In an archetype where names change daily, I present the latest iteration of Devil's Food Cakes MaxX, DJ MaxXberry. I really liked the Wyldberry pancakes name, but wanted to put a new "spin" on it. My main influences were Maximum Punk Bach and Wyldberry pancakes.

Evolution

My first shot at the deck used grimoire as the console, medium, and MaxXimum parasites. After my friend and play test partner repeatedly trashed me by recurring CVS, he asked, "Why not Noise?" I had no answer to that and decided that MaxX warranted fewer viruses and more burst cards that play to her strengths. Maker's Eye became the R&D pressure and cutlery became the ice destruction.

Economy

There has been some debate in this archetype over the correct economy cards. My vote is for dirty laundry. It helps burst up to liberated money, charge datasucker, and turn a fistful of cards into real money that you desperately need. Kati overtaxes your limited clicks, queen's gambit it too dangerous, and data folding is both slow and turns off easily with my play style.

Breakers

I could not bring myself to spend two influence on Zu when yog is both one fewer and much more efficient. It deals with turing on a central as your decoder should and leaves influence for a parasite to do the same. Using Zu on ice yog can't break is most likely not worth the money.

Recursion

Most decks with two levy seems to be gradually cutting recursion cards. I found that three same old thing and one alternate recursion card was sufficient with two levy, but I did not test against much PE. The choice comes down to Retrieval Run or Déjà Vu and I chose retrieval run. Deja is good if you're itching for some pancakes or a night out, but I found that there were many times when I needed to find a key program right away. Retrieval run does that while getting you a non-trivial sucker counter on an archives with CVS in it. I also enjoy the yog discount.

Match ups:

My area is mostly Foodcoats and NEH, but I did run into an RP on the day.

Food Coats

HB is about knowing which ice to be afraid of and when. All of their options are very taxing on faust, but easy to beat with the appropriate cutlery. Pressure often and make them rez ice so you can plan how to best melt it. The hardest part of this match up for me tends to be when they can stick a campaign for a turn or two behind an ice I can't break. If they do turtle up and make money, be aware that HQ is probably ready for a legwork.

NEH

Turntable is your best friend here. Poke and prod where needed but try not to hit an archangel or a gutenburg when it will slow you down too much. Wait for them to score an astro, then slam down a turntable and take it away with a maker's or legwork. You need to close the game quickly against kill decks because you have not had worse when your stack is empty. Avoid leaving an empty stack against a kill deck.

RP

They have some nasty sentries, so try to find mimic early if you can. It's tempting to leave the mental health clinics in the early game to get the extra hand size, but you'd really rather they be poor. You can try to leverage pups into free I've Had Worse draws if you find yourself with a sub par hand.

Blue Sun

I didn't play it on the day, but it's always been a pet deck of mine. Find D4vid ASAP and try not to let them get any OAI curtain walls. Punish them for leaving ice out with the appropriate cutlery and watch out for archer!

Faust is very strong right now but not unbeatable. Know the ice that gives you a hard time and have a way to get rid of it.