Sunny Lebeau, v. 1

The initial version of my Sunny Lebeau deck won sometimes, but not particularly reliably. If it went long enough, then I could get a fair number of credits at the start of each turn, a free run, and a look at the top of R&D; but it took a while for that to build up, and breaking into a scoring remote, while possible, was a bit expensive. Also, it was at 52 cards, making a bloated ID even more bloated.

So I decided that I needed more money, and that I couldn’t count as much on drip economy. I like the idea of Data Folding, but it’s three credits to install and requires me to keep memory, and I’m not leaning quite so much on cloud breakers that I’m sure I’ll always have the memory. So I got rid of the three of those plus the two Dyson Mem Chips. Also, Power Tap didn’t seem to quite be pulling its weight; I used that influence on a Security Testing, since that would dovetail well with Jak Sinclair.

I replaced a Clone Chip with an SMC (fortunately, I had one influence that I hadn’t been using): with a big deck, I needed to get cards out of my deck more often than out of trash, so two SMC and one Clone Chip made more sense than the reverse. To replace the drip economy that I’d lost with the earlier changes, I added in a third Dirty Laundry and a third Sure Gamble, and three Daily Casts. Also, with the loss of Power Tap and Dyson Mem Chip, traces were going to be more expensive again; with Security Nexus, that could be a problem, so I put in two copies of Access to Globalsec. And, finally, I got rid of my two copies of Traffic Jam, to bring it down to 50 cards.

That version felt a lot better: I would typically start off the game with quite a bit more cash than my opponent, and with enough ways to make trouble (an early Jak Sinclair and Security Nexus, say) to keep my opponent a bit on the defensive. (C.f. the first stage of Noah McKee’s Plan.) In the middle of the game, though, it would get a bit bogged down: I wouldn’t have a full icebreaker rig out, and the money could go away surprisingly quickly. So I wanted a bit more draw: I added a Quality Time, getting rid of a Mimic to pay for the influence, I added a second Shrike so I would still have two sentry breakers, and I got rid of an Access to Globalsec to stay at 50.

Then one of my coworkers had a deck with Surveillance Sweep; that really scares me, because it has the potential to destroy my econ advantage, so I decided to add back in my two copies of Traffic Jam as current removal. (And as Astrochain defense.) To make room for those, I got rid of both copies of Overmind: I’d been leaning on Overmind early, but with the Dysons gone, I didn’t have the memory to pull it off, and Overmind really is pretty expensive to use. Also, I had yet to use Deus X, so I swapped it out for a Film Critic. (Shrike helps in some situations where Deus X is important, in particular it’s great against Komainu.)

Here’s the result:

Sunny, v. 1

Sunny Lebeau: Security Specialist

Event (9)

• 3x Dirty Laundry
• 1x Quality Time •
• 3x Sure Gamble
• 2x Traffic Jam

Hardware (6)

• 1x Clone Chip ••
• 1x Plascrete Carapace
• 1x R&D Interface ••
• 3x Security Nexus

Resource (24)

• 1x Access to Globalsec
• 1x Adjusted Chronotype ••
• 3x Daily Casts
• 3x Earthrise Hotel
• 1x Film Critic •
• 3x Globalsec Security Clearance
• 3x Jak Sinclair
• 2x Kati Jones
• 1x Security Testing •••
• 3x Symmetrical Visage
• 3x Underworld Contact

Icebreaker (6)

• 1x Corroder ••
• 1x GS Sherman M3
• 2x GS Shrike M2
• 1x GS Striker M1
• 1x ZU.13 Key Master ••

Program (5)

• 2x Datasucker • •
• 1x Parasite ••
• 2x Self-modifying Code ••• •••

25 influence spent (max 25)
50 cards (min 50)
Cards up to Data and Destiny

It’s been doing pretty well? I like the economy; I would say 6 icebreakers feels small in a 50-card deck, except I have three copies of Security Nexus, so it’s really 9 icebreakers. Security Nexus and Shrike are more expensive than I would like, but so far I’ve had enough economy that I can get out Security Nexus without destroying my economy. And the increased economy means that I’m now happy to see an Earthrise Hotel instead of worried—in earlier versions, just playing Earthrise Hotel would use up lots of my money, which would mean that I wouldn’t have the money to install the cards I was drawing, but with more money it turns into a happy cascade.

I haven’t been getting as much use out of Datasucker as I expected; I’m still leaving them in there, partly because it’s good to get active benefits out of runs and partly because, with the tanks, one Datasucker token can frequently save two credits. I’m still not convinced that I need all three copies of Security Nexus, Jak Sinclair, and Globalsec Security Clearance, but they’re all actively helpful and in-faction, so I’m sticking with them for now.