Custom Biotics - Engineered for Obscurity

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derbot1 1

This is my first deck building attempt, I've only been playing for a few months now.

The extreme deck group-think that seems to be present in all metas was really bothering me. We either get Andy Suckers, NBN*, Blue Sun, etc. Maybe it's just the way the game plays out over time, but I get extremely annoyed seeing the same deck archetypes recycled ad nauseam. Sure, a data pack adds a new card here and there, but it doesn't do enough to add the kind of variety that I was expecting when I started playing.

Out of these concerns came this deck.

Custom Biotics is an obscure identity that has largely been written off. Can this deck make it viable? Fast advance with ambushes? Yes.

Initial testing has this at 2-0.

1 comments
11 Feb 2015 Jashay

Welcome to the game, @derbot1!

Yeah, I'm not a massive fan of the homogenous nature of metas. If you watch the Worlds championship on Youtube, almost all of the last 32 are Andy vs NEH, with a smattering of Jinteki (although it was a double andy-jinteki final, as I recall).

It's all down to consistency, really. The popular decks will be very consistent, (with things like Andy and NEH's draw power), or economically powerful (Prepaid Kate, most Weyland decks). The decks themselves change as counters/support appear; you hardly ever see Yog.0 any more because of Lotus Field, but you'll see a lot more Oversight AI because of the synergy with Blue Sun: Powering the Future and the big ICE.

But that doesn't mean you can't break the mould. It's perfectly possible to make a very good deck with less-used identities. My current corp deck is Haas-Bioroid: Stronger Together; not a popular ID, but frankly I'm owning a fair bit of face with it.

Of course, each deck you make will be different, but I've found that there are some broad themes you can apply:

Economy: If in doubt, add some more economy. There are very few decks that can run without a healthy pile of credits.

Pick a theme: As a good way to start the deckbuilding process, think of something and go full-out to achieve it. So, for a runner, it might be 'how much drip economy can I get?' or 'how quickly can I get all of my breakers out?'. For a Corp it's more linked to the faction you choose. Weyland might be 'Can I make a deck with nothing but advancable ICE?', NBN: 'How many traces can I trigger that don't give tags?', etc.

Efficiency: This comes with practice and testing, but it's assessing how well your deck achieves its goals. This will involve changing cards, and possibly even the ID.

So, how does this apply to you? You've said you're going for Fast Advance with Ambushes. So that's a theme, but you fall down on the efficiency. Why? Every time you advance an ambush, that's another advance that could have gone to advancing an agenda. Typically, Fast Advance scores its agendas straight from HQ using, say, Efficiency Committee in conjunction with Shipment from SanSan, Biotic Labor, SanSan City Grid, and if you're NBN, AstroScript Pilot Program. You really need the Committees and Biotics to consider this FA.

Also, you have several 'contingent' pieces. Plan B only works if they run it, as does Matrix Analyzer and Space Camp. This means your plan only really clicks if the runner makes it do so.

As a general thing for this deck, I would really try and tighten up the Agendas; 14 is a very high amount given the lack of stopping power in your ICE. And as for FA with ambushes, I think you'll have to pick one or the other. Hope that helps!