Escapex

Hi, I'm mcg. I like playing escape rooms, and Apex: Invasive Predator, apparently. Full naming credit goes to @meta.

Usually at Lockdown events I try to win the totally made up award for lowest ID score. But after splashing a full five points on Acme Consulting: The Truth You Need I knew that wouldn't be the case this time. Still, I had a reputation to uphold, so a zero point runner it was. And there is only one.

When you look at Apex's cards you immediately see the problems. Where is the generic draw? Where is the easy money? Tutoring? Playable breakers? There are none. Everything is based on a weird trashing cards engine, and then, to add insult to injury, the only ways to trash cards (in faction) are Heartbeat, which requires you to take damage, and Endless Hunger, which requires you to lose the game.

I tried a couple of builds trying to ignore the Apex ability and import 'normal' cards but you just run out of influence and end up playing Injection Attack. Forget about it.

So your only choice is to really lean into it, and play like a weird Shaper, where you're constantly fighting between maintaining tempo and installing more things. Luckily I'm very experienced at playing weird (bad) Shaper lists, so I thought I had a chance.

As Apex is digital they immediately get the full benefits from DreamNet, like Sunny Lebeau: Security Specialist, so the combo with Aumakua was the starting point. Then obviously you need a way to consistently trash cards so Chop Bot 3000 is in. There's a little card that's seeing a bit of play at the moment called Boomerang which solves a lot of problems so that had to be in. But you still want to pack some regular breakers, so over to our Anarch friends for some low influence options. The bin breakers have the added bonus of being able to be installed face down, chopped to the bin, and then reinstalled only if needed. Next was Career Fair to get those awfully expensive resources down less painfully. Finally a Labor Rights to recur whatever you need (usually some combo of Prey and Reboot), and the rest picks itself.

It is surprisingly fun to play. Highlights include Rebooting to tank six damage from City Works Project, Preying two Endless EULAs for a grand total of zero cards, and generally getting a feeling, even over jnet, of people saying "how am I losing to Apex?!?!?!"

And lose they did, a few times at least. And I ended up King of Swiss with Apex. Achievement unlocked, job done, see you later.

Thanks to everyone for another great event, especially @Vesper for running a day long event on the Sunday, after streaming Intercontinentals all day on the Saturday. He's the real king.