Urban Megadeth [2nd @ Petrie's GNK, July 2018]

Turns out my meta-mate @greyfield beat me to the punch on this archetype, but I'm proud of it nonetheless. It's been a blast killing people with The Brewery on Jnet, so I brought this to the July 2018 GNK at Petrie's in Colorado Springs, going 2-1 on the day (both wins being flip-kills).

It's a mean mofo, and aims to rush to setting up a kill by jamming Urban Renewal, and/or pressuring a face-check on spiky ICE, then flipping for the flatline. It's often safe to leave centrals open early game (Indexing and DooF notwithstanding); there are only 7 agendas, 6 of which protect themselves, in addition to the Snare! threat.

My wins were against Liza and Sunny; the loss was to Adam, who managed to strike-lock the ID ability long enough to steal an Obokata and boost his hand out of kill range with Brain Cage. I had already decided to use the 4-advance ID if facing Geist; it's tempting to do so against Adam as well, who's vulnerable early game, but unkillable in the late game unless you burn out the stack.

E-Strike is everywhere; Enforced Curfew is 95% anti-current. Finding a slot for #3 is probably correct. Film Critic is less common, but it's a real threat, forcing you to rely more on your spiky ICE. I've Had Worse is an unfortunate fact of life, but it's not uncommon to pay the Iron Price to burn through all three and still land a kill.

Gene Splicer is a backup plan for getting to 7 if you absolutely can't kill the runner. Wish I had 2.

Expo Grid is my secret sauce and I love it. Keeping up the economy to threaten both Anansi and Snare! is vital, and getting paid for jamming assets (which you want to do anyway) helps smooth out the econ. While unrezzed, it bluffs as Yet Another Prisec. And in a pinch, it provides a consolation prize for a failed Snare bait, as a weird 2-card PAD Campaign. :P

It's not quite as mean as a true prison deck, but it's evil as hell, with never-ending opportunities for damned-if-you/damned-if-you-don't forks, and it's quite the ride to pilot.