Brahman Prophecy

obscurica 1317

So this pretty much ended up a lot better than any other runner deck I'm currently trying, and it started out from a few glib asides on Stimslack about Brahman/Oracle May abuse. With Magnum Opus as your restricted card, the extra memory from Chaos Theory: Wünderkind to help ensure stable Data Folding drip, and Scavenge/Test Run support, you end up with an absolutely gross amount of money.

The fact that you can guarantee that Dhegdheer gets proper usage thanks to the Brahman/May loop just helps matters, especially once you have the time and opportunity to dump a Deep Data Mining down their R&D. Though you end up remote-camping for most of the game, the occasional DDM can really swing things in your favor.

Caldera makes Jinteki incredibly sad. I wouldn't change it out.

10 comments
5 Oct 2017 GameOfDroids

But why Caldera when Feedback Filter exists?

5 Oct 2017 obscurica

@GameOfDroids Because I had a point of spare inf I didn't want to use on another May or Turning Wheel, needed anti-Jinteki measures, and they're equivalent -- with Caldera having the slight edge in not having to trash to prevent brain damage. That slight edge gives it the nod.

5 Oct 2017 Bloel

I'm a huge Brahman fan so always glad to see it get the love it deserves. This looks great but I'm curious about how it deals with Fast Advance and to a lesser extent Batty?

5 Oct 2017 Rahrhino

@obscurica As someone playing Jinteki at the moment I would rather see the runner playing Caldera than Feedback Filter as I can trash it with Voter Intimidation. Also I am tagging which is another route to trashing Caldera. Feedback filter is infinitely harder for me to deal with.

5 Oct 2017 Gswp

This is a bit of a clueless beginner-y question, but which program do you want to put back on the stack with Brahman? I was thinking it should be something cheap, right? Or D4v1d after it's run out?

5 Oct 2017 Quarg

Personally I'd want to fit a Legwork or something in here for some HQ multi-access, and probably swap out Mongoose for either Mimic or Na'Not'K, as boosting to strength really isn't a priority for your killer here.

And as said above, how does this handle fast advance, such as Trick of Titan?

5 Oct 2017 Acatalepsy

Why Dinosaurous over another console (astrolabe for controlling spam?) or Omni-drive?

6 Oct 2017 EnderA

There are two directions you can take a Brahman deck in: Rush or Lock. Rush relies on cheap, efficient, temporary breakers that get in and win fast, with Brahman to reset you when you need it. Lock builds a board state that efficiently breaks any server for the rest of the game. You seem to be leaning toward Lock, which is what I did back before rotation simply because that's my style of play.

It wasn't possible to make it tier 1, but it always felt like it was one breakthrough away from being good. Some cards that are crucial to making the Lock deck work IMO are Paricia, Cyber-Cypher, and Sahasrara. I would also recommend changing Deep Data Mining/Data Folding out for The Maker's Eye and putting Maven in. Maven gives you a solid end-game if they go glacier, conserving D4v1d counters.

It's unfortunate that you now have to choose between Clone Chip and Magnum Opus, because they were both important, Opus vs glacier and CC with Clot versus fast advance (unfortunately, I think fast advance is a huge part of the meta right now.) Going Lock, Opus is critical, so the best way to keep a Clot lock is Sacrificial Construct, along with the full suite of 3 Self-modifying Code. This also protects you from Marcus Batty + trash a program. (Helpfully, SMC has an install cost of 0 for more Brahman fuel.)

Nowadays I think one copy of Aumakua is fantastic in any deck that can afford the memory, and I'd probably prefer either Astrolabe or Daredevil for a console, but testing Dinosaurus is fine if you think it gives you lots of value. It's just really expensive. If you stick with Dinosaurus, consider Chameleon, as it's a flexible breaker that technically isn't AI. If you find 4-strength annoying, Datasucker is an option. (Sad that LLDS Processor is gone.) Also, since you have Scavenge in here already, MKUltra is an option as a dual-purpose sentry breaker: it can make Scavenge effectively permanent. Or, Na'Not'K, which quickly turns into a super-Mimic as they layer ice.

If you want to experiment, Hayley Kaplan: Universal Scholar may be a better ID for this (and was my original ID until I switched to Kate "Mac" McCaffrey: Digital Tinker since money seemed more important.) She helps offset the click inefficiency of the deck (every use of Brahman theoretically sets you back 2 clicks.) The most brutal part of playing this deck is the reload time after making a run, and Hayley speeds that up.

As others have mentioned, Feedback Filter is better than Caldera because it saves an influence and is harder to kill. Unless you are taking tons of brain damage (bravo to the corp), it's not worth it. I think Caldera is just for criminals to make up for the loss of Account Siphon in shell game matchups. One less thing they have to import.

This is a deck that is ravenous for card slots, unfortunately. Thankfully, a lot of it can be 1-ofs with a strong enough draw engine and lots of SMC + Test Run + Scavenge.

Sorry for the wall of text, but hopefully that's constructive.

6 Oct 2017 Zouavez

This is an awesome deck idea, I'll definitely try this out :)

7 Oct 2017 Oddjob62

@Gswp D4v1d and Cerberus "Lady" H1 are both ideal candidates. Remember once Oracle May is out you just call program and get 2 back when you draw them and then get another 1 discount when you install them on Dhegdheer