Viral DDoS 1.2

Cottonjaw 201

ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE! Utilize DDoS and Apocalypse to wipe the board early and often. You don't need many credits and you don't need icebreakers when the board is empty. Single access runs aren't so bad when there's no ice on the board!

Be judicious using Apex's ability. DO install duplicates, side pieces you don't need right now face down. DON'T jeopardize the mid/late game to get one more subroutine broken early (unless it's a guaranteed Apocalypse. Always apocalypse.)

Key Pieces: DDoS - Requires a bit of setup, but this really is the blood flowing through Apex's Heartbeat. Drop this early enough and hit them with an Apocalypse and you've got the corp on the ropes bright and early.

Endless Hunger - The be-all end-all. You don't care about most subroutines and you shouldn't. You're a hungry, sentient computer virus. Get in so you can blow it up! Face down cards and Harbinger are prime fodder for your Starving Belly.

Faust - Our dark lord Satan, praise be his name! For the few and far between subroutines you mind suffering, it's Faust! Fuel big runs you know you're going to have to go Faust heavy with Quality Time, but pick your battles because clicking to draw can really slow you down.

Prey - Instead of taxing your grip to fuel Our Lord Satan make that big nasty ice your prey and om nom nom it's gone. Work's even better if you sniff out the big nasty with Infiltration so you're prepared to make it your Prey.

Brain Cage - A rogue sentient AI can't really wear Plascrete Carapace or gain any Public Sympathy so this gives you some beef for the corp to scorch through. Never take the Brain damage, always be ready to soak it with Heartbeat.

Heartbeat - Let's your rock Faust and Endless Hunger at the same time. Soaks ANY damage type just by trashing cards (and you'll have plenty to trash!) Wonderful piece.

Side Booty: Wasteland, Day Job and Sure Gamble keep Apex gainfully employed.

Levy AR Lab Access helps for those games where you gave 1 too few fucks. Try not to let it get eaten by Hunting Grounds or you lose all your recursion (though redundancy is favored over recursion in this incarnation)

Utopia Shard is a great way to force the corporation to mortgage their future just before you apocalypse. They lose pieces they will soon need, once you clear the board. Extra points if you can get it back with Levy AR Lab Access and hit em again.

Quick Edit: Much props to Zeromus's Apex Hyperdriver and Axlotl's Eviscerator for giving me the Virus

10 comments
22 Jan 2016 connorhalo

What are you doing for memory? Do you only install Faust or EH one at a time?

22 Jan 2016 Cottonjaw

@connorhalo with Heartbeat out I can afford both. (4 EH + 1 Faust), Harbinger is free.

22 Jan 2016 connorhalo

Edit: Derp. Heartbeat. Move along. Nothing to see here. ;-)

22 Jan 2016 Jashay

Huh, I never twigged that Heartbeat could stop Brain Cage damage. Neat!

I've been noticing a rise in the occurrence of Turing recently, presumably because Faust is everywhere... I don't think your deck has any way to get past a Turing on a central? It seems like you'd be relying on DDoS + Apocalypse.

What's your threshold for Apocalypse? Say, would you use it if they only had 3 ICE down, for example?

But it looks solid! I've been looking for a fun Apex build; I'll give it a spin

22 Jan 2016 Cottonjaw

`@Jashay yes absolutely. When in doubt, Apocalypse. Your rig is tiny and irrelevant when the board is clear, you'll recover faster than the corp. The earlier your first apocalypse goes off, generally, the better... if you can snag Adonis Campaign or some asset along those lines, with their initial HQ and R&D ice, that's enough to throw off their money and defense, and put you on top.

22 Jan 2016 Cottonjaw

@Jashay yes absolutely. When in doubt, Apocalypse. Your rig is tiny and irrelevant when the board is clear, you'll recover faster than the corp. The earlier your first apocalypse goes off, generally, the better... if you can snag Adonis Campaign or some asset along those lines, with their initial HQ and R&D ice, that's enough to throw off their money and defense, and put you on top.

Turing is definitely a problem, but he's easy Prey if he's not the exterior piece, normally installed on a remote which makes him irrelevant as far as keeping you out of the centrals to Apocalypse. You can pick up whatever he was guarding from the trash once the bomb goes off.

If he is the exterior piece, you guessed it, Zombies!

22 Jan 2016 hutch9514

Very neat deck. I really want to try it out. Have any videos on game-play with it? Would love to watch some before making this deck

23 Jan 2016 Axlotl

Yeah, Preying a central server Turing doesn't feel that bad. I did that today demonstrating Eviscerator to one of our newer players, who hadn't seen Apex yet. Upside is Eviscerator's got the Account Siphon plays available to slow the corp down a fair bit, so an entire turn clearing Turing doesn't feel as bad, where as this variation is gong for a longer more consistent approach than the wild, skin-of-your-teeth, ride that is Eviscerator, and an entire turn on Turing can be problematic if it gives the corp to much breathing room.

And I'm going to echo Apocalypsing basically every chance you get. It is vital that you don't let the corp build their servers to deep. Apocalypsing turn two to clear 5 NEH servers and a single ice feels amazing. With Eviscerator, I will try to play every Apocalypse I see, and gladly will play all 3 over the course of a game.

21 Feb 2016 RainKing

Why can't Endless Hunger get past Turing? EH isn't an AI program, unless there's a ruling I missed.

21 Feb 2016 RainKing

Nevermind, I see it now.