Loki HB Does All The Things (4-1, CO Regionals)

lukifer 1157

Rush. Never-Advance. Fast-Advance. Rig-Shooter. Glacier.

Why not all of the above?

This deck is a blast to pilot: it makes money fast, has an interactive play style, numerous paths to victory, and plenty of mind-games to throw at the runner. It went 4-1 at the CO Regionals, losing only to the 1st place Hayley Sifr-site deck (got Parasite/Index-locked before I could find Lockdown).

Marcus Batty: The star of the deck. I only blew up a rig in one game (twice!), but it was glorious. The rest of the time, it acted like a cheap one-shot Caprice, while being trivial to recur thanks to Friends. It's tremendously punishing psychologically when the runner knows it's there, especially against Criminals.

Loki: A highly flexible piece of ICE, that is (sort-of) the 10th NEXT, as it boosts any NEXT immediately behind it. If MoGo is the only other rezzed ICE, it's impossible to go through without AI. It can steal Silver subs to become horribly taxing. It can steal Destroyer subs for a Batty fire, or even AP subs for a kill. Also note: the runner is not allowed to shuffle an empty grip into their stack to go through! (UFAQ ruling is pending.)

(EDIT: Apparently, Loki can't use the "X" subs from the Gold, as they're always 0. Whoops.)

SanSan: A great target for Friends, good for ducking Siphons, and can be cheesed out after the runner's 4th click with Assembly. Also great for never-advancing Food with Biotic.

Successful Field Test: This card does so much work, I'm tempted to swap a 3/2 for a 2nd copy. The ability to stack ICE for free is incredible with a NEXT suite, and this deck has tons of asset/upgrade targets as well; or, you can just windmill a 3/2 into a Batty/Ash remote.

Marilyn Campaign: Ludicrously efficient econ that never stops; I've played several games where Marilyns paid out in full five times or more. Can also break an R&D lock by installing a Jackson over it.

Flex Slots: Archived, Lockdown, and Ash are all flex, and could just as easily be ELPs, 2nd Archived, 3rd Biotic, or extra ice. 2 Archived / 2 Friends is also pretty reasonable, to make it easier to fetch Lockdown or Biotic. Hacktivist Meeting hits this deck hard; if you're expecting it, 2 ELPs are a must. I'd like to find room for Crisium, but influence is tight; the Foods could become Voting Machines to make room, but it greatly increases variance on centrals, and in testing I never managed to score them early enough to matter.

Happy scoring, and remember: always fire ABT! #noregrets

5 comments
19 Jul 2017 IonFox

Just checking, how does Loki work with NEXT Gold? Does it copy the value of X from NEXT Gold, or does it copy the variable X and set it to 0? (since it does not copy the defnition of X)

19 Jul 2017 lukifer

@IonFox I just checked and I am disappoint: according to the UFAQ, X is always 0. :( Luckily this didn't come up at the tourney. TIL.

19 Jul 2017 IonFox

@lukifer Aww it's ok. There are more subs you can copy to hate on runners. pat pat

Love the list though.

20 Jul 2017 stoppableforce

If you wanted to run a real 5/3 (not recommended), Elective Upgrade is probably more impactful than a Voting Machine Initiative, especially if you're forced to score it first. (I'd still just run Food, but EU is a good 5/3.)

20 Jul 2017 lukifer

@stoppableforce Haha, Elective was the one was I thinking of, thanks for the correction!