[TWA] Argus Returns (How is That Fair 2016) - Store Champs 1

cool list, thanks a to for posting it- it's gonna take some practice to learn, but seems like it pushes a lot of peoples buttons right now :P

wondering about paper wall - obviously cheap rezzes are priority here, wondering if you're considering slotting Bailiff when it comes out? seems like it might do work against shaper and crim decks who currently have no choice but to break it repeatedly over RnD or HQ (and solid performance as gear check against anarchs who will probably break it once for a card and then parasite it for a card and two credits (for a net improvement over paper wall of 1 credit and 1 card)

how often do you rez corporate town? is it strictly a wyldsyde/aesops killer or do you have other targets in mind as well?

Love the deck, Argus is one of my favorite identity, and this list is obviously good, but a couple questions about the deck.

1: Do you ever feel the loss of the two other Jacksons? I would be tempted to cut a Snare to get them, as they let you dig for Scorched.

2: Why Corp Town over Contract Killer/Lizzie Mills? Seems like forfeiting an agenda and taking up a spot in your server slows you down too much as opposed to these quick answers.

3: Oaktown and Corp Sales Team are great agendas that gain you tempo as opposed to Geothermal Fracking which is click intensive. What's your reasoning for playing Fracking over these great cards?

4: If that play Faust early and you don't have Scorched in hand, it seems your only out is Snare kills, because they can just not care about tags at that point and Imp your kill peices. Does this ever happen?

With all the bad pub, Crisium doesn't look like it will do much besides get trashed. Would you change that slot?

Thanks for posting!

What are your thoughts about using Vanilla or Bailiff in this build when they come out? Loved your old build and loving this one too, can't wait to try it out.

@apri - I'll definitely be testing both of those cards once they come out! I'm also looking forward to trying Zealous Judge in the deck :)

@podoboyz99 1: I definitely feel the loss of the Jacksons, particularly in the Noise matchup, but you have to sacrifice somewhere to be able to play Ravens, Snare x 3 and 2 x SEA Source. If I was going to cut something, it'd be one of the SEA Source for the other 2 Jacksons. Having 3 Snare! is just so important. I think Snare!, Profiteering and Scorched Earth are the most important cards in the deck. I'll often have one in hand, one on the board and know another is in R&D, so the option to shuffle back in from Archives to recur Snare! is good, but not always the same as having 3 in your deck.

2: Corporate town hits both connections and resources. Whilst it is really annoying to have to forfeit agendas, and is its own sort of inconsistency, the fact that it hits any resource (and can interrupt DLR combos because of the "can't be prevented") makes it more versatile and powerful. Additionally, I often play with R&D open for the first 3-4 turns while I score out the first few agendas, so Elizabeth Mills and Contract Killer don't have the same resilience as Corporate Town with its high trash cost.

3: Corporate Sales Team is definitely close to Geothermal in power level, but the fact that you can take all the credits in 1 turn from Geothermal Fracking probably pushes it over the edge (and the fact that it nets you 2 extra credits (12 v 10).

In terms of Oaktown - I don't like giving the runner information with this deck. Because the deck is so spiky in general (dangerous to run against), you can introduce some doubt into the runner's mind about what that single advanced card in the remote might be. With Oaktown, it's all out there on the board. I find Geothermal, in a deck where you don't care about the bad pub, to be more versatile and powerful.

4: Imp can be annoying, but if they're aggressively attacking your centrals early, there's a good chance they will die to a combination of Snare!, the Argus ability and Scorched without even seeing the Scorched Earth. Even if they do run enough to consistently see your Scorched Earths without dying, you have windows to be scoring and that benefits you more in the long run because they aren't setting up.

The key is just to be faster than them and make sure you always, always have money.

5: Crisium is not useful most of the time, but when it is, it saves games. It can stop an Eater/Keyhole deck cold, and it can stop a key Account Siphon from landing when you're looking to score an agenda that will get you enough money to be siphon proof for a couple of turns.

It is a slot that will probably change (depending on meta shifts) once Zealous Judge comes out and the deck gets a little reshuffle.

@voltorocks - I think I answered your questions in the above :)

oh man, zealous judge! that's pretty exciting for this deck.

Played around a bit with this this afternoon/evening, and I have to say it is a mean piece of work. Definitely some next level yomi going on with this list -it's gonna take some practice before I make anything but the simplest substitutions. I like how the silver bullets can actually be found thanks to TFIN. corp town in particular mowed DLR down when they were foolish enough to neglect rig building and had to let it roll for a turn or two.

the deck is crazy rich, i'm gonna try it with the sales team; I have yet to actually need geothermal.

So Weyland does well when it's rich. Who'da thunk that?

JK XD Fellow Weyland afficianado appreciating the ideas. You don't really need that Jackson do you, Swordsman is better :) Have my like ...

Do you guys have any plans to do one of your video series on this deck anytime soon? Would be super interested to see it in play.

@Badeesh - Thanks :) I'm not a huge fan of Swordsman, but if it's your cup of tea then all power to you!

@stoppableforce - Definitely! Watch out for it over the next month or so :)

I actually played this deck at my SC. It went undefeated. My runner decided to take the day off though so missed top cut on tie breakers. This deck is awesome. Definitely worth playing if you enjoy some good ole Argus fun. Thanks again @DonutTaganes

Took this to a store champ this past Saturday, just after Demo & Dogma came out. Figured I would face more Noise than anything, and was right: my games were against Noise, Geist, Noise, and Geist, in that order, and went 3-1. Unfortunately my runner deck didn't show up at all, which is the story of my life. ;)

Flatlined the first two with DRTs (the first by running through a Data Raven towards a DRT, while the other two DRTs were outside the remote unchecked; the second with the Snare-DRT trick mentioned in the writeup), the third with SEA-Scorch on a 2-card hand after hitting a snare.

The last game was more difficult but I scored 4 1-pointers and a Geothermal and had the winning agenda (a TFIN) in the remote, but lost to a Medium dig from Geist (breaking my ice for free with bad pub) that coughed up two Atlases. Felt bad, but it's not like I had a free turn in which to purge, and landing a tag on him was totally impossible due to the combo of NACH + Geist's insane econ engine + bad pub - being able to use bad pub to dodge tags for taking agendas feels really bad to play against. Overall, though, the siphon threat wasn't that big of a deal, though, and I had just a single ice wall on my HQ the whole game. Took a few on the chin and kept going.

Summary of changes I made post-De&Do:

• -3 Paper Wall, +3 Bailiff. Sorry, Jesse, but I absolutely hate Paper Wall. :) My opponent always has Faust or Corroder or Breach or a single Spike in hand when I try to rush behind it. At least Bailiff sticks around. This was a Meru Matu prior to De&Do in my testing, and will probably be a Vanilla when that rolls around.
• -1 SEA, -1 Crisium, +2 Jacksons. I had not anticipated playing any criminals or Eater/Keyhole decks since my meta largely prefers Whizzard, Noise, and shapers, so the Crisium was even less valuable than usual. I guess it would've stopped a siphon, but not for long. On the other hand, the extra Jacksons definitely ensured I didn't lose the Noise games.

Hi, loving the deck!

I was just trying to build my own Argus and was looking at the card, Bernice Mai. Have you tried her out? She might be a bit too much combo but it seems like she would work extremely well with Snare and/or DRT on the board. Combined with an agenda, a 3rd click runner might be in a bit of trouble if you have the kill combo in hand as well.

Soooo who is ready to remake this with judge and when door to door/boom/hhn etc come out...........