"Anarch Breakers Et Cetera" (5th/6th Place US Nationals)

squash957 574

Thanks Tim for the deck name! :D (You can see the reference and watch me pilot the deck poorly here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qwvcTRBl-0)

There isn't much new or different about this build. I've been playing this list (+/- 3 cards) for close to a year now. It has gone through wild swings in efficacy. Currently I think it is an acceptable deck if you enjoy Criminal play. It is a high pressure, economic denial deck at it's core. Account Siphon is to close scoring windows, activate Emergency Shutdown, and wield your economic edge like a hammer. Shutdown turns off all the ICE you just don't want to break more than once (Susanoo, Tollbooth, Archer). The rest is to get in early and often as efficiently as possible.

Since the introduction of Crick, this deck has suffered mightily against RP. To combat this, I dropped the 3rd Datasucker for a Stimhack and added Drive By. Stimhack is often just enough surprise to get the first Nisei when you appear poor (worked twice out of 4 RP games at Nationals against exceptional RP players). I ended up 2-1 against RP in Swiss, and 0-1 in Top Cut.

It's hard to extricate the deck's efficacy from my familiarity with it, so I won't bother you with details on all it's match-ups. If you have any specific questions, don't hesitate to ask!

The deck went 5-2 through Swiss (Losses to RP and HB NEXT Glacier). It went 2-1 in Top 16 (Loss to RP).

4 comments
2 Sep 2015 flowerscandrink

How many butcher did you play? Seems like you'd have a pretty good match up there with the 2 plascrete.

2 Sep 2015 squash957

I played at least 1 Butcher. The early rounds of Swiss are fading from memory at this point.

The game I remember was preposterous. My opponent's opening was double Sweeps Week, ICE HQ. The look in his eyes just screamed Butchershop. I luckily found early Desperado, Security Testing, and Plascrete allowing me to be a little adventurous and take an early agenda. My opponent couldn't draw Midseasons, and I eventually surmounted his credit total. Then I effectively tossed the game back by misplaying and allowing a Never Advanced Breaking News into Closed Accounts. At that point I started getting aggressive and found 7 points before I died.

That's a windy way of saying that it's a pretty good match-up if I don't screw it up, but I often screw it up.

3 Sep 2015 sruman

Would you consider swapping Gordian for Zu and 1 plascrete for Film Critic now that it's out? Hostage isn't great, but could go -1, -1 Mr. Li + 2 Hostages I suppose to help find the FC in the matchups when it really helps ( i.e. RP + Future Perfects.) ?

3 Sep 2015 squash957

@sruman That is a thought. I have been neck deep in D&D testing since GenCon, and I think Employee Strike at the same 1 influence may be better. I've also considered going to Zu so that I can go back to 3 Datasucker, since I want to see it early. I am tempted to not go the Film Critic route, since I think players are going to be more prepared to deal with it than Strike. There is also a great deck with Multithreader out there. I haven't quite found the balance yet, though. I think either way, opening up an influence by switching to Zu is a fine choice. There was a time where I found Gordian distinctly better, but that is no longer the case.