[Startup] You wanna get shot? [2-1 @Melbourne CO]

As the name suggested, the whole point of the deck is shot runner in the face.

Deck analysis

• The deck runs with only 11 ices, inviting our runner to run.
  • Mestnichestvo - cheaper toll both with easy adv token
  • Vasilisa - clickless adv
  • Unsmiling Tsarevna - either random tag (they will try to avoid this) or just unexpected damage
  • Ping - the OG one. Run last click? Rez and make them regret
• It has 19 assets + upgrades, in which you have 4 traps (Chekist Scion and Urtica Cipher) that can be disguised as an agenda. Combine that with Spin Doctor and you will have endless servers to throw at the runner.
• Clearinghouse is a tricky one to deal with since if they won't run, your End of the Line might become much harder to deal with. But if they do run, it might just be an Urtica Cipher
• What if they don't run regularly? Sure, Seamless Launch is here to help you advance any 4/2 as fast as possible ;) Vladisibirsk City Grid is also there as a placeholder for you to keep all of the advance tokens.
• Talking about the agenda suits, I'm running 10 of them, in which they are either help with econ, or straight-up hurting runner's hand
  • Artificial Cryptocrash and Offworld Office to help with econ swing
  • Tomorrow's Headline for easy tag. It would be nice if you don't spend your whole turn advancing it. You would want to utilise the tag somehow.
  • Orbital Superiority as a surprise if they fail to acknowledge your tag. Having a End of the Line that scores you points is nice.
• Project Beale to allow you to score that tricky 3 pointer.
• Feel like it's hard to get 4 agendas? You can always rely on the old-timey Backroom Machinations for a cheeky 1 point.
  • This deck relies heavily on the combo on hand End of the Line + Public Trail, so having 3 Gaslight would be a nice thing to have. You can also tutor Seamless Launch or Predictive Planogram/Hedge Fund if needed some extras.

How to play

Shell game all day long. You would want to add some Ping/Vasilisa in servers where runner is going to run a lot. Rez Vasilisa for some clickless token, and keep Ping for any unexpected clicks to run.

I can say that this deck requires some nerve to play. My suggestion is that you would want to install multiple naked agendas on the field before start thinking of scoring anything. Runners usually will run everywhere if you are close to winning so prolong the bluffing game to allow you to get some juicy adv token first.

Actual games

I got 3 games in Melbourne Startup CO and finish with the score of 2-1.

Both of my winning games require the flip of Clearinghouse, give them a tag somehow (either Drago Ivanov, or they hit Chekist Scion) and ending with End of the Line. This is a core/common theme of the deck so I won't go in too deep about this. I will walk you through my lost game.

In this one, I played against Captain and her boat. It was an easy feeling game for me seeing the runner install all of the fancy breakers, just to realise that I have no expensive ices to break. Bluffing games went above great, when running rarely happened. Taking the chance, I decided to score out an Offworld Office to help with econ, and a tricky 5/3 Project Beale. Problems start here. Given that I'm now close to winning, runner will start running every single server. Without any ice protecting, and none of the bluffing works anymore, I'm running out of the way to persuade them to stop. It's a bad thing that I haven't drawn any spin doctor to recycle my traps, and the fact that Padma can just keep charging up draw engine, I just can't simply do enough damage to slow them down. It ends with me setting up 2 unrezzed Ping on R&D, hoping they will run 3rd click, but it never happens. And the runner just conduit straight into the deck.

Overall

This is a fun deck, with all the bluffing and trash talking on the table. If you wanna have a fun time asking your opponent what click they are on, or how many cards are in their hands during run, this is the deck for you ;)