Gagarin Standoff

Based on Beyoken's Standoff / Urban Renewal succesful demo.

I've never really played asset spam before (I did play RP rush for a whle back in the day), but there were quite a few things about Beyoken's list that really appealed to me:

• using Tech Startup to tutor Elizabeth Mills to counter Val
• using Standoff + Team Sponsorship to clear Hacktivist Meeting (and gain tempo as you do it)
• the Urban Renewal + Show of Force alternative win condition

But what really appealed to me about the list was that there was some obvious things that I thought needed changing, and (as it turns out) some less obvious ones as well.

The Agenda Suite

The first thing that struck me was that there was no way to score Government Takeover - which I took to mean that it was only slotted to reduce agenda density. Swapping out a 9/6 for 2 x 5/3s not only gives you a better scoring plan, it actually saves you a deck slot (because you no longer need the 2 x Whampoa Reclamation to bury the 9/6).

Initiialy I tested with The Cleaners, but after a few games I realised that Estelle Moon wasn't really doing work - so Global Food Initiative becomes the natural choice.

Why you hate Estelle?

It sounds dumb, but I would install Estelle, the runner would run Estelle, I would pop Estelle, and then I would feel bad because a) the runner didn't have to pay to the trash cost, b) the runner didn't even have to pay the Gagarin tax!

The only time I felt good playing Estelle was, just as Beyoken does in his succesful demo, popping her after an indexing run. But even then, you are gambling against the runner anticipating this line of play.

You do need some econ though, and Marilyn Campaign seemed like the obvious choice to fill the slot.

The alt-win condition

I switched out the 3 x Show of Force for 3 x Contract Killer and I have not looked back. Using Tech Startup to tutor a Contract Killer the turn that Urban Renewal ticks down feels good.

You can also use it to kill off troublesome cards like Scrubber and Bhagat. You'll be surprised how many good runner resources turn out to be connections.

The alt-alt-win condition

There's a one-off Sandburg in here, just in case the runner decides to ignore your Commercial Bankers Group. This was initally a Punitive Counterstrike, but it's actually not as synergistic with Urban Renewal as you might think. You really have to work hard to encourage the runner to steal an agenda the turn before Urban Renewal ticks down to 0.

Ice

The way I see it, if you're going to play a list with only 10 ICE - each piece of ICE had better have a lasting impact. Hence Vanilla -> Bastion, and Corporate Town -> Archer (the stock of which I don't think has ever been higher than in the current meta).

I tested with Architect for a while, but made the switch to Fairchild 2.0 when I dropped Estelle Moon. It's more taxing in the long-run, and the facecheck progresses your alt-win condition.

Things I like about playing this list

• Responding to Maw by installing all of the things - and emptying HQ onto the table
• Feeling okay when the runner stimhack's your scoring remote or jeeves, because it progresses your alt-win condition.
• Retiring a rogue bioroid turn 4 with an Urban Renewal behind a piece of ICE they couldn't break
• Using Audacity + Jeeves Model Bioroids to never-advance a Global Food Initiative (always slot 1 x Audacity in any Weyland deck - it wins games).