Beta Test: Eviscerator
I won’t be doing this for every NRDB deck I review but on occasion I’ll follow up with a look at my own take on the same deck and see if I can make any improvements.
This is my own take on the deck I talked about in last week’s Testing Ground article
I played another 5 games with this version of the deck winning 4 and losing 1. Now I did come up against some easier decks and I am now more familiar with Apex so you’ll have to take the improved win ratio with a pinch of salt.
So a quick overview of the 5 games:
I had two games against this deck. In the first game I scored two Priority Requisition early on then found it hard to find the third agenda. Some brain damage left me with only a couple of cards in hand but a total Hail Mary play landed me a late Apocalypse allowing me unfettered access to R&D and HQ for the win. It was interesting to me to see how much I was willing to throw away just to get that apocalypse in. It can be absolutely devastating at the right moment and who needs a hand size anyway!
My second game was an easy win for me as my opponent left HQ open and I siphoned him into a position he couldn’t play from. A flooded hand didn’t help his position either.
vs. Haarp
An early siphon against this deck saw me off to great start. My opponent went horizontal and I sniped away at agendas including getting an Apocalypse in fairly early on. This one I sort of won as a Jinteki.net issue allowed him to 24/7 News Cycle a Breaking News for itself which you can’t do. I was wary of the meat damage but I think I had it under control for the most part. I should have installed a bit more facedown early on to make food for Heartbeat but I think I had it anyway.
vs. HB: Engineering the Future
This was my only loss with this version of the deck and my opponent played very well, keeping me out of centrals with some well placed Assassins that I just couldn’t absorb all of. I scored absolutely no points and was completely shut out. Assassin and cards like it that effectively cause the run to end but don’t actually have an end the run subroutine are definitely a problem for Endless Hunger and Apex in general. Although I do have Crypsis I think I will look at Overmind, replacing the PrePaid Voicepad (PPvP) with Q-Coherence chips to give me the extra mem.
vs. Weyland: Because we Built it
My opponent got totally flooded on this one so I got a fairly easy win. He iced up HQ and R&D first turn but then let me in all 3 centrals for a 1st turn apocalypse, it went my way from there.
So did my changes make much of a difference? I’m not really sure. I’ve gone off PPvP, I don’t think I get enough use out of it. Brain Cage did come in handy so I think I will keep that in. I would really like to replace Traffic Jam at some point, maybe with Employee Strike, but I’ll have to find the influence for that.
I have really enjoyed playing Apex, and whilst I don’t think he is nowhere near supported enough at the moment, his singular focus on getting the Apocalypse in makes for a very different feel to each game, trying to sneak your way in. Hopefully we will see a bit more support for him over the Mumbad cycle or maybe in a forthcoming big box, as I do feel there is something to him. For now however he will wait at the fringes of cyberspace, waiting for his moment to strike like the predator he is.
