[Startup] Save the Polar Bear

This deck started out as an exercise to make a Matryoshka based deck that didn't concern itself with such silly things as "ice types" or "perceived breaker roles"; utilising three copies of Mutual Favor and Bios' storage to get as many copies of Matryoshka as possible for the earliest possible set up, supplemented by Nanuq and Atman.

As it turned out, I rarely used the nesting dolls as just Banging Down the Bear™ when you need to get into a server is more expedient, and her majestic 2 bulk frequently caused nasty clashes with Matryoshka, not to mention Matryoshka's glaring weakness to ZATO and Nanisivik. So I ended up cutting them out entirely, along with the Mutual Favors to free up actually useful cards that work together. Maybe a better builder than me can make Matryoshka happen, but I'm not touching it again with a barge pole. 🙁

Anyway, let's just be clear, this is jank, I'm not saying this deck is good, and I'm not going to assign a win percentage to it (because it's simply not that impressive).

What it does seem to be though is unique. I'm still tinkering with the deck, but I feel the broad strokes are pretty much there.

Setup

So, what do you put aside on Bios? Besides heeding the title and saving the polar bears, you want boat, breaker, and Basilar, in roughly that order. Then, save any Deep Dive's up your sleeves, and if you still have space stash any Draw and economy resources you think you'll need. If you've really drawn a blank on all those, put aside your discount coupons so they're less likely to get drawn in the wrong order (it still sometimes happens though).

Following that, you want to mulligan for a good economic start, as it will really help to have money to get boat down and start breaking with bear the turn you install it. Teleworks, Commissions, and discounted Liberated Accounts spark joy.

I'll be honest, Boat overshadows the whole deck, and does most of the heavy lifting, as it always does, but its inclusion here is legitimate as it is the only way to deal with any AI hate, as I'm too stubborn to sully the purity of this deck with a normal breaker... buuut, if you insist... you can always try the standard cheap in-faction options, that can be tutored using Into the Depths, after getting through using boat first time.

Running the deck

Some cool tricks include installing Atman@2 for 1 with Rigging Up; generally you can treat Atman as costing 4 less if you can hold off until you draw Rigging Up. Any Chart Rooms you get down also effectively allow you to pump Atman mid run if you absolutely need it, as well as granting emergency boat counters - just remember to charge the boat before spending down to 0, as you cannot charge an empty card!

Getting through 2 ice with bear or boat will also allow you to tutor Atman with one free counter at instant speed using Into the Depths, though honestly, I almost only ever use it as a green Dirty Laundry with additional boat counter.

The 1 of Flux Capacitor can make 1 ice servers very profitable, and if placed on an unrezzed piece of ice I've seen it discourage a rez entirely.

Your wincon is cheaply pressuring scoring remotes by Banging Down the Bear™ and getting early steals, pressuring HQ and/or R&D for early snipes if they go hard on protecting the remote, and finishing off with a Deep Dive as an encore to snag 4 or more points, (hence the Synthgland/Mechanocytes combo). If that fails, you have a second copy of Deep Dive to try again.

Matchups

I suppose if a corp were to leans very hard into AI hate this deck may struggle, but I don't expect such a corp to do that well against normal runners. 🤔 Also, I hope this is obvious, but I would never install Basilar Synthgland against Thule Subsea. Unless you've stolen all their Ontologicals, or you're going to pull a winning Deep Dive next turn or something.

Fast advance can extinguish the bears rather quickly, and every faction has 2/1 agendas now, so don't install Nanuq until you are about to run next click, unless you're winding up to Deep Dive next turn and win the game.

Reliance on boat makes this deck somewhat phobic of tags, Steelskin Scarring and Chart Room serve quite well against End of the Line, but a Retribution blowing up boat can just break you, and NBN FAing a 3 pointer will usually mean the game will be over before you can catch up; hence No Free Lunch and Pinhole Threading to deal with unilateral corp tagging like Drago Ivanov before you can set up. As wonderful as Nanuq is, you still can't afford to dragged through a scoring remote over and over, so try to be strategic about your runs.

If you're against trappy Jinteki, or just PE in general, keep your Steelskins in hand and your Chart Rooms installed to scupper any Blood in the Water shenanigans.

Finally against one-turn-kill MAD combo Weyland, getting Mechanocytes down and charged using Rigging Up and/or leaving Chart Rooms installed for instant draw between EotLs can totally deny a kill, after which, run rampant over their de-iced centrals.

Alterations

Generally, the main thing I usually end up craving is more draw, so a +1 Diesel or VRcation might be better (or another Nuka, though I'd hesitate to having three of them due to the possibility of dead draws).

Generally, money tends to be tight, despite the efficiency of Bear on a Boat® so an Info Bounty or Red Team might help, though both of those encourage the corp to ice centrals, which works against your Deep Dive goals.

I also tend to trade back and forth between the number of Liberated Accounts, Steelskin Scarrings and NFLs based on how starved for money, how much damage or tags I take, but I feel this is about the happy medium for now.

Conclusion

I welcome any suggestions as to how I can improve this deck. I've recently picked the game back up and this cycle's been a hit with me.

I find it really fun to run and I love the concept of working around the limitations of AI breakers, this deck has especially given me an appreciation of Atman, and is my usual go-to in the JNet lobby.

"Once one has been bitten by a bear life is never again so sweet." ~Inuit Proverb