[startup] Cormorants love Leeches

mr_pelle 551

Close to 100% breaker free like the famous Virus Soup! =D

Born as an exercise in style, this deck explores more niche cards and their synergies.

Gameplay

Use Forged Activation Orders and Flip Switch to force early rezzes with no consequences: this not only keeps the Corp low on credits, but also allows us to maximise the value of Tranquilizer. Besides forcing a Magnet rez when none of our programs are installed is tight!

While Archives are unprotected, farm Leech counters and get the most value from Security Testing and DreamNet.

Ignore R&D and focus on the scoring remote, running HQ only when having Docklands Pass or when in need of using Lucky Charm.

Synergies

"Baklan" Bochkin is yet another non-icebreaker card which allows us to pass ICE at no cost. Leech counters can be used during the encounter to increase the power of our beloved Belarusian.

Flip Switch works marvellously with Always Have a Backup Plan, since jacking out is considered an unsuccessful run: this pretty little card, which is the missing brother of Inside Job and Spear Phishing, allows us to bypass any mid ICE. It is also a counter play to Anoetic Void which even makes us bypass the innermost ICE in the process!

Lucky Charm is here for Anoetic Void as well, but its ability can even be used to "break" an ETR subroutine from any ICE!

Rejig is here to move Magnet-ized Botuluses around, refresh orphan Boomerangs, or reset Atman's strength.

Honorable mentions

18 comments
11 Jan 2022 Diogene

Why not Simulchip to move Botulus and Tranquilizer around?

Thanks for sharing this fun deck!

11 Jan 2022 ShinMuteki

Nicely done! I hope I can try it out soon!

11 Jan 2022 mr_pelle

@Diogene the sad answer would be lack of influence, but I honestly think Rejig is more versatile. :)

11 Jan 2022 Verrillv

Thank you so much to shering amazing post.

official) site

11 Jan 2022 Zanetti83

I would consider to add buffer drive, to have some recursion :)

11 Jan 2022 Zanetti83

Interesting deck, I'm curious to try it, well done! :)

11 Jan 2022 mr_pelle

@Zanetti83 thank you! I considered using The Back for recurring cards, but I rarely had the need for it.

11 Jan 2022 bowlsley

All this time playing Startup and I've never seen the Baklan Leech combo, amazing. I'm putting this in all my decks now :D

11 Jan 2022 Oddball

Curious if this could be imported into Steve Cambridge: Master Grifter? Might be an easy way to put recursion in, but you sacrifice the econ boost. Might be worth it in a slightly different deck.

12 Jan 2022 Diogene

Of note, if you can spare one influence, having Buzzsaw will let you pass those annoying Magnet for 1 .

12 Jan 2022 napalm900

@mr_pelle beautiful deck! So many interactions I've never seen before and am excited to try!

12 Jan 2022 mr_pelle

@Oddball I tried using Steve as well, but I noticed the Corp tends to defend HQ even more and this limits the value of Docklands Pass and Lucky Charm in the mid-late game. Also the deck felt unexpectedly poor...

@Diogene I'm really stretched on influence, as you can see, anyway I think Atman could solve this issue and more: yesterday night it dealt with a Týr for 3 total!

@napalm900 thank you so much, I'm flattered by all the kind words!!

12 Jan 2022 bowlsley

Looking at this again, I've had another thought - you could swap the Botulus out for a Cookbook or two, and spend the rest of the inf on Simulchips. You get Az discount on the chips, and if you use them to install a Tranquilizer at the end of the corp's turn, it will derez at the start of yours.

13 Jan 2022 mr_pelle

@bowlsley that's a neat interaction, but without the Botuluses I think we'd have too few ways of breaching into servers.. I will definitely try it on a separate Anarch deck, thank you! ;)

13 Jan 2022 Gaxeco

This list looks awesome! Finally an Az list I can play and my opponent understands what im doing!

14 Jan 2022 mr_pelle

@Gaxeco thank you so much, really appreciated!! :)

14 Jan 2022 Diogene

@mr_pelle could Botulus be replaced by the combination of Femme Fatale and Retrieval Run. Then, Rejig would have immense value. But maybe more with Steve Cambridge: Master Grifter.

I've been testing variation of this deck. Which lead to the question : why not use Inside Job instead of Always Have a Backup Plan?

Thanks for all your responses to the comments. I'm pretty sure you will be the decklist of the week.

Cheers!

14 Jan 2022 mr_pelle

@Diogene thank you for your suggestions! I was indeed testing Femme Fatale, but I never found an efficient way of dumping it into the heap in order to Retrieval Run it. Also it would lower the "breaker free" percentage! =D

I found Always Have a Backup Plan to have some fringe applications this deck could benefit from:

  • bypass any non-outermost ETR ice, working effectively as a combination of Inside Job and Spear Phishing.
  • bypass any ice when used in combination with Flip Switch. This means preventing any subroutine from resolving at all!
  • counteract an Anoetic Void activation + bypass the innermost ice. I found this play to be the most unexpected, expecially when played last click. ;-)

Also don't forget "Baklan" Bochkin gets twice the counters and Masterwork (v37) triggers twice as well.