Need For Speed v1.3

While a lot of people were pretty excited about MaxX, I was among those who didn't feel quite right with discarding two thirds of your deck. Sure, a free draw at the beginning of your turn is appealing, but it's still one card out of three you burn each turn.

So what to do with this new identity? "Nothing!" was my initial answer.

The idea:

At the beginning of the Lunar Cycle, when Nasir Meidan became available, most tried to work around his ability, considering that to be detrimental to the game. I thought it could be exploited, and built my version accordingly.

So, I figured, I could do the same with MaxX: make it so that the ratio of cards discarded and draw are reversed. You won't be discarding two thirds of your deck anymore, but rather drawing that amount, and discarding the remaining one third.

A card drawn is always better than a card discarded.

Key cards:

To power up the free (clickless) draw, you'll need two cards:

• Earthrise Hotel is truly a wonderful card, especially in Anarchs, which always had problems with draw (let alone tutors...).

• Vigil is a cheap console, and another way to get you extra draw without using clicks. Plus, it gives me 1 extra memory.

When you install both, you'll be drawing up to 4 cards and discarding 2. Of course it won't last, since the hotel only opens for a few days... but when you basically go through 18 cards in 3 turns, you'll be at the end of the deck by the time the second copy of Earthrise runs out of power counters.

Hot to play it:

Your opening hand should ideally have a copy of Earthrise Hotel. If that's missing, the next best thing would be Vigil. In the unfortunate case in which both don't show up, you can use I've Had Worse to try and get either faster. If none of these three cards is in your first hand, you'll want to mulligan.

The faster you run through your deck, the faster you'll be able to set up your rig and be ready to run wherever you want. Of course you won't always be able to use all the cards you draw, but you should not be afraid to discard.

The idea is just to get the right tool at the right time, and screw the rest.

Card by card analysis:

• Day Job: spending an entire turn when you draw a lot of cards? Seems like a stupid idea, I know. But it helps you get money fast and ideally you should use it in the very first turns, then install like crazy and be ready to run, with enough money to pressure the corp. Might not be ideal, but it's the best "quick gain" option, aside from Queen's Gambit maybe, but that is way too risky.

• Déjà Vu: not much to say, you'll find this a common presence in all MaxX decks, and for a good reason. You need to be able to get stuff back from the heap, from time to time.

• I've Had Worse: hardly used it to draw ever, since I've got more than enough with the hotel and Vigil. So why is it still here? Because you'll probably meet Jinteki and Weyland too, and it's a good card to have, especially against Personal Evolution or Argus Security. They might make you even faster, by hurting you!

• Levy AR Lab Access: again, a common presence for MaxX. Given the speed with which you burn through this deck, two copies might be better. It's possible to add a second by swapping Gordian Blade with ZU.13 and removing one R&D Interface as well. Then the single influence point left could be used for Utopia Shard.

• Sure Gamble: neutral economy is the best economy!

• Uninstall: finished a game without power counters on Cuj.0 and it's not a good situation! Uninstall works with that Killer, D4v1d, and Plascrete... which might surprise your opponent. Sometimes it's better to take 1 meat damage, absorb 3, and then recycle that carapace back to its full capacity.

• Wanton Destruction: another card that wastes one full turn? What is wrong with you? You might ask that, but this one is too good to pass. Just imagine: you're out of Plascrete Carapace and your opponent gets back two Scorched Earths with a Reclamation Order... what to do? Discard 3 cards from his HQ, and pray for the best. Yeah, it happened.

• Plascrete Carapace: self-explanatory, one might say.

• R&D Interface: nothing scares the Corp as much as an R&D lock. Well, Blackmail maybe, but that would be too complicated.

• Vigil: never liked it at first, possibly because my opponents were so evil not to allow me some free draws. Like ever. Now they realized the less cards they keep in HQ, the more a Wanton Destruction will hurt them. So I get my free draws, now.

• Daily Casts: passive is the way. When you draw 4 a turn, you also need to get money without spending clicks, if possible.

• Earthrise Hotel: the ritziest hotel on the moon!

• Kati Jones: keep accumulating money, withdraw when you are ready to party. Watch out for Snatch and Grab, though, so I usually keep a second copy in my grip, until I understand if my opponent plays it or not.

• Same Old Thing: another classic with this identity. Always keep one for Levy AR Lab Access!

The rig

Quite an efficient set of icebreakers, with Corroder and Gordian Blade being the best of their kind.

Cerberus "Cuj.0" H3 has a very good average cost (check Sneakdoor Zeta), but it can stop you from reaching your objective, and that's why there is Mimic: to prevent wasting too many power counters on stuff like Tsurugi or Komainu.

D4v1d helps with those who are strength 5 or, generally speaking, saves you tons of money (not to mention is the perfect answer to IT Department.

All in all, I would say this is one of the best rigs you could have in Anarchs, and with Uninstall you shouldn't ever run out of power counters on Cuj.0.

I've always considered Anarchs a crippled faction, due to their lack of a consistent economy or draw, and the almost complete lack of tutors. As such, I used to splash cards like Special Order or Self-modifying Code a lot, in my decks. Trying to speed up the set up time which has always been their problem.

The idea here is just to draw everything, so there is just no need for tutors.

Drawing a ton of cards allows you to be ready pretty fast, and when you have the tools to get you through, you'll just need the economy.

Recursion here is a plus, so don't rely on it, and just use LARLA if you need more options or you were forced to discard useful stuff.

I'm finding this deck quite funny to play, but it's a rather new way of playing for me, so there's a lot of room for improvements.