Fast Ants (4-1 AZ Regional 2nd after Swiss)

Veste 424

Welp, this is the Corp deck I decided to bring to the AZ Regional at Desert Sky Games in Chandler, AZ. I mostly decided on Titan FA because it required less thinking, and was fast (which my Runner sometimes isn't).

I basically took Redline by @percomis from Euros and updated it a bit. I'm not sure all the changes are great, or optimal but they were fun and worked.

Changes/Thoughts

I tried out 2 Scarcity of Resources thinking I might be able to slow down some Runner economy early on (don't ask me why only 2, I made this change last minute before leaving my apartment). Also in testing the interaction with Pad Tap and Paywall is annoying. The one thing I will say is that I definitely believe at least 3 currents are necessary at this point in the meta, even with the Hostile Takeovers.

Mausolus was a change I made because I wanted something a little more taxing even after the initial rez than Enigma. Mausolus did that, and usually with Black Orchestra the runner will let one of the subs fire. If it's Clan Vengeance I could see this being a problem, though luckily the runners I faced either didn't have it, or didn't see it in time, so usually they just ate the damage or gave me a credit (nearly as good as Paywall Implementation right?).

Formicary was another last minute change, the thought was it's hilarious early, or even after another ICE has been rezzed to make a central more taxing. At least twice I managed to use it as a cheap gear check for a naked Rashida Jaheem, and usually they take the damage.

Speaking of which, I'm on the fence on Rashida, when she fires it's great, but obviously she's much easier to trash than the original Illegal Arms Factory. That said, when she fires, it's great - and you have enough cheap ICE to deal.

The only other note is that I dropped Vanilla for Meru Mati which I don't know if that was the right move, it could be another Mausolus or Enigma maybe, or back to Vanilla, I just don't like Vanilla in a world where Turtle is everywhere.

Excalibur does work.

Other than that - you all know the routine, it's just score out fast and furious, and do whatever you can to prevent them grabbing one of those precious Atlas Agendas.

Performance

Wins in Swiss against Val, MaxX, MaxX

Loss to Liza - I was on 5 points after scoring a Hostile I had just top decked, and I had a single New Construction in hand with Audacity and Biotic. He had two Gang Sign installed at that point, so 1/5 twice and he nabbed it on the second pull. He also nabbed a GFI earlier with one shot 1/3. Turns out that card is good and there is a reason it's restricted :-P

After the cut I was second and chose to Corp against a MaxX I had beat earlier - the result was the same, despite this time him managing to nab 1 Atlas on a sneaky SoT install for Legwork.

Great day overall, everyone was super nice, and the games were fun and competitive! I think the skeleton of this deck is still very strong, and if you enjoy the FA style I definitely recommend this deck a lot, especially in a tournament situation where your Runner could be the more thought intensive/slower game.

2 comments
19 Jul 2018 rattkin

Why Beanstalk and not Too Big To Fail?

4 Aug 2018 Veste

@rattkinI had thought about Too Big but I decided against it for the BP. It might be the move as it boosts you higher credits but sometimes the BP adds up, and I was mostly testing a low BP build after dropping the Arms Factories.

I think a good switch could be back to Factories and swap Beanstalk for Too Big, then you're all in on the BP.