Giga Punch (1st in Swiss @Torsaug District Champs)

SuperStranger 584

Runners these days. They want to churn their cards into grist for the mill. Audrey and Aesop thinning down the deck. Where's the fear? Where the danger? Runners tech for kill "combos", striking at corporation's fragile single-turn lines of play that might eventually come to fruition, picking them apart their win cons by Imp or Burner (are runners still playing Burner these days? I wouldn't know). Else they try to scam us out of every penny, leaving us defenseless.

No, runners these days don't understand. They have lost their way, come too close to the sun, and forgotten the most important law of the land:

WE are the Beatdown.

It's Punchin' Time

This deck has more forks than a fancy dinner party and twice as much money. We're going to try and follow a very simple plan:

  1. Score Broad Daylight
  2. PUNCH

Our end goal is to make a remote that deals 8-12 damage, with 2-5 follow-up damage on deck. Perfectly reasonable.

In our remote, Angelique stands guard, Anemones get prepped in defence, and we enter an Argus Crackdown when we are ready to push Broad Daylight or City Works Project. The runner doesn't know you can kill them with a single misstep, because our kill lines are well hidden in ICE, upgrades, and HQ. "It's early," the runner thinks. "The Outfit naturally has an advantage in the early game, but I can bring it back in the late game. We can let one agenda slip through, right?"

WRONG, BUCKO.

Once you have punches, everything becomes worse for the runner. Use that threat to get you MORE PUNCHES. Click 1 Install Broad Daylight, click 2 hit Holo Man, and click 3 Audacity is a valid line; your punches are everything. Never let them be stolen. Score them early and often. The runner never knows if the card you installed in the remote is a Holo Man, Angelique, or Rashida. But if it is an Angelique, can they survive it? Will they bet the game on it? (No, they won't).

In the mid game, punch, punch, expend Angelique becomes a reasonable win condition, and runners now need 5 cards in hand at all times to stay alive. This often means they can't run your painful remote and survive with enough cards in hand to take 4 meat damage afterwards. If you have a click remaining and extra punches in the tank, rough the runner up a little, to show that you mean business.

Hoshiko, after I'm done with you, there won't be any ashes left to rise out of.

Now make it worse. Install City Works Project, maybe even with an Audacity, and crack down again. With an agenda face up on the table, staring certain death in the eyes, the runner knows they're finished before the game is over.

Come get me.

The runner must be proactive in disarming our remote at every turn, or fail. However, even a single ICE will make this difficult early on, requiring the runner to expend their tricks to bust through and trash Rashidas, Urban Renewals, and Holo Men. We don't mind Bankhar because having 0 cards in their deck is a win condition for us, but if it's a big problem, we can go Above the Law. Often, centrals can be adequately defended by a single piece of ice, and Holo Man can hide behind those as well, when appropriate.

Urban renewal is often a bait to turn on your Wake Up Call. Trash the LilyPAD, and force those overzealous shapers to kneel before you. If they leave it with 1 counter left, crack down to make it hurt more. Especially with punches lined up, this is a valid kill line against passive runners.

The outfit uses Too Big to Fail to go from 0 credits to 10 in one click. The Outfit is never down and out, only biding their time.

Increased Drop Rates scares runners, if only because they've never seen it before. It either drains their precious bad pub credits, or slows them down to clear their tag, fearing punishment. Drop rates also poisons archives, making Aumakua runs cost them everything. But we don't run tag punishment here; why should we spend our time seeking the runner out, when they runner can come to us instead for their sweet, sweet death?

Note: You can swap Increased Drop Rates for Mavirus if you are a coward.

3 comments
29 Mar 2025 holzpubbnsubbe

Gently removing limbs of the runner

Fantastic writeup!

4 Apr 2025 reitnorf

Any reason good ol' counterstrike being not included?

4 Apr 2025 SuperStranger

Punitive means I have to do math zzzzzzzzz