High-Stakes Laundry (5th / 48 at Mead Hall SC, 2nd Swiss)

Some days you just want to get some laundry done, but the stakes are always high -- is that an Argus Security tough following you? Would they really blow up this skyrise just to take out your dirty laundry?

Yes. Yes, they would. Don't let them!

The originator of this list is @hhooo, but he hasn't published his version and I've had a few requests to share it. I took it from the Stimhack forums, cut 1 Fisk Investment Seminar to get down to 45 cards, and brought it to Mead Hall.

It was 4-1 in Swiss, putting me in the second seed with my 4-1 spags.dec Fastrobiotics. It was only 0-1 in the cut, with both the Swiss and cut losses coming to Ian Birdsall's Hostile Infrastructure RP. I beat two other RP players, but RP is definitely the worst matchup. (That said, standard RP with Tollbooth is a better matchup than Ian's with Tsurugis everywhere. I haven't lost to standard RP yet.) The other wins came against NEH Glass Shop and Museum IG with Casts / Scorch.

I also took this deck to my Thursday night league and went 3-0, with wins over Biotech rush, RP, and NEH Glass Shop. My loss to Ian in the last round of Swiss at the SC was the first loss after a 7-0 start for the deck, including 3 wins against RP, so I think the deck has some legs. I'll be keeping it around through this SC season.

High-Stakes Job is just that. Don't be afraid to play it if you're short one breaker type unless that breaker type is your opponent's primary ice type. I've whiffed on exactly one HSJ in 15 games between tournaments and friendly games, and it was the very first one I attempted. Every single one since then has paid out, although in two cases against RP I was using it to mitigate the cost of an otherwise expensive run, since with two Terminals out plus Ken I'm often paying 3c to play it.

Don't install Drug Dealer against slow decks. Against yellow kill decks, though, it's your Plascrete -- keep 6 cards in hand, keep them below 6 credits, and they can't win.

Using Fisk Investment Seminar isn't always obvious, and I messed it up in the cut myself. In general, FIS into Legwork isn't a great play. I consider that sort of a last resort FIS if R&D is super taxing or I'm out of Maker's but close to the win, or maybe if HQ is very cheap to get into (which is rare). Otherwise, save it for when it will annoy the Corp most: make them pop Jackson, Siphon, then FIS the next turn when they have a full hand but limited credits. FIS when they IAA and with no Jackson out and a marginal credit pool for defending the remote, so they have to choose between scoring the agenda and discarding useful cards. If you need to make a comeback, you can Maker's on one turn, then FIS and Maker's again on the next turn, but I'd put that a spot above the FIS + Legwork play.

Sometimes you keep the Siphon tags, sometimes you don't. Depends on the matchup.

Emergency Shutdown is okay. I like having 3 ways to deal with annoying ice, but it's one of the flex cards. Until Political Operative, I'm planning to sub it in and out with a Drive-By, which some people played around against me and others did not. I want to make sure that threat is live.

This deck wants Political Operative badly, which will tilt the Siphon tag issue somewhat. Right now my plan is -1 Faerie / -1 Emergency Shutdown / +2 Political Operative. Stuffing Caprice will make the RP matchup dramatically better, and since that's the worst one, I think this deck will be in a great place at that point. It's already strong.