EqPocaFisk (Top 45 - ANZAC Tournament 2017)

This list has been brewing for a little while now and now that it's fine tuned I'd love to take you through Fisk deck that went 4-1 in the 2017 ANZAC Asynchronous Competition, and explain to you why losing 4 times was actually a fair bit of fun.

For a long time now HQ flood has been considered a terrible strategy and admittedly that's mostly still true. But with the addition of Polyhistor in Terminal Directive, it seems like there might finally be enough support to make it viable, maybe even competitive*. The overall aim here is to attempt to make the Corp draw at least three cards a turn (four after the mandatory draw). The primary goal is to mill the Corp, but there's a decent chance you'll manage to snipe your way to 7 points as you progress.

Most of these are pretty standard, but here's a couple of key cards:

Equivocation: This is the all star of the deck, and probably your primary tool for milling cards. Self-modifying Code is included in the deck essentially as a second copy, but with the added flexibility to find another program if you draw it later. The Corp's first instinct will be to ICE HQ against a Crim deck, so often I've managed to install this first click and preview/mill four cards for the turn. Usually I'd let the Fisk ID fire before the Equivocation trigger, but you play to your tastes. Just keep an eye out for ol' mate Jackson, his ability can shuffle the deck between your reveal and your access.

Polyhistor: This gives you a double forced draw on your first HQ run, and also gives you a little draw in the process. Keep in mind that an un-ICE'd HQ still triggers it's ability, but also that you need to be able to draw a card yourself to use it's ability, so it can turn off if you reach late game or are playing Potential Unleashed.

Account Siphon: Don't really need to explain the include here, but a lot rides on your Siphon runs. Not only will a Siphon hopefully trigger a double draw on the way in with Polyhistor, but if you can keep the Corp on low creds then they won't be able to use all the cards you force them to draw. It's also a very large chunk of your economy. Same Old Thing should really be just two more copies of this, and multi-Siphon turns are encouraged.

Eden Shard: Originally this was a Hades Shard, but with the Power Shutdown errata this now gets to work for your milling strategy and mess with Hasty Relocation combos. Keep in mind that your ID ability and Equivocation both get to fire before you decide to install it as a replacement access. Ideally this is a card for later in the match if you're not playing a CI or Rail Gun.

Apocalypse: Alright, so this is actually a really dumb include, but it's only in the deck for all the Estelle Moon flying around at the moment. It's actually terrible for your deck (which is why no-one expects it) but if everything is making it's way horizontal then go ahead and give it the old college try. There's no way to get your breakers back if you have already tossed your spares, so close the game shortly after or enjoy losing to a Vanilla.

Things to maybe play around with:

I'm currently playing a version with Feint which is a nice trigger for Polyhistor, your ID and Tapwrm if all centrals are ICE'd. The Black File has been in and out of this deck a few times, if you can find a spot for it great, but since there are no shenanigans to keep it's counters you have to have it at exactly the right time. Plascrete Carapace should probably also be included for the ridiculous amount of SYNC Boom that's currently around. Currently I'm attempting to find a way to wedge a Bhagat in here for another card milled (the way Noise intended).

To see this deck (with a few tweaks) play ideally: SDTV Fisk v Skorpios
Aaaand to see what happens 75% of the time: SDTV Fisk v HB

*Competitive as in "I played this deck in the Competitive lobby of Jinteki.Net" to middling success