Purple Piggy Bank

Tozar 696

Alix is one of my favorite cards and this deck is wholly devoted to making her viable. She is the only economy card besides Hedge Fund and the rest of the deck is built around finding her, protecting her, and putting counters on her.

Your goal is very simple:

  1. Find Alix
  2. Build a scoring remote around Alix and shore up your centrals.
  3. Smash Alix for 14-24 credits and start scoring out of your remote.

Now to explain the card choices:

Agendas - This is your basic Foodcoats agenda suite. Forcing the runner to score 4 out of 9 agendas to win is a good thing and doesn't require much explaining. I'm running an extra Project Vitruvius instead of a third NAPD because having agenda counters will help you double Biotic Labor a Global Food Initiative for the win, and just gives you a lot of late game options in general. Accelerated Beta Test is no surprise, but this deck really wants to trigger it because of the synergy with Team Sponsorship. Hit an agenda? Stick it in your scoring remote. Hit 3 agendas? Install Jackson from HQ or Archives. If you're feeling cheeky, you can sneak out an ABT with an Alix on the board and maybe get some free ice with the added bonus of power counters.

Executive Boot Camp - This card is amazing on its own. First of all, it is basically any asset you need it to be, which makes it Alix number 4, 5, and 6; greatly increasing the odds of finding an Alix in your starting hand. You can use it to rez ice on your scoring remote, avoiding the threat of Blackmail, DDOS, and Account Siphon. You can also use it to rez NEXT ice on servers the runner isn't interested in, boosting the rest of your ice. About to smash your Alix, but want to squeak out a few more credits? Tutor a useful asset and install it before you break the piggy bank.

Team Sponsorship - This card helps you end the game fast. You'll spend the first part of the game holding on to agendas or dropping them into archives. If the runner isn't prudent about checking HQ or Archives, you can punish them by scoring out from 0 to 7 points in 3-4 turns. Since you have to be scoring to use this card, it doesn't have much synergy with Alix (which takes the place of an agenda in your scoring remote), but you can rez an unprotected Alix while you score anyway and force the runner to do something about it. With two of these on the table, or no Agendas in HQ or Archives, you can use it to restore spent or trashed upgrades to your scoring remote.

Upgrades - This deck runs a lot of one-of upgrades because you'll want to put most of them in your scoring remote and still be able to use them without worrying about uniqueness. Having 4-7 cards in a remote server is terrifying and should be enough on its own to make the runner completely give up on trying to trash Alix or take your agendas. This is where most of the pet cards are found, but every one of these has helped me win a game in some fashion. I don't have to explain why Ash and Caprice are good.

Marcus Batty - He turns NEXT Gold into an absolute nightmare and can end the run if Caprice fails to do so.

Corporate Troubleshooter - This guy is here to bolster the NEXT Gold threat but he can also throw off Atman math for a turn or help you squeak out another turn of Alix so you can cash her in before she gets trashed.

Cyberdex Virus Suite - This helps you Biotic Labor for the win against shapers with Clot and can stop a Data Sucker and Parasite combo from chomping through one of your NEXT ice for a turn.

Oaktown Grid - This region is amazing at protecting Alix, especially in combination with Ash, which requires the runner to spend at least 6 credits (on 0 link) before they can access anything else in your server. Your first turn can include installing Alix, rezzing her, and using Shipment from Mirrormorph to protect your Alix with Oaktown Grid while using ice to guard your centrals.

Self-destruct - This is a pet card and can be substituted for another Ash or Oaktown Grid if you wish, but with Faust in the current meta, it has gotten some pretty funny and unexpected flatlines. After you break your piggy bank, you'll have plenty of money to pump a game ending trace for the win. No one expects to be killed by an upgrade. If you have money and fast advance tools, and aren't too worried about the ice in your remote, you can blow everything up in your scoring remote to stop the runner from scoring on their last click, and pick up the pieces later. This card is made better by the fact that you'll usually have a large number of cards in your scoring remote.

Shipment from Mirrormorph - Amazing with Alix. You can use this to sneak out agendas as well without removing Alix. If you're really low on credits and your ice is getting destroyed, you can use this as a way to just install and pop an Alix with 3 counters in one turn, but that's not what this deck is designed to do.

NEXT Ice - This deck runs NEXT ice because they encourage you to install more of them, and with Alix we really like installing things! We also need ice that can end the run early on the cheap side so we can protect Alix. Pile NEXT Bronze and NEXT Silver onto R&D and make it extremely taxing for the runner to see Agendas before you do. Put a Gold in front of Batty or Corporate Troubleshooter and score out safely behind it. Don't forget that Mother Goddess counts as NEXT Ice, so install and rez her with Executive Bootcamp on archives or in front of a Team Sponsorship just to get the NEXT boost.

Turing - A brilliant piece of ice that stops Faust in its tracks and really makes the runner think about clicking through it to trash an asset with mystery upgrades. This ice is key to slowing down Eater/Keyhole decks and Siphon spam. My rule of thumb is: if you are playing against a female Anarch ID, save your Turings for HQ and R&D. Don't forget that the runner can click through.

Architect - Alix likes installing things, and Architect let's us do that twice without spending a click! It's amazing when this fires with Alix in play, as it completely pays off the rez cost. Just make sure you can still defend her after rezzing Architect.

Some tips

Your entire economy is based on Alix. So protect her at all costs, even if it means giving up some agendas on your centrals. Let the agenda density work in your favor and allow some accesses if it means protecting a first turn Alix. Watch your opponent's credits and resources like a hawk and figure out if they can get in and trash Alix next turn. If the answer is yes, don't spend your last click without popping Alix unless you are confident they won't run her. If you draw another Alix, it may be worth smashing the piggy bank and installing another one just in case. You'll want to cash her in when you can get around 20 credits if possible.
2 comments
31 Dec 2015 InsanityRises

Deck looks fun.

31 Dec 2015 Tomasaki

It definitely took me by surprise, and it was a solid build, kudos my man.