It's Good to be the King

Iron_Soul 165

I've been fiddling with Apex for a little while, and this is the best I've yet to come up with. It utilizes his ability to feed Endless Hunger and Heartbeat and attempts to shore up his economic weaknesses with Leprechaun and Magnum Opus. I feel that Leprechaun is one of the best answers Apex has to memory problems, especially with Magnum in play.

One of the most glaring holes in this deck is a lack of multi-access, but in my experience it hasn't been necessary. Once your rig is built, running is pretty easy with the Opus train carrying you along. Apocalypse can mean the difference between winning and losing, but that doesn't mean it gets played every game. Know when you can afford to lose your rig and when it will hurt the corp significantly; for come corps this could mean a turn 3 or 4 Apocalypse. Finding room for a Medium might be a necessity though, all things considered.

Kraken is thematic and effective here. Thin out the corp's ice suite and make it easier to pull off the Apocalypse play. If you're worried about them trashing that Pop-Up Window instead of Ichi when you Kraken, Prey the Pop-Up first.

Infiltration is helpful here as it lets you scout ahead before making a potentially costly run. Alternatively, it can help you pay for a Leprechaun before you play Magnum if you're strapped for cash.

Speaking of Leprechaun, ideally one will host an Endless Hunger and Magnum, and the rest of your programs will free-float. However, Magnum needs to be played when it's drawn, so host your other programs on a second Leprechaun if need be.

Quality Time is your only source of card draw, something I feel might need to be addressed at some point. Yes three of them will let you draw a third of your deck, but Magnum is click intensive as it is.

That's the gist of the deck. I haven't brought it to any tournaments yet, but it's won over 75% of the play testing games I've done with it. C&C always welcome :D

4 comments
30 Dec 2015 esutter479

Why no Wasteland? Is Opus econ all you need here? I do like the look of this...but that jumped out at me. :)

30 Dec 2015 Iron_Soul

Wasteland is a difficult card for me to slot if I'm not going all-in on the trashing. You have to trash three cards for it to start netting you money, and that assumes you draw it early enough to matter. Now, with Levy it's certainly possible it can make you money in the long run, but I don't like the lack of guarantee. Now, that said, Ghost Runner is a somewhat weak link econ-wise, but slots for Apex are thin once the influence runs out. I could see replacing Ghost Runner with Wasteland, you just have to be willing to wait it out for a return on investment.

As for Opus, as good as it is it's not the end-all of econ, hence the Sure Gambles, Dirty Laundries, and Ghost Runner. In all my games with Apex, money was always the biggest problem for me, and Magnum helps to fix that very nicely.

30 Dec 2015 skyrunner36

Why Corroder if you're packing Endless Hunger and e3 Feedback Implants?

30 Dec 2015 Iron_Soul

Endless Hunger is here to supplement the traditional breakers rather than the other way around. With Magnum, I can afford to break barriers with money rather than precious cards, to an extent. Typically for me, any barrier above strength 5 gets broken with Endless Hunger.