"SERIOUSLY FISK GET OUT OF MY HOUSE"

Bigguyforyou518 1760

Laramy Fisk is that guy who just doesn't know how to take a hint. You had to kick him out of the house party (HQ) earlier because he was sucking all the fun from everyone, but then you find him downstairs rooting through your fridge at 3 AM.

Playing the Deck, or: How to Be an Unrelenting Pest

  1. Starting hands are flexible - there's nothing golden to mulligan for other than econ. Lamprey + Desperado + Sneakdoor Beta in your starting hand will pretty much mean game-over for the corp, but any two of those things are also very solid.
  2. Establish Lamprey or Account Siphon lockdown as fast as possible. This means:
    • Draw one of those two cards
    • Find a way to get into HQ (breaker, Sneakdoor, Inside Job, Feint)
    • Don't let the corp get absurdly rich while you're setting up (facecheck ice, trash naked econ assets)
  3. Poke around for agendas with one hand while drowning the corp underwater with the other. To assist the former, you've got Legwork and the Shards, and the general ability to force their hand to completely overflow into archives. For bullying, you have:

Lamprey lockdown is extremely hard to recover from, especially with a Desperado/Security Testing funding the runs. Most corps will eventually have to purge to kill the Lamprey, which buys you an entire turn to draw more of them (or recursion for them).


Additional Thoughts and Tips

This deck is my best attempt (so far) to make a Fisk deck that doesn't lean on the cancerous crutch that is Data Leak Reversal - those decks aren't fun to pilot or play against, and frankly, they're bad for the health of the game.

Most criminals run just fine with the "goodstuff" suite of Desperado/Security Testing and aggressive events, so I thought about what Fisk could add to that. One way to look at his ID ability is a way to save influence on R&D multiaccess - you can just drag the R&D cards into HQ right before a Legwork or HQ Interface access.

To utilize him as a "milling" ability, along with his buddy Fisk Investment Seminar, you really need to make sure the corp is broke, otherwise you're just helping them win faster. Account Siphon is obviously the gold standard for this, but unless you're built to go "tag-me", it rarely leaves you 's to do other stuff.

Enter Lamprey, the perfect capstone, allowing you to keep the corp permanently bankrupt without losing any tempo at all. It's killable with a 3- purge, but that's an exchange that is dramatically in your favor, especially with more coming, and the Corp with an already overflowing hand.

Glacier matchups are going to be very tough if you don't get a good start, especially Foodcoats packing Crisium Grids. Don't forget that you can use Feint to take down a rezzed Crisium as a last resort.


Feel free to post any criticisms or questions about card or influence choices.

19 comments
11 Dec 2015 FarCryFromHuman

Feint against Crisium Grid... now that is sneaky. That particular interaction never occurred to me.

11 Dec 2015 MrAaronSA

If repeated HQ runs are in the game plan, isn't HQ Interface a better idea than Legwork? Both would be nice of course.

11 Dec 2015 Bigguyforyou518

@MrAaronSA I've agonized over this very thing. The original deck actually had 3 of both. Although oftentimes one of my HQ runs is a non-access Security Testing run, there's very often a second or third one that isn't, so HQ Interface would work perfectly with Fisk's ability (also works really nicely with the aforementioned Feint gambit on a rezzed Crisium Grid).

I ultimately (and perhaps temporarily) cut it for deckspace and . In practice, this deck spends most turns at 5 or less, allowing my Desperado and Security Testing to fund the HQ runs (sometimes barely so). Without some way to install it cheaply like The Supplier or Modded, the Interfaces always clogged my hand or begged a fairly crippling tempo loss to install.

11 Dec 2015 jmbostwick

Great deck and write-up! I have a few questions/suggestions/ideas for you if you're interested.

Q-Coherence Chip seems an odd choice when you're using a program that trashes itself like Lamprey. I'm also not sold on your one-of include for Lucky Find without any support. And I agree with @FarCryFromHuman that Legwork seems a better fit. I think you could use a little help with card draw too, since I'm not sure FIS is enough on its own. Given that, I think I'd try something like the following:

-3 Legwork
-1 Lucky Find
-1 Q-Coherence Chip
-1 Feint

+2 HQ Interface
+2 Akamatsu Mem Chip
+2 Drug Dealer

That should give you more consistent HQ access, a little extra MU (so you can run multiple Lampreys if you don't need your whole suite), and a little extra card draw (at the expense of credits, but that shouldn't be too big a deal). Alternately, if you're more inclined to go pure Tag-Me, perhaps you add 2 Dyson Mem Chip instead of the Akamatsu and you add 2 Quality Time instead of the Drug Dealer. Either way, thanks for the great list!

11 Dec 2015 staglore

@Bigguyforyou518

I really dig this deck but I have to ask, why Q-Coherence Chip? Won't that trash along with Lamprey. A Dyson Mem Chip would be a bit more reliable imho.

11 Dec 2015 Bigguyforyou518

@jmbostwick You're spot on in your assessment of the card draw situation - it's not great. Drug Dealer definitely has some potential here, and gets along famously with Faust, but I'm a bit concerned about getting into a rut if you know what I mean (this combo works REALLY well with Gabe, since he can pretty much auto-pay for it every turn). I'd have to rethink the economy to support it.

I also don't usually need that much card draw once I'm minimally set up, but setting up faster and more reliably is a concern. Quality Time could be great for that early, or for a desperate Account Siphon dig later on.

The 1x Lucky Find is definitely ripe for the chopping block - feel free to move that influence around. Econ in this deck can be a bit tricky - you often need to run tags, so you don't want to lean too heavily on resources. On the other hand, glacier is where you're really going to want more money, so going in even harder on stuff like Dirty Laundry is probably the wrong move.

@jmbostwick @staglore Q-Coherence Chip gets a bad rap, and I think it does good work here. The fact that Lamprey takes it with it when it gets purged is kind of the point - it's cheap, flexible rig scaffolding until I've established something more permanent. It's great support if you get your Desperado too late or your Sneakdoor Beta too early.

I think a lot of people fall into the trap of focusing too hard on their "end-game" rig - the ultimate board state where every single one of their cards is installed. I don't think that's a realistic (or even desirable) scenario for fast, lightweight decks like this. If you actually need the for Sneakdoor Beta, Lamprey, and three different breakers in order to get into HQ and do something productive, then something has gone horribly wrong in the game.

You can certainly swap the chip out for something more reliable, but appreciate that it's a strict trade-off between early speed/efficiency and late-game comfort.

11 Dec 2015 mittens

I had forgotten Feint existed. I definitely want to put it into the Apocalypse gabe deck. It's great against Crisium Grid, and is awesome with Emergency Shutdown (and papalips).

11 Dec 2015 jmbostwick

@Bigguyforyou518 Definitely a fair point about late-game rigs vs. an evolving rig as the game goes on. Since Lamprey is likely to be trashed periodically, I think that I'd probably go with Akamatsu as a more permanent solution, but I'll give Q-Coherence a try and see how it works out.

The more I look at the deck, the more I think Quality Time is the right call here. You can use it to set up quickly or to fuel a surprise run with Faust to get access to a server you couldn't otherwise get into, and (as you say) once you get set up you'll rarely need the consistent card draw from something like Drug Dealer.

I'm curious what your thoughts are on something like Day Job as a splash to replace Lucky Find. That could give your deck some more burst economy when it's needed -- once you've got the corp on their knees, you can trade a turn of them clicking for credits for you clicking four for eight, and be in position to hit them again the next turn? I'm not sure if it's the right fit for the deck, but perhaps it could help in the Glacier match-up. As I said, I'm curious to hear your thoughts.

11 Dec 2015 Bigguyforyou518

@jmbostwick Yeah, the more I think about it the more I'm liking Quality Time. Maybe something like:

And there's an influence left over, maybe for the Akamatsu Mem Chip coversion.

Day Job is just on the verge of being what I want. It's definitely worth testing, but my initial thought was that I really can't afford that tempo loss. The credit balance while keeping a corp broke is very delicate - the amount of you can "allow" them to have can change depending on the unrezzed ice you think they're running, and the econ cards they could play. As a rule of thumb, I try not to let the corp begin their turn with more than 2's because that's the Hedge Fund threshold - if they start at 3, they can + + Hedge Fund and then the train has left the station. All that being said...it wouldn't be too bad early, or to wind up for a big Account Siphon run, and it would definitely improve my matchup against glacier. I'll try it!

12 Dec 2015 Dothanite

Not only do I love the design behind this deck, I love your openness to constructive criticism. @Bigguyforyou518, keep on keepin' on.

12 Dec 2015 Humanoids

"This deck is my best attempt (so far) to make a Fisk deck that doesn't lean on the cancerous crutch that is Data Leak Reversal - those decks aren't fun to pilot or play against, and frankly, they're bad for the health of the game."

Because clearly, relying on Account Siphon spam Lamprey lock is the healthiest thing for the game. And is totally fun to play against.

12 Dec 2015 Bigguyforyou518

@Humanoids I'm sorry you feel that way, though I think I can understand where you're coming from. I built a deck with 45 Account Siphons, and before Foodcoats went viral, it caused ragequits more often than not.

I'd like to think this deck is of a different color, though. What I find "unhealthy" about Data Leak Reversal decks is not just that they're uninteractive "solitaire" decks (it's largely that), but also that they eliminate meaningful choices from the game for both players. The DLR runner is going to try to draw up his Wireless Net Pavilions and Fall Guys as fast as he can, and the corp is going to try to rush as fast as they can. You're both pretty much surrendering to the luck of your draws, and are now watching the game more than you're actually playing it.

Trying to establish a Lamprey lock, in my general experience, is a constant struggle as I probe their defenses and try to find or open up a path through HQ or Archives that won't just tax me into submission. The Lamprey can get purged. They can install a Crisium Grid on HQ, or allow me to have a turn of tempo so that they can install something cheap like an Ice Wall, Pop-up Window, or Quandary that will keep me out on the next turn. Only in the most ideal of circumstances can I keep them at 0's at the start of each turn, and it only takes one Sure Gamble, Sweeps Week, Celebrity Gift, etc. to break free of the lock and make some interesting plays.

12 Dec 2015 Bigguyforyou518

On a side note, I'm testing this with 3x Parasites as a more reliable and cost-efficient way of dealing with annoying little taxers like Pop-up Window and cheap gear checkers like Ice Wall, Quandary, etc.. I'm liking it so far!

15 Dec 2015 Mechanoise

"Lamprey Fisk" AMIRITE? ;)

21 Dec 2015 ahocorasik

Why not 1 Nerve Agent instead Lucky Find or shards (and Legwork)?Also don't you run into memory problems? What about Djinn? Also doesn't Q-Coherence Chip go into anti-synergy with Lemprey which can be purge-trashed? Maybe one Pheromones for aided HQ lock?

30 Dec 2015 jdharper

I'm curious what you might have cut for that third parasite you mention? The shards and Lucky Find seem like good cuts, but Faust and Deja Vu both seem really important.

16 Mar 2016 Calcifer437

Have you thought about Bribery or Unscheduled Maintenance for this deck?

18 Mar 2016 Bigguyforyou518

@Calcifer437 I like Unscheduled Maintenance better in Leela, and even there it's hard to see satisfying returns without something like False Echo or Apocalypse.

Bribery is an interesting thought. Could be a good way to threaten a remote, or to re-establish a Lamprey lock when they've scrounged up juuuust enough credits to rez their HQ ice.

18 Mar 2016 Calcifer437

also, post MWL you have some influence missing. What are you doing about that/is there an updated list you are using? Thought about Doppelgänger?