Poppin Bottles feat. J How and L Fizzle

Background

The Fisk Investment Seminar has begun. The boys are opening the bar (as usual) and ready to drop some serious credits this weekend. John Masonori has been busy doing contract work making sure the seminar roster includes a healthy dose of babes because let's face it: We're all serious investors here, but Jackson and Laramy didn't make a guest appearance together just to attend a sausage fest. These two came together to pop some bottles and make it rain. Not with credits, mind you, but with cards. Corp draws cards. Runner draws cards. Jackson and Laramy don't care. This weekend, we're all going to toss around more cards than we know what to do with. Only one small problem...once Laramy draws his cards, he's going on the gank and Account Siphoning you. Then once he does that, he starts makin' it rain off the top of R&D into Archives with his Data Leak Reversal. It's going to be a great weekend, but Jackson's going to need to do some overtime work when the conference is over to clean up the mess that Laramy has left.

Deck Summary

I was checking out the site to find ideas for a Laramy Fisk deck and pretty much all I found was jank. Heck, the top rated deck was even an admitted joke deck to goldfish against. I set out to make a shell for a Laramy Fisk deck that took advantage of his ability with the cardpool that has been revealed to date. I'll summarize my thoughts on why I built him this way, but I'll lead with one important thing. There is very little new and shiny in this deck. It is a tried and true Criminal good stuff shell with a few card choices that help further Laramy's strategy. While there may be some additional cards that upend this (Fisk Investment Seminar is a big card and I didn't know it existed two weeks ago), I think the core strategy will be pretty clear.

The only way I see Laramy's ability being good is if he is played aggressively in a way that can flood the corp with cards that they don't have the money to take advantage of. If you get into the mid game where the corp is iced up and actually wants to draw more cards, this card honestly may as well be blank as you'll never trigger the ability to help them draw into more economy or get that agenda they've been looking for in hand.

Specific Card Choices and Strategy

There are really three main pillars to the deck that I wanted to capture to make the most of the ability and keep the corp in the early game for the reasons I noted.

-Run Based Economy

Laramy's ability triggers off successful runs on Centrals, so it seems like the tried and true Desperado/Datasucker/Security Testing/Dirty Laundry Package is right at home in a Fisk deck. Again, nothing special to see here, but it is no less powerful here than in Andromeda.

-Account Siphon Recursion

It should be no surprise that the best way to keep the corp in the early game is to steal all their money and derez/kill their key ice. I've been playing an aggressive Gabe deck for a little while, and it has constantly reminded me how powerful Account Siphon can be if a deck can set up fast enough. For that reason, we're running the ful set of Account Siphons and Same Old Things. We also have a split of Emergency Shutdown and Parasite just to keep the path to HQ (or Archives if you need to Security Test) clear.

-Card Draw/Milling

Fisk Investment Seminar is a really sweet card. It is an in faction Diesel at worst and even better for a deck trying to flood the Corp. An opening hand with this card can play it click one, which will draw you up to the point you have seen 8 cards. Just one less than Andromeda's opening hand for 1 click, 1 card and no influence. That seems like a pretty strong proposition and can help get you that explosive turn 2 start that she is accustomed to. If you use this and make a turn 1 run, the Corp has another 4 cards in hand. If 1 in 5 cards is statistically going to be an agenda based on normal density, you have almost always made them draw another agenda. If they already had one or two agendas in hand, that is what we call agenda flood boys and girls. This card can really provide a lot of value by setting you up quickly while leaving the corp with a hand that is a liability. I also threw in an Eden Shard so you can have turn where you Fisk Investment Seminar then use the shard to make the Corp draw 5. After they discard at the end of their next turn, that sets you up for a turn where you check Archives and then Legwork if it doesn't look like they pitched any agendas. Seems like a great way to set up a high percentage HQ run.

I coupled this with Data Leak Reversal to keep the pressure on after you Account Siphon. It worked in Anatomy of Anarch and I think it can work here to. If they are spending their turn killing your DLR, they have piled up two more cards that they can't play (one for the Laramy draw and one for their mandatory draw). This coupled with having possible agendas in Archives puts a lot of pressure on the Corp to shore up their servers.

Closing

I by no means think this is THE Laramy Fisk deck. I wanted to put a shell out there to the community to give some thoughts on how to build him and solicit feedback over the next few months as more cards are revealed. I welcome comments and thoughts and am really looking forward to giving Laramy a spin when he is released. Until then, keep the accounts siphoned and the bottles poppin!