Apocalypse Now, Apocalypse Later

I work at Fantasy Flight Games, and I’ve been playing some iteration of this deck since before the public release of Data and Destiny. The basic concept is hardly revolutionary—Apocalypse as many times as possible, profit—but what I love about this deck is how hard it leans into the premise. Over the years, I’ve slowly stripped out everything that isn’t laser-focused on blowing up corp cards. There’s no escape hatch, no meta calls, no damage prevention, no Film Critic, no cards I’m not willing to sacrifice to hasten the End Times. The only concession I’ve made to risk mitigation is the inclusion of Levy AR Lab Access and a couple of Tropes, and even that's more about keeping the engine running than fear of a flatline. This deck dies a lot, but I've found that as I've focused more and more on an all-out blitzkrieg, the better it's done. This current iteration has a 33-15 win record, which is more than I could have hoped for a deck that just burns it down and hopes for the best.

The essential strategy is to make that cash and build into an Apocalypse run as quickly as possible, and the deck has some cute tricks to reliably enable that out of the heap. If you have a Same Old Thing in play and an Apocalypse in the heap, both Amped Up and Out of the Ashes can enable an Apocalypse. This is especially useful if you need to take damage during your runs on the central servers, and for lulling your opponents into a false sense of security if they see a couple of Apocs in your heap.

It takes a while to get a feel for the best time to pull off armageddon, but a turn in which the corp looks to be attempting to score is always good. Worst case scenario, it was a trap or a bit of misdirection, and you’ve just removed the threat, their ice, and the potential to play something like Trick of Light.

Despite its near-myopic focus on the Day of Judgement, there are a couple of other little tricks in the deck. Amped Up plus Wanton Destruction is a great combo, especially if you’re feeling gutsy and they’ve left their HQ open at the beginning of the game. Nothing like a first turn hand wipe to really set the tone for the game. En Passant DDoS is a great early game play if you’re not ready for full-on Ragnarök, or as a follow up while the corp tries to rebuild. I’ve even pulled off two En Passants in a single turn on a number of occasions, thanks to extra-click cards like Amped up and Out of the Ashes. Good times.

If you’re looking to make tweaks to the deck, the most expendable card is definitely Hijacked Router. It has nice synergy with an Apocalypse run because you can sacrifice it for a little extra corp griefing, and it’s a fun post-apocalyptic play as well since you’ve just blown up all their servers. That said, it’s the least vital component of the deck, since you aren’t really trying to win an economic war. Rebirth is also more of a just-for-fun card, though it has been clutch in a number of games. Omar is the obvious late-game Rebirth play, but Gnat is an interesting new option for some helpful drip economy and Alice is always fun. However, you definitely don’t want to play it too early and it can clog up your hand, so I often find myself pitching it and then using my Same Old Things on more important plays like Levy or Apoc for the third or fourth time.

Have fun, and be prepared for some rage quits!