I’d gotten a non-FFG alt-art GRNDL at a recent tournament, so I decided to use that for my next corp. I wanted to hit some of the same beats as I’d had in my Next Ice deck, while adding in some Weyland meanness.

I start off with an economic advantage; I wanted to have that feed on itself. So partly that meant throwing in three copies of Restructure, but I also included three copies of Oaktown Renovation and two copies of Corporate War in my agenda mix. Hopefully I can get them out early and defend them enough to score them, at which point my economic advantage grows.

But this is Weyland: I still want to be able to blow people up. I didn’t feel like going heavily on 3-point agendas, and Punitive Counterstrike is less good in a Film Critic world, so Scorched Earth. Which means that I need to land tags; I decided to throw in both SEA Source and Midseason Replacements. (My Next Ice deck showed the power of rig destruction: even if I don’t yet have enough copies of Scorched Earth, Midseason Replacements can let me take out resources.)

When originally building the deck, I forgot that I only had 10 influence, though: with Midseason taking 4 influence, that’s a real problem. I decided to solve that via tutoring: three copies of Project Atlas, and two copies of Aggressive Negotiation. That way I’ll be able to get out Midseasons early; depending on how things go, I can also use that for Scorched.

I decided to include two copies of Underway Renovation (probably my Laramy Fisk deck was inspiring me there): if I get enough money and a defended remote, I might just end up riding that for a while, accepting that I’ll lose one agenda point from it at some point. And I doubled up with resource destruction by including a couple of copies of Corporate Town (since I’d had so much fun discarding agendas for Archer!); also, one Shattered Remains to blow up hardware and three Archers for programs.

The ice is pretty standard; 20 pieces, it turned out a little more advanceable than I expected, but that’s fine.

It ended up at 54 cards: I was including a little bit too much stuff. But hey, given that I have 5 cards in there that have an agenda as part of their rez cost, having extra agendas isn’t bad! I don’t expect it to stay that way, though; if I had to guess, maybe I’ll end up getting rid of two copies of Underworld Renovation, two copies of Corporate town, and one other non-ice card. (And probably swapping the third Archer with a slightly more standard ice.) We’ll see, though, I want to see how it goes.

Here’s everything:

GRNDL, v. 0

GRNDL: Power Unleashed

Agenda (12)

• 2x Corporate War
• 1x Government Contracts
• 1x Hostile Takeover
• 3x Oaktown Renovation
• 3x Project Atlas
• 2x Underway Renovation

Asset (8)

• 2x Corporate Town
• 2x Jackson Howard • •
• 3x PAD Campaign
• 1x Shattered Remains

Upgrade (1)

• 1x Shell Corporation

Operation (13)

• 2x Aggressive Negotiation
• 2x Hedge Fund
• 1x Midseason Replacements ••••
• 3x Restructure
• 3x Scorched Earth
• 2x SEA Source •• ••

Barrier (9)

• 2x Fire Wall
• 1x Hadrian’s Wall
• 3x Ice Wall
• 2x Meru Mati
• 1x Spiderweb

Code Gate (3)

• 1x Builder
• 2x Wormhole

Sentry (7)

• 3x Archer
• 1x Errand Boy
• 1x Nebula
• 1x Swarm
• 1x Taurus

Multi (1)

• 1x Orion

10 influence spent (max 10)
22 agenda points (between 22 and 23)
54 cards (min 45)
Cards up to The Underway

I’d had some bad experiences playing against Noise decks recently; so, when I saw Laramy Fisk show up, I thought that maybe I could experiment with a Noise-style effect coming from Criminal. Get the corp to draw more than they’re comfortable with: partly I just want to make them feel unsettled, but I’m also hoping to get them agenda flooded, at which point either agendas will build up in their hand or in archives.

At least that’s the happy scenario; the unhappy scenario is that it causes the corp to draw exactly the cards they need, propelling them to an economic advantage, while giving them enough ice to protect the extra agendas! That’s honestly more likely, but hey, at least the effect will encourage me to run a lot.

In addition to the identity, I was definitely going to include three copies of Fisk Investment Seminar. I was thinking I’d use Vigil as my console, but when I was browsing cards, Keyhole caught my eye: he’s a classic combo with Noise, and why wouldn’t he work well with Fisk? I don’t have enough influence for both, though, so I need a criminal console, and Box-E gives me the 2 MU to host Keyhole and the extra hand space for the cards from Fisk Investment Seminar.

When planning my icebreakers, I figured I’d be running more on centrals, so I included both Breach and Passport. And for my emergency all-purpose icebreaker I decided to use Faust, with three copies of Special Order as my tutoring. (It feels pretty weird building a deck without Clone Chip!)

Hades Shard makes sense, both because of Keyhole and because agenda floods can feed agendas into archives as well. Thinking about that, I actually decided to include all three of the shards: Utopia Shard plus Legwork can let me access their entire hand (assuming I don’t force the extra draw), and maybe Eden Shard will act like a couple of Keyhole runs? My emergency countermeasure was two copies of Film Critic, I included a couple each of Forged Activation Orders and Inside Job as generic criminal goodness, and everything else was money.

Here’s the result:

Laramy Fisk, v. 0

Laramy Fisk: Savvy Investor

Event (20)

• 3x Account Siphon
• 2x Dirty Laundry
• 3x Fisk Investment Seminar
• 2x Forged Activation Orders
• 2x Inside Job
• 2x Legwork
• 3x Special Order
• 3x Sure Gamble

Hardware (2)

• 2x Box-E

Resource (13)

• 2x Daily Casts
• 1x Eden Shard •
• 2x Film Critic • •
• 1x Hades Shard •
• 2x Kati Jones
• 2x Security Testing
• 2x Symmetrical Visage
• 1x Utopia Shard •

Icebreaker (8)

• 1x Alias
• 1x Breach
• 1x Cerberus “Rex” H2
• 1x Corroder ••
• 1x Faerie
• 1x Faust ••
• 1x Femme Fatale
• 1x Passport

Program (2)

• 2x Keyhole ••• •••

15 influence spent (max 15)
45 cards (min 45)
Cards up to The Universe of Tomorrow

Pictures from the August Minecraft session:

I wandered around my current favorite cave, trying to figure out if I could see a way to decorate the waterfall side.

Looking up the waterfall to the entrance

Peeking behind the waterfall

This bit next to the waterfall could turn into a room

Looking down from above

Then I flew back to the stockade, poking into a cave that’s between it and the above area.

Flying back to the stockade

There’s some water down in the cave

A room next to that water

The water flows down into darkness

The water splits in half

I’d never noticed that this house looks like a monkey’s head

After that, I went to check on what Miranda was building; she’d glassed in and lit up a piece of rocky shore.

A glassed-in bay

The bottom of that area

It’s wet out there

The view from above

Pat, meanwhile, had decided to build a huge glass structure in the middle of the water, close to Dan’s path:

Glass and sand in the ocean

Looking out at an island

There’s Dan’s path

It’s dark underwater here

Here’s the whole thing from way above

Finally, I followed Dan’s path back home. I decided to visit the original cave that we built way back in 2010; it’s kind of falling apart. Maybe I’ll try restoring it some next time…

This door has seen better days

Another unfortunate half door

The prior version of my Chameleon deck was starting to show promise: I gave up on one bad idea, added in Self-Modifying Code, and I’d had some proof of concept that I could cut through big ice when I wanted. It was at 43 cards, so I wanted to slim it down, and see if I could focus it a bit more.

I didn’t actually make a lot of changes: I’d had good enough experiences with Film Critic that I figured I could afford to get rid of one Plascrete, I got rid of the Sharpshooter, since Deus X was clearly the more important emergency special purpose icebreaker, and I somewhat reluctantly got rid of the Forged Activation Order copies. And I added in two copies of Legwork: I’d had the most success with the deck when I picked my runs, so I wanted to increase the effect of those runs.

Here’s the result:

Chameleon, v. 2

Chaos Theory: Wünderkind

Event (7)

• 2x Legwork •• ••
• 3x Sure Gamble
• 2x The Maker’s Eye

Hardware (10)

• 2x Clone Chip
• 2x Cyberfeeder • •
• 2x Dinosaurus
• 3x LLDS Processor
• 1x Plascrete Carapace

Resource (11)

• 2x Armitage Codebusting
• 2x Daily Casts
• 2x Film Critic
• 1x Ice Carver •••
• 2x Kati Jones
• 2x Personal Workshop

Icebreaker (5)

• 3x Chameleon
• 1x Deus X
• 1x Gordian Blade

Program (8)

• 2x Datasucker • •
• 2x Parasite •• ••
• 2x Sahasrara
• 2x Self-modifying Code

15 influence spent (max 15)
41 cards (min 40)
Cards up to Old Hollywood

I’d felt that the deck had possibilities but wasn’t great: a little low on money, and a little slow. So my guess for the tournament was that it would go 2-3, and, honestly, 1-4 wouldn’t have particularly surprised me. But I actually went 3-2, which did surprise me: I felt that my Next Ice deck was significantly better than this one. Though, again, luck played a factor: in particular, in my first game my opponent got super agenda flooded, and that combined with getting a Film Critic in my initial draw gave me an easy win. (I’ve forgotten the details, but Film Critic played a key role in at least one other game as well.)

The other surprise about that tournament was that I played against two other Chameleon decks! All three decks were pretty different; one of them looked really interesting, I wish I’d been taking notes.

Fun experiment; I don’t think I have a good enough feel for what to do with it to want to continue honing it, and I also don’t think it will be particularly useful for my coworkers to practice against. So I’ll be on to Laramy Fisk next.

I was starting to get happy with my Next Ice deck after the first set of tweaks, but I needed to prepare it for the tournament. I’d initially experimented with not having any traps, but I figured I should add some in; program destruction had been key to its success, so I went with two copies of Aggressive Secretary. And I’d been doing well with money (in particular, I’d frequently been able to ride Melange to a good amount of money), so I got rid of an Adonis and a Peak Efficiency; I also swapped a Hedge Fund with a Restructure.

After that, I noticed the Pop-Up Windows weren’t really paying off well, so I got rid of both of them; I used the influence on a Wormhole, and I added that third Hedge Fund back in to bring the money up a bit.

Here’s the result:

Next Ice, v. 2

NEXT Design: Guarding the Net

Agenda (10)

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

Asset (11)

• 2x Adonis Campaign
• 2x Aggressive Secretary
• 2x Jackson Howard • •
• 2x Melange Mining Corp.
• 2x PAD Campaign
• 1x Sundew •••

Operation (8)

• 2x Enhanced Login Protocol
• 3x Hedge Fund
• 2x Peak Efficiency
• 1x Restructure

Barrier (7)

• 3x Eli 1.0
• 1x Heimdall 1.0
• 3x NEXT Silver

Code Gate (5)

• 1x Lotus Field •
• 3x NEXT Bronze
• 1x Wormhole ••

Sentry (7)

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

Other (1)

• 1x Mother Goddess

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

It had done well at work: not great against a Noise deck, and it’s a little more vulnerable against ice destruction than I would like, but I feel like I know how to play it, when to go for money, when to go for agendas, when to blow up my opponent’s programs. (Answer: whenever you can, I’ve never regretted rezzing an Archer.)

Unfortunately, it went 1-4. Part of that was bad luck: in one game I fired an Accelerated Beta Test and had three agendas appear, and a couple of others could have gone either way. Still, it’s clearly not as reliable as I thought.

I’m going to keep it assembled, though: I think it’s a good enough representative of a glaciery archetype to be useful for my coworkers to test against. I’m not particularly planning to tweak it, but if I were, I’d consider getting rid of Sundew (it scares opponents, but I don’t have the ice to defend it), Heimdall 1.0 (it’s not having enough of an effect for me in this deck to justify the rez cost), and one or both Architects (people always seem to have an answer to it, so it’s really only a blip). And maybe even swap a Project Vitruvius for a Corporate War: three-for-two agendas are nice, but I don’t ever use the ability, while the extra money for Corporate War is really useful. (Hmm, actually: maybe I should instead start overadvancing Project Vitruvius…)

On to GRNDL for my next deck; I’m hoping I can use my experience from this deck when building that one.

The initial version of my Chameleon deck tried to include Hyperdriver as well, but I basically knew from the start that that was too much for one deck. So I got rid of Hyperdriver (2 copies), Quest Completed (2 copies), and Notoriety (3 copies). Also, Hayley’s identity never helped, so I swapped her out with Chaos Theory, giving me more memory so I could get rid of the two copies of Cybersolutions Mem Chip.

That brought me down to 41 cards; and, I figured that, with the smaller deck, I’d get rid of both Diesel’s as well. I used the freed up influence to add two copies of Forged Activation Orders; also, Film Critic seems like the new hotness, so I included two of those.

That was a clear improvement; I needed more tools to get stuff out, though, so I added two SMCs, making room by getting rid of one Personal Workshop (which I’d been feeling a bit dependent on) and one Dinosaurus (which is important but, given the number of tools I have to match Chameleon’s strength, not essential to get out early). Here’s the result:

Chameleon v. 1

Chaos Theory: Wünderkind

Event (7)

• 2x Forged Activation Orders •• ••
• 3x Sure Gamble
• 2x The Maker’s Eye

Hardware (11)

• 2x Clone Chip
• 2x Cyberfeeder • •
• 2x Dinosaurus
• 3x LLDS Processor
• 2x Plascrete Carapace

Resource (11)

• 2x Armitage Codebusting
• 2x Daily Casts
• 2x Film Critic
• 1x Ice Carver •••
• 2x Kati Jones
• 2x Personal Workshop

Icebreaker (6)

• 3x Chameleon
• 1x Deus X
• 1x Gordian Blade
• 1x Sharpshooter

Program (8)

• 2x Datasucker • •
• 2x Parasite •• ••
• 2x Sahasrara
• 2x Self-modifying Code

15 influence spent (max 15)
43 cards (min 40)

It’s certainly a lot better than its initial version; I’m not surprised when it wins, though I think it doesn’t win half the time. It’s just on the edge of having enough money; also, I don’t run as much as is a good idea in general. But, when I do pick my runs, I can make it in: for example, yesterday I won a game where I could walk right through strength 7 ice, which is a very useful ability. Film Critic has been useful in a couple of situations, too, I’m definitely keeping that.

Still: needs improvement, given its record; and being three cards over the minimum is a sign that I’m not looking hard enough at it. I also think I need to learn how to pilot the deck better…

The initial version of my Next Ice deck had some success, but there was work to do; I decided to start by tweaking the ice. I had a little too much expensive ice and Architect wasn’t being helpful enough to support three copies; so I was thinking that I’d try switching some of the ice over to economy-generating ice, to have the economy work better with my identity power.

So I added two copies of Errand Boy and one Pop-Up Window; to free up the influence, I swapped a Sundew with an Adonis. And the ice I got rid of was one copy of Heimdall 1.0, one Architect, and my only Rototurret.

Errand Boy really did not work out well: I’m not sure I ever saw a copy get run through twice, and without that it was hurting my economy instead of helping. So got rid of both of those, adding in a second Pop-Up Window and a Lotus Field.

Here’s the result:

Next Ice, v. 1

NEXT Design: Guarding the Net

Agenda (10)

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

Asset (10)

• 3x Adonis Campaign
• 2x Jackson Howard • •
• 2x Melange Mining Corp.
• 2x PAD Campaign
• 1x Sundew •••

Operation (8)

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

Barrier (7)

• 3x Eli 1.0
• 1x Heimdall 1.0
• 3x NEXT Silver

Code Gate (6)

• 1x Lotus Field •
• 3x NEXT Bronze
• 2x Pop-up Window • •

Sentry (7)

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

Other (1)

• 1x Mother Goddess

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

It’s been winning about half the time at work? Archer just keeps on paying off: I was intending this to be a nice deck, but it can really destroy my opponent’s rig. And I’m getting into a rhythm where I can usually get out a Melange pretty early, have enough ice to defend it and my centrals so nothing awful happens while I click on Melange for maybe three turns, and then go on the offense with enough money to rez ice. But I’m not doing well against one of my coworkers’ Noise deck: both the Noise identity ability and the ice destruction from Parasite put me on the back foot, and I don’t work quickly enough to win before Noise’s ability takes over.

So I have work to do on that; also, it’s time for me to work a trap or two into the deck.