PRESS RELEASE

CASTING NOTICES FOR UPCOMING PICTURES FROM ARGUS STUDIOS

Film: NAPD CONTRACT
After a crime boss puts a hit on every cop in New Angeles, one loose cannon must work together with a petty criminal to get the contract revoked - but how will he survive when the entire city wants him dead?

Film: HOSTILE TAKEOVER
The President's daughter is being held hostage on a nuclear submarine . . . on a train . . . in the Swiss Alps, and only Jack Pistol can save her.

Film: OAKTOWN RENOVATION
A rogue urban planner with [disability TBD] must fight back against corrupt politicians in Oaktown to build a [heartwarming structure TBD]. Tears will be jerked.

Film: PROJECT ATLAS
The first in a superhero trilogy - secret government surgery turned Nick Atman into Atlas, the world's strongest man, and only he can stop Mr. Noise from unleashing his deadly Gravedigger virus on the planet.

NOTE: All applicants must bring a headshot, Guild card, and proof of residence. Argus Studios is not responsible for physical injuries suffered during or after the casting process.

ARGUS STUDIOS
"We're burning up the Old Hollywood Strip"

After about a dozen versions, I've been very pleased with the results of this deck (which I refer to by the un-polite name of On the Couch). I wouldn't go so far as to call it Tier 1, but it's surprisingly punishing.

The core interaction, as the title suggests, is between Argus itself and Casting Call. Since your primary agendas are best scored after being advanced first, and one of them is even public, Casting Call has little downside, and in exchange, your opponent has to take either three tags or two tags and two damage to steal the agenda. Argus has always been good at hindering runner theft by threat of turning the tempo loss from stealing the agenda into either another, harder to steal agenda next turn, or a lead in the race to Scorched Earth money. Casting Call only magnifies that cost, up to potentially 3 clicks and six credits.

All three of your primary agendas further this goal by either helping assemble important pieces of a Scorched combo or final point score (Project Atlas) or magnifying the credit differential between the two players (Oaktown and NAPD). Since you're only playing Hostile Takeover as a 7th point (barring the extraordinary need for extra money/Archer fuel), you can get away with NAPD, much as Timmy did with Lanri 2.0.

The biggest threats to the deck so far have been Film Critic and Kati Jones - hence the full contingent of Contract Killers. The sooner you can get the runner off Film Critic in particular, the sooner you can start leveraging Casting Calls for maximum difficult choices. Data Raven is also an important defense against Film Critic decks, dishing out additional tags even when they can get around Casting Call itself.

The ice package is heavy on cheap ETR ice. One upside of this is it enables funky plays against Anarchs like turn 1 ETR ice a remote, Casting Call an Oaktown, advance once. Since defending your servers will often be a function of gear-checking rather than impenetrability, three Power Shutdowns are essential (though occasionally they also do the favor of nabbing a Plascrete Carapace).