A Funhouse of Ants and Dinosaurs

Espequair 21

(yes, I have watched the Hunger games movie, it was good).
(Note: This is more an exercise in writing a deck guide than a functional guide. If you're looking for a good's player deck, i fear you might have to look elsewhere)

So. Most of this list comes from Redino's [The Full Lockout] List which I love to pieces because it allows me to do Shaper bullshit as a corp. I love moving pieces and having several tools on my toolbelts.

How this deck wins

This deck wins by creating a boardstate that the runner can't afford to run. Usually by protecting important servers with Funhouse, a B-1001 to end the run if the runner takes the tag. The B-1001, in turn, is protected by a Manegarm Skunkworks and several Formicary.
From this safety, you can just score out

Moving parts

  • Stegodon MK IV
    Scoring one steg early is massive. Being able to derez your Formicaries means they're a threat anywhere on the board. Being able to derez cheap ice means you get -2 strength on every Icebreaker.
    Picking your battles is of the utmost importance. Don't derez mindlessly the first run. Take time to see if the runner is not baiting your trigger.
  • Marilyn Campaign and Nico Campaign
    If things go well, you're going to have 2-4 remotes that are reasonably well protected. Having things to stuff into them is great and assets that give you decent value then trash themselves is gerat
  • Fully Operational my beloved
    I have to admit, being able to spend 1 to make 10 is one of the great rushes of playing this deck. Even if you only have 2 remotes, it's the equivalent of a Hedge Fund (not present in this deck) but with an econ floor of one credit.
  • Wave
    A good, cheap ice tutor. Also serves to protect more important ice from bypasses (Inside Job) and some ice hate (Hippo)
  • Manegarm Skunkworks and Formicary
    Since both trigger on approach, and you can order them as you want, you can always order your triggers such that the runner has to pay 1+unrezzed Formicaries time the or 5 tax. Few runners have 20 to spend to access Manegarm
  • Funhouse and B-1001 The combo here is pretty obvious, tag and kick out. Very useful to completely locking out a runner, we'll discuss vulnerabilities later. Jaguarundi is also here to support the tagging plan, though it's more porous.
  • Drafter and Ablative Barrier
    Cheap (ish) Ices that will allow you to treat Archives like an extension of R&D. Remember that your extra install also applies during the Runner's turn. I've sneaked out a cheeky agenda from archives + ice from hand with this.
  • Vovô Ozetti
    Helps keep the cost of derez and rezzing many ice low and is overall a good card since it jumps around.

What this deck loses to

  • Anything that allows the runner to not take your tags is really bad.
    This usually comes in two flavors: bypass and encounter avoidance
    • Inside Job can be defended against by putting something else in front of your Funhouses. Wave, Drafter, Ablative, anything that can be rezzed cheap works. You should have
    • S-Dobrado Is more dangerous since it can bypass two ICE. you have to choose whether the price of a double ice is worth the cost. Protecting R&D might be worth it, protecting a remote less so.
    • AirbladeX (JSRF Ed.) will allow the runner to not take the Funhouse or Threat 4 Jaguarundi "on encounter". No real way to counter that, you just have to take it into account and not rely on that combo until it's off the board.
  • Anything that will snipe Manegarm Skunkworks or B-1001 is problematic.
    • Light the Fire! can turn Manegarm off, allowing the runner to access it without making them pay for the tax one time. Of course, we want the runner to pay the tax.
    • Pinhole Threading is a good piece of tech, and many of my opponents that didn't have it wish they did. You can mostly get out of it by throwing something on Archives (Gatekeeper or Ablative Barrier is usually what I go for) that will make them reluctant to go there without a full set.

Modifying

I've tried a couple of variants, replacing a Rashida and a manegarm for a couple of Cerebral Overwriter, to keep the runners from running every advanced cards they see. I got a couple of cheeky wins with it but it doesn't server the overall plan.

  • Gatekeeper is a decent target to be cut.
  • The Campaigns could probably be replaced by other more productive assets but they're often out of faction and I need the influence.
  • Bloop has been floated as an alternative to Jaguarundi. I haven't played around with it but it's a good path to explore.

Final Thoughts

Overall, this is a fun deck to play. Sometimes you'll be frustrated by not finding your steg early enough and it sucks. When it does work though ? it's a true Funhouse full of ants and dinosaurs playing peekaboo!

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