Zatman: Startup "Off" Meta

YsengrinSC 1260

This list is evolved from my deckbuilding video and I played it a bit here.

This list is not optimized, and I go back and forth on whether Atman is worth a slot at all. But I think this list is reasonably well positioned against the current glacier heavy startup meta.

I've dropped down to 2 Atman due to the fact that cards fall into a pretty binary distribution of strengths in startup, Boomerang gets you through a lot of things early and late, and Inside Job makes is hard to make a good scoring remote early.

Generally I would recommend Atman at 4:

But 5 is also good for hitting an advanced Akhet, Tollbooth, Funhouse, Engram Flush, and an unadvanced Pharos.

Your other Atman should probably be at 0/1/3 strength depending on what ICE you see the corp running. The influence could definitely be adjusted, I'm not sure you need 3 Leech (and you probably want 3x The Class Act), but this list feels reasonable enough, even though it probably won't define the meta.

4 comments
16 Jun 2021 Diogene

Great video (I really enjoyed them). Nice deck.

Small correction : I think you will want to put Funhouse in the list for Atman at 4, since it has a strenght of 4.

18 Jan 2022 Longi

Hey, congrats on the win. The Atman is interesting choice defining whole deck strategy. Is this just an startup experiment you like or do you find it stronger then reg Zahya?

18 Jan 2022 YsengrinSC

I definitely chose Atman because I like the card more than I think it's necessarily that strong. However I think it does have some merit if you're expecting a lot of glacier strategies as you can make enough money so the upfront doesn't sting too much, and then you can save on the boost. On the day I mostly installed 0-1 Atmans, and usually won mostly by pressuring servers with Boomerang and taking good accesses.

I did a video about this deck a while back, and plan to do a follow up review of the game from this tournament most likely.

20 Jan 2022 ArminFirecracker

Congrats! Running 3 Leeches, you might like to add Baklan Bochkin?