For Want of a Film Critic

A deck I've been playing with decent success on OCTGN for the better part of a month. I find that Nasir takes the standard Shaper Bullshit to another level, making him extremely enjoyable to play, and commensurately frustrating for the corporation to square off against.

I've toyed with a few variations, which I'll go into later. As the title suggests, I 100% plan to include Film Critic when it's eventually released. I've lost several games by a credit or two due to running into a TFP or NAPD too early, or not being fast or lucky enough to hit them late.

Most of this is fairly standard Nasir fare. Personal Workshop/Order of Sol to drive your economy. Armitage Codebusting to quickly pool credits when needed. Ghost Runner for emergencies and NAPD-snatching. Stimhack to clean out your workshop or dive into a fully rezzed remote. The Toolbox to help sustain mid-to-late running and boost Atmans.

There are two new additions, though, courtesy of the Underway:

// Street Peddler //

I wasn't sure about these at first, but I've come to like them. In the worst case scenario where you don't draw a Workshop in your starting hand, they serve as Diesel alternatives until you get there. In the best case scenario, they can conceal a key Ghost Runner, Clone Chip, or breaker which you can use to blindside a server the corp thought was otherwise secure.

// Chameleon //

In contrast to the Peddlers, I initially liked this card and it vindicated me by becoming an MVP. It lets you threaten any server in the early game, costing only 4c to SMC out. It helps fill gaps in your breaker suite in the mid-game, and it can still carry its weight with sucker tokens. In a deck that will probably brain itself with Stimhack at some point, bouncing back to your hand at the end of the turn for added protection is nothing to sneeze at. Finally, you just stick it on your Workshop at the start of your next turn, tick it down to 1 counter, and it just sits there on your shoulder, whispering in your ear:

"Dude, we can go anywhere we want. ANYWHERE. And if they rezz something expensive, we'll just turn that money into a Torch or an Atman or something even more miserable. And then we'll just get in anyway. Holy shit."

Seriously: MVP.

// Variations & Alternatives //

• Removing the D4v1d. I hate this card - not because of its functionality, but because Nasir is already tight on influence, and 4 inf just to be slightly less awful against Blue Sun is miserable. This could be another Imp and Datasucker, or two more Parasites, or two HQ Interfaces to patch one of this deck's bigger weaknesses.
• Killing the Mimic? Chameleon/Sucker will handle all the same problems, provided you can manage the tempo of it. If you do this, it hinders Chameleon's ability to fill in until Torch comes out, or take care of cheap barriers to save Lady tokens.
• Imp vs.Scrubber. Like D4V1D, I turned to Imp mostly as a way of dealing with stronger meta corps. Before that I ran 2 Scrubbers. When they came out early, they felt much more smooth than Imp (which would require memory for tutoring, plus clone chips and Scavenge to refresh) and would do a ton of work, letting me drop campaigns or Roots or SanSans the turn they came out while barely breaking a sweat. They were great for thinning out R&D, too. Unfortunately, deck space is at a premium, they couldn't be tutored, made Nasir's huge tag vulnerability even worse, and wouldn't let me trash agendas or key operations.
• Symmetrical Visage. With a Sol trigger and first-click draw, you can start any run with 2c in your pocket instead of the usual 1. Even if that extra credit just goes into your workshop just before an ICE encounter, the click compression is nice.
• Net-Ready Eyes. I feel like these are a perfect fit for Chameleon and the Atman/Datasucker combo. In a way, it can also serve as a makeshift 3rd recurring credit alongside Toolbox. But what to drop?...
• Film Critic! I plan to cut a Ghost Runner and maybe an Order of Sol for two of these.