Dog Crimes (startup)

Your Niichan's Girlfriend 426

Inspired by perenxiao's Esa deck
I think Career Fair is criminally underplayed in startup. Compare to Carpe Diem which perenxiao was playing 3 copies of, 1 click for 1 click and 3 creds, but running a random central isn't always worth a click, and it's double the inf.
Mr Pudlat has a lot in stock and Tsakhia "Bugged On Jnet" Gantulga is perfect for getting into centrals.
Mulligan for card draw, faceplant into ice, Chastushka HQ, save up some creds for a rainy day, then just before you're locked out, finish it off with a big R&D run. If you don't win that turn, jack out of the game and try again in another lobby.

8 comments
19 Dec 2022 Oddball

@Your Niichan's Girlfriend Any thought on including Imp?

You have the memory for it and Asmund Pudlat can find it for you!

20 Dec 2022 perenxiao

I really like Mr Pudlat! I'm running a single one and it's worked out pretty well for me. I've been trying to lean into the taking damage theme of Tsakhia, but I'm finding it really hard to refill my hand. There just isn't enough good card draw in the startup pool for it to feel good for me. People will say to run it with Raindrops Cut Stone but the problem is Tsakhia wants to run early when there's only one piece of ice protecting a server, but Raindrops wants to run later when there's multiple ice. They don't match as well as they should on paper. Also maybe I'm bad but I'm finding it super hard to get value out of raindrops. Most of the time I just get one card if that.

20 Dec 2022 Your Niichan's Girlfriend

@Oddball l Honestly, Imp is significantly better than carnivore here. I think I'll cut it for some imps and swap out a poison vial or two for pennyshaver. (rarely wind up using all the counters and Mr. P can tutor it for me.)
@perenxiao Loup really does a lot to solve the card draw. You don't trigger his ID every turn, but it plus the -5 deck size means you are hitting your Steelskins and Earthrises way more often. I'm usually at 5-0 cards in deck 'round time for finality. Also, raindrops really only needs to trigger once to be value. At that point it's a dirty laundry that works if you fail the run and draws a card instead of the 3rd cred, or like a build script that also lets you make a run.
I might go down to 2 time bombs too. turn 10 doesn't always happen and that's if I never miss a turn. Maybe raindrops is worse then just leaning into the viruses and doing cookbook, fermenter, Avgustina? slots, man. 40 cards is tough. two poison vials for boat and lunch? so much to test...

20 Dec 2022 perenxiao

If you're averaging 10 turns a game you have to think about your clicks. I usually don't get more than two time bombs off so two might be fine. I'll have to look at raindrops again to see if it's worth it, but I'm still not sure about that. I don't think you run enough viruses to warrant a cookbook or Avgustina, but I'm a big fan of fermenter. I also personally only run two poison vials.

20 Dec 2022 Diogene

I really like the idea of Tsakhia "Bankhar" Gantulga with Poison Vial! Did you try Jailbreak instead of Chastushka? It seems to me that it would give you better results. Finally, I think you could trade at least one Asmund Pudlat for a Boomerang, as it would help you get through ices for cheap.

Thanks for sharing! Cheers!

20 Dec 2022 RenneRaphelotchi

@Diogene what's the idea of Tsakhia "Bankhar" Gantulga + Poison Vial? I don't get how they synergize

20 Dec 2022 Diogene

@RenneRaphelotchi, you break the 1st sub with Tsakhia "Bankhar" Gantulga by taking on net damage, then use Poison Vial to break the other subs. At least that is the way I interpret it. I might be mistaken, since Tsakhia "Bankhar" Gantulga does not specifically state that it is breaking the sub. Otherwise, Poison Vial is a booster only for Botulus (it is still good).

20 Dec 2022 RenneRaphelotchi

@Diogene Tsakhia "Bankhar" Gantulga makes it so if you don't break subroutines they turn into 1 net damage. There sadly is no synergy between these 2 cards. Poison Vial is an interesting card, although outside of Botulus, Quetzal: Free Spirit or maybe saving 1 power counter when using it together with Endurance when breaking 3 or 4 subroutine ices i don't see too much use of it sadly. Boomerang has rotated out of startup, that would've been the greatest synergy IMO