Most Wanted Art Student - GNK Undefeated

Another MWL, Another Eye Roll

Pretty much your standard Sifr + Parasite Haley deck teched for the meta as of Free Mars. I've been tweaking this list for a few months and even though it isn't reinventing the wheel, I'm still proud of how it's been performing so I wanted to share it.

Card Choices

One of the main points of dispute in this style of deck is the draw engine. While ProCo does come with its own set of risks, this deck has 12 0-cost resources to install beside it which means you can get killer opening turns fairly consistently. More events = less installables, so I'm not a fan of event based draw in this shell, however similar lists have performed well for others using Diesel and Quality Times.

The Icebreaker suite is designed to be lean and effective and give you game even in match-ups where your Parasite gets hit by Ark Lockdown. The 2nd Atman is a flex slot, but It can be handy in some situations. Mimic over Na'Not'K because the only thing you should really ever break with a killer is Architect and if things are going according to plan it will be the only ice on the server. As long as Moon Spam is the deck to beat I'm confident it's worth the influence.

Misdirection over NACH mostly because it's a program and it helps with Shaper BS. Sometimes you wind up in situations where you have Parasite in hand and I frequently SMC for the Misdirection (gaining Tech Writer credits on install), Hayley trigger to install Parasite and then pawn the Misdirection the following turn if it isn't relevant in the match-up. Additionally, you usually have play against 24/7 Boom! by tutoring a surprise Plascrete with Artist Colony, so you don't really need the constant ability to avoid tags as much as some Shapers do.

Employee Strike and Same Old Thing both help a ton in certain matchups that would otherwise be practically unwinnable (namely Skorpios and PU) and I think 2 is the right number of each. In matchups where you don't need to recur Strike or save Levy the Same Olds turn into Aesop's Food. Similarly, the two Sac Cons really turn the tides against fast advance decks, but they never feel irrelevant thanks to Haley triggers and Aesop's.

3 RDI and Equivocation ensures late game inevitability and any combination of 2 can really put pressure on if the corp is rushing you out. Equivocation also has the benefit of being easy to tutor. Some lists run Indexing/Mad Dash, but in my experience Indexing has been really easy for corps to thwart lately (Jackson, Moon, Atlas token, AgInfusion ability, Crisium Grid etc.). The hardware based multi-access is slower and more expensive, but ultimately more effective in a number of situations.

Match Ups

Round 1 vs Kenny on AgInfusion: An early Nisei MKII score had me questioning my odds, but I was able to get an RDI or two and an equivocation down before he Install Double Advanced in a remote on match point. Sifr Parasite blows R&D wide open and a combination of Equivocation and trashing assets lets me access a ton of cards over the course of the turn and nab the win.

Round 2 vs Jack on Skorpios: I got lucky and started with ProCo in my opening hand and drew into some Daily Casts which helped me to keep up with the economy war. I was able to call an Oaktown bluff behind some cheap barriers with a Sac Con on board to prevent Hunter Seeker. Once I found the 2nd Sac Con and surpassed his credit total, he reasonably offered a concession.

Round 3 vs Graham on Moon EtF: After not checking remotes for the first 5 or 6 turns, I finally decide to keep him honest and run one and got an ABT. The next turn he scored another 3/2 he had just thrown on the table earlier. Once he reached match point we got into a pretty intense Clot fight where he purged twice to get through Sac Con and then Ark'ed it. Fortunately the purging had bought me enough time to assemble a full rig and pounding R&D seals it before he could close the game.