Food Coma (3rd place at Worlds 2015)

Cerberus 4881

Data and Destiny arrived in the UK the Saturday before Worlds. I don't play online much any more as I just prefer face to face games, so I'd done a really limited amount of testing with the new cards.

Team UK however did a lot of testing while in Minnesota as we tried to figure out what the meta was going to be like. I was going to take RP, then Haarpsicord, and when testing revealed that neither of those was good enough I went to HB. I won 2014 UK Nationals with HB glacier and it is a deck style I am very used to and was able to pick up without much testing.

Changing decks the day of a tournament like Worlds isn't usually a great idea, but it paid off.

I'd been discussing the merits of certain cards with some big names such as Dan D and Ben Blum over the course of the week and had come to the conclusion that the Foodcoats archetype really needed 2x Caprice Nisei to prevent remote lock, but Crisium Grid was also extremely valuable because of the amount of Siphon decks and Kate who uses run events. In order to fit these two cards in as well as Global Food Initiative and the obvious include of Jackson Howard I couldn't find the influence for Tollbooth. I decided to resolve this by adding in 3x Assassin, and this card did work all day long. It isn't a hard ETR but so many people hit it early game and either paid all of their credits to prevent death or a key program loss or took a massive tempo hit from the loss of cards and programs.

I also have a different agenda mix compared to other HB glacier decks, and the difference is only 1x NAPD. I wanted to run the full set of 3/2 agendas because I wasn't playing as many hard ETR ice, I knew the runner could often get in if they needed too, however the ice mix is really taxing and so installing a card and seeing if the runner wants to spend their time and credits checking it is very powerful as often it is an asset or upgrade, often an agenda. Never advance at its best.

I scored out 4 agendas in this deck quite a few times, which I think is good as it allows it to be flexible with its scoring plan. There is only 1 card I would change, and that is Viper to Enigma, I hadn't realised how much strength 4 ice there was and while it didn't bite me at Worlds I've noticed it in testing since.

14 comments
12 Nov 2015 frost-duty

It's interesting to see the variations between these decks. Do you think that the overall more porous ICE suite (especially in the early game with respect to lots of Ichi and Assassins) in combination with the extra 3/2s and lack of NAPDs means that there is more chance of losing to early RnD digs?

Losing the booth seems like a pretty big blow to me, and I have been saved by NAPDs quite a few times!

Do you think the advantages of your setup offset these disadvantages?

12 Nov 2015 Cerberus

@frost-duty that's a tough question. I'm pretty certain that the deck needs 2 Caprice and if that's the case you could only fit in one Tollbooth anyway. The Crisium are there to stop the multi access runs. While the ice isn't end the run, it isn't easy to get through so it's only multi access you need to worry about generally.

I've done limited testing so see what you think and report back :)

12 Nov 2015 ANRguybrush

3 assasin is so crazy.

12 Nov 2015 tzeentchling

Thoughts on adding a single Biotic Labor? With that many 3/2s it seems like a good finishing card.

13 Nov 2015 Cerberus

@tzeentchling absolutely want one, I'm just not sure how to fit it in. I'm considering -1 Crisium Grid, replace Wall of Static with Wraparound and then add it in. I'd also like a 2nd Archived Memories as it does serious work.

In its current form it's Kate match up is very good, though Noah/Nobo's Kate list is very good against it based on my limited testing.

14 Nov 2015 Aryn

I have a very dumb question, as I've been somewhat out of the loop, but why is it called Foodcoats? I know GFI is part of the food, but the coats?

15 Nov 2015 jumping_down

@Aryn The -coats comes from Nordrunner's Redcoats archetype of HB econ and assets taxing out the runner to make a credit advantage. A selection of generally taxing ice, the sexbots in breaker bay grid being the best asset econ in the game, and HB's core ID giving a credit every turn make it a credit war.

16 Nov 2015 evilgaz

I think you're right on 2x Caprice, apart from anything else, you want to see at least one. 2x Archived was also a good choice for my deck.

I tried Ichi 2.0 as a Tollbooth replacement, but didn't find it that great, however Dan D used it and loved it, so maybe I should have tested that more.

Quite like the Wraparound choice myself - it's quite effective against Anarch and versus Kate that or Wall of Static are both a dog counter anyway.

I'd be interested in hearing how you do versus more aggressive R&D attacks. I've found playing HB Food, people soon give up on the remote and want to run R&D for the win - that's where I lose most games. When I tried 3/2s I bled a lot more out without creating a scoring window in return - the NAPD allowed for me to score an agenda of my own frequently when the runner has paid for the poh poh.

Keep us updated on testing! ;)

16 Nov 2015 Cerberus

@evilgaz I get that, but I try and keep pressure on the runner early by playing the never advance game and trying to score 3/2's early. Even before you see Ash and Caprice you can score agendas, I'm quite smitten with the 6x 3/2. I'd like a 3rd GFI mind. The Crisium Grid does a lot to slow down the Kate multi access runs and as soon as they see one you can install any upgrade there and they will presume it's another one.

Definitely not saying this deck is perfect but I like the amount of bluffing and tricks it allows. It's more my play style for sure.

19 Nov 2015 evilgaz

Aggressive Secretary.

:-)

2 Dec 2015 EnderA

I know I'm late to the party, but is there a particular reason Team Sponsorship is absent? It seems really strong in a deck with 6 3/2's, and only 4 operations. It can salvage a bad ABT, too.

9 Dec 2015 futureguy

Hello all, I'm playing about 10 months (about 50 games) but have only really played Blue Sun as my corp. I am trying to understand the other corps but I do have a few questions. I am going to build the above deck to get used to HB.

1) Are there any good strategy guides to play redcoats/foodcoats/ETF in general?

2) With BS, I built a single scoring server that is borderline inpenetrable. With so much drip econ in FB (Adonis and Eve), ETF is a little more lateral. What should I be playing in a protected server and what should I play unprotected? Should I just place a piece of ice over the bots?

3) Is it better to play bots as quickly as possible and play an ice for each or build up 2 x 2-deep remotes for two bots and just play new ones as necessary?

4) Apart from Turing, are there any ICE that should go over a particular server?

5) There seems to be very little combos within the ICE choices, is it a matter of just Icing up with whatever you have or is there ICE you like to play as the innermost/outermost piece?

6) Caprice go into the scoring server correct? Same with Ash?

Thanks all, really appreciate any advice on how to play this!

10 Dec 2015 jumping_down

``@futureguy`

  1. You should watch a few matches of good HB players. I'd recommend watching Worlds tournament HB matches.

  2. You want to protect Adonis in your scoring remote and throw Eve and Jackson out naked at your own discretion. You get a credit every turn from your ID if you stretch out installs.

  3. You win the game with the econ difference that going to trash a Breaker Bot entails. Throw it out naked against anyone but whizzard, or if you build NEXT into your coats deck to force another Rez.

  4. Architect over RND/Archives,thebput the others anywhere else, and put an assassin on your remote because it's so taxing.

  5. The ice exists to straight up economically tax the runner in a long game and create economic scoring windows where the runner can't break in for an agenda. All of the ice in this deck has been picked because it either a) is very taxing in worlds meta, like Assassin, Eli, and Ichi, or b) the ice is too good in an install-heavy deck, like Architect.

  6. I'd only put Caprice anywhere but scoring server if the runner was economically ahead and could threaten a power turn on my centrals like crims with account siphon.

11 Dec 2015 futureguy

@jumping_down Thanks a million. Very useful