Qimpossible 1st Place Petrie's Family Games SC

TheRyanBurke 1996

This Quetzal: Free Spirit deck was originally born as an Edward Kim: Humanity's Hammer deck (named Kimpossible). The idea is to make gross amounts of money while using Knight and Overmind to get into servers on demand. Those breakers screamed e3 Feedback Implants and Deep Red, which led to Quetzal being too complimentary to pass up. In addition, the strategy of this deck is to create dead cards in the Corp's deck.

At Petrie's Family Games 2015 Store Championship, Qimpossible was undefeated on the day, after 5 rounds of swiss and 2 runner games in elimination play.

Economy

The earlier The Supplier hits the board, the better, but I win plenty of games without him. Once I observed that, I was almost tempted to refactor influence, but the amount Supplier can potentially save is 31, which I cannot pass up.

When I say gross amounts of money, I mean 93 creds in the deck (assuming turn 1 Supplier) before factoring in renewable money from Data Folding and Kati Jones. In most games I was averaging two free creds per turn from Data Folding. It is not uncommon to swell to 25+ creds if the corp is not forcing runs. Sitting on this much cash has a couple effects on opponents.

  1. Panic. This is an immensely valuable psychological effect on corporation players. When you're staring down a bank of 20 creds and even more in reserve on Liberated Account or Kati, you no longer have to do math to evaluate if I can get into your remote. I can.

  2. Midseasons, SEA Source and Punitive Counterstrike effectively get shut off as viable win conditions. I love making dead draws fill up HQ just by having money.

  3. Building towards an eventuality where I will run four times on R&D with 2 Medium in play. Did I mention panic?

  4. Trashable cards will be trashed on access. Asset econ is not safe unless well defended, which can negate the point of the asset. I hope you have enough operation econ to win the game, otherwise you'll be clicking for credits and letting my econ engine completely overtake you.

Breakers

Quetzal's ability and E3 make solo barriers paper thin. Most of my opponents wouldn't even bother playing or rezzing barriers until they had 2 in the same server. This makes barriers dead cards for a long time. I love having an early game where potentially one-third of drawn ICE is useless.

Knight, Overmind, and E3 work wonders together. Combined with my nearly unlimited bankroll, these breakers let me get into glacial servers with relative ease. The worst card I can see is Swordsman, which I thankfully did not encounter all day.

The Mimic are for getting through multiple subroutine Sentries like Komainu, Tsurugi, Errand Boy and the like. Also for saving my butt in the event of Swordsman.

Match-ups

Weyland

Quetzal has a natural affinity against Weyland and their Barrier-heavy ICE choices. Archer is not too scary with Overmind in play or a Knight in place. Sticking tags on the corp's turn with SEA and Midseasons is difficult with the econ war Quetzal can play. And there are always I've Had Worse to soften the blow. Blue Sun is the trickiest match-up because I have to play Knights very conservatively. Fortunately, Blue Sun tends to run 3-pointers and that benefits my overall strategy.

Jinteki

I haven't faced any Jinteki beyond Genomics, which is an OK match-up. I'm not too worried about PE flatlines with I've Had Worse. RP isn't too bad because I can bounce off a central and dedicate Knights on the scoring remote. A staunchly defensive Tennin could be bad news.

HB

I hope you're not using Bioroids against E3. NEXT Design with bountiful, cheap ETR ICE is problematic. Same is probably true for a NEXT ICE deck. Ideally, my Knifed cards can thin out some of the defense. Biotic Labor is the best card against my Quetzal because I'm not stealing creds, trashing operations, or multi-accessing HQ.

NBN

Most of my points are going to come from Medium digs and brute forcing through R&D ICE. NBN generally isn't putting up enough ICE in remotes to keep me out. This requires Biotic Labor or an unsniped SanSan to get the first Astroscript out. Astrotrain will generally beat me, so it comes down to luck of the draw.

50 comments
31 Mar 2015 torien7

Had the privilege of losing to this deck twice at this tournament, once in Swiss and once in elimination. The money becomes too much to keep up with, even as Blue Sun Jacksoning used Restructures back into R&D and getting the occasional successful Oversight (tough versus Quetzal with E3 and Knights, though). Even a scored High-Risk Investment couldn't save me, in the end.

They were really fun games though and I can't wait to butt heads again.

31 Mar 2015 CJFM

Awesome freaking deck! I love it! Gratz on the win!

31 Mar 2015 CrimsonWraith

Any particular reason you didn't run any of the Shards with that spare influence? I know you were running Utopia out of Leela for a while. =)

31 Mar 2015 NicoleyMoley

Nice, I tried to make an Overmind Quetzal deck with 3 Memstrips as well. I found it was too slow and too poor to afford to run often enough with Overmind, but this list looks like it solved a lot of those problems. Congrats on the win!

31 Mar 2015 TheRyanBurke

@torien7 the econ wars against Blue Sun were hilarious and awesome. GG's!

@CJFM thanks bud!

@CrimsonWraith No particular reason other than deck slots. My current revision swapped out a Data Folding for a Rachel Beckman and she's been putting in a lot of work.

@NicoleyMoley Thanks! Overmind + Deep Red + E3 + Knight are all just so perfect for each other!

31 Mar 2015 TheRyanBurke

Tournament report: boardgamegeek.com

31 Mar 2015 7Tigers

Nice deck! May I suggest -1 Deep Red, +1 Memstrip?

31 Mar 2015 hookgrip

Will you be adding clot to this deck?

31 Mar 2015 skydivingninja

Super cool to see this! I ran a Supplier Andy deck and it could get set up super quick.

How was the early game for you? I can imagine it being a bit of a hassle to get everything set up without a Supplier opening hand (though obviously it seems you did all right. Trying to see how you played the deck in such a way that you could overcome a likely scenario like this).

31 Mar 2015 TheRyanBurke

@7Tigers It's been considered. I'm a fan of reducing redundancy when possible, but any game where I draw the Memstrips before either Deep Red would make me sad. The sudden strike of Knight going from grip to ICE in a click is incredibly valuable.

@hookgrip I'll let the meta dictate that. I'm hoping that the existence of Clot will drive down frequency of the AstroBiotics style and that I wouldn't need to include it.

@skydivingninja Early game without Supplier is fine. Without Supplier, I pay a little more up front, but all those abilities start working one turn sooner. Supplier actually delays each card by a turn, but saves money. So when I don't get him on the mulligan, I don't sweat it. Any single econ card plus Overmind or Knight is important to threaten the early game remote.

1 Apr 2015 Butters

Why no d4vid since it's in faction and an awesome card? And I would swap out a mimic for a femme fatale to bypass tollbooths and such, also since u have a spare influence.

1 Apr 2015 Dydra

Well you are looking at 16 pure econ cards and 4 pseudo ( or econ with a wink if u like) ... I'd be surprised if you didn't make a lot of money ... since half of your deck is econ ...

I would recommend , as someone suggest above, 1 mem strip seems fine and maybe 1-2 uninstall ... Overmind counters can easily run out in long games and that 1 of clone chip doesn't make it that much better :\

2 Apr 2015 TheRyanBurke

@Butters d4v1d is a great card to pair with E3. In my particular case, I couldn't find room for more than 1 and figured I'd never see it when I need it. My approach to most problems I expected to encounter was to throw more money at the problem. In this case, an Overmind with a huge bankroll is functionally equivalent to a d4v1d.

@Dydra MU and by extension Overmind counters have not yet been a barrier (yuk yuk) to this deck's success. Uninstall is a good fit, but it takes 2 clicks to refresh an Overmind in this way, whereas the Clone Chip can bring out a Knight or Overmind at instant speed. Very valuable mid-run and to catch corps off guard.

4 Apr 2015 LynxMegaCorp

I think your calculations are misleading. The Supplier saves you 12 credits at the most. Deep Mind (1), e3 (2), 13 resources (15), and its install cost reduces profit to 12.

You still use a click to attach the card to TS, so you really save 1 hard credit where that click could potentially serve you in other ways.

Its a decent econ card, I just think you are advertising it incorrectly. Great deck; might be what I've been looking for in order to try Quetzal.

4 Apr 2015 LynxMegaCorp

And the fact that three of your econ / tempo cards are delayed by The Supplier (I mean Data Folding, Daily Casts and Earthrise Hotel) is unfortunate. I try to run TS with immediate-use cards like ProfCon. Liberated and Kati are good examples. Did you consider Cyberfeeder for the slight discount / recurring cred?

And what happens when Knights are installed over and Overmind is empty? 1 Clone Chip is hardly safe. :/ I might try a virus-focused version of this. Darwin, anyone?

4 Apr 2015 TheRyanBurke

@Lynx Kuroneko the click to host the card is the same as clicking to install. It doesn't reduce the savings of Supplier. I did not factor in the cost of Supplier, you're right, so total money possibly saved in a Supplier-first game is 28c.

I did not consider Cyberfeeder. It is very similar to Data Folding as a 1c per turn, but in this deck there a few turns where you do nothing but econ (Liberated/Kati/Day Job), and Cyberfeeder wouldn't fire on those turns.

I have not yet played a game with this deck where 3 Knights, 3 Overminds, and 1 Clone Chip was sufficient to finish the game. YMMV.

A Darwin+Cyberfeeder variant swapping out the Data Folding and an Overmind or two is something I'd like to see!

4 Apr 2015 LynxMegaCorp

You know, I can't believe I forgot that the host click replaces the install click. Guess both my feet are in my mouth, eh? Thanks for clearing that up! Supplier's a LOT better than I originally thought and I already try to include it when I can.

Seeing the 3-of e3, console and The Supplier did inspire me to consider Paige Piper...

4 Apr 2015 TheRyanBurke

My current revision has -2 Supplier, -1 Data Folding, +2 Hostage, +1 Rachel Beckman. Tried to reduce redundancy of Supplier and fetch other Connections. Now the only hard redundant cards are Deep Reds, E3s and a Mimic so it feels pretty lean.

4 Apr 2015 Admiral Hotcakes

This deck screams Paige Piper to me - any thoughts on whether you'd include it?

5 Apr 2015 TheRyanBurke

@Admiral Hotcakes see my previous comment. With a couple tweaks I don't think Paige makes sense. Not enough redundant cards.

6 Apr 2015 Butters

Paige is more for when you install the first data folding or daily casts you can fetch the other ones and host them also so you would be setup quite quickly.

6 Apr 2015 CrimsonWraith

@Butters Paige Pipere puts them in the heap, not your grip.

6 Apr 2015 Butters

Ah my bad.

8 Apr 2015 onibaku06

@TheRyanBurke-this deck looks amazing. Quetzal is one of my favorite Runners, and seeing this new twist on her is very refreshing.

I have a couple of questions for you in regards to running the deck.

  1. What is an optimal opening hand?
  2. Is there anything you mulligan for?
  3. Why run 2x Knifed? Is it because it pairs so well with Quetzal, or something else?
8 Apr 2015 TheRyanBurke

@onibaku06 optimal opening hand: Supplier, Deep Red, E3, Knight, econ

I will generally mulligan if there's no econ or missing Supplier. Most hands aren't terrible in that you have stuff you can start doing, even if it's just Supplier-less econ.

I run Knifed to alleviate the problem of stacked barriers. I'd prefer to reserve Overmind and Knight usage for code gates and sentries. It's also a nice answer to Blue Sun OAI plays. Quetzal breaks Curtain Wall for 2c when E3 is out!

8 Apr 2015 LynxMegaCorp

OAI doesn't require Knifed as the ice is trashed after breaking it.

8 Apr 2015 TheRyanBurke

Derp, typing too fast and combined two thoughts. e3 and Quetzal are a great answer to the OAI play before they can bounce it. Knifed is just as good to eliminate the Hadrian/Curtain if you miss the window.

8 Apr 2015 onibaku06

@TheRyanBurke-thanks for the answers. :-) A couple more questions.

Has 1x Kati Jones been helpful, or is just nice to have as a back up?

Do you think it's worth throwing an Imp or Nerve Agent into the mix?

9 Apr 2015 SneakdoorMelb

This is a sweet deck! I only managed to win against it from double stacking Wraparounds on R&D and the runner being incredibly unlucky with their HQ accesses.

9 Apr 2015 tuism

1x Kati seems low, but hey I guess the other 20 econ cards will pick up the slack. Liberated doesn't play well with Kati anyway.

9 Apr 2015 soulraiden

Tollbooth and blue sun destroy this deck pretty easly :(

9 Apr 2015 mythbuilder

I love the use of the term "refactor influence". Using that from now on. Brilliant!

10 Apr 2015 TheRyanBurke

@onibaku06 Kati Jones is there to dump surplus clicks and help pay for asset trashing. I don't love it in this deck, but there's a need for renewable money. I'd like to have an Imp in here, but a Wanton Destruction might make more sense. My current version runs 1 Medium and 1 Nerve Agent.

@soulraiden Blue Sun and Tollbooth make it competitive ;) If they put the Tollbooth on the remote, pound R&D. If they shore up R&D, you can threaten the scoring remote while making money. Tollbooth is certainly one of the better ICE against this build, but what deck doesn't have a nemesis ICE?

22 Apr 2015 BinarySecond

I've been playing this deck with the Nerve/Medium revision. I was surprised how often I actually get them.
Pressuring R&D and HQ is so easy with this deck. Rich as hell. I'm really enjoying it. Thanks @TheRyanBurkefor sharing!

26 Apr 2015 gumed85

Do you think that Professional Contacts would be better than The Supplier? What about Paige Piper ? Do you think it has any role in this deck? Thank you!

27 Apr 2015 TheRyanBurke

@gumed85 Could be! I haven't done the math but it would be worth trying for a few games. There are certainly times where I'm clicking for cards because an Earthrise hasn't shown up yet.

I don't believe Paige Piper has a place here. Not enough cards that are redundant to justify the slots. I like having a FEW extra cards for net damage.

27 Apr 2015 BinarySecond

Ran this deck this weekend at Manchester UK regionals with the Rachel Beckman modifications. Kept 3 Datafolding -1 Daily Casts -Earthrise +1 Vamp.
Vamp did it's job in the games I needed it to, break the corp to bust their Caprice/Ash scoring server.
Don't think I ever used Rachel Beckman, mostly due to hesitance for the cost!
Tsurugi and Komainu were real balls aches when they appeared.
IHW pulled it's weight against a lightly protected R&D with Medium. Dig for 6 no fear :)

28 Apr 2015 BinarySecond

Curious to know how you'd feel about running Career Fair over the supplier and being able to have more influence free to run Clone Chips or similar?

13 May 2015 50ft

Played a variation of this for a few months and loved it. The Supplier definitely does his work! Turing, however, just put a thumb in my eye. Dropped Knight and Deep Red for MemStrips and D4v1d . Obviously, MemStrips give more power for your Overmind than Deep Red and D4v1d let's you cut through the heavy stuff. Any thoughts?

13 May 2015 TheRyanBurke

@BinarySecond awesome to hear others using Qimpossible archetypes at regionals! I like the idea of Career Fair over Supplier. Not sure what I'd do with the extra influence.

@50ft Turing is the card that made me stop playing Qimpossible for now. Need a new approach. I like the idea of D4v1d replacing Knight, but then we might need something to help us break ICE in that 3-4 strength zone. A Turing thrown on a central becomes a whole turn for a run. Why does MemStrips provide more power for Overmind than Deep Red? Each is +3 MU.

14 May 2015 50ft

@TheRyanBurke Though each is +3 MU, MemStrips isn't a console and therefore stackable. Get two-three memstrips out and drop an overmind for even more power counters mid-late game.

14 May 2015 50ft

@TheRyanBurke with Turing only a strength 2 on centrals, it is prime for Parasite. For other ice 2-3 strength, you just have to pay for Overmind to bring the strength up, right? And with this econ, no prob!

14 May 2015 TheRyanBurke

Ah, yes, of course! I wonder if dropping down to 1 Mimic and replacing all the Knights with Parasite and recursion is a viable approach to terribly annoying low str ICE.

15 May 2015 50ft

@TheRyanBurke Something like This deck is what I was thinking and completely ditching Mimic knowing that you'd have to parasite Swordsman. I also added in Imps . If I spend the money and powercounters to run and it is upgrade, I definitely want to trash it for free. Then, we just have to deal with Caprice Nisei being everywhere and needing a vamp in there... Could swap out the Imps for Clots in a fast advance meta.

14 Jun 2015 millian

Have you considered running Inject in this deck? It seems pretty great, but is the threat of milling overmind to risky?

13 Feb 2016 ChairmanHiro

So, what I see with this deck, is that e3 is essentially your fracter, and Mimic will take care of the majority of sentries, so the Knight/overminds are for code gates and really big sentries. With D4vid, that takes care of high strength ice and sentries mimic can't get, meaning the AI's are basically only left to be decoders....which makes me wonder why not simply replace some of them with decoders? Though I see they offer a lot of flexibility before you have everything set up.

28 Apr 2016 thunderfist

What happens when you see a Turing?

2 Jul 2017 Zelmor

@thunderfistSomething similar happened to me.

The deck gets locked out of servers with a Hortum advanced 3 times. Had to make a desperate Medium run on RND last turn after corp advanced twice in remote. Ended up 1 score short due to GFI. Femme Fatale is worth considering, maybe dropping an e3. Clone chip too slow if not played from hand? Haven't see much use for it, although it can be a game saver. Not sure if I would risk cutting it.

6 Sep 2017 Cato the Elder

This deck has no answer to Turing. A server protected by Turing is invulnerable. It's a cool deck, though.

6 Sep 2017 CrimsonWraith

At the risk of pointing out the obvious... Turing did not exist at the time this deck was made and won the Regional. The deck's creator specifically mentioned more than two years ago that Turing is why he stopped playing the deck. Plenty of discussion about it in the comments that you scrolled past to type that. =)