MalObombo

TL;DR:

Kill Combo, 1 4-cost rezzed card, 1 other rezzed card:

• Play Biotic
• Play Mutually Assured Destruction, giving runner 2+ tags
• Use Ob to install Bass CH1R180G4, Click Bass
• Play BOOM!

And having a second way to win when there are a lot of options for runner tech is good. And we already have 1.5 fast advance tools, so you play an agenda suite that lets you rush out 5 points and then Fast Advance to score out.

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Let me weave you a bit of a tale on how I got to this list. I don't think it's the best Ob list. But it's the best Ob list I've found that solves two problems - how can we reliably kill? And how do we win when the runner has tech for the kill package?

So I started building Ob once it was spoiled. And building and building. I think there is a lot you can do with this ID now, but it's a bit of puzzlebox, and I'm not sure it's providing something that top corps needs at the moment. But as a Toolbox Shaper lover, I've been forcing myself to make this work.

My goal for this deck was to make something that had plausible lines at top tables, and is robust enough for swiss. However I don't really get to test this out myself as I'm running Continentals, so I'd encourage other players to take a look at this, and figure out how to improve this list and then take it to the cut for me.

I like Combo Kill Ob - we've seen at least one other version make DotW - using MCA Austerity Policy to setup both Mutually Assured Destruction and Drago Ivanov kills. The Urban Renewal + Azef Protocol decks also have a lot of merit, as sort of a NWE Gagarin type shell.

But ultimately they both rely on sticking a single card on the board for several turns. That can happen sometimes, but if the card wins you the game after 3 turns of being faceup on the board, you probably were winning that game anyway. So I wanted a kill combo I could play from hand and not worry about my board state (though we'll see it really matters later). So Biotic Labor -> MAD -> Ob fetching Bass-> Click Bass -> BOOM! has been my preferred kill combo. That eats up 7 influence so there is a lot to play with regarding the rest of the deck. I've run versions with 2x HHN which is a bit of a meta call (that there won't be much Misdirection) but does let you play more assets, the best Ob cardtype.

Originally I was playing 7 agendas, but what I was finding was after the first week of cards being out runners were packing tech, and it was too clumsy to kill through it, and my combo pieces were unreliable. But I was sometimes scoring out my 5/3s against Boat Shaper because I could set up awkward servers quickly. On a lark I tried swapping in a single Atlas, and discovered after a few games, I could usually get an Atlas counter, which made my games much smoother. So I rejiggered the entire deck to play 7 3/2s.

After a few games I discovered - 3 Azefs was too many. Runners that were not running aggressively meant I was was often trashing facedowns, meaning I was spending a ton of resources 2 cards and 5 clicks to get 2 points. And I was getting stuck on 6 points and then losing. So some Hostiles made it in, and smoothed out the economy a lot. And I decided instead of going all in on kill, I would make a hybrid list that did both fast advance and kill.

Then I played a ton (~30) of games with this Hybrid list. And sometimes it would have good and bad days. But I was really frustrated because my low end trash options were not giving me really any value. And then someone reminded my Malapert was a card, and the deck instantly felt much better. Being able to tutor for the Biotic Labor regardless of the agenda score is fantastic. Having a pricey one cost you can Extract for Rashida Jaheem or Spin Doctor is fantastic.

I don't know if this hybrid list is better than an all in fast advance list, but I think it is better than an all in kill list. But I'd love to hear your thoughts.

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Card breakdown: Agendas:

There isn't actually much to say. You could maybe look at SDS Drone Deployment, but I think you probably lose 10-20% more games, so you have to make that back with the influence you gain.

Assets:

• Bass - part of the combo, and can be fetched by trashing a 4 cost to enable some scoring patterns if the runner runs a Border Control last click or if you have an Svyatogor Excavator on the board.

• Rashida and Spin Doctor - Don't leave home without them.

• Regolith Mining License - I dislike Hedge Fund in Ob because I'm a trash player. But also it never shows up when I need it. Regolith can be tutored usefully in some situations, and improves your click for a credit action. You can sell this with Extract/Excavator pretty aggressively. you don't need that much money to win the game, so selling this when it has 6 credits on it should still be fine. The kill combo costs 12 credits (+4 in a rezzed ICE and one other rezzed card, so 20 credits should cover most board states)

• Svyatogor Excavator - Probably one of the most suspect cards in the list tbh. It's probably one I'm looking to cut, but it opens up a lot of lines with trashing cards clicklessly. And at 0/4 it really often generates tempo for you even if you never trash things.

Operations:

• Audacity - we need a way to close out against fully teched out runners. And Audacity is the premier fast advance card, letting us score from 1 credit for basically no cost. It's a bit anti-synergistic with the combo gameplan, but throwing a few pieces in the bin can be totally fine.

• Biotic - Part of the kill combo and also FA toolset. This is usually the first card I tutor with Malapert because it's both a 1x and good for both gameplans.

• BOOM! - I've been on both 2 and 3 copies. If the runner gets ahead only having 2 copies can be a liability, but I don't want to give up too many slots to cards that are often blank.

• Extract - This is such a workhorse card. Trashing a facedown is still a reasonable line 2 clicks 2 cards for 6 credits is still competitive with a Hedge Fund. You don't have to save these for any optimal value, but if you can bait a run and then spring back leveraging the card you rezzed, that's obviously ideal.

• MAD - Combo piece, again 2 of because we want to draw some parts of the combo naturally, and there is a touch of Freedom about.

• Trust Operation - We may have niched this card in our set review, this is basically its niche. Because we have so many ways to tutor, we can beat the preferred runner kill tech Citadel Sanctuary by playing this "clicklessly" when reinstalling a Bass. But if you wanted to cut this card for a third Malapert, I think you'd be justified.

Upgrades

• Malapert Data Vault - Putting this card in is what seemed to really make this deck sing for me. You have a lot of ways to score early, and this converts more of that early tempo into even more tempo. A single trigger, then turning this into a Rashida/Spin Doctor is plenty of value.

• Mavirus - This card is fantastic. You can always use its ability (even if there are no viruses on the board) - letting you purge an Aumakua and put an IP Block in front of the server the runner is going to run (but before they declare the run). It also opens up some really fun lines with Stavka. Finally it also deals with Clot which I expect to see a lot of play.

ICE

• Border Control - This is auto 3x in every Ob list, not sure how Ob will survive without it.

• Envelopment - I think this card is a little slept on. Yeah Paperclip breaks it for 4 (though often 5 because giving you the Ob trigger is often bad for the runner). But usually the runner has to install their breaker first to handle this, and it's always going to cost them quite a bit of money. And later you can sell it. ICE being good the turn you rez it is basically always the most important (see Gatekeeper). That it gets worse over time just means its early game stats are above curve, and we're an early game deck.

• IP Block - There is a lot of Aumakua around. And Aumakua does some real damage to this deck, so shoring it up is good. And sometimes if the runner floats a tag at the wrong time we've got some extra outs.

• Sandstone - We want a high strength piece of ICE to fetch with Border Control if they have a 1 counter Aumakua. Sandstone is basically the only card in slot that's high strength low rez (which makes sense that there are not a lot of options). I'd love to run 2, but it's really hard to make cuts.

• Afshar - just a really solid card. EtR code gate at 3 cost means your Border Control has the ability to be a double gear-check. But I'd love to look at 1x Enigma to force a 2 counter Aumakua.

• Hortum - A 4 cost ETR code gate is good. This was a second Mausolus for a long time. I haven't ever found it to out-perform, but there are hypothetical circumstances where it does, so I wanted to include it.

• Mausolus - An over curve ICE that either eats 2 boat counter and pays you back the rez cost, or a 4 cost card (so it sets up the combo) that shuts off a server.

• Stavka - I was quite low on this card. But it's actually fantastic in Ob. If you rush hard, the ability of this card to put runners in awkward spots is enormous. This can trash any card on your board, so there are lots of ways to do a bunch of work at once with this card. I've used to to protect an agenda by trashing it in some cases.

Anyway thanks for making it al to the end. Please give me more deckslots by starring and liking, and maybe even suggesting improvements.