Code (Creation and Control) x2
Ninja (Core) x1
Datasucker (Core) x1
Nerve Agent (Cyber Exodus) x1
Djinn (Core) x1
Morning Star (What Lies Ahead) x1
Deus X (A Study in Static) x1
Resource: (7)
Kati Jones (Humanity's Shadow) x2
Motivation (Opening Moves) x3
Personal Workshop (Cyber Exodus) x2
As always, this is a first draft deck that has a few games under it's belt. Monolith is still clunky and sometimes you install it with fewer than three Programs in hand, especially if you luck out and hit it with Eureka! Nerve Agent, Medium, and Sneakdoor Beta are workhorses for the deck and you will probably spend some cash tutoring them up early to take advantage of pourous defense, then using Scavenge to overwrite them. Do not be afraid to Test Run + Scavenge Magnum Opus early – having boatloads of cash is great for this deck.
Alrighty, TechHeads, let's get out there and hit the nets with this swiss-army-knife of a deck and see what works and what doesn't, honing its blade (or maybe its corkscrew, or even its nail clippers) to a deadly edge. Or whatever. Let us know how the deck performs for you in the comments and we'll see you back here in two short weeks!
- Eldil and Yoshuriken like this
11 Comments
I'm surprised to see only 2x SMC in here - I'd have thought it would be one of the most powerful tools in a Professorlith deck (well, any Prof deck really) allowing you to fetch any program you could possibly need RIGHT THE HELL NOW. That said, I can see Test Run has a better synergy with Eureka, but that's getting expensive (and you'd be better off Scavenging instead).
This is of course speculative; I don't even own C&C yet (maybe I can convince the missus I need more cardboard for xmas
This could also use a Parasite. I'd drop Ninja, because you have reliable ways to cheat out your Femme and you also have Faerie. I can't see myself installing Ninja too often with this deck outside from Monolith, but maybe that's just me.
Freelance Coding Contract would be great EXCEPT that you want to be keeping some Programs in hand for when you install Monolith.
PW and SMC fight with each other. I want both in this deck, but using one makes the other less useful, so I split the difference.
Honestly, Monolith is the limiting factor in this deck, but it is also just about the only reason to use Motivation. I think Eureka! is far more powerful for installing Hardware – you want to have as fine control over installing Femme as you can, you don't want to be installing it early and having to waste its bypass. I would go as far as to say that even installing R&D or HQ Interface with Eureka! would be worth it.
Parasite was the hardest cut to make and honestly, I could see cutting Datasucker instead. If the goal of this deck wasn't to make Motivation useful, I'd cut 3x Motivation, 3x Eureka!, 2x Monolith, 1x Stimhack and both Personal Workshops to add 1x SMC, 1x Parasite, 1x Crescentus, 1x Datasucker (using my 1 Influence), 2x R&D Interface, 3x Akamatsu Mem Chip, and one extra Kati Jones.
In this version, I love Ninja, since I'm building a rig and powering it with MO.
But yeah, Monolith is really limiting. Considering the amount of hoops you have to jump through just to make it somewhat playable... It's really satisfying to install though
I can see your point about Ninja. This card just doesn't go well at all with my current mindset anymore but it's a decent choice for MO decks I suppose.
Motivation, fundamentally, doesn't *do* anything to put combos together. I just tells you if a conditional card (Eureka) isn't going to fail outright; it doesn't actually help it succeed.
I just don't like Monolith much either, and in this deck--it's one thing to draw into it and then put it on a PW or god help you, Modded, but in order to get your money's worth out of it, you're drawing cards into a hand that is already clogged with three programs you don't actually intend to play.
Now, with this deck, you're compounding that difficulty by drawing cards and *maybe* getting the card you want to the top of the deck, but you won't know until the start of your next turn. With Diesel or Quality Time to build a combo, at least you're taking 7% or 11% of your deck per attempt to find the card you want. Hoping to have one of two copies of a card land exactly on top of your deck where it can be Eureka'd? It's an inherently improbable configuration, and all Motivation does is tell you whether you should draw the one card you know it's *not*.
I can respect Motivation + Eureka for any given program: like you said, lots of programs are break-even propositions. But, I think it has a faint anti-synergy with Professor. I think his strength is the ability to rummage through the toolbox to install the right tool for the right job.* Expecting the one card that's appropriate to be on the top of the deck? That's Test Run's job, which makes Motivation a dead card for that turn.
*god help me I quoted Star Trek V
I also appreciate trying to get two cards I am secretly really excited about (Eureka! and Monolith) into a trim deck. Unfortunately, I think that Eureka!/Motivation still needs a support card to get the ball rolling. I think that support card could be a prepaid voice pad, even a single one makes the combo far more viable (pay 4 to get a program into play using Eureka!/Test Run or just 2 with Eureka!).
Actually, in order to make the Eureka/Test Run playable, I think Prepaid Voicepad need to be in the deck in some form, which makes me think more and more that Eureka is not a good fit for the Professor right now. Also, I wonder why one would not simply run Test Run/Salvage over Test Run/Eureka!, except for the synergy of knowing what is on top. I also wonder if Monolith is going to be his ideal console over Toolbox.
This of course is just based on my experiences with the Professor and my perspective as someone who runs a Professor deck. I so want the days of a 28/30 program deck to be here, but I am pretty constantly reminded that there just are not enough good programs out there right now to really make this worthwhile. I do wonder, with full tutoring how "big" a professor deck could reasonably be in the future with proper tutor support...
Anyway, rambling at this point. Love that people are playing with the Professor and I hope to see more of him in the future.
Deck Created with CardGameDB.com Android: Netrunner Deck Builder
http://www.cardgamed...er-deck-builder
Identity:
The Professor: Keeper of Knowledge (Creation and Control)
Total Cards: (45)
Event (15)
Sure Gamble (Core #50) x3
Test Run (Cyber Exodus #47) x3
Scavenge (Creation and Control #34) x3
Levy AR Lab Access (Creation and Control #35) x2
Stimhack (Core #4) x1 (1 Inf)
Diesel (Core #34) x3
Hardware (8)
Clone Chip (Creation and Control #38) x3
Akamatsu Mem Chip (Core #38) x3
The Toolbox (Core #41) x2
Program (18)
Corroder (Core #7) x1
Imp (What Lies Ahead #3) x1
Medium (Core #10) x1
Sneakdoor Beta (Core #28) x1
Faerie (Future Proof #104) x1
Femme Fatale (Core #26) x1
Gordian Blade (Core #43) x1
Magnum Opus (Core #44) x2
Self-modifying Code (Creation and Control #46) x3
Ninja (Core #27) x1
Datasucker (Core #8) x1
Nerve Agent (Cyber Exodus #41) x1
Djinn (Core #9) x1
Morning Star (What Lies Ahead #4) x1
Deus X (A Study in Static #66) x1
Resource (4)
Professional Contacts (Creation and Control #49) x2
Same Old Thing (Creation and Control #54) x2
While I haven't gotten a chance to play with this yet, I'm tweaking it more towards utility programs, as I love them so. I pulled out the stimhack/PW combo (we'll see how much that hurts) and instead I'm going with 2x Scheherazade, 2x Same old thing, 1x Freelance coding contract, 1x Gorman Drip, 1x Crescentus, and 1x Copycat. I also tweaked the counts on a few other cards to get to 48 total, as I seem to be horrible at making 45-card decks.
When playing Professor, I have found Gormann Drip to be a waste of a slot. Right now Professor just does not have any credit denial in faction to justify the inclusion of the program. I will grant that against some builds it could be good, but the card is much better suited for other builds IMO.
Identity:
Kate "Mac" McCaffrey: Digital Tinker (Core)
Total Cards: (45)
Event (13)
Eureka! (Second Thoughts #27) x3
Sure Gamble (Core #50) x3
Levy AR Lab Access (Creation and Control #35) x1
Modded (Core #35) x3
Test Run (Cyber Exodus #47) x3
Hardware (9)
The Toolbox (Core #41) x2
Rabbit Hole (Core #39) x3
R&D Interface (Future Proof #107) x2
Akamatsu Mem Chip (Core #38) x2
Program (15)
Femme Fatale (Core #26) x3 â–
Morning Star (What Lies Ahead #4) x2 â– â– â– â–
Datasucker (Core #8) x3 â–
Creeper (Humanity's Shadow #89) x2
ZU.13 Key Master (What Lies Ahead #7) x2
Snowball (Trace Amount #27) x1
Deus X (A Study in Static #66) x2
Resource (8)
Kati Jones (Humanity's Shadow #91) x2
Motivation (Opening Moves #8) x2
Aesop's Pawnshop (Core #47) x1
Underworld Contact (A Study in Static #69) x3
Influence Values Totals -
Anarch: 11
Criminal: 3
Shaper: 48