High Orbit Tag Cannon

Pikeman 289

"I came here to score agendas and punish tags, and I'm all out of— oh no wait, I've got plenty of both."

So this is something I've been working on for a while now, and I think it's finally ready for some more exposure. I'm actually quite surprised by how often this wins, and especially surprised at how often I can actually score Private Security Force. Once scored, it's a huge looming threat, as the name of the game for this deck is tag punishment, and lots off it.

This is also one of those decks I get anxious while playing—in a good way. I never know if a runner is going to float tags, but I invariably hope they do. Usually they don't, but this can still score out and surprise them, as Dedicated Response Team & Quantum Predictive Model let you punish tags on their turn. Sometimes they start out clearing all tags, and switch at the end, only to run into your Quantum Predictive Model and hand you that final, seventh agenda point you needed.

And then there are times they float all tags, and I have no immediate way of punishing them, but that's usually not a problem. For instance, I had a runner playing Gabriel Santiago waltz in to HQ/R&D repeatedly taking tags as he had literally no installed cards. "Ha," thought he, "there is not nearly enough tag punishment in this deck to make it worthwhile to clear or avoid them." WRONG! After he accumulated 15 tags, I scored Private Security Force, and proceeded to mill through his deck until he just gave up and let me flatline him.

So this ends up being a very different deck from anything I'm used to, and brings a whole new feel to NBN and ANR in general. That said, I think this deck still has room for improvement; or, perhaps, flexibility is the word I should use. There are still a lot of cards I think could be swapped around. Maybe drop a Bernice Mai for a Closed Accounts. What about trading a Quantum Predictive Model for a TGTBT? Why not include The All-Seeing I over some other card?

So please, leave feedback, particularly if you've play tested it. I feel like with a few tweaks, or even as-is, this might be better than just your average tier 3 deck. I'll let you be the judge.

2 comments
1 Nov 2015 MockZ

No Scorched? Otherwise, pretty solid deck. Might also want to consider Keegan instead of Bernice, or one of each. Whichever seems to be getting you results. Also, I've always been curious to see how Market Research works in a SYNC tag deck like this.

1 Nov 2015 Pikeman

@MockZ - Nope, I prefer Dedicated Response Team overall as it lets me punish during their turn, as long as they're running. Otherwise they can clear tags, and without SEA Source (which this deck doesn't really have the econ for), a careful runner can usually clear all tags before ending their turn. However, even doing just that is costly, and this can is quite capable of scoring out.

As for Keegan Lane, it's definitely something to try, but I'm not sure if it's needed between the Archangels/Information Overload. Market Research is an interesting though too, but while I can often score at least 1 Private Security Force, I'm not eager to load up on 4/2 agendas. Despite there being only 1x Project Beale & Psychographics, it is a smaller deck that still has 3x Jackson, so it's not impossible to win that way either.