Cups and Barbs

Cups and Barbs is a shell-game deck that is all about choice paralysis with punishing tempo wrecks. Let your spikey ice be the admission fee into your casino of pain. You slapped down 3 naked remotes last turn; which is the Payout, the Pain, and the Pretense?

Our game plan is to demonstrate fast advance pressure through early game scores of Project Yagi-Uda or Medical Breakthrough. Meanwhile our passive economy feeds tempo killing ice like Anansi, Engram Flush, and Envelope over centrals.

The Runner's dilemma

Now come the mind games. Our naked un-advanced cards could be Project Yagi-Uda, Marilyn Campaign, Rashida Jaheem, or a punishing Psychic Field/Snare!

Advanced cards could be Global Food Initiative, NGO Front, or Urtica Cipher!

With the runner off balance at our pace, we press to the end with Mushin No Shin into either a game winning 5/3 or a game winning Urtica Cipher. And if they don't fall for it, Trick of Light off urtika or akhet to score a 3/2 in one turn.

Why include...?

• Global Food Initiative - forcing the runner to steal another card proved much better than Obokota.
• Distract the Masses - solves agenda flood, refreshes your trashed sundews.
• Akhet - can feed fast advance or make itself into a brick-wall.
• Hagen - hates AI like the pervasive Aukuma.
• Anansi - deals with security nexus, star gate, and is overall brutal.

The deck's main weakness is that it has no way to interact with the runner. Runner has the initiative in choosing when they take potentially damage. If the runner loses to net damage, it will always be their fault.

Looking for feedback to update the deck list with newer cards