All Traces, No Tags

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Krams 949

This is a theme deck with one main goal: Trying to make Improved Tracers viable. The catch: Everyone seems to have this association between tracing and tagging. But I say, traces are strong on their own, even without the whole tagging mechanic!

Right now, I'm struggling with economy problems. It seems like the ICE are too expensive for the few economy cards, so I have to make room for more economy. Maybe add a third Explode-a-palooza and some economy cards to make this a 54 card deck? I don't know...

Can you help me make this work? Any comments welcome! :)

Cards I included, but I'm not sure about

  • Net Police: A dead draw if the runner has no , and it gets instantly trashed if the runner uses high - on the other hand, it's my only real counter against high .
  • Invasion of Privacy: I really, really don't want this to fail! Which is hard, because it's a weak trace - on the other hand it could potentially wreck the runner economy.
  • Surveillance Sweep: Looks like a must-include on first sight, but can't be combined with Targeted Marketing.

Cards I didn't include, but kinda want to

  • Flare: This has been one of my favorite pieces of ICE for a long time, but it's sooo expensive... I dropped it for Taurus.
  • Gemini: Great rez cost/strength ratio, but I don't have any other sources of damage, so it poses no threat.
  • Shinobi: This thing alone can flatline a runner. But I'd prefer to win by scoring, not killing. This is a peaceful deck :D
  • Targeted Marketing: Great with Archangel, Data Hound and Invasion of Privacy, but can't be used along Surveillance Sweep.
  • Snoop: Great support for Targeted Marketing, but expensive and not that great without Targeted Marketing.
  • Troll: Cheap ETR trace. Maybe as replacement for Data Hound? But useless if the runner is okay with losing a . And, well, the runner doesn't need to clear tags after the run, so, yeah...
  • Foxfire: Lovely card, thematically fitting, potential help against , but a dead draw against a lot of runners.
  • Hellion Alpha Test: This seems too good to be true... Just boost it with and mess with the runner economy. There are just two little problems... I don't want bad pub and it's expensive in influence.
  • Power Grid Overload: This card would fit perfectly if Surveillance Sweep worked outside of a run, but it doesn't. So, how do I get it to trash what I want without dumping ridiculous amounts of money into it?
  • Snatch and Grab: There's still a lot of Kati Jones out there... But the runner could just take the tag and I'd have no tag punishment. Plus, the idea behind this theme deck was not to tag the runner!
6 comments
22 Oct 2015 Lupus Yonderboi

It's worth noting that Improved Tracers only improve ice's traces (and only subroutines ones), not traces from other card types.

Starting from that point you can cut, well, everything else ;)

If not, at least cut Net Police, which is worthless on most of matchups and Primary Transmission Dish which can be replaced by any dripping economy asset.

22 Oct 2015 Trypios

I love your idea and take my like. I would suggest a 3rd copy of surveillance sweep. That's how much I love it in your deck :P I'd also cut Primary Transmission and Net police for some drip or burst econ. You run very low on econ and I'd go for burst since with the current Meta there's a lot of Whizzard, Imp and Scrubber and no Edward Kim. Your ice suit is quite expensive and the tempo loss of clicking 3 times for credits is huge

22 Oct 2015 Phoenix

I would suggest -2 Net Police, -2 Invasion of Privacy, +1 Jackson, +3 Restructure.

You are also going to suffer against Atman (of your 17 ice, 7 are strength 4, 5 are strength 5).

22 Oct 2015 Krams

Thank you all for the feedback :)

I know that Improved Tracers is not going to boost any trace that's not a subroutine, but the do so I thought there was at least some synergy. And I think Ash 2X3ZB9CY is a strong card if you need to slow advance and agenda out, even if I can't pimp his trace strength with my agendas.

But I guess you're all right about the trace assets, especially Net Police. I'll replace them with eco cards.

But is Restructure really the way to go for eco? It seems so extremely expensive. Maybe I should give it a try and judge after a few games.

And I completely overlooked Atman. At least Improved Tracers can boost ICE strength a bit after Atman counters were placed, but only 1 point and everyone that uses Atman also uses Datasuckers. So that's going to need some fixing. I guess that brings Troll, Snoop and Flare back on the table...

23 Oct 2015 Krams

The current test version is:
+2 Caduceus
+2 Restructure
+2 Troll
+1 Rutherford Grid
+3 Launch Campaign
−2 Ash 2X3ZB9CY
−2 Uroboros
−2 Net Police
−2 Invasion of Privacy
−2 Primary Transmission Dish

First test game was aborted relatively early due to technical problems, second was an Edward Kim that trashed all my stuff and left me broke, third was a Leela that was just too strong for me. So no win so far, but it really feels stronger.

26 Oct 2015 ericbtool

I used improved tracers in New Sol then Lag Time for the current. I think that'll prove better for your concept (at least concerning ICE and the agenda).

Don't bother with cards that boost the trace until all the people you play against use Sunny. Runners don't let subroutines fire much.