Memes Come True (1st at Brighton SC)

"Wait, hold on, can I read that again?"

"7 subs?!?!"

[On second Crowdfunding run] "Really? I hate you."

"What does that card do? [...] Oh... 1 click for 10 credits seems like good value."

(ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ May all your memes come true! ✧*｡٩(ˊᗜˋ*)و✧*｡

Going into this SC I knew I wanted to be on a Punitive version of Azmari. I was expecting a bunch of stabby anarchs, which have a tough time setting up quickly. This is a modified version of an old deck from a previous GNK, updated for the Downfall meta, and ended up going 6-1, dropping one game to a reg 419.

The Truth

The core of the deck consists of:

• The 6-agenda package with Echo Chambers and Preemptive
• The Punitive + ConVis package
• The neutral assets and econ cards.

You must not change these.

The core of the ice suite are the IP Blocks, Slot Machines, and Surveyors. Efficient. Taxing. Humane.

That leaves you 10 slots to play with. With a high expected % of the field on anarch (especially of the stabby variety), a lot of the changes were geared to shoring up that matchup. I went 4-0 against anarchs on the day.

Tollbooth and Endless EULA used to be mainstays, but can both miserable in certain situations, so they both went down to 1 each. Tollbooth, although it does cost Laamb 10 credits, is still only 3 more than other ice, while costing 8 to rez. EULA is obviously bad against Laamb, but is also bad against "Baklan" Bochkin.

The Memes

Vanilla is a great gearcheck against anarchs, soaks up Knives and Hippos, and its backup of "+2 strength to Surveyors" isn't bad either.

Afshar is Nisei's gift to corps in a stabby anarch world. Single-handedly protects HQ: costs 5 for Black Orchestra, can't be Knifed, can't be Hippo'd (and incidentally doesn't trigger Amina).

Jua can wreck bin breakers if outside of another gearcheck, and also shuts off that server as a way to get back Crowdfunding. Also fun ahead of a Slot Machine or Degree Mill to shuffle away the card that got put back.

And the secret sauce: Standard Procedure, Peeping Tom, and Waiver.

• You'll usually name event for Azmari a good portion of the game. Combine that with Slot Machine (and the other two ingredients in the secret sauce) and you'll get a Hedge Fund off Standard Procedure in almost all circumstances. If you time it well, the times you get 10 credits off it will be ever so sweet. Especially if you follow up with two Punitives.
• Peeping Tom arrived because I was looking for more taxing ice to flesh out the ice suite. It combos with Standard Procedure to let you burst to enough money to Punitive even careful runners, and its numbers aren't bad:
  • With 2 subs, it costs Black Orchestra 3, Amina 4, Engolo 4, Laamb 7
  • And with 3 subs, it costs Black Orchestra 6
• Waiver is terrifying in front of an agenda when the runner is poor. If they don't break it, you can put almost all of your money into it, trash their hand, then Punitive them. Even if the runner's rich enough to dodge Punitive (very rare), they'll usually have a bunch of 0-2 cost cards they want to keep. And if it doesn't look like that will do anything, you can just not rez it, and it keeps the secondary mode that it shares with Vanilla of "+2 strength to Surveyors". The numbers are a bit worse for Waiver, but given that total lack of other Shapers, it wasn't a problem:
  • It costs Black Orchestra 6, Amina 4, Engolo 3, Laamb 7

"So has Waiver ever actually done anything for you?"

"It's... gotten me one meme."