"Not THE 4S deck but a 4S deck"
Type S Scout
2x Dwarf Planet Survey // Electro-Magnetic Interference
2x Gravimetric Probe Retrieval // There's Always Something...
2x Home One Last Time // Inoperative Amenities
2x Interspecies Census // Interspecies Infection
2x Reach for the Stars // Firmware Update Errors
2x Red Zone Prospecting // Vargr Raiders
2x Refugee Resettlement // Customs Inspection
2x Stellar Luminosity Study // Buccaneer
2x Universal World Profile Update // Opportunistic Raider
2x X-Boat Route Review // Hostile Psionic Coven
I thought about other contracts (where I start and often where I end for non-piracy decks), but I wanted two things: Survey heavy; speed. I don't want contracts worth 2 VPs when I can get 4 VPs.
(6)1x Finch & Cho, CPAs
2x Llaegzko's "Surplus" Outlet
1x Starship Graveyard
2x Yuryehke, Aslan Trader
(15)3x Aminah Darzi, M.D.
2x Buffbot-3000
2x Flint
3x George Zamepiimaakha
1x Mahmoud Czenik
1x Onjiinuunon
2x Rika Honami
1x Vorn Drusus
Mostly familiar faces. There's a reason for that. Besides
, the deck needs to cover a certain variety of skills where Aminah and George add a lot of versatility. Buffbot helps with the limited number of crew slots and I get a good amount of use out of it, where it's easy enough to stop using or replace with the other one if the haywire is too hay or wire.
(17)3x Bwap Advisors
2x Calling in a Marker
1x Crash Course
2x Data Mining Consultant
3x Freelancer
2x Glitch
2x Just a Little Longer...
2x Predatory Tactics
(8)2x Body Pistol
1x Cognition Wafer
1x Densitometer
3x Fragmentation Grenade
1x Panacea Autojector
Armor may make more sense given the crew control heavy metagame I expect.
(3)1x Contingency
2x Lost and Found
(11)2x LSP Multi-Phased Array
1x Luxury Suite
2x Modular Hold
3x Stellar Anomaly Log
3x SureShot Missile Turret
At Kubla, I played this against a Broadsword piracy deck. On round one, I did my opponent's contract and gained 5 VPs. He sat on a contract for some reason while he tooled up. On round two, I gained 6 VPs from one of his contracts (X-Boat Route Survey because he was trying to play hard to do contracts/complications). He was still pursuing the same contract and couldn't complete it. On round three, I gained 4 VPs but had my two upgrades jettisoned as he finally went pirate. On round four, I needed 5 VPs and was likely to end up one short when ... I was bankrupted.
He had triple RVD Overtuned Thruster Plate, a Narda, Tactical Display, Kydut, Marta, Gvaerrggoursu. The Vargr finished off two of my crew, though I Lost and Found back to back rounds to remove a laser rifle and a Body Pistol. Because the piracy action happens before I complete a contract, he clears my upgrades to reduce my possible VPs (Luxury Suite, Stellar Anomaly Log). I also took nine expenses after wiping my upgrades on round four.
While hitback is a way to try to slow piracy, he had too much DV for my paltry hitback abilities to matter.
I thought this was a good example of more refined decks going hard and fast.
Now, first of all, I hope this isn't the best 4S deck that can be built. Second of all, I wasted EV at times because I tends towards paranoia about getting stymied on contracts, which is probably why I'm so often so close to bankruptcy even when I'm not taking 12 AV. So, there may have been a way to get the five and win the race.
But, a primary reason to bring up this game is to open up to brainstorming about answers to massive piracy, which isn't that hard to achieve.
Crackdown wouldn't have been that great, nor Imlaii as he only accumulated two Infamy Tokens. I was bankrupted by two actions!
Engineering Kit against a horde of upgrades that the Broadsword can do is not super exciting.
What's funny is how good Initiative is against his deck. I was playing a good metagame answer with a Scout deck. A Time is Money could have turned off 3 AV, though it's also worth 3 EV, so the benefit would be more along the lines of trying to preserve some upgrades.
In general, I don't run a lot of high EV cards, so it may be as simple as considering Fatima for some Underworld support and tweaking on other cards.
What I really need is not the 2-3 AV that is extremely useful for complications but 5 AV in a single round to sweep some of the pirate's upgrades.
More reliable crew control to take out the likes of Marta when she hits the table or Gvaerrggoursu (and anyone with
) might have been useful. Expect to see Marta a lot in piracy decks, even when not using internal slots for AV. Replenish isn't going to happen that often in this sort of match up.
The heroic that makes you pay for upgrades would sting, of course. That sort of mass control is something we want to be careful about; a piracy deck should be able to win against a non-piracy deck. Discard would make the searching and fishing more expensive. (Llaegzko's is another card to expect to see a lot.)
Rations for thought.
Maybe I can get him to post his Broadsword deck. I realize not everyone has a promo Broadsword (or has as many cards as they want in general), but the principle is the same with any sort of match up where you just want to be a playboy of the Southwestern Worlds and ...
bam !