Gaming

Skorpios: Kneebreaker 1.2

After playing Skorpios: Kneebreaker a bit, I felt it was time to tune it a little.  I was unimpressed with not drawing much in the way of ICE my first game, and the deck still felt a bit slow.  For Kneebreaker 1.2, I swapped out only a pair of cards, but I was happier with how it played out.

First, I swapped out NASX for a Cobra – I have not had issues with money with this deck, so dropping an economy card for an ICE seemed like a good move.  I chose Cobra because it seemed a good progression on the sentries that I was running – it fit between Rototurret and my replacement for Archer.

Second, I swapped out Archer for Machicolation (predator).  While I like Archer, I seemed to end up with it a lot early game, and couldn’t really do anything with it.  Also, the last time I rezzed it, I ended up having to sacrifice Evidence Collection, which really hurt.  While it’s obviously not as powerful as Archer, Machicolation does what I was really looking for – punish the Runner, then end the run.

This deck managed to do pretty well, with one exceptionally memorable non-Terminal Directive game.  It has proved to be a combo-tag & bag deck, with the core being based on the following:

  1. Get Lt. Todachine, Zealous Judge, and, optionally, Mr. Stone in play.
  2. Get Scorched Earth in hand or score Private Security Force or The Cleaners
  3. Give the Runner an excuse to run on something where you can rez ICE.
  4. Rez Mr. Stone first, then Lt. Todachine.  Rez the ICE, now the Runner is tagged (and takes a meat damage or two), and you can rez Zealous Judge.  My Runner has had a tendency to run too late on his turn or has too few credits to both get rid of the tag and Zealous Judge (which can be hampered by K. T. Lynn or Prisec), so…
  5. If you can’t flatline the Runner on your turn, I like the option of spending three clicks and three credits on Zealous Judge for 3 tags and 0, 3, or 6 meat damage (depending on whether you have Mr. Stone and/or The Cleaners.)

In playing non-Terminal Directive games, I swapped out the identity and all the Terminal Directive specific cards for Argus Security (and some fluff to get my agenda balance right.)  When I ran this deck in this way, against my Runner’s Los deck, we had an amazing game.  There was no ICE/ICEBreaker encounters, and he was just killing my hand.  Two account siphons in two turns, and on his turn three he took the agenda in my hand (for which he took the tag.)  On my turn four…  …I Scorched Earth for the win – awesome game all the way around.