Spinal Tap MaxX v5: Marrowsucker

This is the latest iteration on my Spinal Tap MaxX deck. Unfortunately it's now dropped the namesake Spinal Modem. Fortunately, Datasucker, Parasite, and Grimoire are so F'ing good I'm not worried about the cognitive dissonance.

When in Doubt, Add More Good Cards

The thesis of Spinal Tap is to make money and use eater to turn that money into successful runs. Then, using Siphon, Vamp, and Keyhole, turn those successful runs into wins. Now add datasucker to that successful run party and you're taking the corp's credits AND any ice they happened to rez. And you're doing it for nearly free.

The deck runs centrals so often that you'll have 5-6 tokens in no time. That's enough to either kill anything they rez with Parasite or make keyhole runs super cheap.

There's no instant speed parasiting in here but they're replacing the cutlery so the flexibility of the deck actually went up.

Battle Plan

In general, get rich first. Then install Eater and a Sucker. Then get them poor. Don't install Keyhole until you can make cheap or free runs. If you have suckers along for the ride you'll be able to parasite down HW so your Siphons and Vamps can keep them from rezing R&D ice. Score as you go, trashing Jacksons ASAP. If you have 3-5 points scored and a big econ advantage, then think about keyholing directly and letting them rez that ice. 3 turns of keyhole and a run on archives may close out the game.

Have Your Eater and Access Too

How do you access Archives and remotes with Eater on the table? Two ways: datasucker dynamite and honest to god breakers. There are 1x corroder, 1x Zu.13 and 2x Femmes in here, left over from my previous build. Between those and the cutlery I could usually get into whatever I needed to. It's also great to get the right breaker for your matchup (Barrier for Weyland and NBN, sentry or code gate for Jinteki, and usually code gate for HB) to surprise them and get into remotes. I may consider dropping these if the ice explosion strategy proves they're not needed.

Next up

Comments welcome. I'm very happy with the insane econ package. 3X Gamble 3X Day Job 2x Liberated 2X Dirty Laundry gives you 1-2 econ pieces in your starting hand reliably. Remember, this deck guzzles money and spits out a win. Don't forget to feed it. Drop Liberated and click three times any time you can. I might consider a Gambit for the dirtly laundries if I was looking for space. I'll likely trim out two cards as I go to get to 45.

As mentioned I might drop the breakers and tweak the econ. Data Leak Reversal was a card I ran in v4 that I might test and find room for- another great card.

The deck feels aggressive to the corp but it's really a control deck, more in the style of Headlock Reina than an aggro list. So settle in and win the econ game first. Then pick up the agendas once their bones and spirit are broken.