Tokositna Defense Systems is a concept deck like Astudillo Defense Systems, with the notable difference that it uses Sentries instead of Code Gates.  This is actually the deck that I wanted to build with the concept, but Code Gates seemed like a nice warmup, (with Machicolation, click punishment, and lots of End The Run options.)  This deck forgoes a lot of that to accomplish two goals: (a) punish the runner for face checking and (b) use damaging subroutines to make the runner not want to run.

There were two things in this deck that gave me pause – first, I knew how Astudillo ran, and more than a few times I felt low on cash; I didn’t really buff up my economy package, so money could be a problem. Second, I was going to have to be a bit more careful about my ICE positioning, as I had some ICE without End The Runs. Still, the subroutines here had teeth – if the Runner face checked this, it was not going to be good for them.

The only difference between Tokositna and Astudillo are the ICE – all sentries rather than all code gates. This makes a big difference as the ICE are significantly more punishing, but also more expensive. The core of this deck is really the Rototurret, it gets a lot of work done if the Runner doesn’t have a killer and is the ICE that I can toss out in front of an Asset remote to prevent the access. Also, I had to find a place for Archer in this deck – in this way, the Underway Renovations really did a lot of work; I could keep them out to mill the Runner, then score them for sacrifice to Archer.

Overall, I was pretty happy with this deck’s performance. By the end of the game, the Runner had no rig to speak of, and I was scoring with abandon. Money was, as expected, something of an issue, and the Runner trashed my Capital Investors twice, which didn’t help. There was once or twice where I ended up having to hold on to agendas because I didn’t have the cash to score them or rez the necessary ice to protect them, which was quite uncomfortable (and very different from the last few decks I played, where my hand was almost always empty of agendas.)

Like Astudillo, Tokositna Defense Systems is named after a real-life glacier.  Tokositna Glacier is a glacier in Alaska, and it flows around Mount Hunter.  When I think of Hunter, I can’t help but think of the ICE dogging my opponent, and this glacier flows around eroding the Runner’s rig into nothing.