I hope you have not lost all of your interested in reading my posts. Usually I try to keep the right balance between text length and information but I know it is a lot to read.
Today I want to write about operation based combos and assets / upgrades. At the beginning I wanted to write about all subsections individually but after I went through all the cards I realized it would not be worth doing it because I would have to literally create combos nobody really would use.
But let me go back a little bit further. Card advantage is something I hear people talking about a lot and I agree. A player who is able to keep useful cards on his hand until the right moment to play them is much more flexible and in the position to win the game. Sure, if I have no cards on my hand no cards can be snitched from it! Right?
Indeed but your opponent will run R&D or use the time to prepare for another run next turn. It has huge disadvantages to have no cards you can play with.
But let me go back a little bit further. Card advantage is something I hear people talking about a lot and I agree. A player who is able to keep useful cards on his hand until the right moment to play them is much more flexible and in the position to win the game. Sure, if I have no cards on my hand no cards can be snitched from it! Right?
Indeed but your opponent will run R&D or use the time to prepare for another run next turn. It has huge disadvantages to have no cards you can play with.
Operations are basically the quintessence of that. With them you can increase your economy, damage the runner, advance cards and do a whole bunch of other things.
Assets on the other hand are always traps. It might sound wrong but until you rezz it the runner does not know if it is an Agenda or not. So you can lure him into the server or force him to run on your asset. it could be a San San which he cannot trash or a Snare, pad Campaign, TGTBT or whatever. Those cards allow you to play more flexible. My Weyland deck uses nearly no assets only Jackson Howard so the runner sometimes starts to realize if I play a card it will be most likely an Agenda which can be unfortunate but fits the style of my deck.
Assets on the other hand are always traps. It might sound wrong but until you rezz it the runner does not know if it is an Agenda or not. So you can lure him into the server or force him to run on your asset. it could be a San San which he cannot trash or a Snare, pad Campaign, TGTBT or whatever. Those cards allow you to play more flexible. My Weyland deck uses nearly no assets only Jackson Howard so the runner sometimes starts to realize if I play a card it will be most likely an Agenda which can be unfortunate but fits the style of my deck.
If we want to talk about Operations and Assets I could start by presenting all of them and give factional advice like the ICE combo article but I feel you already know about those things and I can skip to the more interesting part.
BASICS
Well, the underlying assumptions regarding card draw and probability can be reviewed in my ICE combo article. You can never rely on your combo as your one and only way to win. You need to have a plan A (Indeed, combos always will be plan B, or C, or D...) so keep that in mind when you build your deck.
Some decks play less operations, some play more. It can not assessed conclusively if operation based economy will continue form up the future meta but that's the situation right now. Everybody splashes Beanstalks, Green Level Clearance and uses Restructure, Hedge Fund etc. to keep their economy alive. That makes sense and is a valid way to deal with. HB still uses Adonis/ Eve Campaign and Jinteki has assets like Sundew but still plays celebrity gift. Sweeps week was a huge boon to NBN and will be splashed in other decks too. My Weyland deck uses a total of 21 Operations. On worlds the winning HB Deck used 8 and the second place NBN Deck 17 Operations. You will agree that operations play a central role in the disharmonious dance between runner and corp.
Assets are the other category of key cards which are either useful for the corp in terms of credits or effects or are directly affecting the runner by trashing hardware, causing net damage or doing similar effects. Although allot of those cards possess useful effects on their own a combination may increase/ enhance this effect extensively or at least support it.
Assets are the other category of key cards which are either useful for the corp in terms of credits or effects or are directly affecting the runner by trashing hardware, causing net damage or doing similar effects. Although allot of those cards possess useful effects on their own a combination may increase/ enhance this effect extensively or at least support it.
Combos
1. Weyland:BABW Hedge Fund + Restructure
During first turn or every time you have 5 credits 5 + 5 + 6 = 16 Credits in Round one. That's burst economy.
You have only one click left to install an ICE so only useful if you have no Agenda in HQ and not fearing an Emergency shutdown, account siphon etc.
2. Midseason Replacements + Psychographics
Over-advancing a Project Beale was never so interesting.
Difficult combo but can instantly win you the game. Don't rely on it. Players are trying to build whole decks around it. I would not recommend such a deck building strategy but is worth a try to get a feel for the cards. Surprisingly during the last weeks I played versus some buddies who tried really hard to get this archetype of a deck up and running but it was never a real threat. If you want to test such a combo use heavy economy. You need a strong Midseason to fire it.
3. Archived memories + Scorched Earth
Indeed, if we splash this in a Weyland or NBN deck which gives us the option to surprise the runner, if we see a good opportunity for tag punishment and we have only drawn one Scorched Earth so far it might provide us with a window to win the game. Also very effective in combination with Project Vitruvius. In general you can get any useful operation back but this sometimes surprises the runner.
Indeed, if we splash this in a Weyland or NBN deck which gives us the option to surprise the runner, if we see a good opportunity for tag punishment and we have only drawn one Scorched Earth so far it might provide us with a window to win the game. Also very effective in combination with Project Vitruvius. In general you can get any useful operation back but this sometimes surprises the runner.
4. Precognition + Accelerated Diagnostics
Well, besides all Jackson Howard magic with AD Precognition provides you to sort 5 cards from R&D which can be played with AD without further costs. If you really want to play some cards it is very useful to have on AD on your hand. If those 5 cards are no operations you don't have to trash/ use AD. It will favor Jinteki because with 3 influence those card is not so easily integrated in another faction.
Well, besides all Jackson Howard magic with AD Precognition provides you to sort 5 cards from R&D which can be played with AD without further costs. If you really want to play some cards it is very useful to have on AD on your hand. If those 5 cards are no operations you don't have to trash/ use AD. It will favor Jinteki because with 3 influence those card is not so easily integrated in another faction.
5. Bernice May/ Trace ICE + Chilo City Grid + Tag Punishment
That's a nice combo if you want to give the runner at least one tag. Sometimes the runner has still one click left to remove the tag but with 2 tags, high trash costs for Chilo it won't be so easy for him to do. Sure you can play Big Brother etc. afterwards but it is very unlikely to have such a card in your deck. Midseason is much better to play such a combo.
6. Neural Katana + Fetal AI + Hokusai Grid (+ RSVP)
Awesome! 6 net damage for the runner and not so difficult to set up. If you don'r want to score the Fetal AI keep it and use the tokens with Trick of Light for other agendas or assets like Junebug. If you are lucky and play a RSVP in front of your server it will be frustrating for the runner.
7. Hokusai Grid + Fetal AI + RSVP
A runner who gets net damage but cannot steal the Fetal AI is really mean. RSVP still has the advantage to be unyogable which makes it very useful, especially in early - mid game.
Awesome! 6 net damage for the runner and not so difficult to set up. If you don'r want to score the Fetal AI keep it and use the tokens with Trick of Light for other agendas or assets like Junebug. If you are lucky and play a RSVP in front of your server it will be frustrating for the runner.
7. Hokusai Grid + Fetal AI + RSVP
A runner who gets net damage but cannot steal the Fetal AI is really mean. RSVP still has the advantage to be unyogable which makes it very useful, especially in early - mid game.
8. Matrixanalyzer + advancable ICE + Trick of Light
A superb way to advance Agendas and to make it more difficult (expensive) for your opponent to break trough your ICE. If you advance an ICE Wall it won't be devastating if the runner derezzes it. The rezz costs stay 1. Swarm (rarely played), Hadrianswall, Shadow are other examples of ICE you may advance.
9. Advancable ICE/ Assets and Commercialization
Similar to #8. Very nice to get some credits easily.
10. Power Shutdown + Jackson Howard + + Accelerated Diagnostics + Sea Source/ Midseason + Scorched Earth
Well, now we enter the combo wonderland. It is awesome if you can pull it off. I saw two players doing exactly this combo and it worked. You need to triple check your credits and clicks but it is possible to start a game winning combo. It need some setup and a well used Keyhole or IMP or simply the Noise ability may screw you over.
You use power shutdown to trash all of your cards in R&D when you have at least one Jackson Howard installed and rezzed and trash a Plascrete Carapace. Afterwards you remove Action Jackson from the game and put back your 3 Operations you want to play. It could be a Sea Source and two Scorched Earth. On your second click you play Accelerated Diagnostics and draw the last 3 cards from R&D. You still have to pay for the trace but nothing more so you just have to get sure you have enough credits to pay for it.
11. RSVP + Bernice May
Simple to set up and wonderful if you want to tag the runner. Works also as a bait. He cannot trash Bernice and he has a tag. At least he loses 2 credits and two clicks. I like it.
Conclusion
Many other combination exist and please feel free to post your favorite combos too. I will add everything useful to this list.
As long as the game develops the card pool will increase which will also increase the number of useful combos you can play. I assume combos are useful and in my future posts I will write about combinations for the runner.
Keep Iceing.
Pictures: http://th07.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/f/2012/351/8/3/bounty_hunter_by_el_grimlock-d5obluc.jpg
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