Spombo Lite - 3rd out of 32 - Stevenage SC (5-2)

A brief history of Spombo

As seen from last years World Championship Corp deck, it shows that you don’t need much ICE to do well! Pre-Gateway, Spombo decks tried to score out as much points in one turn, punishing the runner for stealing agendas to fuel Game Changer. Usually this abused Fast Break into Breaker Grid / Calibration Testing with Team Sponsorship.

With some of the key cards rotated, Spombo takes a similar but new direction; a more Spombo Lite.

Why would you play this deck?

One big reason; this deck has an amazing win rate vs Criminal Reg decks and a solid record vs Shaper. I suspect it would have a rougher time vs Hivemind MaxX decks, but this deck has the luxury of having spare tech slots. Tech to what you are worried about.

I feel this deck doesn’t take much piloting to do well with (high skill floor) but has much more involved lines on combos than a typical Titan deck.

If you love combo decks, you will love this deck.

How does this deck play?

The core fundamentals of this deck are the Sportsmetal: Go Big or Go Home itself and Game Changer. The ultimate and most straight forward goal is threatening the board with a shell game, in that the runner risks stealing agendas which further fuels your plan (Game Changer fuel and 2c / 2 draw). Generally speaking games go either way;

• They steal agendas from remotes or centrals, making your Game Changers more potent and enabling big Game Changers turns.
• They shy away from the remotes, you score them anyway.

Getting to 4 points is very dangerous for the runner, as if they steal 4 agendas themselves, this activtes a single Game Changer into a 5/3 fast advance.

Cards Choices (by exception)

Agenda suite

This is the only part of the suite I would not change. Majority of these agendas are soo strong. Project Vacheron is core to the deck, both in a protective manner to your gameplan and being a 5/3 target for Game Changers.

Hyperloop Extension is an agenda you don’t mind being stolen or scored, being stolen is ideal.

Megaprix Qualifier is one you want to try and bait the runner into running early, so you can turn it into a fake 3/2.

Superconducting Hub is a huge winner in Spombo Lite deck. The tempo you get from this is noticeable, and this feels like the only agenda here that you will be sad to see stolen. The hand size ‘bloat’ is very appreciatable too.

False Lead, I’m not gonna lie, I ran out of 3/1s. Never happy to score it, always happy to have it stolen!

Assets

Nico Campaign - 95% of the time (if the runner has sense) this is trashed on site, pre or post Rez. This card is probably not needed in this deck.

Spin Doctor – Wow this card. In the Spombo deck, it pulls so much weight, in terms of draw, recurring Game Changers and protecting Vacherons. A must 3 slot.

Operations

A heavy bias towards Archived Memories and Game Changer. Sprint synergies with the aims of this deck a lot, in keeping HQ relatively clean on Agendas and digging for combo pieces. The biggest surprise might be three lots of Stock Buy-Back. Do I use all 3? Nope. Is it important I see them at the right time. Ohhh yes. You will thank yourself for this card once you start getting HQ hit by Steve Cambridge DooF.

Upgrades

I am so on the fence with Arella Salvatore. Most of the time, I installed trash 3/1s on Arella in the hope it would bait the runner. If they didn’t get the bait, I would score the agenda anyway and install another. It is much more challenging to pull of big combination turns. A very likely cut.

ICE

My general rule of thumb for combo decks is to aim for 9 ICE. Magnet is clear tech vs Hivemind. Hagen and Drafter are solid cards, and Meridian help feeding into the gameplan (I would say roughly 50% of the time it was stolen by the runner). A word of warning on Meridian. If the runner thinks they only have one turn left and digging deep into your centrals, they won’t hesitate to add this to there score area.

Games on the day

Game 1 Swiss – LOSS vs Swiftie (Alice) – A punishing opener from Swiftie opening with a full on Wanton Destruction. I recover well with a Spin Doctor and some good econ installed on the board. A Stargate hits the board but nothing too significant is trashed. I try to accelerate my plan, getting into a comfortable 5 points while a lot of trashing occurs. In a strange attempt to tax Swiftie, I forfeit False Lead, putting me on 4 points, not realizing I am one click short on FA a 5/3 in hand. My R+D had only 2 cards in it, Hyperloop and Game Changer. I had Megaprix in hand with the 3/2 activation. A very frustrating misplay, but well played by Swiftie.

Game 2 Swiss – WIN vs Motionblur (419) – The DooFs hit early, putting me on zero credits. I recover well with Hyperloop and Superconducting Hub being stolen, allowing me to get back on my gameplan. A Megaprix Qualifier is stolen and I feel my gameplan is progressing nicely. I score a Megaprix, only 5 more points to go! DooF hits again, but I recover with Stock Buy-Back. They facecheck a Meridian on a remote and add it to there score area, putting them in the Game Changer danger zone, further worsen by the fact they stole the Hyperloop Extension installed in it. I recover again with another Stock Buy-back and next turn I FA a Project Vacheron with Game Changer. More agenda’s are stolen, which leads to a Sprint into Game Changer into Project Vacheron win.

Game 3 Swiss – WIN vs Haway (Los: Data Hijacker) – An ID I didn’t expect, but I was very unworried by it. I get hit by two early DooFs, but my early econ was robust enough to score out a Megaprix naked on the remote. A early Project Vacheron is stolen, as well as a False Lead. I respond with a Superconducting Hub scoring out. A Hyperloop Extension gets stolen which helps my gameplan out a lot. Another Superconducting Hub is scored, giving me a hand size of 9! The Project Vacheron ticking down is giving me a headache now, and I do an unusual line of Game Changer another Megaprix out and last click a Stock Buy-back. I now have 5 agenda points and Haway has 5 too. A sprint gives me a nice Spin Doctor option with Game Changer in hand to try and dig for the winning agenda, while R+D is locked out for them. They facecheck a Meridan and decide to steal it, putting them in the Game Changer danger zone.

I’m low on credits, but with a Game Changer and Project Vacheron in hand, so decide to Stock Buy-Back for the next turn and protect HQ. The next turn is a clean Game Changer into Project Vacheron play.

Game 4 Swiss – WIN vs twisty_b (Steve Cambridge) – My early Nico campaign is trashed and DooF hits the board. An early Superconducting Hub gives me a lot of tempo and I recover econ over the next couple of turns. I hit with another Superconducting Hub but I’ve lost 2 Game Changers already. A Hyperloop Extension gets stolen, giving me a bit more breathing space but 3 Game Changer is trashed. I start scoring some of the naked remotes and manage to get Megaprix scored as 3/2 as well. Another DooF hits, but this is followed by a Stock Buy-back (do you see the theme here). A Project Vacheron is stolen and I’m feeling happier with my game plan now, if I find Spin Doctors or Archived Memories. I put down another Stock Buy-back and find that important Spin Doctor to recur my 2 Spin Doctors. At this point, I’m on 5 points and they have stolen 2 points plus a ticking Project Vacheron. I bait them to run a False Lead in my remote, and I have two Archived Memories in hand. Some maths later, I AM Game Changer twice, played both of them and fast advanced a Project Vacheron.

Game 1 Cut – WIN vs rotage (Reg Tao) - I knew this matchup didn't have Clot and I was confident with my gameplan. Without doing too much into the details, I got myself comfortably on 4 points while at the end, rotage stole 6 points late on, giving me a handsize of 17 cards and 30 credits to play with. I secured the game with a FA Project Vacheron.

Game 2 Cut – LOSS vs Kikai (419) – I was fancying this matchup, but I knew Kikai knew the lines too from our practise games. An early DooF hits me putting me low on credits, and a Political Operative hits my Rashida, hurting my tempo badly. I score a Hyperloop to get the game rolling. This is followed by a turn 2 DooF which is starting to hurt. This means I have to recover my turns clicking for credits as no agenda’s have been stolen. Smart use of Falsified Credentials gives Kikai good lines about what to steal and what to leave. Another DooF hits and I’m feeling the pinch now. False Lead is stolen, and I score a Superconducting Hub in response. A Project Vacheron is stolen from HQ, which is a big steal at this point in the game. I score another Superconducting Hub in response, followed by a low value Stock-Buy Back. I knew Ben would be waiting for the Project Vacheron to tick over before commiting to more agenda steals, so I’m trying to accelerate my plan. I had a naked Megaprix Qualifier on board, and I made the unoptimal line of Game Changer for a 3/1 Megaprix Qualifier, which gave Kikai a big warning that I had one installed on the board, which he found. With Ben on 5 points, knowing one server is Hyperloop and my next turn I was able to combo out, Ben found the one agenda that would win him the game out of the 3 in hand, leaving him to secure the win with the Hyperloop steal. A seriously impressive performance from Ben, and one I learnt a lot from, as a couple of lines I played where suboptimal, and might have been enough to stick me into the finals.

Conclusions / Improvements / Acknowledgements

Interestingly, I think this deck is very unoptimized. I think there is a lot of spare slots in this deck, and you could easily take a lot of different directions. However, the core of the deck in terms of this Agenda suite and Operations is very solid. This deck is a powerhouse vs Criminal, and has a good record vs Shaper too.

I would be tempted to remove Nico Campaign with Jeeves to help on the combo turns, or even Marilyn so it helps with the recursion aspect. However, I don’t think econ assets are required. Arella feels like a waste of influence and you could go down the News Team direction. However, I would be tempted to try and improve the worst matchup, which would be Anarch, espically Hivemind MaxX, which I suspect would be a nightmare.

The biggest thank you is cablecarnage, playing vs you on this deck utterly inspired me and I have found this deck a joy to pilot. Also thanks to Aki for putting up with me testing this deck.