Café Chameleon [Startup]

HolyMackerel 1495

What's the jankiest card in Startup? Paule's Café.

What's the best card with Paule's Café? Chameleon.

Let's do it.

This is an absolute hamjam of a deck that is not for the faint of heart. Here, we aim to use every trick in the Shaper cookbook to plow through ICE, and have your entire hand half-installed until you need it. Get ready to puzzle!

Economy

The deck has a lot of economy-ish.

Paule's Café is kind of economy, and so is Cezve, since you can use it to install stuff off Café.

Otherwise we're relying on events and Rezeki, and the fact that a lot of your stuff is dirt cheap. Environmental Testing is a card I'm trying out, and considering how much we install in this deck, it's been decent so far.

Breaking ICE

This is where the magic happens. Chameleon is one helluva breaker these days, and becomes exponentially better when you install it reactively off Café. Cybertrooper Talut and Leech are your allies in making sure your Chameleons actually get through stuff.

Pelangi extends the reach of your Chameleons, and supercharges your Euler for hail-mary runs as well.

Simulchip helps a lot with more mid-run installs, messing about with Pelangi math or resetting a Chameleon. You can even reset Cezve for two extra credits in a pinch ^^

A single Boomerang does a lot of work, since you can install it reactively off your Café. See if the ICE is worth it, then plow through.

Endurance is the new hotness, and really pulls its weight here. It's basically a panic button for when you need it. Play the game normally (normal is relative), and slowly accrue power counters every one or two turns. Then, once the pressure goes up, you can always burn a couple to get where you need to go.

Multiaccess

The Twinning is wonderful. It may seem crazy with only one Cezve to rely upon, but you almost always have access to it and can use it with café close to every turn.

Khusyuk is the R&D pressure of choice, instead of the new hotness Deep Dive. We don't have the tools to gain the extra click, and breaking 2 big servers lategame is a pretty tall ask for a deck where the primary breaker is Chameleon. We have a bunch of 2's, between Talut, Rezeki, DZMZ, Imp, Chameleon... yeh, we're seeing 6 cards when we run.

Imp and Avgustina Ivanovskaya aren't really multiaccess, but they serve as extra pressure on centrals. You trigger Avgustina more than it may seem, since you're often re-installing Pelangi.

Work in progress

Just like any good shaper deck, this is but one iteration of the list. I look forward to others making additions or providing new tech for the next generation of Cafés.

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