So Free Mars gave us some of the final pieces to the puzzle to an entirely new archetype for Anarch decks. While Anarch Tag-Me has been a thing since Anatomy of Anarchy taught everyone how to give corps the middle finger, new cards like Counter Surveillance, Mars is for Martians, Jarogniew Mercs and God of War have really upped the ante to just how crazy you can be.
To give credit where credit is due, the first player I saw using the deck was @CodeMarvelous who mentioned borrowing a Noise Deck from @x3r0h0ur. There is a stream of him playing it on Day Job and if you haven’t seen this style of deck in action I highly recommend you watch a match or two to see what it’s capable of.
But it isn’t necessarily just Noise who can execute this strategy. While there are some definite synergies with God of War being a virus and that added Sucker/Parasite Value, the shell seems well suited to a number of Anarch ID’s. I’ve heard of players testing MaxX, Whizzard, Val, Alice, and even Null with the same basic combination of Counter Surveillance, Siphon, Obelus, and God of War.
I’ve been messing around with a Noise list similar to the one I linked and it has been working pretty well. I’m interested in porting it over to MaxX but I can’t decide whether to drop the Parasites or one of the Siphons to squeeze in a Levy. Not surprisingly, slots seem pretty tight in this style of deck but there are a lot of interesting decisions to be made as far as how you support your breakers. Data Sucker, Dean Lister, Bad Pub, Null Ability, Ice Carver, Scrubbed, Stim Hack, etc. are all ways to make God of War into a serviceable breaker, but it’s unlikely that you can cram all of that goodness in one deck.
So I’m curious what all you rowdy punks have been testing. Have you found some VIP cards or hot tech for this sort of list? What’s your favorite Tag Me Anarch ID? Have you lost to Psycho Beale yet?
I included Councilman and estrikes. Still playing around with Hacktivists cause I’m not sure how great the Moons matchup is.
Also, I totally thought I was the first one with this idea
Councilman mostly for Crisium Grid I’m guessing? Bonus anti CI7 tech I suppose.
A lot of good players seem to be looking at various builds of Siphon Whizz to beat on Moons, so I imagine the Counter Surveillance shell has a decent shot against it. Interestingly, I think you could let them get a pretty big moon, try to get them to pop it and then Counter Surveillance HQ for 10 or 11 cards. Of course, that’s a bit of a dream scenario because it assumes you don’t have more tags than the corps cards in hand and you have the money to pay for it, but having the opportunity for big HQ multi-access too seems like it could be pretty good.
As for who had the idea first, I don’t think it takes a rocket scientist to put together the synergy with cards that tag you and Mars is for Martians/Counter Surveillance. I was just giving some credit to some deck authors for their specific card choices and take on the deck.
I am taking a version of this new tag me anarch style (I’ve been thinking about calling it the Steven Wooley memorial build), to a regional this weekend. I’ll have a full report posted if it does well, if not, we’re burning the cards and shipping them out to the sea.
The changes are strong, and they work in basically every anarch ID. I’m still not even 100% on which ID I’m taking, narrowed to a few. Something about never not something something somethingzzard
Best of luck with it, I know some of the Chicago guys are making the trip so I’m sure the competition will be tough (assuming you’re going to the Louisville one).
I don’t think I’ve exactly found the right combination of 45 cards to make it sing, but with the sheer volume of econ denial and multi-access you can achieve, I think it has potential to be a tier-1 deck.
I’m interested to see if this sort of thing will warp the meta enough for decks that don’t really care about punishing tags to start splashing a singleton Closed Accounts or All-Seeing Eye just to keep it in check. Since I’ve been playing it I’ve mostly hit Jinteki and EtF decks, so I haven’t really had to play against Tag Punishment but I’m interested to see how it holds up. Theoretically Closed Accounts isn’t that big of a deal with MFM, but All-Seeing Eye could do some damage if you’re relying on Jarogniew or Josh B.
To be fair, around Worlds 2015 pre-Wireless Net Pavillion nerf a lot of Food Coats decks were slotting the tag punishment, so it’s not like it’s an unprecedented meta call.
It’s DLR, but with singleton M4M and counter-surveillance for if the DLR thing isn’t going so hot. I like it because I only draw M4M and counter-surveillance when it’s actually go time. Otherwise I just DLR. Councilman is mostly for CVS, actually, but it can get you past those pesky HQ Caprices and Crisiums and such.
Surge is to get the God back up after a purge, or just to Siphon earlier.
I think your approach here is interesting, using the combo as more of a finishing move than the lynchpin of your strategy. I’m curious though why you exclude Paperclip, seems like breaking Wraparound would suck.
I personally like Noise due of installing viruses and of his ID ability. If we play Maxx, then we need to build differently due to her ability which means having Levy AR Acess to refresh her deck.
I actually saw ActSup in a deck recently, and was like, WTF.
I realized later it was for ASI.
re: IDs
I’m trying Quetzal, but nigh any work: Whizz, Null, Omar, Maxx, Noise. Anarch has so many great options. Personally, I prefer the early aggression of Quetzal in a 3 Siphon deck.
I actually think the Null + God of War synergy is really nice, it just suck that it’s kind of a non-bo with Dean Lister, which is one of the better support cards for this style.
I thought about trying to cram in an Activist Support, just because the bad pub helps offset how expensive pumping GoW can be, but I had completely forgotten that it lets you dodge the ASI in a pinch.
On the other hand, since Counter Surveillance never really hits the table before you are planning on using it, you could just rock a few Plascrete and then the resources are considerably less relevant.
