Whip out the Wyrm

Card draw simulator
Odds: 0% – 0% – 0% more
Repartition by Cost
Repartition by Strength
Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
Tapewyrm v2.0
Tapewyrm v3.0
Níðhöggr
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rnark 142

I used this deck at the Bern regionals in Switzerland. It won 3 of my 4 match-ups (got scorched once by the tournament winner), performing much better than I expected!

The idea is parasite recursion, relying on Wyrm to bring the ice strength down to 0 rather than Datasucker tokens (although when available, Datasucker tokens make it cheaper). With Magnum Opus and Stimhack, I generally had enough credits to go in and blow up all the ice. Installing a couple The Personal Touches makes the Wyrm much more efficient.

For already rezzed ice, Parasites can be recurred with Test Run. But most of the parasites were installed at instant speed with Clone Chip, Personal Workshop, and Self-modifying Code.

Why 1xThe Toolbox? 5 MUs is good enough for a Magnum Opus, a Wyrm, a Parasite, and one more program: usually Nerve Agent for me. But I usually let it sit on Personal Workshop so that I can bring it out if it makes sense to femme something or if I need the Inti for a wraparound. The recurring credits can be used for lowering ice strength. Finally, it's nice to have something big on Personal Workshop so that you can put a Parasite on it and control exactly when it comes out (and have something to do with unused stimhack credits when the corp doesn't rez anything).

Atman was a last minute addition I made in case I ever ran out of Parasites. A player at the tournament (who ran Parasite recursion Kate suggested Crypsis for breaking ice once in order to rely less on instant Parasite installs.

It's important to keep drawing while using this deck. One SMC, a parasite on personal workshop, and a clone chip means you can kill all the ice on a 3-deep server. After this, you need to be able to get set up again faster than the Corp can draw new ice. It helps that some ice becomes meaningless. Two of my opponents rezzed inazumas, which have no effect on this deck. And a 2-deep server with chum means you spend a couple extra credits and 2 net damage to make the chum useless (and if it's a 0-strength ice, then you can kill it after it's rezzed but before encountering it and chum has no effect). I never had to use Levy AR Lab Access, but it should ensure you can keep up the pressure after the clone chips are gone.

As for changes, I will probably switch to Indexing instead of R&D Interface. It's possible that this deck is strictly worse than other parasite recursion decks out there, but it's definitely a blast to play... even if just to see the look on their faces when you whip out the Wyrm!

9 comments
16 Jul 2014 x3r0h0ur

Cloak is good for wyrm decks, 1 credit to get 1 recurring credit to act as +1 str to the wyrm is pretty good. The problem then is MU support. When I went down this road I had a lot of MU adding stuff, overmind, wyrm, inti and pipeline (yes that). Pipe only got installed if i saw swordsman. So if I had overmind early I'd beef it up with MU and have a breaker for anything, and run parasite wyrm on everything else. They support each other nicely.

Just food for thought.

16 Jul 2014 rnark

Agreed! Cloak makes sense except for the MU problems. You can't break the subs on the Swordsman, but since you can still parasite+wyrm it and since I usually only run when I have a parasite ready, it never worried me. On the other hand, I don't have a ton of experience with this deck, so maybe that's naive.

Including overmind (or crypsis) would definitely be helpful in slowing down the corp by forcing them to rez ice before the econ and combo pieces are ready. Did you have success with your Wyrm decks?

Thanks for the feedback!

16 Jul 2014 RedV

This deck is cool and pretty daunting to play against.

I guess the toolbox is in a way serving as double cloak, that is if you manage to get it out at all.

If you could reach midgame where wyrm has been Touched a couple of times, Atman at 0 is as good as Crypsis against most ice. But once lotus field is out, the Atman will be reserved and set to 4 i guess. Having to pay 5 with Crypsis every run would b a nightmare...

17 Jul 2014 rnark

Oh... not looking forward to Lotus Field. That's it! I'm adding Kraken!

17 Jul 2014 Nushura

The decks looks quite nice. On a first glance it seems some additional draw would help, wouldn't it? since you have MO having Professional contacts seems out of the question, but what about wyldside? or quality time?

18 Jul 2014 rnark

Additional draw would be very helpful. An earlier version of the deck used professional contacts and Kati, but the economy was not even close for me until I started using Magnum Opus. If I built an anarch wyrm+parasite deck, it would definitely use wyldside, but the influence would be tough in this deck! I haven't tried it with quality time, but it sounds like a good idea.

What I want is a 45/22 Shaper ID reading "You may not include Criminal cards in this deck". Wyldside, grimoire, and another datasucker would be nice.

19 Jul 2014 Nushura

I modified slightly the deck while keeping the same spirit. You do not need 3 MO with so many tutors, removed Stimhacks, changed the console to Grimoire, and added a few femmes for PW's cushion. I will try it tonight and if it works well will post the changes

19 Jul 2014 Nushura

I modified slightly the deck while keeping the same spirit. You do not need 3 MO with so many tutors, removed Stimhacks, changed the console to Grimoire, and added a few femmes for PW's cushion. I will try it tonight and if it works well will post the changes

19 Jul 2014 rnark

@Nushura: Cool! I would be interested to hear how it goes. Grimoire is a huge money saver (but I love my stimhacks and just don't know how else free up the influence for it!).

Here's why I went for 3x Magnum Opus in this iteration: In order to start running and destroying ice, I need a wyrm installed and a parasite ready to install at instant speed (plus about 10 credits). I want to avoid using SMC for a magnum opus because I really want to install a parasite with it when the corp rezzes his/her first ice (or grab a nerve agent when I start hitting HQ). I want to avoid using a test run to install it because it basically wastes a turn and because I want to test run a parasite later in the game from the heap. I want to avoid clone chip -> SMC because clone chips are precious in this deck. On the other hand, freeing up the space would be nice!