Use it before you lose it

PeekaySK 8148

Now, I'll be the first to state that building decks off of spoiled identities is kind of silly (since the result will definitely be worse than what will be possible once they actually come out), but since people are publishing decks built off of this guy, I decided to share my thoughts on him.

Some random comments on deckbuilding this funky dude:

  • You want lots of recurring credits so you don't get screwed by a Paper Wall or something
    • Cloaks! Cyberfeeders! Toolbox! Screw you, Pop-up Window :D
  • His ability becomes really strong when you can always gain credits off of it, (almost) never losing some first. That's why I included the following:
    • Breakers that pump for the duration of the run. They're horribly expensive under normal circumstances, but here you're basically paying all before you'd lose it anyway, which might actually make the runs cheaper, surprisingly enough. Also, don't forget you can pump a breaker outside of an encounter as well, and with the programs I've included, the pumped strength will actually stick until you need it
    • I feel Snitch is super-important because it tells you whether you can get in on a late-game run without risking getting shut down by a rez
    • Being able to break Archer for 4 credits or less is super-important, hence Sharpshooter
    • Kati - just load her up all game long, banking credits for the one turn you're really gonna needed and no unrezzed ice is in your way (that turn will most definitely come, I have no doubt)
    • Liberated Accounts - I feel these are actually the best economy card available for this guy at the moment: if you have 6 credits and want to run on unrezzed ICE, bank'em! In the future, just grab the cash if you want to install stuff
    • Personal Touch - because, let's face it, Pipeline sucks ass. A touched-up Pipeline sucks a little less, maybe maybe moving it into the realm of usability.
    • Xanadu - in addition to being a royal pain the ass for the corp, pays for itself in three rezzes. Also, no more getting stopped by Pop-up Window, yay!

Some cards I considered but ultimately didn't include:

  • Dirty Laundry is one of the better econ cards for him - I had it in for a while, but decided Personal Touch is more important
  • Omni Drive - if I find I have too much money, I might end up swapping Akamatsus for these, but my gut says the Mem chips are better: Battering Ram can't fit into an Omni-drive, and using them for Cloaks is a waste
  • Ice destruction - I actually don't want the corp to keep rezzing ICE, as that means my credit balance keeps being unpredictable. Instead, I want to use my ID ability to transition into midgame faster, spending all the credits I have whenever I can. Once I'm set up, all the recurring credit goodness should carry me through just fine.

And finally some cards I think are outright bad choices for Nasir:

  • Sure Gamble is a horrible card with him, at least when drawn anywhere after opening hand.
  • Professional Contacts - why would you bother? You're gonna lose those credits anyway :D
  • Personal Workshop - I certainly see the appeal on paper, but I suspect in practice it won't be nearly as good - most common ICE rez pretty cheaply, so you usually won't have a ton of money to sink into stuff anyway

That's about it, feel free to disagree with me on any of the above, as long as you provide a rationale :)

14 comments
6 Feb 2014 MisterLovejoy

Any consideration to going with an Inside Man/Replicator approach to this setup? The other thing I would consider is Rook as a thought toward increasing his ability's usefulness.

7 Feb 2014 PeekaySK

Inside Man is overcosted, from my (many and varied) experiements with him. You pretty much need him to hit the table before any of your hardware comes out, and even then the savings are pretty marginal. Add to that the fact that you need to either play 3 copies or run tech such as Hostage to make that happen, and he becomes extremely "meh".

Rook is definitely a serious consideration, but I didn't go with it for two reasons:

1) influence

2) not wanting to go too all-in on the "abuse my ability" part of the deck - I need to be able to function once we're done rezzing ICE, and so I decided to put in Liberated Accounts instead, to bank up credits so to speak.

If the Liberated Accounts turn out to not work as well as I expect them to, swapping them out for Rook is a definite possibility.

7 Feb 2014 apo

But now the question is... Why this id? Basically you're trying to play around his drawback and not utilizing the bright side at all. Just swap him for Kate and you're much better with this particular deck.

7 Feb 2014 PeekaySK

But now the question is... Why this id? ...Just swap him for Kate and you're much better with this particular deck.

I respectfully disagree. Maybe I didn't get my idea through well enough in the description - the idea is to leverage the credit resets into early aggression without losing tempo, which is something that would not be possible with a different ID (and particularly Kate).

That part would work just as fine with any other set of breakers, I just chose the perma-pumpable ones to reduce windows of opportunity for rezzing counterplay by a good Corp player. This is definitely "building around the identity", but I'm not convinced you'd do comparably with a different identity - my gut says that this set of breakers will be too cost-inefficient for routine usage by a different ID (unless we're talking Tower of Power, Glacier or something).

Of course, my idea about how to play this might turn out to be unworkable - we won't know until we actually try, though :)

7 Feb 2014 apo

Ok, I've read everything carefully once more and I think I get it now. You want to spend creds before running (or during the run before encountering derezzed ice), then run to gain some on rez. Then spend to install stuff and repeat.

Right?

7 Feb 2014 PeekaySK

Yes, that's the plan for the early game. This should (in theory) propel me into midgame much faster (think Andromeda, but with credit advantage instead of card advantage), thus making all my stuff less horribly inefficient :D

Not sure whether it'll work at all, but I plan to test this weekend (since the only card I need to proxy is Nasir). I'm very curious myself. If this works, it could very well be the first identity that actually doesn't have Sure Gamble as a mandatory auto-include!

7 Feb 2014 Alsciende

I like the Liberated Account. Not sure how you'll get to 6 credits, though. Seems to me that with only Kati Jones in the econ department, you'll be very broke very often :-)

My version packs PW + SG + DL in addition to Kati Jones. I'm not afraid to play SG because I have PW. I'm more on the conservative side, I guess ;)

I'm worried about your Pipeline. Why not just play Dagger, which is good? You won't have a perma-boost killer, but at least you'll have a killer! I think playing Pipeline here is a form of over-commitement to an idea. Pipeline -> Dagger and TPT -> DL would be much better IMO.

I'm not sold on Snitch. You will get shut down by unrezzed ice. Snitch won't change that. The Corp will install new ice on R&D to keep you away. I'd rather play Femme Fatale and/or Inside Job to shunt Nasir's ability late-game, than Snitch.

7 Feb 2014 PeekaySK

I like the Liberated Account. Not sure how you'll get to 6 credits, though.

Sooner or later, a Bastion I'll bounce off of is bound to get rezzed :D But yes, the "being broke" part of this whole idea is what I need to test on (already made plans for tomorrow, will report :) ).

Pipeline is sort of the polar opposite of Cloak & Dagger - it's at its strongest against Stacked Sentries of Doomâ„¢, which is sorta the hard counter to C&D's efficiency. Maybe run both (and use whichever makes more sense at the time), instead of hoping to Personal Touch the problem away? The more I think about it, the more I like the notion - I'm already running Cloaks anyway, so the opportunity cost is very small, and the potential payoff is just huge.

p.s. of the three perma-pumpable breakers I'm running, I actually think Battering Ram is the worst. For the MU, I'd rather have Morningstar, but there's no space for the support stuff it requires to be solid :(

Currently considering:

-1 Snitch -1 Cyberfeeder +1 Inside Job -1 Pipeline +2 Dagger

-3 Personal Touch +3 Dirty Laundry

7 Feb 2014 PeekaySK

(or rather, just one dagger and upping the Mem Chip count to three, for more consistency and less dependency on getting Toolbox out)

7 Feb 2014 Watzlav

I probably like your approach on this identity the most out of the three I've seen, but the point I agree with the most is that it' kind of silly, given that we have not seen over a hundred cards that will be available once this id is printed.

But there's one card I think would synergize with this identity beautifully and am surprised no one mentioned. Running Interference. Am I overlooking something or is it just outrageously blasphemous to claim for Nasir it could be on par with Account Siphon?

7 Feb 2014 Alsciende

Running Interference adds an additional cost to rez. It doesn't change the rez cost.

7 Feb 2014 PeekaySK

Yeah, that's the biggest catch when looking for Nasir toys: Effects that increase the rez cost (Xanadu, Rook) do work, effects that create an additional cost (Running Interference, Cortez Chip) don't.

3 Aug 2014 jakechance

@PeekaySK Any updates since running this back in February? Did any other Upstalk or H&P cards make it in?

4 Aug 2014 PeekaySK

@jakechance re-visiting Nasir in light of what the current Corp meta looks like is pretty high on my to-do list, just waiting to have a physical copy in hand, really :)

Looking over this list now, though, there's at least some things I see:

  • I'll probably go with Inti over Battering Ram - they both hold strength, and Inti's both cheaper to operate, and will free up the Mem Chip slots
  • Sharpshooter will quite possibly end up being an emergency Atman, with one of the 2-inf cards (probably Liberated Account no.3) becoming two Suckers. For some matchups, you just need those things, really.
  • Speaking of 2-inf cards, a single Parasite could be cool too, although that would probably mean dropping the Snitch. Whether that's worth it, I don't know yet (will require testing)

That's all I see right now, although that's just a starting point. This is definitely one of those decks that morph completely in the process of testing/tuning.