Laramy Fisk says, "Your HQ is MINE!"

SubTric 432

This is a take on the well under-used 'HQ Lock', using Laramy Fisk: Savvy Investor and lots of low cost events to hit HQ hard. It also encourages deck mill buy pushing the corp through extra card draw using Fisk Investment Seminar.

Basic strategy involves, installing multiple HQ Interface along with Polyhistor and running twice in a turn. Ideally, you will have played a Fisk Investment Seminar already so the corp has a big hand, then run using Legwork, accessing 4-5 cards, then having seen a bulk of the cards, make a follow up run with Demolition Run to destroy a pile of cards.

The breaker suite is built to get into HQ, with Aumakua as core backup - obviously, we are going to struggle a touch with remote servers as Aumakua is the only breaker that can touch them, so ideally we mulligan and hope for a turn 1 Unscheduled Maintenance, to slow the corp in setting up good servers, using demolition run to trash the ice from HQ before the corp can play it. The corp is not going to hold onto cards, and will hopefully set up under-prepared remotes that you can start to attack with Aumaka.

Finally, when our Demo Run, Fisk Seminars and Legwork have run out, we can use Rip Deal to get back up to 4 of them.

There are obvious flaws in the overall strength of this deck but it's been fun in testing and caught a few good players off-guard - it has heavy focus in one area and goes at it headstrong, with the added bonus of the possibility of decking the corp out using Polyhistor, Fisk Investment Seminar and Laramy's ID ability.

15 comments
8 Oct 2017 Pinkwarrior

@SubTric I've always found Tapwrm to be really good in Fisk as you will usually get some money out of it as long as you Fisk Investment Seminar them the same turn or Polyhistor & ID ability them and even if they do purge its a free turn to continue pressure.

8 Oct 2017 SubTric

@Pinkwarrior Sorry if I'm missing the big picture here - Fisk, Seminar & Polyhistor all cause the corp to draw, but Tapwrm taxes them for having too many credits. What's the link that I'm missing (I'm sure it's obvious and I'm just being dense)?

Also, I'd try to keep the corp from having more reasons to purge virus counters to save Aumakua for as long as possible.

8 Oct 2017 Pinkwarrior

@SubTric The link is your ramming cards in their hand so if they purge to stop you getting money they cannot play any of the cards you just dumped into their hand so more than likely you will have econ set for the game with only 1 tapwrm and lots of it. It's capitalising on your game plan in another way.

8 Oct 2017 SubTric

@Pinkwarriorah! Nice. Thanks for that. I shall get testing!!

9 Oct 2017 SubTric

@PinkwarriorPlayed a couple of games this evening using Tapwrm - I put 2 in and dropped 1x Demolition Run & 1x Polyhistor. I managed to get it out both games following a Fisk Seminar and as you suggested it made me some decent money for a few turns, but eventually they did give in and purge the moment they had a hand they didn't mind me accessing. This isn't 'that' bad, but it did mean my Aumakua took a hit, where in previous games it got left alone. It also made it a little tighter on the chip space early in the game when I needed other breakers with Sneakdoor. Sneakdoor being so awesome in this build (they need to lock up archives as tightly as HQ) I like to drop it as soon as they ice up HQ so they start dropping ice on Archive and have nothing left for the remotes.

Overall I think I'd leave Tapwrm out of this build, but the idea has inspired me for other Fisk builds!

9 Oct 2017 Pinkwarrior

@SubTric hmm that's interesting to hear I've always found its a really good slot in Fisk but sounds like if using Aumakua it's less useful I suppose it's just the problem of more virus's more valuable purges really. I was running Panchatantra Gingerbread in my Fisk deck was going to look at changing over to a Aumakua build but i think i'll stick to the original idea after hearing your experience of it with Tapwrm.

10 Oct 2017 SubTric

@Pinkwarrior Yeah - I think Tapwrm is probably enhanced by being the only thing you'll lose to a purge. It's big price to the corp to lose a turn for that big of econ, but if he's purging to stop you walking into servers like they don't exist, losing the tapwrm is just a bonus!

I've never tried the Gingerbread Panchatantra combo - but now I'm wondering why not! Feels like that could be a nice Shaper trick as well.

10 Oct 2017 RubbishyUsername

Have you considered System Outage?

10 Oct 2017 SubTric

@RubbishyUsernameMy choice of current was between System Outage and Unscheduled Maintenance. I really liked the way that Unscheduled Maintenance slowed the corps set up in the early game - if you pull one at the start they have to be quite selective over protecting centrals or setting up remotes. Typically they defend the centrals as you can apply pressure fast, which means keeping stuff in HQ longer... which we want.

System Outage will probably work much better in the late game though! Maybe I should try to slot both, though I'm not sure what I want to cut at this stage. So far I'm 7-1 with this deck and it's been a lot of fun.

23 Oct 2017 SyIus

With all those HQ accesses, would you consider dropping the Early Birds and maybe the Security Testing for 3 Aeneas Informants?

I suppose I don't get the idea with the Early birds in the first place, other than to just run nonstop, which only works if you already have them on lock. Guess I'm looking to minimize potential dead draw with the build.

23 Oct 2017 SyIus

Also, maybe slot a couple The Turning Wheels with that spare influence? That way if you're pulling nothing from HQ and getting lots of counters you can threaten the occasional deep R&D dig?

23 Oct 2017 SubTric

@SyIus Good questions! I've tweaked this deck a little back and forth over games and there are a few cards that can certainly be dropped to fit in extra things...

Early Bird has worked well for me, giving me a HQ hit and still a 'full turn' in the later game, but isn't essential. Security Testing could certainly go, along with a copy of Unscheduled Maintenance. I could possibly be tempted to drop one copy of Polyhistor as well.

I'd take out Easy Mark and replace with Deuces Wild then use the extra space to slot the cards you suggest (Aeneas Informant, The Turning Wheel) plus if theres space include Daily Casts and a 3rd copy of Special Order as it allows the breaker-light deck to be consistent in the early game.

20 Jan 2018 Grungemeister_J

@SubTric Any thought about dropping in a Gang Sign to put pressure on the Corp if they do sneak an agenda out into a remote?

20 Jan 2018 Grungemeister_J

@SubTric and thought about dropping in a Gang Sign in case the sneak out an agenda? It would be pretty rough if you had even one or two of the HQ Interface out.

20 Jan 2018 Grungemeister_J

You ever think about Hades Shard or Gang Sign? Free look if they dump agenda’s and Gang syncs well with HQ Interface in case the do get a agenda out or are trying to rush out a 2/1