Testing Ground – Spark Despotism
I’m back on the Testing Grounds, a little later than I intended, but I quite enjoyed this weeks deck and it has given me some inspiration for a build of my own, more on that later.
Corp: NBN Spark Agency
Deck: Spark Despotism
Architect: Ehill
I played the deck 5 times, winning twice and losing three times.
vs. Noise
This was a fairly aggressive Noise mill deck which I find I have about a 50/50 win/loss rate against. Sometimes I play it well keeping him busy sometimes I don’t. Unfortunately this was one of those times that I just didn’t do it right and despite an early hit to his economy by my trashing of an Aesop’s Pawnshop I just didn’t put together a server I could keep him out of long enough.
vs. Leela
This was a fairly odd Leela deck that didn’t seem to really get going. She managed to snap an Agenda or two out of my hand with Gang Sign but I set up a good scoring remote and loads of Ice over my centrals which effectively kept her out long enough for me to get a Global Food Initiative (GFI) and a 4 point Beale out. It is fun scoring out the large Beales!
vs. Gabe
This was against my friend Steve who ran a very aggressive game keeping me extremely poor. I should have played it a lot better than I did and didn’t defend HQ as well as I could have. Some poor Ice placement choices led to my downfall.
vs. Maxx
I don’t think I have ever seen a deck this aggressive. I haven’t actually played against Maxx a lot but I was taken aback by how fast this thing was. Absolutely stunning speed. She shot off a Maker’s eye early on nabbing 3 points and just kept up the pressure to the point I couldn’t cope. Really well played and an eye opener on this runner.
vs. Adam
This was a Faust Adam build which I don’t think is as strong as the Modern Prometheus build from local player Seamus. I had a small amount of trouble early on but I quickly established a large scoring remote and got scoring from there. I just don’t think that build has the punch to get through large remotes but that is a problem for most Adam builds at the moment.
I really enjoyed this deck, it reminded me of an old NBN glacier build I used to play to some success. Although I didn’t do to well with it I am starting to work on a Sol version of the deck, using currents to keep the runner busy whilst I build the remote to score.
I wasn’t too convinced by the inclusion of Midseasons Replacements without anything to back it up, though I think Closed Accounts is a good call. However it might be worth while trying out Keegan Lane in such a build, sniping out the breakers he needs as they run the big remote. I think this could especially solve the issues I had with the aggressive Maxx Faust deck. I think the Ice could be a bit stronger as well more ETR subroutines are needed.
I think the biggest lesson I learnt, or relearnt, from this deck was not to be too hasty in my Ice placement. A couple of mistakes in this area lost me games.
The deck has inspired me to work on another deck which you can find over here:
This is a Sol take on the same idea and I’ll be taking it to a tournament soon, so I’ll let you know how I get on.
Till next time.
Iain
