Gagarin Sludge V.1.0

OVERVIEW

Gagarin Deep Space: Expanding the Horizon was/is the ugly duckling of the three Order and Chaos Weyland IDs: it lacked the sexiness of Titan Transnational: Investing In Your Future, the obviousness of Argus Security: Protection Guaranteed; in fact, it lacked an immediately obvious reason for existing at all: taxing a runner 1 has inherent appeal, of course, but doesn't seem to grant Gagarin the kind of game-changing advantages that Argus or Titan do. When my sparring partner and I first got O&C, we quickly built a couple of test decks with the new cards, and I played against his Gagarin deck and its ability fired exactly zero times. We promptly put it aside and began to process the flashier stuff in that very good big box.

Then, some time later, Quinns' Tier One Gagarin Deck made Decklist of the Week, and proved to everybody that Gagarin had legitimacy and teeth. This deck, which has gone through several iterations, established the skeleton that I think anybody building a Gagarin deck today really should begin with:

GAGARIN FRAMEWORK:

RSVP

Some mix of the Cosmic ICE

Ash 2X3ZB9CY

The Root

Utopia Fragment

NAPD Contract

Not Hostile Takeover

And, I think most importantly, Paywall Implementation

These cards emphasized the strengths of the ID, as I've said, and also (to me, at least) indicated a play style that is markedly different from all prevalent Weyland archetypes. My decklist was an attempt to come to grips with this style, which after playtesting I discovered is part of the ongoing theme of Sludge-style Corp decks. This style of play came about with the popularity of Jinteki: Replicating Perfection, and are all variations on longer games that are extremely taxing to the runner, the idea being to be able to create scoring windows even deep into a game against a runner with a full rig, simply by forcing them to spend an inordinate amount of their resources on seemingly-critical runs with a comparatively low payout: when a runner spends 10 just to LOOK at an NAPD, or a Snare!, or an Ash 2X3ZB9CY, even if they score/survive/trash it, the Corp is gaining tempo. This is not the place for an exegesis on Sludge decks, but I do think that it is something that is already relevant, and will only become more so after cards like Clot come out (NBN is even getting their Sludge ID with Haarpsichord Studios).

Gagarin Sludge, then, is unique in that it eschews the standard Weyland tricks and win conditions-money forever, meat damage-for something subtler, something...slower. You are not going to have 20-30, and you are not going to kill the runner (although you should by all means not make this explicit to him). You're going to be floating in the 7-10 zone most of the time, shuffling advancement tokens around your Cosmic ICE, investing in your assets, creating mysterious and costly remotes, denying the runner his money and his breakers and generally making him profoundly, cosmically lonely and poor and powerless. Runs will be insultingly fruitless as he blows all his D4V1D counters to get past Orion, gives you a credit with Paywall Implementation, and then has to pay a credit just to trash Ash for another 3. Maybe he gets enough money together to break your monstrously-advanced Fire Wall for a Legwork, only to have his Corroder spirited away with Will-o'-the-Wisp, and to rummage around in an HQ that is full of nothing he cares about because you've been meticulously sculpting your hand with Daily Business Show. Playing Gagarin Sludge correctly means the runner watches as the board state crystallizes into a maddening star-maze of closely-guarded centrals and little galactic koans of remotes that may or may not (probably not) have the things they seek.

All that being said, it sometimes just doesn't work. More on that later.

SPECIFIC CARD OVERVIEW

Utopia Fragment: This agenda, if you can score it, can almost guarantee you a win by itself. It means that you could almost drop an NAPD in a naked remote, advance it twice, and it will still be there when your next turn begins. I mean, you shouldn't do that, but you COULD, because it means that it would cost the runner 9 to steal. But once this is scored, you SHOULD start aggressively digging for your NAPDs, and put them into your scoring server, and advancing them. If the runner steals it still, you've definitely bought yourself a scoring window for something else. But he probably won't. The only thing to be careful with with this agenda is the temptation to rush it out in the first few turns. This isn't necessarily a bad play, but if often is, because you're going to be hurting for money after that, and even getting credits enough together to advance your Cosmic ICE can be a pain. And, of course, there's only one in the deck, so you can't count on it every game.

NAPD Contract: This is the deck that wants to score these. The extra protection afforded NAPD by Gagarin's ability means that often times the runner just doesn't have...enough...credits to steal it, when they get to it. There's also a very special import from NBN that also makes at least one of these a guaranteed 2 points for you.

Veterans Program: This is a deck that HATES bad pub. That's why we don't have any Hostile Takeovers in the deck. It doesn't outright negate your ability, but bad pub is without a doubt counter-synergistic to it. 9/10 games you won't need this card's ability in a world where Valencia isn't prevalent, but it's insurance we want in here anyway.

Constellation Protocol: The longer this card is around, the clearer it becomes that it is a straight-up economy asset in disguise. in a deck where 9/16 ICE can be advanced, this will see a LOT of use. Put two out, and get that Cosmic ICE online.

Daily Business Show: The more I use this card, the more I think that, in a lot of decks, and in most Sludge-style decks in particular, it is a better splash than Jackson Howard. Any corp deck that wants to have a strong late game relies on scoring windows: that is, times when, even if the runner has the tools, they lack the means to get into certain servers. DBS insures that you'll have the agendas in HQ when you want them, so that they can be scored when the opportunities arise. Seriously, try this card out.

The Root: The best 6 investment you can make. Making three of your credits immortal for the rest of the game is HUGE. It means that you can be running on 0 and still score out your Project Atlases. It also makes it less painful to rez a less-than-fully-advanced Cosmic ICE, and allows you to play around with them a little bit: keep Orion at three tokens and then rez him for 3 for a nasty surprise. Send Lady running to the bottom of the runner's stack for 1. So good.

Ash 2X3ZB9CY: Obvious and delicious utility. The influence for 3 of these hurts a little bit, but it is almost certainly worth it.

Will-o'-the-Wisp: Straight-up denial. Certain decks can't easily recover from this, and at the very least it's costing the runner clicks and credits to get whatever it is you took away back.

Paywall Implementation: The heart and soul of Gagarin. Makes every single run an insult.

Fire Wall: The advancement token bank. Once your Cosmic stuff is online, just start moving them all to your Fire Walls. With one token, these are not fun to Corrode, and impossible to Morningstar without Datasucker. Also, along with Ice Wall, gives your Wormhole the ETR sub that makes it so wonderful.

Pop-up Window: Makes the two-credit swing of Paywall a three-credit swing. A fairly recent addition to the deck, but so far has been doing work.

RSVP: The headliner ICE. Usually can get you at least one agenda scored, if not more. God forbid they don't have something other than Yog in their deck.

Wormhole: Slightly problematic in that you don't want to rez it early, but late game this thing makes remotes a nightmare. You can give it RSVP's subroutine too, which is just great.

Nebula: More denial. Usually good for at least one dead program.

Orion: Seems gimmicky, or it did to me at least, but this card is no joke. Eats up a D4V1D by itself, and puts the hurt on the bank account every other way you break it. R&D defense at its finest.

Rainbow: Is this ICE any good? Jesus, I don't know. Probably? I like to put it in front of other ICE, especially my Cosmic stuff, to protect against the Cutlery events. Also chews through dog tokens and such. So far I've been pleased with it.

OTHER POSSIBLE CARDS:

Docklands Crackdown: This card SEEMS like a natural fit, put the particular speed of this deck is such that the runner is usually pretty well set up by the time you're ready to start winning. Your first few turns are too precious to spend 2 making installs more expensive for the runner. Maybe worth trying again.

Self-destruct: Maybe...obviously not really a kill-move in this deck, but could really hurt the runner if you blow up some of their key tools. Slots are really tight in this deck though, and it is too situational.

Tollbooth: A strong choice. It might be worth taking out the Pop-ups and trying this out. 8 in this deck is a ton, though, and even 5 with The Root is bad if the runner forces the rez at the wrong time.

Crisium Grid: A definite possibility, especially if multi-access and deep-digging is especially prevalent. Could replace the PADs in a future version, but that money is awfully important...

WRAP-UP

This is a solid deck. Sometimes it doesn't work. Sometimes you don't have quite enough money to get Ash to fire, or the runner drops some unforeseen silver-bullet program that gets them into your scoring remote. This deck is susceptible to deep-digging on R&D. The biggest issue it has, I think, is the early game. Getting the Cosmic ICE in place and advanced enough to be rezzable without destroying your economy is key.

This is version 1.0. I think that the groundwork for Weyland Sludge is firmly in place, but I think that it isn't a fully developed play vector just yet. The fact that so much of what makes this deck work has to be imported is indicative of that. Hopefully, the SanSan cycle will see the advent of more in-faction tools for this sort of play.

But give it a shot. I think the deck is nearly there.