[Startup] Reina Roja: Death and Taxes (1-4 at Ashes2Ashes)

This is the deck I piloted to a 1-4 record at the Ashes to Ashes startup tournament. Thanks to sruthless, Oddball, and wee bull for putting on this fun event!

I really enjoy the taxing style of decks, but I’m just not sure Reina has enough support currently to really make it work and overcome the money corps are able to generate, which makes her ID ability play quite weak. I will still continue to force her though. That being said, the general idea is still to try and keep the corporation low enough on credits to not be able to protect everything, and ride Stargate/Docklands pass to victory.

I’ve waffled a bit on the various iterations, this version having less of both the ‘death’ and the ‘taxes’ than previous ones. So, after the tournament, I started messing with some changes. The first thing I did was remove Odore. Odore matches up so poorly with pretty much everything you care about breaking that you just shouldn’t run a killer if you’re running Odore. Even when facing off against sentries, I never wanted to play it. It’s just not worth the cost. Being fine against Saisentan and Rototurret isn’t worth a slot. The Career Fairs were really good when they were good, but often just sat in my hand because I didn’t have anything to play with them, so I’m not sure I have the critical mass necessary for them to fire reliably. Two more 3+ cost resources and I think they would be better. I also went down to one Light the Fire! because I didn’t run into any SkunkVoid (the mere existence of Light the Fire! probably has something to do with that), but I still want at least one out to it. It’s also good against things like Tranquility Home Grid decks, so there’s an argument to be made for two. It’s also possible I just don’t use it enough as a value play. Sometimes it is probably correct to just use it to save credits on a big trash cost asset or trash a lone defensive upgrade rather than wait for the big plays. I loved the idea of Tranquilizer, but I didn’t find it valuable enough to warrant the influence cost. I also think two Stargate is probably correct. I thought with one plus two Gachapon and the Earthrise Hotels that I’d reasonably be able to find it when I need it, but the number of games I’ve played both in and out of the tournament where I have a window where Stargate would be awesome and I just can’t find it is pretty high.

With that said, the changes I’m experimenting with right now are adding the Chisels back in, which really ramp up the Cookbook and Simulchip value. Often I find myself just Simulchipping back a Fermenter, which is fine, but Chisel gives me something else to do with them besides recurring Fermenter or moving a Botulus. I also added two more Forged Activation Orders and one Tread Lightly, mostly because I wanted to lean into the theme a bit more. To support the changes, I cut a Rejig, an Odore, Tranquilizer, one Light the Fire!, and both Career Fairs.

Look. Reina is never going to be a better choice than Hoshiko for your winrate, and there isn’t a deck you could build with Reina that you couldn’t just swap the IDs and it be instantly better. If she were errated tomorrow to be a 2 credit tax, or maybe even each piece of ice instead of just the first (though the latter is probably still not good enough), it might be a more interesting decision. But despite the record, I still feel like Reina had some play, so if you like her theme, you can have a lot of fun with Reina. A couple of different decisions in a couple of games and 3-2 was certainly possible.