Whizzard: Master Shredder (huge write-up, needs work/suggest

Bigguyforyou518 1759

This deck was inspired by Stuology's "Soooooo Hunngrryyy!" Reina deck. I want to thank him for his excellent write-up, which gave me a huge head-start in learning how to pilot the deck. I made a significant number of edits (which I'll go over) to suit my playstyle, and am eagerly looking for any suggestions for how I could further change/polish this abomination I've created. I've been testing it for a few weeks on Jinteki.net, and it seems to win about 75% of the time.

Obviously the biggest change is the Identity. For a deck built around suffocating econ-denial and constant face-checking, Reina Roja: Freedom Fighter is a great choice, as she taxes the Corp for something you're going to be doing anyway.

The problem I ran into is that I was utterly failing at econ-denying NEH, RP, and any Corp that relied on asset / drip economy. The Corp is usually more than happy to rez assets at the climax of an Account Siphon run, turning your subsequent "Now that they have no credits..." strategy into an embarrassing dud (YOU'RE actually the one with no credits, because you Eater'd through all their ice and were rewarded with nothing). And in a deck that eats 10-20 tags without blinking an eye, the extra Link is really only useful against a handful of things like Trace program destruction, or Punitive Counterstrikes.

Whizzard: Master Gamer solves some of those problems. Since Eater prevents access, there is admittedly some anti-synergy here - you can't use Whizcreds™ to trash things you didn't get to access. Even so, I found myself having tons of opportunities to trash things: assets are often left naked in horizontal decks, Jackson Howard is no longer a chore to get rid of, and when you DO get a clean run on their scoring server (you will), you can trash that Crisium or SanSan without breaking your bank.

I also found Keyhole to be a dud (heresy!). Keyhole+Eater should be idiot-proof, but somehow I just could not make it work. I rarely get Keyhole runs up and working early game, and mid-late game it doesn't actually fit in the rig O______o (especially with Parasites out). Trying to squish it into the overstuffed rig, and maintain enough ice destruction to be able to get IN to archives, and keeping Howards on the board trashed...it all just felt awkward and unwieldy to me. Hades Shard cuts through the ice and Howards, but you have a million tags, so you need to hard-install it from your hand to make it work (no easy Eater-install for you).

So I replaced Keyhole with Gravedigger, which is cheaper both in memory and credits, and is tutorable through Djinn. Between Whizzard, all the ice-destruction we're packing, and the Corp trashing stuff on their own, Gravedigger will be doing work all GAME.

I've further tuned the deck to better deal with Blue Sun, which is extremely popular right now. I increased the D4v1ds from 2 to 3, and changed the splashed tutor from a Special Order to a Test Run (influence-affordable once you drop the Hades) so that I can tutor either Eater OR D4vid. This is crucial, because a turn one D4vid in response to a turn one Oversight AI is absolutely devastating to Blue Sun's tempo (and if it's a Test Run-D4vid, you get all the counters back next turn LOL).

I also found the econ to be a bit lacking (especially if you couldn't get effective Account Siphon runs off...or couldn't get Account Siphons period), so I threw in a few Dirty Laundrys (normally a pretty meh card, but shines with a Prepaid VoicePAD or two out).

The Djinn's thin the deck out, and solve any possible memory issues you could run into. With Eater as your main breaker, you will not ever lose a program unless you want to (except to Power Shutdown), so there's little risk of losing a hosted program chain.

The fundamental play style remains very similar to Stuology's original deck: facecheck aggressively with Eater and then tutor up the tools that you need. The biggest differences are the lack of Keyhole and the increased asset-trashing focus.

FOOD (heh) FOR THOUGHT:

-Taking out Keyhole cuts down significantly on the number of runs I need to make, and as such, Spinal Modem hasn't been doing too much work for me. I'm considering replacing it with Vigil, which is arguably better econ in an Event-focused deck.

-Even with PPvPs, I'm not a big fan of Day Job. You can't just wait for econ windows the way you can with a Magnum Opus, because it's sitting there eating up valuable Grip space while you're waiting. I'm not really seeing an alternative though, without dramatically changing my influence investment.

-The Cutlery has honestly not been doing that much work. It's sooooo situational, and there's only 2 event tutors in the deck. Barring that, the wrong one will end up sitting in your hand forever, and then you'll finally discard it, only to need it two turns later and waste a Déjà Vu to recursion it, which you really needed to save for more Account Siphons... I'm seriously considering just gutting them and reverting to an old school Parasite/Datasucker ice destruction solution (which works better with Djinn, and also could justify changing the console to Grimoire).

1 comments
14 Mar 2015 Oisin

Have you seen itsbigfoot's Macho Man Reina Savage deck? I've been testing that for a couple days, and it is insane denial without the account siphon (yes, it is possible).

That deck makes a bunch of the changes you describe. It uses Vigil for draw (and the corps hand will clog up, no doubt). It uses parasite recursion in place of cutlery (the AS influence becomes Clone Chip). It packs Lucky Find for econ, too.

It plays Eater/Keyhole, but the trick is to never run R&D or Archives unless you are absolutely sure the corp can't rez ice. Any ice. Not a piece of it. This requires a dedicated assault on HQ. Run. Parasite. Vamp. And, best of all, Crescentus. This is the stir that stirs the drink. Oh, did you just spend 7 to rez that Lotus Field. SPEND IT AGAIN. How's that 5 cost Enigma treating you? It is kind of like a Leela deck, where you force the corp to spend all there resources protecting one server so you can smash into all the others when they can't protect them anymore. It is violent. And brilliant.

When I first saw that list, I wanted to make it into a Quetzal deck. Because I just love Quetzal. But once I figured out the "only run HQ" strategy, the deck instantly made so much more sense. You don't need account siphon (and all the tags it throws your way). You just keep making them rez stuff. If Kati gives you a sudden credit advantage, you can keep running HQ for Lamprey triggers. You can be extremely aggressive running just the one central server, opening up extremely painful scoring windows for Keyhole.