Over the years I’ve tried a lot of different decks using the Making News ID. I feel like it’s one of the trickiest identities to work with because there are just so many options competing for your precious card slots and tag based strategies have to be supremely robust or adaptable. However, it’s interesting to note that at the moment our leading ladies Kate and Andy are both running compositions that often have difficulty dealing with a lot of sentries. Switchblade can only realistically get you through one to two a turn while Calimsha Kate hits real problems if the opposition flips more than one sentry above strength 4.

I’ve also been watching new ice coming out with a view to finding one that really clicks with Sub Boost and I feel like that time has come- Cortex Lock does it pretty well, but Gutenberg is absolutely ridiculous once boosted: a strength 6 barrier with two subs for 2 credits and an extra card? Nuts.

I feel like it’s a great time to take a dive and load up on the sentries, so here goes nothing!

Cards: 49 / 45

Agenda points: 20 / 20

Influence: 15 / 15

Agenda (7)

2x Restructured Datapool

1x NAPD Contract

3x Priority Requisition

1x Utopia Fragment

Asset (9)

2x GRNDL Refinery ●●●●

3x Jackson Howard

2x Melange Mining Corp.

2x Reversed Accounts

ICE (14)

3x Data Raven

2x Dracō

3x Gutenberg

2x Snoop

1x Tollbooth

3x Virgo

Operation (17)

3x Hedge Fund

2x Midseason Replacements

1x Power Grid Overload ●

2x Psychographics

3x Punitive Counterstrike ●●●●●●

3x Sub Boost

3x Sweeps Week

Upgrade (2)

2x Ash 2X3ZB9CY ●●●●

Decklist Courtesy of Little Chiba

First things first:

The big rule I’ve learned about Making News is you either have to play it fast and create fork / Damned if you do damned if you don’t scenarios with Astroscript Pilot Program, Project Beale and Midseason Replacements. However, with Clot hanging around looking ominous, strategies dependent on fast advancing here and there are looking a little precarious. The other way is to just have as few agendas as humanly possible- in this case 8. This gives you an extra three or four card slots for cards that let you work your deck hard. There’s not a lot to say about the agendas- they all have their place, including the one-of NAPD Contract, which you can use to throw off psychographics/tag math, or just running math.

The core strength of the deck is its ICE. Data Raven is joined by Virgo as affordable, hyper taxing, resilient sentries to base your defense on. Data Raven is better at stopping security testing runs with switchblade, while Virgo is stronger against brute forcing with link. Draco and Gutenberg give you some flexible early game tools which can still be pretty useful late game- a Draco outside of Mimic range can still do work, while Gutenberg will make your R&D hellish to get into once there are a couple on the server and/or you Sub Boost them. Snoop provides another target for Sub Boost as well as a fantastic tool for gaining information and, if lucky, the power counters can be utterly lethal if not respected. Finally a single Tollbooth to force out a decoder (Sub-Boosted high strength sentries demand a fracter against all but switchblade)

To complement the set of 5/3 agendas we have a set of half-traps that provide that fantastic damned if you do/damned if you don’t threat out of your taxing remote to swing the economics of the game in our favour, allowing us to land Midseason Replacements and Punitive Counterstrike. GRNDL refinery supercharges our own economy, Reversed Accounts blanks the runner’s. A single Power Grid Overload can blow out a runner relying on Plascrete Carapace to stay safe from Punitives, while Snoop counters can deal with I’ve Had Worse. Ash 2X3ZB9CY synergizes with the Making News ID and adds some extra hard-scoring potential to the game, as well as adding a third option for an un-advanced card installed in your remote alongside Jackson Howard and Melange Mining Corp.

If you land a Midseason Replacements or the runner goes tag-me in the face of the unrelenting tags, Psychographics allows you to power out the big agendas in your hand once the runner hits 4 tags, lowering the chance they can scramble to a victory if that’s the route they take.

The ICE count of this deck is fairly low, which can be a problem against some decks, though with a very low agenda density you can afford for the runner to be able to take a few swings at you early on. However, an open R&D in Making News is quite likely to go unmolested these days now everyone has gotten their head around the idea that having their midseasons replaced is not ideal. They may back right off and respect your double advanced Reversed Accounts a little bit too much and end up begging for change.

Make sure you load up on money before trying to do anything too fancy- you’re definitely going to want money to fuel traces on top of your ID credits. In the meantime, try and get the runner coming in as often as possible to make use of your ID and taxing ICE. Look to exploit vulnerabilities and aggressively set the runner up to take a fall or take advantage of their hesitance if they’re looking to play safe.

Give it a go, have some fun, tell me what you think

Happy Gaming!

PS: Shout-out to another Melbourne blogger who has regularly and thoroughly trounced me, if more competitive play is your thing, you should totally check out Sneakdoor Melbourne