Khan: Savvy Ice Analyzer - Compromised Autoscripter

Krams 949

So, it has been a while since I posted the previous iteration of this deck. I've been tinkering a lot with it and I can't seem to make it work, so I'm posting my current state in hope for help.

As always, any comments are welcome :)

Khan and her birds - the deck concept

  • Peregrine + Golden for breaking and derrezing
  • Ice Analyzer for paying for Peregrine + Golden (re)installs
    • of course Ice Analyzer is fueled by the ice being derezzed regularly
    • extra s from Compromised Employee on every rez
  • Khan: Savvy Skiptracer for instant reinstalls after derezzing
    • can be used for reinstalling breakers after passing any other Ice than the first
  • Autoscripter to profit off of regular program installs

Economy

I ditched the standard criminal running economy, because I had too much trouble being shut out early on. This deck is slow and needs setup time and Desperado didn't help with that. Logos does.
When I finally realized the main concept of this deck just doesn't allow to be super fast, I embraced the slowness of my setupand included The Supplier. He helps a lot. Including him switched everything a little bit away from Events and more towards resources, but that's fine.

Breaker Suite

  • Ankusa as main fracter. Most barriers that are played are cheap and the "add to HQ" ability of Ankusa is what makes them expensive by draining clicks. Even if there was a bird for barriers, it'd still be worth only for higher rez cost barriers - which don't really see play. Ankusa has proven itself to be the bane of Vanilla. Yes, it's expensive, but it makes all small barriers completely obsolete once it's installed.
  • Breach as backup-fracter. It's cheap.
  • No Mimic. Yes, Golden is inflexible and yes, it sucks to break something with 2 strength and 1 sub. But against most common sentries, Golden is okay. Not great, but good enough to be used without help.
  • No Yog.0. Peregrine is a pain if you're trying to break something with exactly 3 strength, like Fairchild 2.0 or Viktor 1.0 or Magnet or whatever. And Peregrine pays 1 for Quandry, which is way more than Yog pays. But Yog eats up and has a high install cost and is only needed to make corner-cases cheaper to break. I found I didn't really need it and replaced it with...
  • ...Datasuckers! Because Breach and Golden and Peregrine are all inflexible when pumping strength. Suckers help with that. It's what the breaker suite needed.

Ongoing Problems

  • The setup is still inconsistent, despite having only 40 cards and nearly no 1-ofs.
  • My early aggression is much lower, now that I swithed to a resource economy, allowing the corp more time to breath eraly on. Fast corps win.
  • I'm still susceptible to damage.
    • The handsize from Logos isn't enough for Boom!. Box-E could help here, but it's slower during the setup. Maybe a Sports Hopper, installed by the Supplier? Could work, but I'd have to make room for it.
    • 1000 cuts is problematic, too. Muresh Bodysuit and Net Shield are dead cards in 90% of the games, but needed in some. I have considered Feedback Filter, but I'm unsure about it.
  • My drawing sucks. I miss my 6 Exclusive Parties, but, you know, I kinda needed the slots. Mabye a Fisk to go with the HQI and the Ankusa? Could work. Now, what to cut for Fisk?

Thanks for reading! :)

9 comments
28 Oct 2016 Krams

Oh, and I forgot to mention Savoir-faire in the write-up. Well, I ditched it. It was too expensive to use. Yes, I know, it was my on-demand install tool for facechecking and it was my only way of derezzing a 3 sentries deep server in one go with only one golden, but that never really happened anyways :D

28 Oct 2016 MrAaronSA

Cool deck, surely a third Temüjin Contract is warranted in all blue builds these days.

28 Oct 2016 MrAaronSA

Also, your argument about Ankusa is interesting. Most barriers, as you say, are cheap gearchecks these days. Once your ankusa is down, I'm sure you're right that these cheap barriers are just not worth it to lay down. But I almost find the same is true with any fracter. If the runner has a fracter down with which they can break my ice for 1 credit, I'm likely not going to spend my time or resources to lay that ice down except for maybe as a first ice for a small tax. Basically I think Paperclip will give you the same effect.

28 Oct 2016 oasis

@MrAaronSA Some barriers, like Bailiff are still worth it. Eli is still a 3 credit tax for paperclip. I don't think Paperclip should have the same stopping power on barriers that yog once exerted on code gates (and still does). You have to take into account that they aren't as taxing, but running gear checks just exacerbates the problem

28 Oct 2016 PureFlight

You could try some Babies if you miss Parties too much. You could also try dropping a zade and/or a Turning Wheel for 1-2 Quality Time to help your set-up.

Datasucker is absolutely the right choice with the birds.

Asset decks are a real struggle for my Khan deck. Not sure what crim can do against them.

28 Oct 2016 FarCryFromHuman

I think you pretty much need Feedback Filter. When your birds are in the bush it's fine, but two in hand when the corp rezzes a Bio-Ethics Association or plays Neural EMP makes you a sad hunter. You can play around this a bit but paying 3 every once in a while to save your birds seems worthwhile. Where would the influence come from? Go to 1x Scheherazade maybe? It can kind of come online whenever you draw it since you are juggling your breakers.

I also question how important Autoscripter is. It's nice to get a free for using your Khan ability, but its expensive to install and is trashed easily, and encourages you to complete runs that you'd be smarter jacking out of. I think it's kind of a trap. I suppose you can bank it on The Supplier until you think you'll get use out of it but I worry.

I don't think you have the burst draw to support Career Fair, and you already have The Supplier. I don't think both are necessary.

3x Temüjin Contract. Always and forever.

28 Oct 2016 Krams

Thank you all for the feedback :)

I don't know why I didn't think of Symmetrical Visage myself, it's really fitting and works well with The Supplier.

And after some more testplays I really think @FarCryFromHuman is right with the Autoscripter. It sonded so nice in theory, but it needs a lot of installs to pay for itself, more than I originally thought.

So, more Babies, more Temüjin, less Career Fair, less Autoscripter, and I'll go give Feedback Filter a try, dropping a Sche for it. I'll tinker around and post an update soonish.

28 Oct 2016 killj0y

So some other options. I've seen it pop a lot in other Kahn decks. Maybe drop one Ice analyzer and swap in London Library? Shaves 1 influence that way.

I'm assuming breach and Ankusa are there until the third part of the raptor suite comes out, not a bad choice and since we don't know the third card there's not a lot of replacements.

I see a lot of coupons + econ. If you're having trouble with econ maybe you need to swing the balance a bit. Say drop supplier or career fair and replace with Bank Job?

I do see a lot of fetch but not a lot of straight draw. Fisk Investment Seminar could give you a boost. Alternate possibility and this is just a what if, maybe take that extra influence and run this as Andromeda: Dispossessed Ristie with a rebirth into Kahn? 5 extra card slots and 3 more influence would let you snag some Quality Time or maybe a couple I've Had Worse and a Sports Hopper

6 Nov 2016 5N00P1

I think the interesting interaction with low strength ICE & Ankusa in this Deck is, that through Compromised Employee you are getting Creds each time ICE is rezzed. A vanilla would generate you creds, while you need to break it for 2, but it goes back to hand and might need to be installed again for creds too. And on top it would feed Ice Analyzer that you would need to reinstall your birds. So when you have a decent number of any of these out, cheap gear check barriers won't be rezzed or installed anymore.