[Startup TAI] Avgustina and Audrey, Sabotage and Trash

Summary

Trash cards to accelerate sabotage, while being rewarded for doing it.

Deck idea

Obviously this is no Esâ Afontov: Eco-Insurrectionist, meaning you lose out on around sabotage 8 to 10. However, what René "Loup" Arcemont: Party Animal does better is trashing cards, and is a better ID for Avgustina Ivanovskaya. With up to 6 Imp counters and around 4 virus installs per game with Avgustina active, I'd argue the two IDs are comparable* in terms of sabotage, while Loup gives you more consistent fuel for the gameplan, not to mention the suite of card-trashing support in TAI.

This deck is light on icebreakers, and mostly rely on Tsakhia "Bankhar" Gantulga with the new AirbladeX (JSRF Ed.) to exert immense pressure without losing tempo. The two combined gives you extremely safe facechecks.

Asmund Pudlat does a few things. First, it fetches viruses you need at the moment, obviously. It also functions to smooth out the install frequency, making sure Avgustina and LilyPAD triggers every turn. Another subtle benefit, needed to justify his 2-cost, is that it thins out the deck to make your next draws more predictable, allowing spare viruses to rest on the sideboard and fetch on demand.

Hannah "Wheels" Pilintra is amazing against asset spam, both for running the assets and survive the retaliation that is Oppo Research. Even against normal decks, together with Scrubber it's like a Sable for poorly-defended remotes.

As for other techs, Light the Fire! threatens Spin Doctors and sometimes work against the new A Teia: IP Recovery stacking upgrades, but perhaps a second Finality is better for core damage.

Audrey v2 is the new breaker that is very vulnerable to purging, but one Pinhole Threading can easily revive it. A single Leech is also there to help out, saving maybe a few cards from being trashed from hand. (A quick note that Audrey has the same wording as Loup, meaning sabotage, which is worded as "the Corp" trashing cards, will not feed Audrey or trigger any trash-based runner cards)

*There is also something interesting about the frequency of sabotages. In my experience the Corp is more willing to trash from R&D given just sabotage 1 from Avgustina, which has a distinct effect from sabotage 2 (Esa) or 4 (Chastushka).

Piloting the deck

Imp is the centerpiece for this deck, providing invaluable, unconditional trash, be it expensive assets, operations, ICE, or even agendas against Thule, Tucana or AMAZE. The Corp will realize this, and often a purge against 2 Imp counters alone is usually worth it. Therefore, one should only install Imp if there is a target to trash, or a central to breach. Also don't give the Corp too much value for purging! Usually I harvest the Fermenter for 8-10 credits, as there are other viruses installed and inflates the value of purges.

On top of the disruption to the Corp, one Imp counter is usually worth 4+ credits (for assets and Loup), 2 cards (from Loup and Solidarity Badge), and one ICE broken (from Audrey v2), which is huge.

However, this describes the best-case scenario with everything set up, and as a runner there is a tricky balance between setting up and running. For this deck especially, the two go hand in hand: not running enough and trashing cards means you don't get card draw to set up the engine, while not setting up means you cannot harvest all the value from trashing cards, eventually running out of gas to keep trashing. There is also skill in recognizing priority of engine pieces, as the deck simply has too much good stuff to install, but not all brings equal value to each game given the Corp's strategy.

Sometimes, the runner will inevitably run out of gas, either getting locked out from all servers or the Corp purging. That is why there are backup plans to prevent the shameful clicking for credits. Raindrops Cut Stone is very useful to trade health for fresh possibilities and meagre starting capital, while Liberated Account is there to restart the engine with fresh installs. Still, be constantly aware that one has only 3 Botulus and 6 Imp counters, and again there is the balance between early aggression and late game sustenance.

Speaking of early game, mulligan for money, and aim for at least 1 early program (Botulus, Imp and Fermenter), or Asmund Pudlat. Asmund should prioritise Fermenter + Botulus/Imp, depending on how defended their centrals are. One Tsakhia and a Botulus should get you into any remote early, to start trashing cards.

On the topic of run targets, remote servers are guaranteed to house trashable targets for Loup, meaning one can trash without Imp. However remote runs do not help the sabotage game (with the exception of Spin Doctor). While R&D trashes is a sabotage with benefits, sometimes one would like to R&D lock the Corp, especially if running back is difficult or to preserve Imp counters. Finally, if one recognizes the Corp's win conditions in operations, then sieging HQ to Imp them away is also important, ideally after a painful Chastushka improving the quality of HQ accesses.

Finally, breaking ICE with this deck takes no money AT ALL. All it takes is your health. For Tsakhia, AirbladeX (JSRF Ed.) buffers your health pool by 9-3=6 points, and should always be used to its fullest. For Audrey, Steelskin Scarring says trash-1-get-2-free., which is another 6 HP, provided you don't deplete your whole deck.