For the third iteration of my Spark Agency deck, I mostly wanted to take the prior version (which felt pretty solid to me) and make it Most Wanted List compliant. I had three Astroscripts, two NAPDs, three SanSans, and an Eli, so obviously I had work to do.

Having said that, most of that work was pretty clear: I had an Adonis Campaign and an Eve Campaign, and I wasn’t feeling either of those, so that freed up 5 influence. Replacing the Eli with a TMI gave me one MWL influence and one regular influence, too. So that took care of the Astroscripts and the SanSans; I replaced them with Explode-A-Paloozas, and I was all set. Or at least all set for MWL compliance; Turnpike hadn’t been doing me any good, so I replaced it with a Tollbooth.

And, honestly, I like the new version better. There’s a reason why I didn’t like the expensive campaigns, TMI is good if you can rez it when the runner is broke, and while it’s nice if the runner can’t steal NAPD, the credits from Explode-A-Palooza has been extremely useful a couple of times.

Spark Agency, v. 3 (a.k.a. Deals Galore!)

Spark Agency: Worldswide Reach

Agenda (10)

• 3x AstroScript Pilot Program ☆☆☆
• 2x Explode-a-palooza
• 1x Global Food Initiative •
• 3x Project Beale
• 1x 15 Minutes

Asset (10)

• 2x Daily Business Show
• 3x Jackson Howard
• 2x Launch Campaign
• 3x PAD Campaign

Upgrade (7)

• 2x Cyberdex Virus Suite
• 2x Product Placement
• 3x SanSan City Grid ☆☆☆

Operation (6)

• 2x Biotic Labor •••• ••••
• 2x Hedge Fund
• 2x Sweeps Week

Barrier (3)

• 1x TMI
• 2x Wraparound

Code Gate (8)

• 1x Archangel
• 2x Enigma
• 3x Pop-up Window
• 2x Tollbooth

Sentry (2)

• 2x Assassin

Other (3)

• 3x Special Offer

9 influence spent (max 15-6=9)
20 agenda points (between 20 and 21)
49 cards (min 45)
Cards up to Data and Destiny

My NetrunnerDB description:

A pretty basic fast advance core, though I can’t claim to be a fast advance expert, and I probably play this deck more slowly than is wise. Spark Agency helps keep the runner poor through the card ability and their desire to trash assets; and sudden infusions of cash (Special Offer, Explode-a-palooza, etc.) mean that I can rez expensive ice more frequently than I’m used to when playing NBN, or that I can blow money advancing agendas. And the upgrades give possibilities for misrepresenting servers as holding agendas: it’s always fun to have your opponent blow a scoring window on a two-upgrade server that earns you a couple of credits.

I’m not at all sure what to do next; it seems pretty solid, I’ll bring it to a tournament this Saturday and see how it does.

I liked the second version of my Sunny deck quite a bit more than its predecessors; so my next goal was to get it down to 50 cards (from 52) and to speed up my draw.

I added a third Drug Dealer, to speed things up. I thought about adding Modded, but that’s a click and a play for three cards, which isn’t a lot of efficiency; I decided to try out Mr. Li, on hopes that he would get the key cards early. I’d been flush in economy, so I got rid of the third Modded (The Supplier takes care of Hardware, and I can afford to pay for one of my icebreakers out of pocket) and my Dr. Lovegood (early in the game I can sequence things to avoid the Drug Dealer tax, and at the end of the game I’ll have a 3-5 credit drip even without Dr. Lovegood, which is more than enough). That’s neutral on cards and influence; to slim down to 50, I got rid of one Plascrete and one Datasucker.

Here’s the result:

Sun Supply (a.k.a. Sunny, v. 3)

Sunny Lebeau: Security Specialist

Event (7)

• 2x Dirty Laundry
• 2x Modded •• ••
• 3x Sure Gamble

Hardware (9)

• 1x Plascrete Carapace
• 3x Rabbit Hole • • •
• 2x Security Chip
• 3x Security Nexus

Resource (27)

• 1x Adjusted Chronotype ••
• 3x Daily Casts
• 3x Data Folding
• 3x Drug Dealer • • •
• 3x Earthrise Hotel
• 2x Globalsec Security Clearance
• 2x Jak Sinclair
• 1x Mr. Li ••
• 3x Power Tap • • •
• 3x The Supplier •• •• ••
• 3x Underworld Contact

Icebreaker (6)

• 2x GS Sherman M3
• 2x GS Shrike M2
• 2x GS Striker M1

Program (1)

• 1x Datasucker •

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

One of my coworkers had the bright idea that we should start playing each others’ decks; and I like this deck and have learned enough about how to play it that I figured I should write up notes on it. I’ve put them on NetrunnerDB, but I’ll put them here as well:

This deck takes a while to set up, but once it gets going, it’s almost unstoppable: once set up, it’s common to be able to break into any server while making a profit over the course of the turn. I haven’t taken it in its current form to any tournaments, but my guess is that it’s still a little too slow to deal with a good fast advance, but it’s a lot of fun.

You want to get out The Supplier as quickly as possible; mulligan if you don’t either get The Supplier or Drug Dealer, and install Drug Dealer as soon as possible as well. (Usually just pay the credit instead of putting it on The Supplier.) Then you want to get as many cards drawn as possible and installed with the help of The Supplier; Earthrise Hotel is your friend (but don’t install it before you have The Supplier), and of course drip economy is good. Also, get out Rabbit Hole when you see it, both to thin out your deck (install all three copies at once, hopefully with a two-credit discount from The Supplier), to reduce the chance of traces landing, and to set up the Security Nexus / Power Tap combo.

During this phase, pay attention to the timing of your beginning-of-turn actions: you’ll be running poor, but the advantage is, many turns, you’ll be able to sequence your actions to not have to pay the Drug Dealer tax. Do only as much running as is necessary to keep the corp honest on remote servers and to make them rez a bit of ice; also, as Modded shows up, you can start getting your breakers out. And definitely get Security Nexus installed, don’t forget that you can use The Supplier for hardware as well. Make sure you use The Supplier every turn; if you have too much stuff stacked up there, consider just installing cheap resources (e.g. Underworld Contact) directly.

Once you’ve got your console, and some money, you can start running a bit more; depending on what parts of your rig, you may use Globalsec to snipe some assets, or you may get free Datasucker tokens off of Jak Sinclair. Also, if you have Power Tap installed, you might be able make a profit during those runs, by forcing traces with your console where you have 6 link.

And then, once the full rig is out, money will be flowing in, Power Tap is even more of a profit center, and you can break into anything. For a fully iced-up server, you’ll need Security Chip; don’t be afraid to use them, just pick your spots.

There’s no recursion, so try to avoid throwing away your extra copies of your icebreakers; you should generally have room in your hand anyways.

I think I’ll take it to the tournament next week in this form. Right now, the two cards I’m most dubious about are Mr. Li and Adjusted Chronotype: I almost never use the former (though it may still be useful when dealing with particularly bad draws?), and the latter is really there more out of loss aversion than anything else, buy the time I’m leaning on Globalsec I can generally live without the extra click.

I’m not entirely sure what to put in its place, though. Something to let me put a little more pressure in the early-middle game, maybe Special Order or Inside Job? Tag defense? Add back in that second Datasucker? Add in a third Security Chip, and don’t be afraid to use it earlier? Multithreader, to let me afford to make runs earlier even with expensive icebreakers? Hard to say…

I didn’t end up getting any good pictures during the January Minecraft session: I spent most of my time traveling (we’re too spread out now, and the server was acting oddly so I traveled slowly, I guess I should have just teleported to the coordinates), and when I got back to where I’d been building, I didn’t have much in the way of inspiration. Hopefully I’ll have more pictures next month, we’ll see; it is a bit of a shame that we’re so spread out now, though…