Tower Defense 2.0 [Startup]

Ytang 163

An update to my original Thunderbolt list for Startup. This is a fun list, inferior to PD and other corp decks, but makes for some great games. It's reasonably competitive, but not necessarily top-tier.

Agenda Suite: SAMs are to lower our density. They're a bit clunky with our ID, but can help get some of the more spendy ice like Ansel rez'd.

Project Vitruvius gives us some useful recursion for Seamless or critical upgrades. Can be never-advanced if we have enough recursion already.

Offworld is just pure tempo, and Luminal is busted.

Stegodon is cute, not necessary, but always fun to have available.

Assets: Regolith because this deck desperately needs some high density econ.

Spin Doctor is more recursion to get back Seamless or trashed upgrades.

I wish we had more assets to force runner into checking our scoring remote, but slots are hard and we can use Upgrades for that.

Operations: Corporate is useful for draw and recursion. Notice a pattern? Our entire scoring scheme relies pretty heavily on Seamless, so we need to be able to get them back.

Hansei are burst econ. Hedges are mandatory.

Seamless is the only way we can threaten to score quickly.

Upgrades: Brasilia is fantastic with some of our cheap ice. Gets bonkers with Stegodon.

Manegarm isn't a grid, and so pairs nicely with Brasilia and helps protect our scoring remote.

Vovo is more econ value, helps rez the towers of ice, and rerez them! Also makes Regolith free at threat.

Ice Suite: Our ice breaks into two categories. First, our corp ID payoffs. Second, our de-rez value targets.

13 of our 17 ice benefits from our corp ID.

Tithe is the best card for Thunderbolt in startup (which says a lot about how sad the ID is), but having the corp ID on a 2 str Tithe makes the cheapest ice in startup actually taxing, especially when it can be derez'd with Stegodon for power differentials.

Ansel is one of our best ice. We want one on centrals and probably another on our scoring server. The subs slap and it's reasonably beefy into startup killers.

Boto is a fantastic barrier. I've gotten it to 10 strength before after threat. Boto bites hard with 4 subroutines on rez, 3 of which can ETR.

Hammer tech against Kit's Lobi, and is a fantastic splash for our corp ID.

Lycian multi munition is versatile, costs 1 to rez with Vovo, and can really gum up early runner's efforts before their rig is fully online.

Ablative is great at threat, to de-rez and re-rez, and can be an early gearcheck if necessary to protect a Regolith.

Magnet is great tech vs Botulus and Physarum, and can be de-rez'd to further nab other targets. Reasonable early gearcheck ETR, as usual.

Build your towers. Threaten to score from never-advanced agendas. Devastate runner econ with enormous differences between ice and icebreaker strength.

0 comments