WUMP WUMP

Presenting WUMP WUMP, aka Wuvernius Whim Wumplants, aka How Wude, aka Precision Wuuing, aka Knowing 'Mi, Knowing Wu, aka The Mystery of Paperfolding. The stupid Wu + Origami deck that has slightly confused a small portion of the south of England over two largely unsuccessful Store Championships.

The theory

Though not as inevitably devastating as the Cold Ones remixes, the combination of Wu's first-turn guaranteed Origamis, Game Day, and Severnius Stim Implants gives you on-demand multi access into HQ and R&D, which is never a bad thing and should, in a CI-heavy meta, be quite a good thing. Maybe. Hopefully.

Lock scoring remotes with your high-strength Maven, use Cy-Cy and Shrike for anti-AI code gates and multi-sub sentries, hope nobody rezzes an Ashigaru. Poke around until you're on or near match point, then use Bookmark to stash cards as you build up for a big game-ending R&D dig. You've got a Chameleon in case anybody tries to rush. As an added bonus, two passes through the deck with a hand-size of 14 gives you excellent protection against death in its various flavours.

The practice

Three wins over nine games isn't a particularly great return. I've been consoling myself with the thought that a couple of the losses were unlucky, or at least close, not least the game where I found just one agenda in a 14-card R&D dig. But on the other hand, there were at least two games where I just went "BIG DIG TIME! HERE WE GO!! IT'S STIMPLANT O'CLOCK, BABY!!!" and then lost because I didn't find seven points and had had no cards or money left. Turns out big Stimplant digs can be utterly murderous to your tempo. If you're an idiot.

Deck thoughts

The deck can run poor, particularly since Maven, bless it, is not something you want to be using regularly. Running through multi-sub ice to find NGO Fronts is … not fun. With Origami and Stimplants eating a full 10 influence pips, and PioT a further three, you have precisely two points to play with. Shrike was the right call, I think, but I'd have liked a Hunting Grounds and lots more money. On the plus side, I did beat IG without needing to trash their Bio-Ethics. Very satisfying.

Play this deck if ...

• you would like to be able to say "I'll trash ... yep, 24 cards to access 13 off R&D, please";
• you don't mind losing shortly afterwards;
• you aren't distracted by opponents — naming no names, emilyspine — deploying the sickest of sick counter tech — Wu puns — at crucial moments.

In all seriousness, if anyone does try it out, please let me know how you get on. I don't think it's anywhere near Properly Good, but I'd be interested to see if it's better than I was able to make it look. Also I'm not much of a deckbuilder, so if I've missed anything obvious, do let me know. Cheers to everybody at Milton Keynes and Dark Sphere.