Frisky Fisk

Alright, so this deck is waaaaay out of my wheelhouse, in terms of construction. I am anything but a fan of stringing together a glut of cards, no matter how decent the end result. But I voted for Fisk back when I played in the Plugged In Tour. And, to quote Edward Norton in Fight Club (after he smashes Jared Leto's face into oblivion): "I wanted to destroy something beautiful."

Okay, maybe that quote doesn't make a lot of sense at first, but, basically, what I meant was this: I want to annoy the bejesus out of folks with some Franken-combo to which I would normally turn up my nose. So this quote made no sense upon further reflection--but I refuse to revise this post!

Okay, so, like any deck I make, I play the shit out of it before I bother posting anything--not that that will keep any of you from saying "but, why don't you..." Now, I would ask you reasonable non-troll-type folks to carefully read before slathering the interwebs with your musings. There is logic here, though twisted as it may be.

THE BASIC IDEA: You want to deck the corp player by using Fisk's ability, his Investment Seminar, Eden Shard, and, of course, Data Leak Reversal. It sounds a lot easier than it actually is. Why? Because letting the corp draw a bazillion cards without any actual threat(s) means you are likely accelerating your own demise.

SO LET'S TALK ABOUT OUR THREATS:

Data Leak Reversal: You want to stick this and get to work. To do so, you will need to be tagged (usually by Account Siphon) or virtually tagged by way of Paparazzi. But if it was only that easy... You see, you will need to protect DLR in order to obliterate their deck, which will be detailed at the tail end of this here post, so hang tight.

Fisk's ability/Fisk Investment Seminar/Eden Shard: This trifecta of mass drawing is your best and most brutal means to speed up the decking WHILE overwhelming the corp player. So, yes, Jackson Howard is in every deck. This can suck, yes, but it also is, essentially a tempo hit for the corp player. By this I mean that the corp player, when their hand is inundated with cards, tends to try and play out what they can rather than let it all go to waste. This can cause a tempo hiccup or sorts, esp. if you think they are on the brink of scoring.

Eden Shard, in essence, is a 4th Investment Seminar, as you can force them to draw by the way of Fisk's ability and then alt install Eden Shard and pop it. At first, I thought this was laugh-worthy, but I cannot count the games I have won by hitting them down to 2 cards with DLR and then ambush with this, make them draw, and then have to spend 5 mins explaining that if they cannot draw a card they lose--not joking; I have literally posted a general rules link a couple dozen times in my testing.

Legwork: Typically, when the corp is drawing a buttload of additional cards, the odds of them ending up in their hand is relatively high. I tend to treat Legwork like a tactical hit, wherein I know there are not any left in their archives, which increases the odds, dependent on game state, that they have a few in hand.

NOW LET'S TALK ABOUT SUPPORT CARDS:

There are a lot of cards to cover here, many of which may make your brain twitch like a muscle locked in a spasm, but hear me out.

Faust/Inside Job: This is our only breaker. Just two copies and a single Special Delivery. Why? This is all we really need. The deck is rife with redundant cards, many of which you only install as needed. The deck doesn't run very often, which is why Inside Job helps to get you in when needed.

The single copy of E3 Feedback Implants is there for troublesome ICE like Komainu, Archer, etc. It doesn't come up often, but, after close to 100 games with this deck, I can attest to its worthwhile inclusion. And no, you do not need a console like Desperado, Turntable, Logos, or Vigil.

Drug Dealer/Quality Time: First off, this card's name seems so perverse to me--just sayin'. Anyway, this card, or, rather, these cards, are soooo important. They are your draw engine. They keep your hand full when you can't find a Paparazzi and you are tagged up and within flatline range in one way or another. They save you so many vital actions when you are on the "DLR or die" approach. Just awesome. But, yeah, they will leave you broke as a joke 9/10--more on how to deal with this later. If you have a Hostage in hand, you usually should be getting these out ASAP.

The single QT is there when you are digging for a miracle or need to fuel Faust. This could easily be a different 1 influence card--it has been many, many different cards throughout testing in truth. However, in a deck like this, where you have some many necessary pieces, burst draw like this is a nice crutch.

Account Siphon: We all know what this card does. In this particular deck, it helps swing the credits in your direction to keep those Drug Dealers at bay while keeping the corp too poor to score or trash your myriad vital resources. And it's not bad that you are making them potentially draw another card in the process.

Fall Guy/Wireless Net Pavilion: These cards help to keep your DLR and other precious resources around long after you are tagged. Fall Guy doubles as an econ burst for things like Inside Job and Dirty Laundry. These cards, in tandem with Account Siphon, help to make the DLR plan a reality. And no, it is not unreasonable to use Hostage to fetch a Fall Guy if you want to keep the DLR hits coming.

Paparazzi: Sometimes landing an Account Siphon just isn't going to happen, which is why you play this card. In short, this is an alternative means to get DLR working. Further, if you have ended up tagged and are playing against some Scorched Earth type deck, then, yeah, you should install this. This card isn't always necessary, but it is often the cog needed to get the mill machine going.

Dirty Laundry/Easy Mark/Bank Job: Money. It is that simple. Drug Dealers will make you broke as a joke. All of these cards help to navigate having no moneys. Easy Mark conveniently is the exact amount you need to drop a Faust. It also is the exact amount you need to drop 3 different 1 cost resources. It also is the amount needed for a Quality Time. So, yeah, it is perfect and far better than Sure Gamble, which will rarely ever work.

Dirty Laundry allows you to get some click compression: make a run on archives, force them to draw, get some money, install DLR. This is the most recent inclusion in the deck, but I have been quite happy with it.

With all of these Turtlebacks/Team Sponsorship decks out there, and with corp players generally dropping all kind of junk in order to not just discard it, Bank Job is nice burst econ. In truth, I want to play two copies, as I had two during one iteration and it was awesome, but, alas, this would come at the price of a Legwork or Special Order or E3--and I don't wanna make those kinds of decisions right now.

Joshua B.: I do not like this card. Nope. Not at all. When people would play this in MaxX I would snicker. But, with 3 Pavilion, 3 Fall Guy, and it being an extra click for DLR AND another means to get a tag, hell-to-the-yeah. With five clicks, you can make fast confetti of the corp's deck, while leaving yourself enough options to apply pressure as needed. Oh, and this is another Hostage target.

Same Old Thing/Levy AR Lab Access: Pretty straightforward here: get more mileage out of your awesome cards. If one could only SoT Investment Seminar...

In truth, Levy may be entirely unnecessary, but I have certainly played games where I needed to reset the ol' deck to sneak out a win. I have considered dropping this and QT for 2 Injects, but the very real terror of accidentally milling away both of my Fausts has made me not bother to try.

So this is pretty much everything. Now, for all of you out there that love to one-up and poke the bear and whatnot, here is a list of cards I played and did not like:

GANG SIGN: This is a slippery slope, as playing these is not enough. I tried it with Nerve Agent and HQ Interface. Once, they helped to kill me as I accessed 2 Snares and summarily died. They have also won me games. My issue here is you have to really wrench the list to squeeze them in, and in doing so you are giving yourself a potential passive means to victory, but also are at the whim of random luck. And all the clicks it takes to set this up... you could just be winning in a more certain way.

DATA FOLDING: I saw this in another list and kept it in for most of my testing. It is fine, but pretty underwhelming. If you draw these early, sure, you put them in play. But if you draw them late, there is no reason you would bother. Easy Mark is just better.

TRI-MAF CONTACT: If you want to give an edge to flatline decks, play this card. Too risky.

SCRUBBER: I tried this against the aforementioned surge of NEH asset decks, but it is just slow and inefficient. I think to beat these, kill Team Sponsorship some of the time, but usually you can just stay the course and try and keep them poor where possible.

FILM CRITIC: I think this card is horribly overrated. Sure, it is great in some matches, but not all the ones people think. It is dog crap against Argus--you get WORSE click efficiency here rather than eating a tag and removing it, unless you are just broke. Any deck that aims to tag, likely has a means to munch this, and sometimes when there is an agenda sitting on it. Sure, it is nice against Jinteki, esp. RP, but, nah. Not for this deck.

KATI JONES: I am playing Hostage, yes, but this card is just too slow and click inefficient. Sure, it can get you around Drug Dealer, but I tried, and tried, and tried to make this fit through a round hole, but she is just a square peg, friends.

SURE GAMBLE/DAILY CASTS: I mentioned this earlier, but SG just doesn't jive in this deck. Daily Casts can be ordered in such a way that it nets you credits in spite of Drug Dealers, but, alas, I found it to be a disappointment--originally I was playing these and Folding WITH Career Fair.

SYMMETRICAL VISAGE: Once again, not really worth the bother. I love the crap out of this card, but it just ended up Faust fodder like 18 out of 20 games, as installing it mid to late game was too slow.

IN CONCLUSION:

This deck is definitely not easy to pilot to a win. The key is to know when to flood their hand. You have to wait for key moments. It is certainly fun to play, but I would not expect a person to have much success with this deck until they have played it a couple dozen times. I stayed the course, in spite of losing tremendously with lists that I found here on this site. I always try what appears to be the most reasonable build(s) before I start tinkering. After a lot of games (I think I am on 93 at present, wherein I have won just over 50), I feel comfortable with the deck and the cards I have chosen to include. As with anything I build, there is always what I call the wiggle room cards. I would rank Quality Time as this. Some of you may want to play only 2 DLR, but I would not advise this. It is the top card to trash once you are tagged. You will want to get it down early and often, having a backup if and when they can deal with the first one you have played. Remember, anything you draw that you don't need is Faust fodder.

Okay, this is too long. Enjoy and let the pontificating begin (beyond my own)!