Mahou Shoujo no Jutsu (5-2 @ Worlds 2020)

Solomir 214

This is a pet Hoshiko deck I've been playing ever since she was released. It started as a Hoshiko and Friends hodgepodge that decided to focus down on realizing Trickster Taka's potential as a source of stealth credits. I refined it and brought it to Worlds where it performed much better than I could have ever hoped for a personal homebrew.

Hoshiko's ID is one that rewards early aggression and helps give you gas to keep up that aggression. It is very often that you can flip on turn one and never flip back to her normal side for the rest of the game. Gachapon can help dig deep into your deck for breakers, and Street Peddler can install something useful while throwing a conspiracy breaker into the heap for a surprise install.

Afterimage - An overlooked Killer with great matchups against pretty much every played Sentry. For anything not named Anansi, 2 stealth credits takes care of it. Even Anansi is just 2 regular credits on top of the 2 stealth.

Mantle - Taka only drips 1 stealth credit a turn and Afterimage often wants 2 or more available for runs. These support programs allow you to use Afterimage every turn if needed. They are inexpensive to install and can pay itself back the turn it comes down. In the worst case scenario it acts as drip economy for running regularly with any breaker.

Ice Carver and Datasucker - These strength manipulators can make or break certain ice matchups for your breakers. Saving 1 stealth credit on strength can mean another run later in the turn.

Boomerang - Great for pressuring early game remotes to put the Corp on the back foot. In the late game, this can be installed cheaply with Poemu and can provide an economical option to break big ice.

Hunting Grounds - For Data Raven, Engram Flush or even Slot Machine. Can be changed for other tech cards like Political Operative or No One Home.

Hippo - Because none of the other House Hippos were running them in their decks.

In testing, I found this deck quite weak to Jinteki glacier decks due to their suite of code gates. DNA Tracker, Fairchild 3.0, Engram Flush and even Thimblerig are very unappealing ice to break. Ice Carver and/or Datasucker help the math some, but generally not enough. Luckily, I didn't get matched against any during Worlds.

Big shoutout to the House Hippos for encouraging me to run my pet deck in a big tournament like Worlds and helping me refine it to this point.

1 comments
12 Oct 2020 bowlsley

Stealth Anarch fist bump! I love that this basically covers a whole load of cards and decisions that I considered whilst brewng mine (Mantles, Peddler or Gacha, Rebirth) but took them to a different conclusion. I'm going to have to give it a spin at some point.