In the July Minecraft session, I decided I wanted to keep on building in the circular cave I found. But, when I looked at it, I couldn’t think of ways to work on the main cave in ways that would help more than hurt it:

Looking at the entrance

Looking down into the cave

But then I noticed a small cave on the other side, with a pool in there, so I decided to fiddle with it.

The stone wall in front of the side cave; I carved a path into the stone going around it on the left

The pool inside the cave, I think this is probably the view from the path

I added a wooden fence on the edge of the water on the side of pool inside the cave; this is actually looking out across the water into the main plaza

A banner I hung in the back of the cave

I put some plants in the back, though I don’t think it turned out very well

Some more random decor

Then I decided to fly around a bit and see what other people were doing.

Snow on top of the area I’d been working in

Looking down at the stockade town Pat and Miranda had been working on in previous months

A forest with lava

Pat and Miranda had moved on to a nearby forest; one or both of them were building treehouses. (I can’t remember the details of who built what.)

That large trunk is an artificial tree, there’s also a path in the treetops behind it

A closer view of the treetop path

Inside the treetop room

Looking down into the large tree trunk

After poking around, I tried to go back, but I got pretty lost; but Pat mentioned that he’d found the path that Dan had been working on for probably a year now (though Dan is far beyond this point), so I went and found that and then followed it back to the city by the spawn point.

Some cows I met while I was lost

I found Dan’s path

A village by the side of the path

My last three corp decks have all been focused on offense in different ways, so I figured I’d build a deck based around ice and money. No traps at all! (At least in this iteration…) I decided to experiment with Next ice; and I figured NEXT Design must be a good match for that, right?

Next Ice, v. 0

NEXT Design: Guarding the Net

Agenda (10)

• 3x Accelerated Beta Test
• 1x Corporate War
• 3x NAPD Contract
• 3x Project Vitruvius

Asset (10)

• 2x Adonis Campaign
• 2x Jackson Howard • •
• 2x Melange Mining Corp.
• 2x PAD Campaign
• 2x Sundew ••• •••

Operation (8)

• 2x Enhanced Login Protocol
• 3x Hedge Fund
• 3x Peak Efficiency

Barrier (8)

• 3x Eli 1.0
• 2x Heimdall 1.0
• 3x NEXT Silver

Code Gate (3)

• 3x NEXT Bronze

Sentry (9)

• 2x Archer •• ••
• 3x Architect
• 3x NEXT Gold
• 1x Rototurret

Other (1)

• 1x Mother Goddess

12 influence spent (max 12)
20 agenda points (between 20 and 21)
49 cards (min 45)

10 pieces of Next ice (counting Mother Goddess), out of 21 in total; I decided to tilt more heavily towards ice than towards money, to maximize the identity ability. Though, thinking about it a bit more: maybe I should find room for some economy ice, say Pop-up Window or Errand Boy? Influence is tight, though; we’ll see how much money I have as I try it out…

The initial version of my NBN Interference deck had its moments; in particular, Psychographics plus Information Overload can make for a very entertaining combo. (Whereas I didn’t get as much out of isolated tagging.) So I decided to focus on that when slimming down to 49 cards.

I got rid of my Gutenberg and Virgo, and added a third Midseasons. I decided I didn’t need both Blacklist and Chronos Protocol, so I got rid of both copies of Blacklist. The agenda I ditched was one copy of Market Research, and PAD Campaign was the last card I ditched.

Playing that a bit, I felt low on money and vulnerable to Noise; so I added a third Hedge Fund and a third Jackson Howard, removing both copies of Daily Business Show.

Here’s the result:

NBN Interference, v. 1

NBN: Making News

Agenda (11)

• 3x AstroScript Pilot Program
• 1x Breaking News
• 2x Chronos Project
• 2x Market Research
• 2x Project Beale
• 1x Restructured Datapool

Asset (10)

• 2x Aggressive Secretary •• ••
• 3x Jackson Howard
• 2x Marked Accounts
• 1x PAD Campaign
• 2x Primary Transmission Dish

Operation (13)

• 3x Hedge Fund
• 3x Midseason Replacements
• 2x Psychographics
• 2x SEA Source
• 3x Sweeps Week

Barrier (3)

• 2x TMI
• 1x Wraparound

Code Gate (3)

• 1x Inazuma ••
• 2x Tollbooth

Sentry (9)

• 2x Archer •• ••
• 2x Data Raven
• 2x Ichi 1.0 •• ••
• 2x Information Overload
• 1x Rototurret •

15 influence spent (max 15)
20 agenda points (between 20 and 21)
49 cards (min 45)

I took it to a tournament, and if I’m remembering correctly, I went 3-2 as Corp, which is certainly better than I expected! I’m sure I got lucky, but the two losses also both easily could have gone the other way. I still don’t think it’s a great deck, and I’m not planning to work on refining it, but maybe there is something there? (Though it’s pretty vulnerable to Film Critic…)

I have no idea why Inazuma is still in the deck. Also, I’m not sure I need to focus on blowing up rigs in quite as many ways: Information Overload is staying (though two copies is enough, I think), and Archer is fabulous, but maybe I should replace one or both copies of Ichi or Aggressive Secretary?

Oh, also, one technique that I figured out at the tournament: if your opponent is running Astrolabe, then, by creating two servers on your first two clicks, then you can net 6 credits out of Sweeps Week instead of 4.