Altitude Adjustment

I took this deck to August AMT and it did not do well. However, I think the games were not exactly the best representation of what the deck can accomplish. I was looking to prey on Lat, WT Ari, and (single) turbine rigs, and found none of the above.

One game was vs double turbine, which is kind of cursed and I don't recommend playing this in a double turbine meta, but even then I was ahead on points and feeling OK until the runner stole three agendas in a single twinning R&D run (that I could've BC'd). The second game featured a crazy jnet lag spike that cut the game very short in number of turns (time was extended for future rounds only) and I literally needed one more credit or one more turn to score. The third game was vs girls which is not a favorable matchup but not unwinnable. Alas, Harmonbee know's their own deck well and I did not win that one either, keeping me out of the top cut (BBlum's kit deck slaps, my variant on it went went 3-0).

"Each time I came back, it was bigger. And colder." -Ice Wall

We are in a cold war, an arms race over ice(breaker) strength. They play efficient breakers, we play high strength bioroids. They play turbine, we counter with Stegadon. They play Ice Carver, we negate it with Rime. And when the second turbine hits the table and all hope appears lost, give em Hel, at least for a run or two.

Architects sees no play these days, mostly because there are about two or three good bioroids (oh how the mighty have fallen). However, there is some serious NPE lurking beneath the ICE, that in previous metas was kept in check by Hippo. The idea is that if the outermost ICE doesn't end the run, then AoT re-rezzes whatever Stegadon de-rezzes, meanwhile the runner likely has to jack out after wasting either 3 clicks total or 1 click and 3-7 credits or 2-3 cards (Bankhar). Note that Rime is critically important to making the subsequent run-back taxing in these cases.

Obviously the above interaction can really mess up turbine rigs, but what really got me interested was how this deck handles the lean Lat builds running Propeller and Revolver. Like Jinteki, you have 6 3-sub sentries that can tax bullets. However, you also have 6 barriers that can each deplete almost an entire propeller. Eli is 2 counters, 3 with Rime, while Bran is 3 or 4. A server as simple as Rime->Eli->Eli can heavily limit Lat's runs, and the HB efficiency of Jinja, AoT, and Vovo lets you set ICE towers up for cheap.

I'll also mention pressure spike, mostly to say that I don't think it's a strong answer here. It naively costs 4 to break Eli (and 6 for Bran), a bad starting point, but if you throw in Rime it becomes 6 per Eli. Yes, at threat once per run you can get a 2c discount, but those are still bad numbers, and if you stack 2-3 barriers it starts to get prohibitively expensive.

ICE Placement

Just like with Sokka's Worlds Grind deck, ICE placement is extremely important here, and even highly matchup dependent. I like to think of ICE in 4 categories in response to the opponent's breaker suite:

1. Force multipliers
2. Strength-based taxing ICE
3. Generically taxing ICE
4. Intended for other matchups

Since R&D and the remote are the two critical servers, you want to put your force multipliers there (BC, Rime, as well as Helheim and Steg triggers although those aren't ICE). Since many of these interact with strength, this motivates placing strength-based ICE on those servers. Against Propeller (and to a lesser degree Pressuer Spike) this means the barriers, against turbine rig this means Ravana and Bran. Generically taxing ICE often means the sentries, as well as Ravana vs Unity. The most common instance of case 4 is Eli vs Turbine rig, where you often either use it to push a Rashida/Nico early or just put one on HQ or archives to deter value runs (if DJ Steve comes out you may want another ICE HQ).

With Stegadon it's also important what ICE is outermost. Ravana is the ideal vs Turbine, and Ansel is often generically good. Jinja doesn't give you a ton of choice in the order you stack them, so this can often lead to either planning ahead (placing a Bran/BC/Rime with the intention of capping it with Ravana/Ansel later) or stopping early (declining a Bran because your Ravana is already putting in major work).

Where's the good doctor?

I think Spin Doctor is a bad card in AoT. You really want to save it for hand fixing rather than baiting runs on-tempo, but to do this you have to over-draw, an awkward task with Jinja firing. Attitude fixes this issue while also being trash-proof and paying you 2c on use. Sure, Sprint is an option, and if you need some free influence you could go that route.

Surely it's not Kamali 1.0?

Granted this is not premium remote ICE, but it's just annoying enough to motivate the runner to break it. It's also a fairly gross facecheck earlygame - the runner loses their whole turn and you get an AoT trigger (being non-ETR is a huge plus when compared to other janky roids like Hakarl and Tyr, doubly so once you have Stegadon scored). I like to think of it kind of like a softer HB Saisentan. Trust me, you need a critical mass of bioroids to make AoT work, and I've looked at all the others and they don't fit the bill.

Double Rime?

Rime is disgusting. It routinely costs the runner 3-7 credits on a 0-cost rez, and is a free derez target for Stegadon. It's also central to the Propeller tax plan.

Vovo Ozetti

Vovo has seen limited play in PD and Asa decks. This is because usually it promises a 3 credit discount before being trashed, which doesn't quite justify it. AoT breaks this paradigm for two reasons. First, AoT Jinja often finds itself with massive stacks of ICE 4-5 deep and a runner who doesn't want to interact. Should the runner charge this server, you stand to save 9 credits with Vovo. Even more importantly though, in AoT alone, Vovo can fire during runs on other servers! If the runner pokes HQ you get to rez Bran for 0, all at no risk to the sysop who runs on mint tea. You could consider 3x Vovo, and the runner should also consider pinhole-ing him.

Helheim Servers

This is an interesting card, and could potentially be a 2x. It can absolutely lock down a server against a turbine rig (and potentially against propeller in a pinch). Often a single activation, usually on the second ICE of a server (so the runner has to spend more to force a response) will require the runner to break the ICE at great expense and jack out. The runner trading a click and 5+ credits for a single card is not viable for them. In rare cases you can dump your hand against a clickless runner to either drain tons of credits or let a full Ravana fire. I seriously think this is stronger than void in this deck, and is in-faction. The one weakness is pinhole, but some decks don't have it (or used it earlier to pressure econ with Vovo/Rashida).