Notorious A.P.E.X. (RandomNet #3 2nd Place)

J-Flex 211

For the 3rd RandomNet Random ID Jank tournament, I got drawn Apex, one of the mini-faction runners. Now I've never played Apex before and breaking my own rules, I looked up first what resources are classed as "Virtual" sigh and then what decks others have arrived at.

This list is very similar to others, E3 Feedback Implants is a must and I went with Overmind rather than Gingerbread which I've seen in quite a few lists.

Apex's playstyle does revolve around landing an Apocalypse, possibly subsequent ones if the game goes long so this does mean that your programs and hardware get flipped face down so you have to run 3x so that you can rebuild afterwards. Included is Corporate Scandal to enable some Blackmail runs on Centrals if the amount of ice gets too big or too scary - through the crash course of learning how to play Apex, I've learnt that psi ice are definitely not its favourites!

The icing on the cake for this deck is the potential of a power turn where you not only land an Apocalypse but also score 3 Notoriety points thanks to using Out of the Ashes to do the prerequisite apoc runs. It never worked out that way but usually worked out using 1 Out of the Ashes to trigger Apoc and score a Notoriety - not too shabby.

Apex proved to be the better side for me on the day, winning twice and a timed draw. Apex is getting a new card soon so that may help. You may notice there is no Prey in the deck - I tried the card but every time I saw it I never wanted to play it and would install face down so I swapped it out.

2 comments
19 Nov 2016 DatLo

Interesting deck, but why Brain Cage? I see the heartbeat synergy, but is hand size increase worth the card slot considering it'll get removed by apo?

21 Nov 2016 J-Flex

Yeah I was working off lists that peeps had already developed and Brain Cage was showing up a lot so it got added to the deck and I never really reviewed the slots. Apex is pretty hard to build and with there being more and more end the run subs that aren't explicitly "end the run", it's getting less and less viable :(