Bizarro Flash | 2nd place Dice Saloon SC

This is the corp deck I piloted to second place at the Dice Saloon SC in Brighton, inspired by The Flash Wears Yellow and by similar decks created at various points by the awesome Sam Wicks :)

The train of thought that brought this deck into being is quite simple, really:

1. Targeted Marketing is bonkers at the moment, and often gives you a ton of money.

2. If you're playing 3 TM, play Sol.

3. What can I do with absurd amounts of money that isn't kill people (because kill is kind of meh at the mo)?

And lo, this deck was born.

I'm not going to do a full tournament breakdown, because my brain is rubbish and I can't remember most of the games. However, this deck would have gone undefeated if it weren't for the dastardly Laurie Poulter, who beat me two out of the 3 games I corped against him with his crazy Kate list. It runs Prepaid. Like, whaaaaat?

Game Plan

Anyway, generally the plan is to psychobeale for 7 points. Astounding, I know. However, in practice I only did that about half of the time, the rest of the time scoring one or two Astros and a Beale for 5 or 3, respectively. Only one game was won without the use of Midseasons-Psycho, by slow advancing out a 3 point Beale with 2 Astros scored.

Your early game involves a lot of drawing and an endless supply of operation economy. Don't be afraid to draw, even if you occasionally have to ditch cards. Do ICE HQ though, because agendas will build up in there eventually. Hive works nicely for that. You should have enough econ to thoroughly out-money almost any runner; the few that present a problem (those running Career-Liberateds can be a pain) can be dealt with by judicious use of Targeted Marketing (more on that later).

Once you're, say, 20 credits ahead, the runner is probably wise to your bullshit (you have, after all, probably played multiple Blue and Green Level Clearances at this point), and this may make them reluctant to run. Score some naked Astros to make them rethink this strategy.

Ultimately, the turning point of the game is the Midseasons turn. Unless you have Astros scored, you usually want to hit for about 14 tags, maybe 15 if you're worried about Clot.

After that, you draw for Psycho and Beale if you don't already have them.

Cards

A word on some cards in the deck, and some cards that aren't

• Targeted Marketing: I'm trying really hard not to launch into an interminable ramble about how awesome this card is, so I'll keep it short. If you get this card early, you'll probably get to re-target it (or just play another copy over it later once it's redundant), so here's a quick priority list.

  1. Top priority turn one is core components of their engine coughWyldsidecough.
  2. Next is their economy coughLibAccountscough.
  3. Situationally and in the late game (post-midseasons), naming breakers is often useful (or bullshit like Parasite that circumvents the need for breakers).

  Obviously, this card is highly meta and board-state depended, so none of this is set in stone.

Right. Done. Oh wait, there are other cards in this deck! My bad. Onwards!

• Hive: taxing as fuck, makes Faust+D4 rigs super sad. Also, everyone else, really. Still harsh with one Astro scored. Be wary when scoring a second.

• Cyberdex Virus Suite/Cyberdex Trial: yeah, a second CVS would be nice, but you can't really protect them so they're mostly Medium tech. For actually scoring (with Psycho), Cyberdex Trial is better.

• Tollbooth: I ran Little Engine in the Tollbooth slot for a while, until I realised that giving your opponents 5 credits makes them hard to Midseasons. I'm smart like that.

  That said, I didn't rez Tollbooth all day; generally runners will go for a one-turn win against this deck, and while Tollbooth taxes credits it doesn't have the raw stopping power of Hive, and is expensive. I might try cutting this for Archangel, or maybe even porting back in a Little Engine. Suggestions welcome!

  • Snatch and Grab/Film Critic: I mean, you can Snatch and Grab other things if you want, I guess. Kati Jones could be a pain, though I haven't seen her around much at the moment. This is really just for Film Critic though. She is a hard counter to your game plan, and her abduction and subsequent murder is unpleasant, but necessary. WARNING: this may wreck your tempo.

I think that covers all of the interesting choices, but by all means ask away if I've missed anything! :)

Changes

After the SC, I'm thinking of trying out -1 Astro, -1 Exploda, -1 NAPD, +2 GFI, as this frees up a slot, and I really feel I need a Fast Track. Also Thinking of -1 Blue Level Clearance +1 Hive, as I could do with more ICE and Blue Level can be clunky.

That's about all! Let me know how it goes if you try the deck out and any changes you make. gl;hf!