Moonbase Alpha

Snake Eyes 4581

This is an NBN: Making News Tagstorm deck with multiple winning conditions that revolve around either tagging the runner, or triple advancing a single AstroScript Pilot Program and riding the train to victory. All of the options available make the deck a lot of fun to pilot. I have been enjoying a good win record with it, although have a harder time against high link runners unless I set up quickly.

A single Shoot the Moon is amazing in this deck. I've single advanced a Breaking News to free rez an Archer and a Tollbooth before. If you can land any early Manhunt or Dracō tags, this can get quite tasty quite quickly.

Archer is great in NBN. It is generally unexpected, and Breaking News is the perfect throw-away card. A single Information Overload sits in this deck too. While it requires a lot of set up - once it is established, imo it is the strongest piece of ICE in the game. I've had some fun moments wiping out 13 card rigs.

The deck is a little light on economy - make sure to ICE up HQ against Siphons. Hitting a single Melange Mining Corp. is extremely helpful in set up. Being able to hit it 2 or 3 times basically guarantees a victory. Strategic Pop-up Window placement and trying to Jackson Howard back your economy helps.

The new asset staple of 2 Jackson Howard and 2 Daily Business Show works great here.

Archived Memories is a great splash for this deck. It opens up the double Scorched Earth easily enough - or brings you back some much needed economy or trickery (Closed Accounts anyone?) at just the right moment.


Sacrifice NAPD Contract if you have Midseason Replacements in hand. Play Manhunt as soon as your econ is semi-stable to tax the hell out of the runner. Don't be afraid to mess with the runner by scoring Breaking News and then playing Closed Accounts as soon as they get rich.

This deck has won many times by Psychographics over 2 point agendas, or even just making the elusive 7 point Project Beale. I would say, that in this deck, Project Beale is actually better than AstroScript Pilot Program.

28 Dec 2014 whuppo

as soon The Source hits my store, ill play this.


30 Dec 2014 frost-duty

This deck looks like a great deal of fun. My main question would be about the economy. It just doesn't seem like you will be able to reliably land Midseasons with so little available money (especially against for example Magnum using shapers).

A lot of the deck revolves around landing the tagstorm, and I just don't see how you will manage this reliably. How have you found this in playtesting?

30 Dec 2014 Snake Eyes

Hello @frost-duty!

The average game ends with my opponent significantly tagged, and/or with them spending so much of their resouces to clear tags that it opens huge windows for me. The win rate has been pretty good for the deck. Most times I lose -I feel like it's from me having 3 agendas in hand early, and the runner top decking 5 points off of RnD.

If you were up against someone who hit Magnum Opus on turn one, and just kept their credit pool above 20 each turn.... yeeeah I'd probably abandon the idea of Midseason Replacements, and instead just play like a more glacier approach. The objective there would be to score an AstroScript Pilot Program while they are busy building their Scrooge McDuck level empire of credits.

Archer, or the Closed Accounts off of a Breaking News trick could hamper their style. Manhunt would still be taxing enough to be worthwhile - but if the deck you're against is say... Kate "Mac" McCaffrey: Digital Tinker with extra link too.... well... that's a counter deck to this whole strategy and you will probably lose if you don't believe in the raw power that is AstroScript Pilot Program. I'd try to make a little scoring remote ans maybe luck my way into a victory. I envision a lot of clicking for credits, and wishing I had Melange Mining Corp..

6 Jan 2015 steveklabnik

I've been enjoying this deck a lot, though I have yet to pull off a Shoot the Moon.

7 Jan 2015 Raxen

Hey Snake Eyes - Will you be playing this deck at Mega Bowl? Cheers John.

7 Jan 2015 spags

Beautiful deck. Any thought on getting Troll in here?

7 Jan 2015 Groober

Just as a general question, how much do you find that MN contributes over NEH? I guess manhunt becomes a LOT better, but also against MN I find that the midseasons is much more telegraphed. I certainly haven't seen a MN that wasn't trying to tagstorm in a long time.

7 Jan 2015 Snake Eyes

@steveklabnik Keep trying, the dream is real! Even just hitting 2 pieces of good ICE with it is totally worthwhile. I've had some (very casual/joking around) games where I'll avoid win conditions for a turn just to rez the field of ICE.

Hi @Raxen/John, how are you doing? I don't know if I'll be playing this at the Mega Bowl just yet. I'm torn between this deck and an unpublished Blue Sun: Powering the Future deck that I have built right now. I'll be coming off of a hard weekend of work and will probably be a little braindead, so I'm more likely to choose this one since it requires sliiiiightly less thinking and has less finicky timing rules involved.

@spags Thanks man, I appreciate that coming from you! I like the idea of Troll as a card, though haven't playtested it at all. I don't know if this is the right deck for it, but Troll has NBN: Making News written all over it! Maybe in a modern Yellow Jackets build? I can imagine Troll getting real annoying if it's on server also protected with Ash 2X3ZB9CY and... ohh... I dunno, something like RSVP?

@Groober, Typical NBN FA has moved over to Near-Earth Hub: Broadcast Center, yeah. It's still do-able in NBN: Making News, but MN doesn't receive the same types of benefits that NEH does in terms of speed and influence. If FA is 100% your goal, NEH is probably a better ID to pick, with support from Biotic Labor and SanSan City Grid.

A runner should expect to see Tagstorm and/or Tag mechanics of some sort with MN, as the ID's ability focuses on traces, and NBN as a whole has a lot stuff that ends in a tag from traces. The question becomes then, when you play against someone using NBN: Making News as their identity, is what flavour of Tag Punishment will they be focusing on, and to what degree. If the corp isn't planning on doing Tag Punishment, there isn't a strong reason to play this ID over NBN: The World is Yours* or (more realistically) Near-Earth Hub: Broadcast Center.

In my version I'm kind of doing almost everything that's available. (Midseason Replacements, Manhunt, Dracō, Breaking News to add tags, Scorched Earth, Closed Accounts, Psychographics, Information Overload, and Shoot the Moon to punish for them). This represents a higher varience decktype - considering how, for example, Information Overload is a dead card until tags land, as is Shoot the Moon.

However other Tag Punishment decks might go all-out on Psychographics, maxing out their Midseason Replacements as well and piling on more burst and/or steady economy... Or you can go all-out as a kill deck and throw in 3 Scorched Earths, 1 Archived Memories, and I dunno, an Eli 1.0 or something to round out the influence.

You'd get more consistency going all out on one tactic or another - but I enjoy the flexibility of being able to just discard certain cards like.. Oh, I dunno..Scorched Earths if they throw up a double or triple Plascrete Carapace and are just piling on the credits between runs, making a good Midseason Replacements hit difficult, and the prospect of hitting them with Information Overload minimal. In that case, I'd probably just ditch'em and try to win things the old fashioned way.

There are a few cards that deal in tags that I've ignored here like TGTBT or Virgo. TGTBT can be argued for in a deck like this - but I like the more pro-active Breaking News since it can combo off of Shoot the Moon or Closed Accounts if you do it a certain way. Heck, while I haven't done it outside of a runner with no Plascrete and under 3 cards in hand - it's possible to just get a single Scorched Earth kill off of an unadvanced Breaking News from the turn before.

I haven't really played around with Virgo at all - but I wanted to steer clear of the more porous ICE types, and favour stuff that can ETR. Dracō does both, so I love it as some early game ICE in that slot!

9 Jan 2015 BreadRising

To make a case for Virgo, I think it's a great option that is both taxing and a great tagging method. Granted, as you mentioned, it won't End The Run, but it serves as a great Run deterrent in its own right, making the runner weight if it's really worth trying to get through it.

This is mostly due to it's amazingly high 5 Strength, and the fact that if it fires, MN only needs 1 real credit to ensure at least one tag. It essentially means that the runner can never just "let it fire" and use piles of money to beat out the trace. A Making News with a single credit is still a Tag threat. And if they decide to just run through it without fighting the Trace at all, it's two tags they need to deal with at a very minimal cost to the Corp.

It's a piece of ICE that they need to accept they'll either pay quite a bit of money to break (or trash a precious Faerie, or mark with Femme) or spend additional Clicks/Credits on tag removal. And if they're simply floating Tags, that just makes it better for you for Psychographics, Shoot the Moon, and what have you.

I guess I'm just curious as to where Virgo would fit in this deck; it seems pretty airtight with wiggle room. Personally, I'd be okay giving up some ETR Ice for it or maybe just tossing the Flare. I like Flare, but Flare is most effective when you rez it in someone's face; and that's just not as doable given its cost and the low economy in this deck.

Anyways, I look forward to testing this deck out. I'll throw some Virgos in there and let you know how it goes. Great work!

10 Jan 2015 Snake Eyes

Hey @BreadRising, yeah I agree- if there's a slot to play around with here, its Flare. Virgo could sub in nicely there. I might give it a shot - though the SanSan cycle might have even better options coming.

10 Jan 2015 Swiftly

But surely Flare really doesnt go well with Shoot the Moon, its best a surprise. Archer suffers less from not being surprise cos of its multisubs?

14 Jan 2015 Snake Eyes

Flare is still alright with Shoot the Moon - just being a six strength sentry with a nasty sub is a pretty heavy deterrent. I agree that as a surprise that it's better - but cheating it out in a Shoot the Moon hit has undeniable value.

Flare's probably going to be a card that'll eventually get subbed out - as it stands it's just a value hit for StM. You could safely sub Flare out for Virgo or Data Raven. After some playtesting, I think Data Raven is the way to go here. It either shuts down a server if the runner is completely avoiding tags (and/or further taxes them clicks and credits shedding them)... Or it means that the runner has resigned to being tagged, in which case you are free to open up your can of tag punishment.

14 Jan 2015 W4lt3r B15h0p

After piloting this deck yesterday, I feel Melange Mining Corp. is pure insta-trash the moment it hits the board regardless if it's protected. I feel Marked Accounts would be better as its free to rez and hella expensive to trash thus making it über taxing to the runner. Also, I think Enigma is a better ice choice over Datapike as it's much easier to rez.

15 Jan 2015 rattkin

I don't understand the love for this deck. It's a smart build on paper, but I guess it's very dependant on meta. During my testing it was less than stellar. The rule of thumb here is when playing good runners, it's very hard to tag them. Maybe author is just playing in meta, where giving multiple tags is easier.

In essence, if you want to capitalize on multiple tags, just run 3 Midseasons, that's it. You don't need anything else. If you run Data Raven, then you're telegraphing too much.

Information Overload won't be rezzed early in the game (too costly) and in the midgame, there's a good chance, Sentry breaker is already on the table. If runner doesn't have tags, it does nothing, if he does, he will break it anyway. But, truth be told, by that time you most probably would Scorch him anyway.

Shoot The Moon x1 is not enough. The amount of windows you will have with just one tag is probably 0-1 during the whole game. Runner will smartly drop the tags, if he can, and in that window, you probably want to use Psychographics/Scorch anyway. You're there to win, no to rez ICE.

Melange is too fragile, as others noticed and there's little here to protect it. Manhut is superb and this card alone is enough to provide enough taxing and threat. Datapike is not needed here at all and there's just no money to rez Flare, besides rare pullofs from StM. And Virgo doesn't really change anything here. I played with Virgo and runner gladly was going through with multiaccess, taking the tag and then dropping it later.

I just don't feel that we're there yet with multiple tags.

15 Jan 2015 Snake Eyes

For your opening comment "I don't understand the love for this deck" - are you seriously saying that you think that Big Girls Play With Monoliths must be the best deck ever because it has the most likes here? It has likes because it's creative and fun, and occasionally wins. It being the most liked deck on here doesn't mean that it's going around winning every tournament left right and centre. NEH Astrobiotics + Architect isn't anywhere near the top page, even though it's probably the easiest deck out there to win with right now. (Not a shot at people who play it, just going with raw stats, reference 68,35% win rates as an ID via :

My testing pegged this deck as a solid Tier 2. I only win about 65% of the time with it (a little lower than my normal stats). I have played ~90 games with this deck so far, in 3 different cities, and a bunch over OCTGN, all with relatively similar stats, WRT to you questioning my meta.


You could do 3 Midseason Replacements, but honestly at times I found myself ditching one of them early on. It's really a "right time" thing. Give it a shot though, maybe you'll have a better time with it.

Information Overload is not something you want to rez early. If there's a Killer on the table, so long as it isn't Switchblade or Faerie, you're fine. If you have the tools to Scorched Earth, you would - but sometimes they might have plenty of Plascrete Carapaces out. If you want to do a pure scorch kill deck - I have the same advice from previous. Run 3x Scorched Earth, 1x Archived Memories, and 1x Eli 1.0. Information Overload is a fantastic way of knocking them out and bringing the runner back into the early game while you're semi-set up, if you have the runner burried in tags.

Shoot the Moon as a 1-of is just fine. I wouldn't pull anything to add another one in. It's dead unless you have the proper set-up. My most common use of it is probably off of a Breaking News mocked as an NAPD Contract. I probably get value out of it about 2/3rds of the time I see it - although oftentimes it sits in my hand for quite a while before it can be used.

Rezzing ICE is a means to winning. If you shut down the board, you're well on your way. I'm sorry that it didn't work out for you. Shoot the Moon is a super fun card. I get a lot of joy out of it when it works out.

Melange Mining Corp. is a timing thing. Yeah, it's fragile. Seriously though if just one of them goes off, you're fine. Time your ICE reveals. If the runner has a full suite by turn 3 - it doesn't really matter what it is, it's going to die. Whether it got you just 1 or 2 via PAD Campaign or Marked Accounts versus a burst of 6-7 with Melange Mining Corp. is really a piloting thing I guess!

Datapike is great here, I don't know what you're talking about having a problem with it. It ends the run and taxes the runner with 2 must-breaks. Yog.0 isn't as popular these days. If you really don't like Datapike - just sub it with a Quandary. I find the taxation great though.

I'm confused by your comment about Data Raven being telegraphic, but somehow The ID itself, Virgo, nor like 1/4th of the things in this deck somehow aren't? If someone is playing as NBN: Making News - the Runner should be expecting tags o' plenty, and pre-emptively be planning around them.

I feel as though we are there - but that what I assume your idea is that Tagstorm should be a godsend to this game and takeover every meta because this deck got a lot of likes is skewed (ps! Thanks for the likes guys! I'm glad that most people here enjoy it!). Basic Fast Advance and/or Glacier is what you're running if your goal is to statistically win the greatest percentage of your games. This deck is lots of fun, and comes with the added benefit that it wins a little more often than it loses.

Your mileage may vary based on what your goals are with this game.

15 Jan 2015 rattkin

No need to get defensive here. I wasn't questioning the skill in piloting and wasn't questioning the ability to build the deck. After several plays, I just felt it doesn't really do anything very good. I'm an NBN player since early days, so have lots of experience in timing Midseasons, Data Raven, etc.

What I was trying to say is that this deck, mostly, tries to surprise runner with a sudden sentry rez and capitalize on that. Apparently, you're able to pull this of more often. I cannot. When Runner has sentry breaker on the table, this deck folds down quickly. And it's quite susceptible to the early agression, as there's little cheap ETR ice to draw from. That's why Datapike is 1c too much to have in starting hand. Betting on Melange feels too risky to me. Good runner will swipe it - always. And if he does, you will loose economically.

I wasn't talking about telegraphing tags, just specific scenarios. The ID itself just says that there will be traces. But until you play, it's hard to figure out what will be the purpose of those traces. They might as well be bioroids, Caduceus or whatnot. Data Raven is too agressive - it immediately tells a lot and careful runner will just wait and parasite / femme it. I love Data Raven, but only in "I'll Scorch you anyway, and we both know it" decks, dedicated fully towards this goal. I think that for this kind of deck, keeping things in secrecy is your best bet. Virgo is also telling too much that's why I've eventually dropped it. I like Archer here, love Manhunt. I'm not sure if it would be better to fortify ICE a bit and switch to 3 Midseasons. Midseaons has a very good secondary purpose - it acts as Closed Accounts - you can play it, even if Runner can pay to win the trace - but it usally means they're drained. The reason to have 3 is that if you have enough money, you can just play 2 one after the other. First one clears the runner, second one hits. Obviously, you need to wait for the agenda steal, but this setup is a very reliable way to punish with multiple tags.

19 Jan 2015 Oziride

@Snake Eyes, in your opinion, what's best way/runner to beat this deck? I've played 3 times against (online) and see no-way to wins...

19 Jan 2015 frost-duty

@Oziride I have now played against this deck a few times, and the answer to that is actually fairly simple: economy. You need to have more money than the CORP, if you do the following cards simply become useless: midseasons, psycographics, scorched, closed accounts, shoot the moon, information overload.

That's a lot of dud draws!! To do this you need solid burst economy and to make sure you only steal when you know you won't get massively punished for it. This obviously depends a little on draw, but I found that PPvP Kate was capable of simply outspending the CORP.

19 Jan 2015 Oziride

@frost-duty mmm, first of all, thanks for the answer, the problem is AstroScript Pilot Program and Melange Mining Corp. ... in the first case, the Corp start the Astrotrain and it's possible that I loose on point, in the 2° case, the corp's economy can beat mine....

19 Jan 2015 Snake Eyes

@Oziride yeah @frost-duty is right. If the Runner is silly rich, it's harder to beat unless the corp lucks out on AstroScript Pilot Programs. Sacrifice your money to kill Melange Mining Corp. when possible. Valid target for Inside Job if need be.

Efficient Killers like Garrote or Switchblade hurt as well.

Consistant Multi-Access on RnD helps a great deal too, esp if Daily Business Show shows up.

19 Jan 2015 frost-duty

@Oziride You aren't wrong, sometimes you are damned if you do, damned if you don't. If they get a lot of money early, an astro, and a midseasons then it's going to be a tough game. However, this doesn't often happen so smoothly. Melange you just need to trash, you can't be midseasoned at that point, so spending some of your money to deny huge cash is a no brainer. PPvP Kate can normally find the breakers needed to make sure they don't get more than one use out of a melange.

I found that one I got my Kati Jones up, had decent money and most of my breakers out the NBN just kind of fell apart. I knew he couldn't FA, so I just got more money and waited until and agenda went down, then stole it. The lack of FA gives you time to build up which you don't normally have!

I will often decline to steal NAPD against this deck. Let them waste time and money scoring it! Otherwise just wait and steal it once you already have a few points on the board.

19 Jan 2015 Oziride

In the last game my oppo has all, mid season, scorched, melange and astro (plus one ice on melange); sadly no siphon in my deck so gg...