Argus Shell Corp

Welcome to the Argus Shell Corporation!

This deck takes the jinteki shellgame and makes in interesting. There are several win conditions which I have been able to all achieve.

Starting hand:

• one ice to protect either R&D or HQ depending on the opponent
• money card or Hostile Takeover / Standoff
• If there is an Archer plus quick agenda, that's of course excellent. In that case reserve the Archer for the remote server.

Starting turn:

• ICE-up
• Money / play down an asset and see if the runner will run it (NGO front is pretty good for this, you can even advance it once to see runner's preference)

Win conditions:

• Most common so far has been flatlining the runner early with Clearing house. If the runner is reluctant to run your shell servers, you advance one to 3-4 or for either manually, or by otoroshi support or Reconstrution Contract. If needed you can also of course rush it behind an early rezzed archer too (has gotten me a couple of wins). Another alternative flatline is when they hit an urtica cipher or if they get some tags from a false flag (also nicely combines with Otoroshi).
• Scoring route is by having an archer and advancing behind that. False Flags also work pretty nice especially with Otoroshi if the runner allows those to be advanced.

Here is the breakdown of the cards,

ICE:

Otoroshi and Archer are the star players. Afshar could be swapped to another ice (preferably one that gives cash as the deck is sometimes cash starved)

Otoroshi sets up the mind games with the runner and you need to see how the runner reacts. If he is not interested in taking risks, use the otoroshi to advance your clearing houses, false flags or even agendas.

Archer is another star player on a remote server, especially if you rez that early with a standoff or hostile take over. Behind the archer you can advance agendas or Clearing house. Early clearing house is an easy win condition, because the unsuspecting runners usually don't run it if you get to 4 tokens or so not realizing what it is.

AGENDAS:

SDS Drone Deployment works nicely with Archer, as some runners will be starved on programs.

Armed Intimidation is a nice combo with High-Profile target, if ensure that you score it on your turn with clicks remaining (which I recommend). If the runner takes the tags, he will still take 4 meat damage which can be sometimes enough to flatline.

Hostile Takeover and Standoff are there for Archer food, but Standoff is also great card to sometimes have the runner trash their resources too. Hostile Takeover's Bad Publicity can be often taken away with Roughneck Repair Squad

ASSETS:

Clearinghouse/False Flag are an alternative win conditions. Clearinghouse for flatline and False flag for agenda points with Otoroshi especially.

Urtica Cipher as a flatline / deterrent trap.

Reconstruction Contract, a support card with the Argus Security ability and also can be used with clearing house too. Note that you only get one token each time meat damage is given. The cost to trash these is quite high for the runner, so even if they end up trashed, it's usually ok

OPERATIONS:

Nothing very special here. Might want to swap in some more money card instead of the Wake Up calls if you prefer (the deck is sometimes a bit cash starved)