The Cookbook to CI7 - Conclusion

Conclusion

In the previous article, we talked about how to run against CI7. With this out of the way, you should now know the majority of what you need when it comes to CI7, both in terms of playing it or playing against it, and what to expect on both sides.

In this article, we will go over a few alternate deck choices, list some heuristics to follow for general use, and provide some alternate resources to either extend your CI7 game further, or give alternate explanations (in case mine weren't good enough).

For full reference, here are all the articles:

Part 1 - Introduction

Part 2 - How to combo through hate

Part 3 - Setting up as CI7

Part 4 - Running against CI7

Part 5 - Conclusion

Alternate deck-building options

The following is a list of some good cards in CI7 that I have decided against personally. Apart from these, most of your alternate choices just boil down to which econ cards you use and in what quantities (Reuse, Hedge Fund, Blue Level Clearance, Green Level Clearance, Restructure) and which ice to use (Turing, Ichi, Magnet, Quandary, Wall of Static, Vanilla, Rototurret, Enigma). Typically, in both of these cases, you have to rely on HB or neutral operations/ice, as you have no influence to spare (and can’t afford to use asset econ, on account of their ability to be trashed).

Disposable HQ

5 AD piles? Living the dream!

I have actually done a lot of testing with this one. The idea behind Disposable HQ is that it lets you pre-stack the bottom cards of R&D, meaning you can put useful operations there and then Power Shutdown to 3 (or 6) cards remaining, instead of 0. These bottom cards are effectively extra piles that do not require Jackson Howard to create, giving you 4-5 piles instead of the usual 3. With these added layers of redundancy, you should be able to combo through most problems.

There are two problems with this strategy. One is that the influence in this deck is already very tight. The only thing you can really cut is the GFI, which means the runner can access another ‘real’ 5/3 and then only need 3 agendas to win the game. The other problem is that the cards you want to put at the bottom of R&D have to be in hand, but are typically the cards you want to discard from your hand (RO, SFSS). You have to draw the Disposable HQ, hold on to the typically-undesirable cards (preventing you from normally comboing while you have them in hand) and then entice the runner to run the Disposable HQ.

I played about 40 games with this in the deck, and was able to create an extra pile about 4 times, of which I only needed the extra pile twice. During this period, I also lost about 4 games from having the runner access the 5/3 that would have otherwise been a GFI. Because of this, I think that the deck is better without it.

Cerebral Static

Bye bye, Noise

If Noise is your main problem as a CI7 player, then this card should be good, right? However, at 2 influence, you’re going to have to cut both GFI, and then you still have to draw the Cerebral Static, and be able to play it repeatedly. It is only really required for Noise, and helpful against Leela. And not worth the influence in either case.

Double CVS

Double CVS requires more credits to use than Cyberdex Trial, but thanks to SFMM and paid ability windows, can often be a lot more efficient click-wise. I really like the CT personally, but there are definitely arguments both ways here. You can also get away with just 1 CVS and no CT, trading for some more ice or econ.

Single CVS

Trade for some setup consistency?

Having two cards dedicated to purge means you are ultra-prepared for the SacCon match-up. However it is still possible to double-purge against a single SacCon with only 1 CVS in the deck, although mildly harder. By going to a single CVS, you can have more economy in the deck, such as another Restructure. This gives you better consistency against most other match-ups but makes you worse prepared against Clot problems.

Heuristics

This is just a list of general rules for how to deal with various situations. You will have to read the various full lists for a more comprehensive analysis. Think of this as a quick cheat-sheet. See here for the list on its own.

• No SFMM - Extra JH in your installables pile (as well as the usual JH+EC/JH + X1)
• Only 1 JH (and no EC/JH) - 3x AD and 1 other installable. RO for JH and SFMM them in first pile.
• Missing card in archives - BL + AM for this card.

• Low credits - If you have 4 specific installables (JH, JH, EC and JH/PV) as well as 2 AD and one of 3rd AD or SFK in hand, you can score from 4 credits. Also works against Leela. (See Leela example 2)

• Clot - Requires single purge. So 5 installables in hand. SFMM for 2 of the installables instead of first Interns, and then there is a free slot for CT or Interns(CVS) - 12/15 credits.
• Clot + CC - Requires double purge. So 6 installables in hand. SFMM for 3 of the installables instead of first Interns, and then there are 2 free slots for CT/Interns(CVS) and Interns(CVS) - 15/18 credits.
• Clot + CC + SacCon - Requires triple purge. So 6 installables in hand, CT in hand and 1 more click than double clot (dual CVS). Requires 22 credits (for BL over dual CVS) and 6 installables.
• The Source - Need 1 more advancement per agenda. Can do this by either creating 2 more slots (6 installables, 5 installables + 3x AD) or 1 slot and a click (5 installables + BL + SFK).
• Councilman - Need to either score with only 2 piles/JH (save 3 slots.. 2x AD + all 6 installables) or overwrite the JH when it is rezzed (4 installables and gain an extra click. Install the 4th installable over any overwritten JH before playing AD on Interns). Always install 2 JH at once and rez the 2nd JH after shuffling but before playing AD. Install agenda over last JH if it gets Councilmanned so you can Interns it back.
• Noise - Add extra redundancy. Have all 6 installables in hand, all 3 AD, all 3 SFK, BL in hand, cry if he mills anything.
• Leela - Need to gain an extra click (play BL outside of combo as well as inside) and score EC, EC and then GFI with extra clicks (SFSS, SFSS, SFK from hand). Requires 15 credits and 4 installables in hand, as well as 1 SFK.
• No GFI - Score 4 agendas, needing 6 installables in hand, swapping an interns for an extra SFSS.
• No EC - Score a 3/2 instead. Need 6 installables in hand, replacing both interns with SFK and RO(SFK) with SFSS.
• Eden Shard - Win with 2 JH, and play lots of BL so you can play the cards when they get drawn.
• Hades Shard - Draw until there are less agendas in R&D/archives than the runner needs to win.
• Employee Strike - Play ELP or use BL to score a 3/2.
• Vamp - Reuse, or AM -> Reuse, or just lose. You can score out if you have 2 BL spare here.
• Account Siphon - Depends how many the runner gets off, but Reuse may be necessary.
• Fisk Investment Seminar - Keep cards in deck and prepare to draw more than 4 to make up for it.

Resources

The best way to get good at CI7 is to practice it. If you are playing this on jinteki.net, then please only use it in competitive channel - it is by no means fair to force a casual player to play against CI7.

You don’t have to actually play the deck to get practice at the combos. This thread on stimhack is a fantastic resource for getting the tricks down, and has some crazy situations that aren't covered in these articles. I highly recommend it:

http://forum.stimhack.com/t/7-point-ci-shutdown-puzzle-thread/6990

Dan D'argenio has a thread on how to play the deck, including some videos for those of you who find text-based explanations confusing:

http://forum.stimhack.com/t/7-point-shutdown-how-to-lose-friends-and-alienate-people/2838

Also, if anyone has any good sources of tutorial videos for this section, please let me know and I will add them to the article.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the following people who helped write this article.

- Ben Blum (bblum) and Dan D'Argenio (mediohxcore) for providing the online resources I used to learn this deck.

- Local players who helped me proof-read and publish the articles, especially Donald Bubbins (guv_bubbs) and David Withington (divadus).

- Local readers who suggested new ideas, or fixing errors I've made.