Welcome back to Self-Modifying Code, today I want to review the state of the Weyland Consortium and its new divisions. Since the release of Order and Chaos, most of the excitement seems to be around the new Anarch cards and NetrunnerDB’s front page is saturated with Anarch decks. I attribute this to the much needed power spike given by these cards to both Anarchs and runners in general. However, it is important to set aside all that chaos for a moment and look at the new Weyland order.
To preface, both Creation and Control (C&C) and Honor and Profit (H&P) had some lateral expansion but mostly what they accomplished was giving more options to the core IDs. This is exemplified by the fact that while the C&C and H&P corp ids are played, the biggest power boosts were seen in Personal Evolution and Replicating Perfection which climbed to the top of competition and the increased tools for Engineering the Future which continues to be the most dominant HB id.
That is not to say that the big box ids are not powerful or viable, they are, what I am saying is that when the dust settled these box sets provided power boost to core identities and expanded established strategies. This is not the case with O&C, core Weyland got almost nothing, there are zero transactions in the entire box and almost everything that could be used by core Weyland could be better used by Blue Sun or one of the three new divisions. In keeping with the theme of the large conglomerate, Weyland is less focused on the parent company and is instead investing more heavily in its divisions.
In that vein, a review of the three new divisions is the order of the day.
The first new division joining the consortium is Argus Security, which is a standard 45/15 identity with the ability that when the runner steals an agenda they must take two meat damage or a tag. We see two effects here Weyland likes, a tag and some bag but in the form of a tax. At face value this ability seems underwhelming, but in practice it turns every agenda into a two cred and one click NAPD.
This identity has interesting interactions with runner strategies, most notably multi-access runners. As a tag avoidance runner (I will discuss tag me later) multi-access cards such as RD interface or legwork could leave you with multiple tags you cannot clear, forcing you to take meat damage, reducing your plascretes or reducing your hand. In this way this id funcions similiarly to Personal Evolution, taxing you for stealing agendas in the form of cards, money and time. Also like PE, Argus makes the runner extremely wary to run on their last click.
Argus has strong synergy with advanceable traps such a ghost branch, cerebral overwriter and shattered remains as well as no-advance tools like snare. These tools can turn Argus into a high agenda density shell game similar to the Personal Evolution seen at worlds. The taxing nature of the ability can allow you to bluff out agendas disguised as traps and vice versa. Imagine if you will, hitting a runner with a double advanced cerebral overwriter and then a few turns later double advancing a posted bounty, waiting to score it until you have two scorched earths, bluffing it as an unused trap.
Furthermore, this id makes dedicated response team more potent, setting up a meat damage one way or another scenario that also synergizes with snare and can help deal with tag me runners. When coupled with standard meat damage tools, data raven, midseasons and traffic accident you can create the first Weyland meatstorm that can trash plascrete with traps and/or nibbles of damage. In essence, Argus can create a viable thousand bullets strategy that lets you bluff out agendas or flatline by compressing the runner with its taxing ID ability.
And you thought you would never use vulcan cover up! Argus Security, letting you in so we can blow up your house, two meat damage at a time.
Here is a deck that I feel utilizes this ID well though as a supermodern type deck.
Argus Threatening Your Security
Gargarin Deep Space joins the consortium as Weyland’s exploration division, hopefully they won’t come across any xenomorphs in their travels. A 45/15 identity with a thematic ability of expanding outwards instead of upwards. Each time the runner wants to access a card in a remote server the must pay one credit just for the priveledge. Again, we see a taxing ability that makes sense,it would naturally cost more resources to access servers that are in space.
This new id is a departure from most weyland decks in that it plays a number of unprotected remotes instead of one super server. Using pad campaigns, constellation protocols, the root and other assets you can tax out the runner’s economy and clicks allowing you to rush out agendas with ash or a san san grid OR set them up for a sea source and double scorch.
To illustrate just how taxing this id can be, here is an example from the a game played before writing this post. I had two asteroid belts rezzed on a remote containing a san san city grid, an unadvanced NAPD and a rezzed ash. It cost the runner 10 credits to pass the ice using corroder and then 4 credits to beat the trace, 5 to access and steal the NAPD, 6 for the san san grid, and another 4 to trash the ash, a total run cost of 29 credits for one agenda. In the end my opponent stole the agenda but did nothing else and in the ensuing break in pressure I scored an atlas and a superior cyberwalls out of hand on the san san.
It is important to note that this id also really enjoys the cosmic ice such as nebula, wormhole and asteroid belt as they tax the runner disporportionate to your payment and also because Gargarin’s ability makes constellation protocol worth deck slots. Paywall implementation, the much maligned Weyland current also creates two credit swing every time the runner wants to check a remote server and does a great job of supplementing pad drip economy.
All in all this is the identity that I am most excited about from the big box even though its playstyle is more straight forward. Install high value assets, tax the runner and rush agendas during the ensuing windows.
From the mind of Quinns from Shut Up and Sit Down:
This is the deck I have been testing and tweaking for the last week. SPACCCCCCEEEEEEEEEE!
Weyland is the money faction and has been since the core set, and if you think big corps and big money, the acquisition of Titan Transnational would be a logical choice for the
board of directors. A 45/17 with the ability that all agendas gain one additional agenda counter when scored. This corp has several powerful effects, such as all Project Atlas’ in your scoring area get one counter automatically, giving you a free tutor. This can enable you to set up a kill without risking a double advanced atlas as well as another neat “trick” discussed below. Moving past atlas, agendas like high risk investment, geothermal fracking and firmware updates all gain an additional counter when scored which gives you more of a good thing.
Furthermore, Mark Yale, one of the Weyland executives released in this set gives you money when you spend agenda counters or burn them which means that when you score agendas that doesn’t have counter effects like hostile takeover, you can receive 3 credits for trashing that useless counter. 17 influence also means more outside tools, creating a Weyland deck where fast advance and tag tools can mingle in the same deck.
Consider that using trick of light you could take advancements from a cosmic ice to score a project atlas out of hand with two credits, receiving the free agenda counter, you can then wait until you see another atlas or trick of light, use the atlas counter and get the other part of the combo to immediately score another atlas out of hand for 2 credits. This creates a remoteless fast advance that can win the game quickly for little money.
If you choose to forsake the space ice and go the san san route, that grid becomes a MUST trash for the runner as you can win in 3 turns after scoring your first atlas by tutoring for the others. Also, similarly to Near Earth Hub, if you choose neither strategy, with 17 influence you can do everything Weyland does but better, making this a popular supermodernism reboot for the Weyland die hards like myself.
Below is my deck utilizing the fast advance power of the cosmic ice, trick of light combo.
Our Hedge Funds Are Unsinkable!!**
**Note: our hedgefunds are unsinkable in that they do not exist in the physical world and do not posses any buoyancy or mass, fund returns and performance not guaranteed.
The new cards added to the Weyland repertoire have done what a big box ought to do, namely make Weyland stuff better, such as advance ice, meat damage and agenda counters while also expanding the archetypes available.
All three of these new divisions are quite viable and a fantastic blend of Weyland classic with expanded horizons and new avenues to victory that are both enjoyable and potent.
Phenomenal Cosmic Power!!
– CodeMarvelous
