I hinted last week that if the first-order optimal thing runner-side is to Just Play Shaper, then obviously you should be strongly considering building Corp decks that punish that as much as possible.
First order of business:
When Shapers are really good, ice really sucks. Play less ice.
Are they running a lot? Punish running.
If you can’t win by being clever, just push variance until the game turns into a rigged coinflip.
Yes, none of this makes for a particularly fun1 time, but that’s the thing about dynamic metagames is that sometimes they fall into unpleasant attractors.
That’s why we’re here.
Also, you can win as Corp with Ampere, as long as you don’t also get too cute and pack Los as your runner.
And the potatoes will continue until morale improves or the knives come out.
It’s worth pointing out that for his latest tournament, AugustusCaesar opted for Hoshiko instead of any Shaper BS. If people start getting too cute just show them the power of the happy tree friends and a toothy console. Nom nom nom.
Worlds 2024
We are now only 52 days out from Worlds 2024. For me personally, the air is starting to crackle with the electricity of the event. I have accepted I could very easily end up at the bottom of the standings- that’s OK, I have alternative San Francisco plans. I’m not part of a dedicated testing team, nor do I have the kind of mind that figures out how to break binder fodder. Part of me is significantly worried that I’ll arrive to the room and everyone except me will know about that One Broken Hyperlinear Corp Thing that kills anyone not packing Obscure Tech Card X.
On the flipside, we’ve had a number of extremely high profile events that (in theory) would act as incentive to burn Super Secret Tech, but sandbagging until Worlds is not unheard of. Nonetheless, I continue to jam games as much as I am able.
Until next week.
hi welcome to the footnotes ‘_’, you probably expected some trite shit like “hey fun is subjective” but we’re gonna skip the platitudes today and get weird and freaky down here in the basement —- look at this ascii character: 挧 it has no meaning, it got incorporated into the global database by mistake- or that’s what we’re told, but actually maybe if you OPEN YOUR MIND enough you might intuit that it’s actually a remnant of an unseen cross-universal recombination event, where part of another Everett branch accidentally formed a Holiday Junction with our own, and that’s what remains. 挧 You met your soul mate in that branch, but now you’ll never get to know them, as the dictums of the Schrödinger Wave Equation carry them further and further away from you at the speed of c^ℵ 1. In the meantime, boy have we got some fun stuff in STORE for you in this pathway: have you ever read The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle? There’s a really fun scene in the middle involving a Mongolian (gotta love the Mongols), some samizdat and a very, VERY sharp knife. Things to ponder!!!! (✿◠‿◠)
Access???
No. Well, OK, but you subscribed to this “content”. Be that way.
YsengrinSC was saying how he felt ICE was bad currently. I don't think that's entirely true, I just think all the good ICE is skewed into HB (Gatekeeper/Drafter/Bran 1.0/MIC) or Jinteki (Saisentan/Anansi/Boto/Tatu Bola).
You'll notice that either they have extremely nasty face checks (HB gets to accelerate the Corp and MIC/Jinteki decelerate the Runner or even just bloody kill) or are extremely difficult to break (the 6str Barriers and Drafter). Some of them are both! Poor NBN and Weyland just don't have ICE that does that. With Bellona gone, R+ tag ICE lacks a proper win con, and... Well Stavka and Archer are the only face checks anyone cares about in Weyland, and both are fine if you play green.
Tempo positive ICE has fundamentally warped how I view ICE. Spending money on ICE that doesn't advance a Corp gameplan or act as a win condition requires a very good reason right now.
Happy tree friends haha wow