Comet Powered Briefcase to Mars - 1st Bromley Store Champs

~ The Theory

Plan A: Install God of War & get tagged to high heaven. Install Counter Surveillance & dig for victory.

Plan B: Panic, fly by the seat of your pants and pray.

~ The Practice

Most games follow Plan B to the letter. Somehow that worked in every game on the day except round three where I ate a BOOM! to the face on turn two versus what I learned was a Door to Door Making News deck. Let's discuss the other games.

• Round 1 vs Lakshimi/Moony CI

I don't know what the deck is really called, but it has assets up the wazoo and Estelle Moon and Lakshimi Smartfabrics for days. The answer here is the currents. Both Hacktivist Meeting and Employee Strike really make this CI build sad. As such dig for them and play them when they come up. Ideally (and in practice here) Hacktivist Meeting goes first to slow the economy and once that one is trashed when CI finds one of its own currents follow up with Employee Strike and watch ten cards go in the bin.

Councilman is in this deck because Cyberdex Virus Suite is anathema to it. Turns out, also works very well against Lakshimi. If you expect to see this CI variant: play more Councilman.

• Round 2 vs Palana

This one saw an undefended R&D so I played Rebirth first click into Edward Kim: Humanity's Hammer and went to town. Saw seven points quickly enough not to find out what misery awaited me if the late game arrived. I know that if a Nisei Mk2 is scored all plans go out the window so I'm glad I didn't see more Jinteki.

• Round 3 vs Door to Door Making News

Turn 2 BOOM! as previously discussed. Let us not dwell on this.

• Round 4 vs Controlling the Message

I've played this deck against Mustard before and it's kind of a toss up how it goes. It doesn't interact well with assets but does like tags. In the end a couple of early accesses through tagging ICE pulled out four points and trashing Commercial Bankers Groups as they appeared got a dig of eight off and the win before the corp could score its one pointers and Exchange of Information the two Global Food Initiatives I stole.

In other words. If you see Mustard, go fast and hope you don't eat BOOM!.

• Top 4 vs Brain Rewiring CI

This was another early Rebirth into Edward Kim and slamming face into the non-subtype ICE whilst digging for Employee Strike. Once found, said Employee Strike ruined the Corp's day and threw enough points to win into the bin. I specifically re-tuned the deck to deal with Brain Rewiring, in this circumstance the game plan is A) Find Employee Strike, B) Time it to Counter Surveillance HQ before they can get the combo off, C) If the hand gets too big and the Violet and Ultraviolet Level Clearances are mostly played use CBI Raid to reset the clock.

On the note of CBI Raid, let's talk the spice.

So this list has a few surprising cards in it, mostly because I was indecisive about my tech and just threw in one of everything. Let's go through the cards:

• Comet is the console of choice because, if you can afford the tempo hit when it arrives, it noticeably accelerates the deck. Seeing as how a lot of Plan B involves digging for tech cards and a lot of cards (I've Had Worse, Build Script, Process Automation and occasionally Mars for Martians) draw, being able to play them faster, or in combination with economy like Sure Gamble and Day Job makes the deck sing. On the other hand an install cost of four is often too much and Null: Whistleblower shoves it in the Briefcase to mitigate the hideous cost of boosting God of War.

• Origami is in there because I'm not playing Obelus and Dean Lister needs more hand size. Also it helps when you see Cortex Lock.

• Amped Up is a relic of an earlier build I haven't had the heart to cut yet. In a pinch it can make that final big turn possible, but that's rare and it would probably be better being something else.

• EMP Device is there because this started out as (and still is in theory) and one run sort of deck and making that one, very expensive, run easier is a good thing. It did good work in the Brighton Store Champs that saw the previous version of this deck but I didn't see it all day here, plus I didn't see a corp that built big servers.

• Councilman, as discussed, is here because Cyberdex Virus Suite makes God of War weep salty, bitter tears and the conspiracy breakers there there for last ditch situations and feed the Briefcase rather than to actually be used. Turns out Councilman, in turn, makes Lakshimi Smart Fabrics weep salty, bitter tears, so this wants to go up.

• Rebirth was something of an MVP last minute include. It's there because this deck despises Resistor and Rebirthing into Quetzal: Free Spirit feels like justice. In practice it was old Edward Kim: Humanity's Hammer who was the target of the day, but nevertheless I think this is a solid include. Thanks to @leachrode for the idea (at least I think it was your suggestion, if not take the credit and run).

• CBI Raid this is specific anti-CI tech that I have yet to use. I want to though, so badly. If you want to try this list it's the first thing that a sane runner should cut (though if you're sane why would you want to play this madness?)

• Hacktivist Meeting and Employee Strike and great against Mustard and CI so they're in there, Employee Strike is also there because I'm terrified that one day this will face AgInfusion and all hope will be lost.

Everything else is draw, econ or plays into the tags & the God of War/Counter Surveillance engine. All may be sacrificed to the Briefcase.

~ The Conclusion

When I first sat down to play this deck I apologised to my opponent in advance for the wretched, degenerate anti-fun I was about to inflict. Over time the way I've found the deck plays in action is hilarious fun. The trick is to try and stick to Plan A whilst also poking everything with your face so that you don't lose in the meantime. NBN makes it sad, but that's just how it goes with tag me I suppose, but it plays a good game against most corps I saw.

I wasn't about when the pre-rotation God of War decks were knocking about but it's plain to see this is much less effective lacking Account Siphon, it is still an effective plan however, so long as you play it fast and loose and don't eat a missile to the house on turn two.