[Startup] Quetzal 1.0

Navelgazer 324

So I'm aiming to craft decklists for every Startup Legal ID. Not the definitive ones, by any means, but something with an approachable gameplan that a new-ish player looking for decks could stumble onto and perhaps win a game with.

Quetzal's inclusion in Startup, without the E3 Feedback Implants that used to make their ability threatening, has been a bit of a stumbling block here. On its own, this isn't a very powerful ID ability, and there's basically no support to turn it into much more. But with a silly card I haven't even seen played in Crim, which costs too much inf to be importing three of if I'm being at all sensible, I think I've got...

Well, not something good. But something interesting, at least. To me. The card in question is, of course, "Always Have a Backup Plan," because in my opinion, the best thing about Quetzal's ability isn't that they can bust through an ETR subroutine, walking through a Palisade or Wraparound or Ice Wall once per turn. No, the best thing about Quetzal is that once per turn, they can run headlong into an Akhet without giving the corp a credit and a free advancement token. Or a Bran without giving the Corp a free install. A Hagen without losing a program. A Pharos without taking a tag.

Basically, this deck is built to be more aggressive with face-checking than the average bear. Sentries and a number of code gates will still hurt, of course, but we're taking tools off of the corp's table, and that's the important thing. They know their Wraparounds/Ice Walls/Palisades are going to be blank once a turn, which means they're either dead cards in their hands or else useful only as bluff tools. Call those bluffs. Make them spend their money. When they're rich, use Tread Lightly to make them spend more of their money. When they choose not to rez, use En Passant to punish them for it. (And if you're lucky you'll catch a Magnet that they didn't want to rez yet because there wasn't a Chisel or Botulus out there for it yet.)

When they've got a Hagen or Pharos rezzed on a remote, be smart and hit 'em with Always Have a Backup Plan, breaking the nasty first sub on the first pass, letting the ETR fire, and then bypassing it on the rebound-run.

Keiko is in here for the extra MU because this deck is weak and needs good stuff, and so Poemu and Maemi are in here for recurring value. Networking because all this facechecking is gonna have you slamming into Funhouses and other taggers.

This isn't good yet. I'm not sure there's a "good" version of this deck. But it's a Quetzal deck that plays to their strengths, and I'm calling that a "win."

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