Improved Bioroids v2 (no fast advance)

Krams 949

Second version. I got rid of all fast advance related things to make room for an even stronger defence. Also, no tagging in this version. Any comments welcome :)

The game plan is simple: Turtle up, defend R&D, HQ and a single remote and start to slowly roll out agendas. If you see a chance to score and can choose between several agendas in your HQ that you can try to score out, always try to score Improved Tracers. It makes the servers really really taxing. This agenda is vital for the deck. If you manage to score it out, it's a huge step for your defence. If you score out multiple copies, you can often build up a glacier too taxing or the runner to handle.

Economy

The deck is usually very rich and can afford to stack many ICE, rez them all and still have money left to make traces scary. Typically, the runner will try to not let any trace fire. That's okay. If they never fire, that means that the runner has broken your ICE, which usually doesn't come cheap with this ICE suite!
One thing I noticed is that runners usually fear the third of Ichi 1.0 and 2.0 the most. Hitting them unprepared with only 1 left they rather break that one and have their programs trashed. Which is exactly what I want, because that slows them down and opens scoring windows and I couldn't really punish the tag anyways, except by destroying resources if they have some.

ICE suite and breakers

Troll and Viper can make the runner lose s needed to break nasty bioroid tracers. Or, if placed behind bioroids, Troll can end the run on encounter if the runner used all his s to break the bioroids. Rutherford Grid makes Troll even more annoying. All in all, you want to make sure the runner has to use his icebreakers to get past your nasty ICE and then use Improved Tracers to make them even more taxing to break with standard breakers.
Atman at 4 alongside a Datasucker kinda hurts the ICE suite, but not too much. Improved Tracers can always shift the strength.
Gingerbread is a real threat to the deck, simply because the runner can break everything with just one cheap breaker. Well, everything except TMI, but anyone running Gingerbread will have an answer for a standard ETR barrier.
If you see a Torch installed, don't bother installing or rezzing code gates (including Mother Goddess if you have any other code gate already rezzed) unless you have some Improved Tracers scored.

Card Choices

  • Resistor can tax runners that float too many tags, which helps against Account Siphon spamming. The 0 rez cost means that you can even rez it directly after the Siphon landed and at least have any defense. Other than that, it's just a simple ETR ICE that forces the runner to have anything out that can break a barrier.
  • Mother Goddess gains the Tracer subtype as soon as you rez pretty much anything else (except TMI), so it can profit from Improved Tracers. Other than that it's "just" a mid cost hard ETR. And that's something this deck tends to lack a bit. It can be great on it's own early own with not much other ICE rezzed and it usually stays taxing through the whole game.
  • TMI seems like a crappy choice as my only non-Tracer ICE and it can be a little bit of a pain to rez it. But Rutherford Grid and the ID ability can help rezzing it.
  • Data Hound may be a bit weak, but he's a cheap answer for frquently attacked servers. Rutherford Grid and Improved Tracers both help him greatly, since he's often left unbroken.
  • Fast Track is a high risk in a deck not running any ambushes. Use it if you have a save window to score Improved Tracers. Every copy of that agenda scored is important.
  • Interns can save trashed Jackson Howards or Melange Mining Corp.s and mitigate damage from ICE destruction.
3 comments
10 Dec 2015 BeermanBarman

A few questions:

Why 54 cards instead of 49?

Would you consider adding Snoop and Targeted Marketing to slow down the runner's rig building phase while you ice up and put together your scoring server?

10 Dec 2015 FarCryFromHuman

Troll isn't a tracer either, FYI.

10 Dec 2015 Krams

Thank you both for your feedback :)

@BeermanBarman 54 cards because it's a slow glacier, prepared for long matches and the extra cards help against milling strategies. Plus, I don't really now, what to put out, because every card in the deck feels like being worth more than the added consistency from going down to 49.
But yea, 54 card decks always feel a bit wrong... With further testing I'll find 5 cards to get rid of. Maybe that'll include a change of the agenda suite.

@BeermanBarman Snoop is expensive. You don't just put it in because why not. You built your strategy with Snoop in mind. Paying 6 creds to rez just for a weak trace with an effect just slightly better than 1 net damage just doesn't cut it. So, no Snoop without Targeted Marketing or a killing strategy. And Targeted Marketing doesn't work with this deck, because Surveillance Sweep does so much more for me. I know that decks can work out with two or more currents, but I really just would want TM only to specifically slow the buildup and that would require me knowing which breakers they choose and that would require them running into a rezzed Snoop with the breakers in hand, but not yet installed. That's a very far fetched scenario.
Don't get me wrong. I really think, Targeted Marketing can be a beast with the right ICE support and can throw the runner off so much that it's enough to build fundamental parts of your ICE suite around it. But for me, it just doesn't fit into this specific deck.
Feel free to check out my other deck (also featuring Improved Tracers) that's built completely around TM.

@FarCryFromHuman Yes, I'm aware of that. I just messed it up in the description. So, yea, TMI is not the only non-tracer. But even without the buff from Improved Tracers, Troll is still a pretty mean ICE, because it forces the runner to lose s. Especially against NBN: Making News with Surveillance Sweep out, where you can't just pay the 2 and be done with it. Forcing the runner