Tech Talk - Foxes and Freelancers and Burke Bugs, Oh My!

It's Tech Talk time once again, TechHeads! This week, as we anxiously await Creation & Control, we decided to shoot the moon and try building a "Resource Denial" Corp deck that uses a whole lot of Tech Talk-y cards: Sherlock 1.0, Data Hound, Foxfire, and even Burke Bugs! Burke Bugs, kids! This one is WILD!

(A thaaaqqank-you-based shout-out to SysopNumber2 for suggesting we try building this type of deck!)

Account Siphon (Core). Vamp (Trace Amount). Xanadu (Humanity's Shadow). Cortez Chip (What Lies Ahead). Emergency Shutdown (Cyber Exodus). It seems like a Corp can't take a moment to advance a sinister Agenda without the Runner showing up with some way to ruin your day by stealing your money (or at least making you spend way more than you planned). They call it "resource denial." The Corp calls it "jag-baggery most foul" and they aren't going to take it anymore. They will no longer be content to sit in their luxurious corner office watching the sunset glint fluorescent orange off the layer of pollution they are pumping into the air, sipping an Old Fashioned that uses the sweat of the working man in place of bitters while the Runner COSTS THEM MONEY! Two can play at this "resource denial" game. The Corp minored in Jag-Baggery in business school, don't ya know.

Denying the Runner resources can be done in a few ways:

Taking her credits.
Trashing her installed Programs/Hardware/Resources.
Taking cards out of her hand and/or deck.

The first thing to notice is that most of these options require the Runner to be tagged (or are directly the result of a successful Trace, which is similar enough). That means that we'll be looking at a lot of Traces, which sends up a NBN: Making News (Core)-shaped flag, so we'll start with that ID.

Resource denial Operations are the easiest to pick: Foxfire (Humanity's Shadow), Freelancer (Trace Amount), Power Grid Overload (Trace Amount), and Closed Accounts (Core) are all no-brainers. HOWEVER, we're only going to include two of each. Why? Chances are the game won't last long enough for you to get use out of both copies of each of those cards, let alone three. Sure, there will be games where you'll have the chance to use a third Power Grid Overload, but on average, you need to be taking advantage of the tempo bump you get from denying the Runner her resources instead of setting up another opportunity to deny her. One Operation we WILL take three of, though, is Hedge Fund (core) because, dayum, Traces can be spendy!

Speaking of cashy-money, let's talk Assets. Marked Accounts (Cyber Exodus) is in-faction and its high Trash-cost plays perfectly into a denial strategy. If you're wasting the Runner's money, do they want to waste more of it for you? We'll also take a couple copies of Melange Mining Corp (Core) because we want a way to force the Runner to run even when we don't have an Agenda out since a chunk of our denial tools will come in the form of ICE (which we'll get to in a moment). We'll round out our Assets with two copies of Aggressive Secretary (Core) for some hilarious Program-trashing hijinks.

Alright, so let's talk ICE. There are actually a good number of "resource denial" ICE we can use. Flare (Future Proof), with it's Hardware-blowing-up-real-good-ness is in-faction and a no-brainer. The much-maligned Data Hound (Humanity's Shadow) is a nice, low-cost surprise that may catch the Runner off-guard early and may let us deal with one of her nasty resource denial cards before she gets a chance to smack us with it. Looking out-of-faction, we COULD go with Ichi 1.0 (Core) but this is Tech Talk, kids, so we'll opt instead for one copy of Sherlock 1.0 (Trace Amount). If they can't break him, the Traces ensure they'll spend an extra bit of money (which is resource denial) to keep their Program(s). If we do toss them back on the Stack, at worst we cost them a click to draw and a click + credits to re-install. Best case scenario, they hit a Data Hound and we can toss the Program (if there's nothing more scary). While we're hanging around Haas-Bioroid, we'll also grab a copy of Rototurret (Core) and, because we need some plain ole' stoppin' ICE, three copies of Eli 1.0 (Future Proof). Then we'll take a wander on over to the Weyland Consortium's offices in the Beanstalk and pick up two swarms of Burke Bugs (Future Proof), a Tech Talk type of card if ever there was one. These little suckers are more like a trap than they are ICE, so we'll want to be careful about how (and if) we use them during the game, but if we can hit the Runner at the right time, we can force a pretty tough decision. While we're at the Beanstalk, we'll also grab a copy of Shadow (Core), because economy plus tagging in an advanceable package is a nice little addition. When we get back home to the NBN Studios, we'll order up two each of Tollbooth (Core) and Data Raven (Core) (for stopping power and tagging help, respectively), and requisition a full sett of Wall of Static (Core) and a single Enigma (Core).

That puts us at 38 cards, so we can use a pretty standard Agenda array of three AstroScript Pilot Program (Core), three Project Beale (Future Proof), two Breaking News (Core), and three Private Security Force (Core). The PSF gives us the ability to do a bit of damage, which can really hobble a Runner that is already losing installed Programs/Hardware/Resources.

So, here's a look at the Corp "resource denial" deck that we call (in honor of The Newsroom returning to the air):

The Takedown Piece
Identity: NBN: Making News (Core)

Total Cards: 49

Agenda (11)
AstroScript Pilot Program (Core) x3
Project Beale (Future Proof) x3
Breaking News (Core) x2
Private Security Force (Core) x3

Asset (7)
Marked Accounts (Cyber Exodus) x3
Melange Mining Corp (Core) x2
Aggressive Secretary (Core) x2 (4 Influence)

ICE (20)
Flare (Future Proof) x2
Data Hound (Humanity's Shadow) x2
Sherlock 1.0 (Trace Amount) x1 (2 Influence)
Rototurret (Core) x1 (1 Influence)
Eli 1.0 (Future Proof) x3 (3 Influence)
Burke Bugs (Future Proof) x2 (2 Influence)
Shadow (Core) x1 (1 Influence)
Tollbooth (Core) x2
Data Raven (Core) x2
Wall of Static (Core) x3
Enigma (Core) x1

Operation (11)
Foxfire (Humanity's Shadow) x2
Freelancer (Trace Amount) x2
Power Grid Overload (Trace Amount) x2
Closed Accounts (Core) x2
Hedge Fund (Core) x3


There you have it, Tech Talk's first stab at a resource denial deck for the Corp. Data Hound, Burke Bugs, and Rototurret should function more like traps than ICE, so when you rez 'em, make 'em count. You'll want to try to fast advance your way to victory, so remember to protect your R&D from all those R&D Interface (Future Proof) wielding hooligans. The deck itself will probably be pretty slow, though. Take your time, keep your credits up, and see if you can't take the Runner by surprise.

As always, please try the deck as posted AND THEN come on back and let's start tearing the thing apart and putting it back together.

We'll be back in two weeks with (probably) a new deck featuring the brand new Shaper ID The Professor (assuming Creation & Control is out by then...).