(Startup) Aggro Dad

SMITTYL 284

This pile started as a deck building challenge on our Seattle Discord (Mercury + Bankhar). However I feel like the result is a respectable startup deck (Disclaimer - non boat division). This is the epitome of my current dad deck building (Disclaimer - sub optimal, I would love y’all to improve upon this concept). I spent a ton of time (disclaimer - 30 minutes between child tears and dirty diapers in dad time) on the concept. This is as much write up as I can get these days so enjoy!

The core of the deck is Mercury, Bankhar and Hermes. The rest is just bonus (money, multi access, breakers and draw). With Bankhar and Mercury you have HQ and RND interface ( for you old schoolers) with Bankhar as permanent inside job. This deck works decently because startup corp agendas are mostly weak sauce, aka send a message and friends. The play of this deck is summarized in three phases.

Phase one: Aggro Dad - try to get down Hermes and Bankhar and get in their face ASAP. Even without one of those pieces you want to face check often the first couple turns to put the opponent on their back foot and steal some agendas via pressure from your ID ability. Attack the weakest server. Try to leave one central with unrezzed ice for Hermes value.

Phase 2: Set up/ Counter Attack - you are probably broke at this point because you have been going full bore instead of sane activities like gathering money and building your board state. It’s ok to let them have a couple agenda’s because the Hermes bounce can create a hole to attack again. You can also use inside job or dobrado on the juiciest central the turn they have an agenda in their scoring remote and rip it away.

Phase 3: Big Dig/ Yolo - if phase 2 is going badly or you need the game to be over to order another beer, it’s time to go for “it”. Between Wake / Twining + ID ability and Dobrado / Inside Job you can get 4-5 access and win, or just lose.

Again there are probably better card choices and I’d love to hear feedback. This is a nice deck to surprise your friends or perhaps rogue deck at worlds. cheers!

8 comments
10 Oct 2023 Swiftie

While a different deck to the Mercury: Chrome Libertador one I'm looking forward to playing in worlds Standard.

The write up is 100% how I play it.

10 Oct 2023 Spiph

Is Cezve the only trigger for The Twinning?

10 Oct 2023 SMITTYL

@Spiph yeah Cezve is, this is one change of thinking of making, either putting in prepaid and keeping twinning or going different multi access. Thoughts? To fit the theme I like the idea of finality but I’m not sold.

11 Oct 2023 Erikk78

The Cezve - Twinning combo seems a bit to fragile and not consistent? An aggressive Legwork wouldn't hurt since you will be running HQ anyway (Wake). True, you can't use your skip ICE cards then but still. Sneakdoor looks cool here. You could try a light the fire as anti upgrade tech?

11 Oct 2023 SMITTYL

@Erikk78totally agree about the twinnings issue, I liked the idea of multiple access you can store on the board to avoid Bankhar hits, but it in reality doesn’t come together when you need it. Right now pinhole has been enough for problem cards (keeling, drago or defensive upgrade on centrals but I think like you said there is room to improve. Legwork is a nice idea!

13 Oct 2023 FireRL (aka xFWx FIREBIRD)

Also, and I could be wrong, but I feel like you really want to lean into the bypass tools. At least with 3x Inside Job, if not also S-Dobrado

13 Oct 2023 SMITTYL

Hi @xFWx FIREBIRD (aka FireRL) buddy! I like docklands as well, definitely worth trying. My only thought is wake is also HQ reliant so may run into trouble if hq has a lot of ice, but maybe bypass is good. I was trying to figure out amount of bypass since Bankhar is also first Ice encountered but guess you lose less cards with bypass