What a B****!!!

StarkandTully's combo MaxX (4th in Stimhack Invitational) beefed up a bit with SlySquid's Mother F****** Deck (Store Championship Winner). A hopeful fix to the minor problems the original deck had.

To see the original decks utilized:

http://netrunnerdb.com/en/decklist/19047/starkandtully-s-combo-maxx-4th-in-stimhack-invitational-

http://netrunnerdb.com/en/decklist/14503/slysquids-mother-f-deck-store-championship-winner-

The original StarkandTully's deck was by far my favorite Runner Deck. I didn't want to let it go that easily, even though so many people criticized it, stating it was too weak, or had no plan b, or everyone was building to counter it. The most common problems I found playing it were that a) it was a bit slow against Fast Advance Decks, b) It wasn't as efficient against decks that didn't care if you went after their R&D, c) Was troubled by constant Virus Purging and use of Cyberdex Virus Suite, d) Sometimes, but extremely rarely, had economy issues, e) didn't have a strong backup strategy. This hopefully fixes all the issues or makes them MUCH less visible.

SO - Onward to my description of each card and WHY I did what I did....

Account Siphon - 2 of these in the deck. After playing around with SlySquids, I found that Account Siphon is such a nice, lovely boost to economy. Yes, the original StarkandTully's would have not utilized this well, but, with the new Icebreakers thrown in it makes this card so viable in this deck now, and well worth it, especially in early game when you are trying to build up the econ for the mid and end game. Just like with Sly's idea, it also help to keep the ice thin on the corps side as a nice secondary effect: if they can't pay, they can't rez/install, right?

Amped Up - If you're familiar with either deck, you'll know this event is by far amazing. You take 1 brain damage, which is the only downside, but you gain 3 clicks. Those three clicks can be used for that nice final run on R&D using the StarkandTully strategy to completely eat away at them and score those agendas, OR, it can be used for a secondary effect: Wanton Destruction. The idea is, you know they have 1-2 agendas in HQ....why not either send them to archives and run it to gain it...or...utilize Hades Shard at the right moment....OR after sending junk and thinking their hand down to 1 or 2 cards you can access HQ to try to get the agenda...the Wanton Destruction play was quite brilliant on SlySquids part and makes for a GREAT backup strategy plan!

Day Job - This card is in replacing the 2 Queen's Gambits found in StarkandTully's deck. I've played Day Job quite often and found that it's just simply pure gold. Without it in my decks I felt very very low on economy and slow at getting it no matter what combo's i've tried...with even just 1, I felt like I was ahead of the game. There's 3 here because that's what I've found to be best to increase economy in any deck I run, especially having MaxX around and her discarding.

Deja Vu - No Brainer. You have lots of Viruses....you want these....you also have nice cards you may want to get back into your hand like Levy AR Lab Access so you can rinse and repeat your strategy as you see fit.

I've had Worse - This replaces the Earthrise Hotels in StarkandTully's deck. I've found that Earthrise just doesn't mesh well with my play style, and with MaxX's already reallly nice draw capability, there wasn't any real need for extra draw, even in a 50 or 60 card deck! The cards came fast and out when needed. There's only 2 reasons I put this in here: 1) To give you that extra draw in case you have that rare occasion where you just can't seem to get the right card of your deck in time, and 2) To help stop those pesky Jinteki Net damage decks and Wayland Meat Damage Decks. Trust me, it's a life saver! Only needed two because it's really there primarily to help keep you alive more so than draw. This is why I had the extra room for the additional Day Job.

Levy AR Lab Access - Ok...it's MaxX....she makes you discard A LOT....why the hell wouldn't you want at least 1 of these in a MaxX deck? By the time you run out, many times you wish you had more to do, more econ, more something! Save 1 Deja Vu or 1 Same Old Thing for THIS card so you can shuffle your heap back into your stack where it belongs and ride the train again!

Retrieval Run - Put this in here because well...it's great to have. They'll think you're focusing their R&D all the time, most times leaving Archives either blindly unguarded or having one piece of ice on it that's weak. Use it...get that Hivemind or Medium out of your heap and into play where it needs to be! With MaxX, having all the extra "heap" cards in your deck makes sense and adds versatility.

Showing Off - Yes, one card that some agreed with some didn't some thought "huh...what?" lol! With the theme of the deck it's perfect...You make your run first on R&D on that nice "final" run combo, access the top 10-15 or more cards, score 1-2 agenda's more than likely, then use this and do it again scoring anywhere from 2-6 more from the bottom....congrats, you JUST accessed their entire deck which guaranteed you the win, unless they purged your virus counters on the first one...which is fine, no big deal, at least...not anymore ^.^

Sure Gamble - Staple Card...no brainer

Wanton Destruction - Its here to take advantage of SlySquids strategy for one of the backup plans to take into effect.

Grimoire - We use Viruses....it's worth it...

MemStrips - We use Viruses....again, worth it, and needed.

Hades Shard - It's 1 card. It's there to work with the Wanton Destruction's as a juuuust in case they have a way to retrieve the agendas they just lost....

Liberated Account - Replaces Daily Casts. Don't get me wrong, I love daily casts, but they are so easily trashed by the corp. Liberated Account lets you get more credits, faster, and you can click on it 3 times to get some creds back immediately. Thanks SlySquid for this idea! Love it!

Same Old Thing - Self explanatory...

Darwin - The staple icebreaker.

Femme Fatale - She's just powerful, period. Added her to deal with those ICE that don't like AI's and to help attack remote servers for those fast advance decks...yes, with her in now you can go with plan C: take on those remote servers with much greater ease to get that agenda you KNOW is sitting there.

Knight - These are in here to help you out when a) viruses were purged, b) you have a pesky piece of ice in the way, c) to help you get more out of plan C. Great icebreaker, period!

Datasucker - 1 included to help parasite out with those pesky ICE that are in the way in any of the three plans: StarkandTully's plan A, SlySquids Plan B, or the classic standard Plan C where we attack remote servers.

Hivemind/Incubator/Medium -The classic StarkandTully C-c-c-c-combo!!!! lol

Parasite - To take care of those pesky ICE! Can be used in any of the plans as needed!

Why I took out Fall Guy: Meh.....not needed anymore since we use I've Had Worse instead Earthrise Hotel, and Liberated Account instead of Daily Casts. With the Levy AR in, that's just the icing on the cake.

Why I took Personal Workshop Out: With the 3 Day Jobs and 2 Account Siphons, combined with Retrival Run, Sure Gambles, and Liberated Accounts, I didn't see a need for Personal Workshop anymore. You should be getting more than enough econ to just play the cards you want to play without having to wait for them to fall off of Personal Workshop. THE ONLY Way I see putting these guys back in is to remove both account siphons and replace them with 2 Personal Workshops. This would be the best in my opinion. I will try them out with both and see which works better for the deck and then edit the deck to match what I've seen as the better route.

Why I took out Stimhack - Again....look at all the econ we have pouring in over and over and over....stimhack just isn't needed as much anymore. I wouldn't even bother working with it with all the econ this deck offers. Even if you replace the 2 Account Siphons with 2 Personal Workshops, you still should have more than enough econ to not need a Stimhack ever! Taking more brain damage is just bad especially when you know you could need that one card that gets trashed if the run fails.

So all in all, now you know my reasoning for things. In theory all should work well. In virtual play it should work just fine as well. Real play, person vs person physically, it should still work just as smoothly if not smoother than the original StarkandTully's Combo deck, BUT, offer you options that it didn't have before just in case.

So...how would you play this?

Well, the deck runs primarily the same way as StarkandTully's. Just focus on that method at first. If you notice they are a fast advance, switch to plan C and focus all your efforts on getting past the ICE protecting that Agenda that they are putting out in a remote server. If you notice they are holding onto their agendas, go with Plan B and hit their HQ with a Wanton Destruction, then take on their Archives. Otherwise, the entire time your main focus is to build up what you have, and get ready to score all the points you need in 1 or 2 runs on R&D. If you get to that point and you were able to make the first BIG run on R&D, but they used the Cyberdex BS on you, it's ok....if they are low in agenda's, build up again and try one more time, this time from the bottom of the deck up. If they are higher up in agendas switch to one of the other two plans to score that last 1-2 points you will need. Don't be afraid of taking some net damage in the process! Remember, the more you make them pay to rez their ice, even if you can't bypass it, the better you'll be because it slows THEM down too. Just don't go trying to focus on 2 or 3 plans at one time...stick to one, switch to the next ONLY when needed when the first will surely fail.

This deck isn't guaranteed to win....nor is it guaranteed to loose....It's a trial deck that I'm working on to keep the, by far in my opinion, BEST MaxX strategy ever developed, still alive. I loved it so much I had to try to keep it going! Who knows if any of the newer cards won't help out even more eh? Yes we know that Old Hollywood is going to bring something nasty that can slow this deck down quite a bit....but....when that happens we just adjust! I'm a strong, firm believer that this strategy will live on for quite a long time!

And besides...it's just a game....and we're supposed to have fun in a game, win or loose right? ^.^

Leave your comments below and let me know what you think, and give me some constructive advice to help improve this deck so I can play test it and adjust my build!

Thanks everyone, and a very very special thanks to StarkandTully and SlySquid for their amazing godly deck designs!