Don't Fear the Reaper (that's how I kill you)

Shishu 656

So I never thought I'd build a deck that:

  1. Literally never scores out
  2. Does damage for value

Yet here I am, with a functional Kill/Grinder deck, instead of a bad rush deck with cool tricks. I just thought it would be fun to test Hostile Architecture as a DRT nearprint, since it doesn't do nearly as much damage as its non-unique predecessor. But it turns out 2 damage is kind of lot, in the the same way that Stargate's lack of shuffle keeps it on par with Keyhole.

Is this what they call a prison deck??? I guess this is a prison deck.

animated gif of christopher walken in the famous snl sketch saying guess what? i got a fever

....and the only prescription is MORE DAMAGE!!

At first blush, Reaper Function seems like an okay card; a balanced version of Bio-Ethics Association that does have text relevant to Ob. But this card sits at a perfect rez of 3, which means fetchable from BC and can get econ or hand management on activation.

The runner has two basic options against this deck: try to trash everything early or eat the damage from Urban Renewal.

Option 1 often leaves them poor, which means they probably won't have enough to break spiky ICE or trash Hostile Architecture.

Option 2 is bad because if they ignore your remotes, they're probably ignoring your Reaper Functions as well. Not only that, but if they end their turn with 1 or 0 cards in hand, you can get the kill with Audacity/Azef (thanks to bblum for that suggestion).

There is a combination of those two options, which is for them to wait for Urban Renewal to tick down a bit before trashing, at which point you can also just install whatever's in your hand to fake them out. My favorite way of killing the runner is when they make a hail mary run last click, only for you to pop the BC for the Reaper and kill them next turn.

While this deck does have some trouble with Obelus decks and Esâ Afontov: Eco-Insurrectionist, Wake Up Call takes care of consoles pretty easily, so you can save it in your hand for whenever they finally have to trash something on your board.

Another problematic card can be Pinhole Threading, but the runner has a limited amount of those and you can mitigate their effectiveness with a surprise Formicary rez. It makes me feel like I'm playing IG and Mti at the same time.

Now, some of the numbers might seem a little awkward, but the current makeup has my highest winrate of all iterations. There were 3 Marilyns initially, but lots of folks are on Botulus right now, so swapping one for a Magnet seemed like a good choice. The second Drudge Work and the DBS were necessary for ensuring the deck's consistency and not having to keep a ton of agendas in hand. It's kind of a nonbo because of the shuffling, however, the runner is very unlikely to trash the DBS and it helps with getting the single Audacity for the combo kill. Also, not having to use Spin Doctor shuffles for agendas is super valuable against sabotage; you should be using those for either Reaper or Urban as much as possible.

The ICE suite is meant to adapt to different runners. Tithe and Ice Wall are nice gearchecks and the best options for 1 cost ICE. Mausolus was initially at 3, but since it can be a liability against CS decks that want to float tags.

Anyway, sorry for terrorizing all the folks just trying new cards or whatever, but this deck is fun as hell and the 80% winrate is just the cherry on top. Maybe it won't be as good once folks know what to expect, but there's just so many lines of play available that they won't be able both draw up and have enough money to trash your assets.

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