The Leaky Voltron That Could

danimalx 30

A friend of mine said of this deck "You are playing mediocre cards to Voltron into a very mediocre engine"

Sounds about right. This is not a great deck. It's weak to Fast Advance and anything else that's in a hurry. Long-term exposure to recursive meat damage can also sting. I'm going to make some positive statements in this write-up regarding speed and effectiveness, but keep in mind throughout that those statements are relative. This deck probably isn't competitive.

But it is interesting. And fun. My goal was to find a way to use the drip cards with a straight face. Here's what I came up with.

Piloting this deck requires you to have two motivations clear in your head at all times.

1) Get the drip econ moving as quickly as possible

2) Apply heavy server pressure to slow the corp down as the drip momentum builds.

It's easy to think of this deck as a slow big-rig. If you play it that way, you will certainly lose. The combos in this deck are at most two cards deep. You should be aggressive on turn 2, thanks to Andromeda: Dispossessed Ristie. The drip econ builds slowly in the background, and you can't sit back and wait for it before you start smacking the corp around.

Breakers:

The breakers are cheap and flexible. There are two of each AND special orders to tutor what you need. Femme Fatale is there for Komainu, Tollbooth, and any sentries once the faeries run out. Garrote is there so you can continue to outrun corp defense and econ in the late game.

Note on The Supplier:

The Supplier is key. It lets all of your credits go to more important things (running, breakers, running, and...running). Sure, it introduces an 2-turn offset into your drip econ pipeline, BUT everything comes out at the exact same rate for two fewer credits. A nice side effect is that The Supplier can easily clear Andromeda's starting glut.

Play Style

Starting hand must contain Supplier or Hostage, then one of the following

1) Data Folding

2) Kati Jones

3) Dyson Mem Chip AND Underworld Contact

Big bonus for a Mr. Li or a Hostage that can get him. Any additional econ (Sure Gamble, Account Siphon) is also bonus. Since we are playing Andromeda: Dispossessed Ristie, this shouldn't be difficult.

Turn 1: Play econ event(s), Supplier, then econ resource on Supplier. In short: Get down to five cards.

Turn 2: Your first drip econ card installs on Supplier. Make sure you use a click per turn from here on to have something queued onto Supplier. RUN SERVERS! Figure out what breakers you need

Turns 3-6: You are going to notice that your money is starting to stretch a lot further. Supplier introduces a one-turn delay into things, but that Sure Gamble/Dirty Laundry/Account Siphon money isn't getting used for installing anything other than programs and breaking ice. The drip econ is covering everything else from an installation perspective. How odd....

You don't have any true click compression yet, because you are probably spending a click each turn to draw (hopefully with mr li!) and another to install on supplier.

Turn 7: The corp has some defenses up and rezzed. They aren't rich because you've been running every turn. Right? Maybe you landed a siphon? You know what you are up against, minimum. Best case, you've got an agenda or two. What you certainly have is at least 10 credits and a drip of 2-3 credits per turn. Your clicks starting this turn are probably going to look consistently like: 2 clicks running, 1 click draw, 1 click install on supplier,

Turn 8-12(?): From this point on, things transition to pretty unstoppable. Tutor out Mr Li if you don't have him yet. If you are short on econ, tutor out Kati Jones or your Underworld Contacts. Round out your breakers based on what you've forced the corp to rez. If you are worried about damage (note: be worried about damage), Mr Li for Plascrete Carapace or Feedback Filter. Keep cards queued up on Supplier while continuing to run on anything that moves.

Here's what is happening: You have spent almost nothing on installs. You are getting a free SIX credits per turn. With Kati Jones and the random econ event, you are likely getting around NINE credits per turn after you spend a single click. Your R&D Interfaces are letting you dig on R&D. You have the means to break any server, every turn. Your clicks are almost completely dedicated to running. The corp is starting to panic.

Weaknesses:

  • Fast Advance, especially Near-Earth Hub: Broadcast Center. If forced to choose between running and setting up the rig, run. Keep them poor and face check. The non-drip econ supports this, but it does slow you down in the early game. The corp will usually score an early lead in this scenario, hopefully not Astros.

  • Resource destruction. NBN is best at this, of course. Don't load up your supplier pipeline with more than a few items at a time. Keep the spare supplier in hand until drip gets moving. Losing Mr Li early would also slow you down.

  • Maybe meat damage: With Order and Chaos, there are so many ways to cause meat damage, use recursion, then throw more damage. Save the Plascretes for the big hits, Bleed everything else from your hand. Depending on your meta, Muresh Bodysuit or Crash Space are options. Link strength should be pretty high, and with the econ you should be able to fight off the tags, traces, and meat damage before it comes to mitigation.

  • The new advanceable constellation ice interacts with this deck in some odd ways that can lead to scoring windows for the corp if you aren't careful. If the corp waits to rez until they are advanced enough, then the cost to get past the ice becomes too high to hit every turn until mid-late game. And the corp still has all their money. I usually move to other servers, or try to force the rez against an account siphon(etc) if I see them early.

0 comments