Ground and Pound

esutter479 322

Summer Kit time~! Tonight was my first time piloting an Edward Kim deck in any sort of competitive environment, as well as my first GNK tourney in quite some time.

On the night, I went 2-4...so not that great, but other than the 2nd round (yes, the opponent is a good player and all, but that time, I really feel like the shuffle/cut whooped my ass more than the way I played), I had a lot of fun and learned some things. One of those things, was the fact that this deck NEEDS Parasites. Parasite was a large reason that my Corp deck lost at all, and other than Faust, it proved to be my greatest enemy on the whole. The Armitages MAY have to come out in favor of Parasites...a change I'm not looking forward to, but will likely have to make.

I don't know about anyone else, but in my meta, where Corps are deathly afraid of Whizzard: Master Gamer and Imps eating up their asset economy, this Identity seems like it could do some serious (if not at least moderate) damage and turn a few heads at the same time. I did a ton of browsing at various Kim concepts (tested and otherwise) on here yesterday, and I also chatted on OCTGN with x3r0h0ur. His insight was well received, and I took what I could from my conversation with him and put together what I hope will be a successful concept for me and other people who are wanting to get into Anarch, specifically Kim. :)

I get that Kim is supposed to be aggressive, but as I've learned (the hard way), it's awfully difficult to pull off such a feat when your breakers are out of reach. IMO, Kim HAS to have a tutor of some kind. At 2 influence and 1 credit, I can think of no greater value for this purpose than Special Order. With a splashing of D4v1d for troublesome hefties like Tollbooth, Curtain Wall, Orion, etc...this deck effectively has 12 breaker slots...and I cannot emphasize enough the need for Kim to be able to break through ANYTHING he wants to by at least turn 10, if not earlier.

Career Fair is there to help the deck get going and make it easier to turn on Daily Casts, your Wyld Pancakes, or Liberated Accounts so you're not broke by the time your rig is nearly complete. Lucky Find is there to help with that as well. It's better to use when you have 4 clicks, obviously, so you can not only GET ahead, but STAY ahead of the Corp.

Grimoire, cuz we have some viruses, and the need for extra memory capabilities. HQI is instrumental with weeding out not only Agendas at a fast pace, but also sniping kill-condition cards (Scorched, SEA Source, Midseason, Traffic Accident), any nasty little currents they might have planned for you, or the obvious Jackson Howard pulls.

Armitage Codebusting is a 2-of in here, cuz as x3r0 pointed out to me, it's an excellent money option for when you need to dig yourself out of a hole at any point during a game, to set yourself up for more digs in the near future after laying it down. You don't rely on it, but rather lean on it a little bit when times are tight.

The breakers are pretty standard Anarch bullspit, except for Faust, in a way. The Wyldcakes combo, as well as I've Had Worse play into Faust's strength. Excalibur in your way? 1 Sucker token and a card from your grip will wipe that threat completely! It buys into the natural aggression that Kim strives for very well, IMO. Medium, of course, helps in the same way as HQI, and works with Grimoire to save you a click, and who can argue with that?

Enjoy, and please leave feedback. :)

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