Astrolab/black market deck - 2007/03/04 18:12This is one I've been tinkering with for a bit, feedback appreciated! Ship choice especially I could do with some input on
Starbase: Venal Tower
Regions: Sansha's Nation Khanid Kingdom Society of Conscious Thought
Locations (13): 4x Veldspar 4x Interstellar Trade Post 2x Echoes of Gloom Bay 1x Hedbergite
The general idea is that nearly everything in the deck has an ISK cost of either 3 or 4, such that whenever you get hold of a black market, you are pretty much guaranteed to be able to pull out what you want, which will be an astrolab or ships to power it.
The mind controls are mainly there to protect black market, which is very vulnerable to mind control itself. I'm considering switching them out for martial law, as it ought to be a bit more reliable, but on the downside is less flexible.
I've given it a runout against my Minmatar "I kill you" deck which I usually test against, and it wins just over 50% of the time, which I'm reasonably happy with. The start can be slow sometimes, so any tips to speed that up would be appreciated. (This is what the market research labs were supposed to do, but I'm not sure it's as effective as I'd like).
I'd also like to replace one of the 3-cost ships with Incursus, but I'm not too sure what I can lose the most easily. I'm leaning toward ditching the crucifiers, but haven't given it a try yet.
Any and all comments much appreciated!
The administrator has disabled public write access.
Smeelbo
User Cruiser
Posts: 224
Re:Astrolab/black market deck - 2007/03/04 18:58I've never been impressed with Heron, but then I have not made much use of Warp Scramble. My theory is that attack threatens both ships and starbases, and restricts your opponent's options, so I would prefer the Merlin with 4 attack. Two Merlins threaten a starbase.
In practice, I have found in practice that Muppet Research Labs is less useful than it appears. It doesn't get you any extra draws, and really, you should want most of the cards in your marketplace. They also do not stack well with each other. I think I would rather have a stronger effect for a starbase structure.
Those are my first impressions.
Smeelbo
The administrator has disabled public write access.
lipa666
User Frigate
Posts: 50
Re:Astrolab/black market deck - 2007/03/04 19:27Market research labs can slow dawn your opponent and that is primary target for its ability
The administrator has disabled public write access.
Kester
User Frigate
Posts: 68
Re:Astrolab/black market deck - 2007/03/04 19:58Smeelbo wrote: I've never been impressed with Heron, but then I have not made much use of Warp Scramble. My theory is that attack threatens both ships and starbases, and restricts your opponent's options, so I would prefer the Merlin with 4 attack. Two Merlins threaten a starbase.
In practice, I have found in practice that Muppet Research Labs is less useful than it appears. It doesn't get you any extra draws, and really, you should want most of the cards in your marketplace. They also do not stack well with each other. I think I would rather have a stronger effect for a starbase structure.
Those are my first impressions.
Smeelbo
My inclusion of Herons is something of a response to the prevalence of Minmatar decks I play against. When you're facing a lot of ships with good ambush but not much in the way of shields, the combination of target jam and warp scramble seems a good one to me - it forces your opponent to be a lot more careful with his ships, rather than throwing them all over the place and withdrawing when threatened. Heron may be a bit of overkill on top of Ship Comupter Glitch for this purpose though. I'll give the Merlins a try and see how it goes.
I'll see how it goes with the Muppet Research Labs (I'm calling them that forever now). I'm definitely seeing them as less useful than I originally thought, but I think I'll persevere for a bit and see if I can make it work.
Thanks for the feedback!
The administrator has disabled public write access.
Kempeth
User Battlecruiser
Posts: 366
Re:Astrolab/black market deck - 2007/03/04 20:33I personally love the Heron for it's target jam and 3 shields. It's a cheap way to nullify these nasty ambush or patrol commands. And while most cheap ships have only 1 or 2 attack it's 3 shields are quite nice.
Not something I would base my fleet on but they have decided the match to my favor more than once...
The administrator has disabled public write access.
DTee
User Cruiser
Posts: 222
Re:Astrolab/black market deck - 2007/03/12 11:42Overall it looks like a very interesting deck. The labs give it a bit more staying power than most frigate rushes. I'd love to see a side-board.
I think you really want the fourth labs, they get a bit silly when you've two in play as you get to reveal to both.
No advanced shipyards? With such cheap ships it looks better than some of the locations you're running.
DTee
The administrator has disabled public write access.
Kester
User Frigate
Posts: 68
Re:Astrolab/black market deck - 2007/03/12 19:55DTee wrote: Overall it looks like a very interesting deck. The labs give it a bit more staying power than most frigate rushes. I'd love to see a side-board.
I think you really want the fourth labs, they get a bit silly when you've two in play as you get to reveal to both.
No advanced shipyards? With such cheap ships it looks better than some of the locations you're running.
DTee
Good call on the shipyards, I gave it a try with them and it helps the income quite a bit. I avoided them originally because only 20 of the 52 cards were ships and I thought it might be a bit wasteful, but it seems to work!
After playing a bit more with this deck, it's clear that card draw is a problem - this is why Venal Tower is there, but I never get the spare 8 ISK to actually use it, there's always something more pressing. I'm going to try dropping something for Information At A Cost instead, which frees me up to use Precog Tower for more anti-news. I'll post the most recent version when I'm happy with it
Oh, and on the fourth Astrolabs, I'd love to have them, but it's simply a case where I don't have the physical card! (But I have 4 Black Markets, go figure... )
The administrator has disabled public write access.
DTee
User Cruiser
Posts: 222
Re:Astrolab/black market deck - 2007/03/13 15:05If you're going with the advanced shipyards you might want to try 4 Condor rather than Information At A Cost, it looks good but the 2 isk is just enough to be annoying.
How's computer glitch working out for you?
DTee
The administrator has disabled public write access.
). I'm definitely seeing them as less useful than I originally thought, but I think I'll persevere for a bit and see if I can make it work.
)
