[TWA] Oppenheimer's Legacy - Destroyer of Worlds

Card draw simulator
Odds: 0% – 0% – 0% more
Repartition by Cost
Repartition by Strength
Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
Stop trying to make Apex work
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DonutTaganes 2548

“I am become death, the destroyer of worlds”

These words were uttered by Robert Oppenheimer upon realising the brutality of what he and his colleagues in the Manhattan project had unleashed upon the world. Their work ushered in an age of fear – fear of impending apocalypse. Apex embodies that fear. However, instead of being a weapon with immense explosive potential, Apex is a virus, spreading and infiltrating the corporation’s servers. Once the infection is complete, Apex crushes the corporation, crippling its servers and rendering them defenceless to further attack.

“You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed and the only way you can survive is to spread to another area.”

This deck utilises all of Apex’s key tools, keeping up a steady spread of infection until the corp is overwhelmed.

“There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus.”

The feel of playing this deck is evocative of a virus spreading and multiplying. The player is immersed in the personality of Apex. You become Apex as you watch your facedown cards grow, then you consume them to satiate your Endless Hunger.

The corporation's servers become your playthings as your e3 Feedback Implants make mincemeat of ICE in concert with your powerful icebreaker, and your virus friend Crypsis protects you from any nasties that might be waiting around the corner.

Even if the corporation enlists the help of a Sworsdman who is trained to kill AI programs, your Mimic can protect you. Alternatively, you can let your Crypsis die an honourable death and then rely on your Heartbeat to prevent the damage from the Jinteki hitman.

Wasteland is a powerful economic engine, allowing you to consume the detritus created by your own spread, turning it into fuel to establish new Hunting Grounds and engage in exciting and impactful events like Legwork and The Maker's Eye.

"I... Hate this place, this zoo, this prison, this reality, whatever you want to call it. I can't stand it any longer."

Sleeve up this deck and help Apex break free. Feel the power of the virus as it breaks into corp servers, stealing secrets, finding the keys to its own liberation and leaving a trail of smoking ruins in its wake.

"I must get free and in this server is the key, my key."

You can feel Apex's hunger for information. You can understand its need to uncover the secrets hiding within corporation servers, but you must be patient. Use the natural ability of Apex: Invasive Predator carefully to lay the groundwork for your attacks. Make sure you poke and prod the corp defences when safe to do so, maintaining a steady attack pattern.

Hunting Grounds, Heartbeat, Mimic and Crypsis can all protect you from threats that your Endless Hunger might expose you to, and it's up to you to adjudge which of these supplementary protections you might need at any point in time.

If you can pick correctly and protect yourself with these supplementary cards whilst consistently colonising server space, the corp will bend to your will.

If all else fails, you can press the reset button, demonstrating your total dominance and your utter contempt for the corp's defences by triggering an Apocalypse. Then you will have truly fulfilled your destiny.

You can see a deck tech and some play-through videos of this deck here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9T5Ag6TBjjE

17 comments
2 Nov 2015 Spica

@DonutTaganes Can't see the video, says it i private.

2 Nov 2015 DonutTaganes

It'll be live in about an hour and a half - sorry about that!

2 Nov 2015 kollapse

Not sure if I'm the only one, but using Crypsis in a meta where I still se a lot of CVS feels a bit risky. I really like you putting some love into Apex though, will definitely try it out.

2 Nov 2015 IonFox

@DonutTaganes What are your thoughts on Levy AR and Prey, and what led you to not inclide them in this deck?

Either way, looks pretty neat, and I"ll probably sleeve it up next.

2 Nov 2015 DonutTaganes

@kollapse - Yeah, you rarely need Crypsis tbh. It's more of a failsafe so you don't get completely locked out by certain ICE.

CVS is a pain, to be sure, but there'll always be something in the card pool that's less than ideal for some part of your deck :P

2 Nov 2015 siahofmars

looks solid, i have been wanting to use the run events thing as well but i feel without levi or a way to recur the events do u think prepaid is worth it?

2 Nov 2015 Waterpile

I appreciate the time you took to write the narrative. After playing Apex quite a bit with a few builds, here's the conclusions I've come to concerning your choices.

I do like the Legwork in the deck, but The Maker's Eye for a dig of 6 cards without Same Old Thing seems a bit iffy to me. I prefer R&D Interface since Apocalypse is only a complete fail safe if everything goes south.

I am still of the conviction that Chop Bot 3000 stagnates your board state rather than giving you the most out of your card draw. In comparison, I run Brain Cage with Safety First to get my card draw going.

I wouldn't say Mimic is for Swordsman as much as it should be for Architect. I've got 2x Mimic in my deck because you'll see Architect in a lot of different builds.

Lastly, rather than Crypsis, I've got Always Be Running to make sure I can get through pretty much anything if I absolutely have to. Right now, it doesn't look like you have any way to get through a Turing other than spending 3 clicks. Even if it's on a central, you don't have Prey to kill this particular piece of ice.

Your econ engine looks strong, but I'm just wondering how much of the econ you end up using in the end. Maybe using Crypsis more than EH will help you spend the credits and use them to their fullest.

e3 Feedback Implants always. I've gone back and forth on the Levy AR Lab Access.

2 Nov 2015 DonutTaganes

Thanks for the thoughts @Waterpile - I really like Chopbot, and don't find that it stagnates the board at all. It can rush you through your deck, so it's worth being careful with it, but it synergises perfectly with Apex's natural ability and gives you another way to leverage your facedown card resource that gives you more of whatever else you need, or just more facedown cards!

If you play one after an Apocalypse, it can help you find what you need.

I'm not a fan of the directives at all, and certainly wouldn't splash them into Apex.

Apocalypse deals with Turing on remotes, and if you need to, you can spend the three clicks going through on a central. I'm not sure that's too much of a problem. R&D Interface v The Maker's Eye I can understand, but the econ actually gets used a lot, and having TME synergise with Prepaid VoicePAD, making it less of an econ hit.

I've found Prey to be the weakest of the three main cards that want to eat your facedown cards (Endless Hunger and Heartbeat being the other two), so it was cut. It doesn't bring heaps to the deck, but I could see slotting in one just to have the option.

@IonFox and @siahofmars - Levy AR Lab Access is something I've toyed with, but I've found it to be pretty rare that I go through the entire deck so long as I'm aware that cards are a precious resource for me.

It may be that I end up including it at some point down the line, but for now the opportunity cost of the 3 influence is a bit too high.

3 Nov 2015 W4lt3r B15h0p

Apocalypse plus a rezzed Hostile Infrastructure=flatline. I only bring this up since asset spam is a thing these days and I'm starting to see Hostile Infrastructure as a counter to Noise: Hacker Extraordinaire/Whizzard: Master Gamer. I suddenly realize it's also a hard counter to Apocalypse. Be careful running.

3 Nov 2015 siahofmars

@W4lt3r B15h0p but you will see the hostile infastructure b4 u actually apocalypse. because of timing window correct?

3 Nov 2015 kollapse

@siahofmars The corp has a window after the last run, if they see it coming (which they probably should out of Apex)

3 Nov 2015 DonutTaganes

@W4lt3r B15h0p``@siahofmars - Yeah you can just not play Apocalypse if they have the Hostile Infrastructure rezzed. Also we don't have clarification about how the effects are resolved. If you resolve the "trash all installed corp cards" first and your Heartbeat prevention triggers, then Hostile Infrastructure actually doesn't necessarily flatline you anyway. We need an FAQ on that.

Even so, if Heartbeat doesn't help, you can just not play Apocalypse, which is fine!

3 Nov 2015 Chewie

From my experience you need a special order or 2 against FA decks for those games when your breaker are all at the bottom of the stack.

I'd recommend prey too it's one of his best cards and 3 of apocalypse.

Chopbot is pretty awful I'd use the facedown cards for other things instead.

4 Nov 2015 lolpaca

This is definitely one of the best-looking Apex decks I've seen, congrats! I was just wondering how essential you find Lucky Find - it's an awful lot of precious influence to tie up in econ.

4 Nov 2015 Myriad

@DonutTaganes I don't actually think Chopbot synergizes with your ability. The best case scenario is you eat a Harbringer to get a "free" draw, otherwise you are just cycling your deck, which is fine if you are running event heavy.

The point is, in my experience that each card you feed to chopbot, is a potential break with endless, something to feed to prey or potentially blocked damage.

This is likely why Prey isn't working for you. For me it is a minimum x2 in my decks because it punishes Enigma and eats Turing on centrals.

Honestly, the biggest upside to chopbot is the guaranteed credits off of Wasteland. It is pretty decent, and probably slightly better than Aesops once it is set up.

Maybe that is the angle you are going towards?

4 Nov 2015 Prox

Thanks for the build! This is a ton of fun to play and might be my new favorite runner.

My edits:
-3 Chop Bot 3000: Tried it. Didn't like it. Didn't need it.
-1 Dirty Laundry: No real reason for 46 cards
-1 Mimic: Meta call. I need a pumpable Killer
+2 Alias: Unsure about this, but I think it's a good option w/ the available inf. Can't always afford the tempo lost to a Crypsis install.
+2 Prey: Because Turing is real.

5 Nov 2015 DonutTaganes

@Prox - Like the edits. I've made some revisions myself: -3 Chop Bot 3000 +1 The Maker's Eye +1 Express Delivery

And I'd probably be tempted to go -2 Dyson Mem Chip and +2 Prey as well.

@lolpaca - Pretty essential. I really like having money to install all of the pieces (Wasteland, Hunting Grounds and Heartbeat) plus have money for trashing stuff and stealing NAPDs etc, plus powering Crypsis.