Let's talk Whizzard

moistloaf · February 28, 2015, 3:12am

steppin in the club with 14 influence like no biggie ya’ll

Elthane · February 28, 2015, 3:19am

yeah, number 15 would be 1x fall guy but…reasons…things?

Mjlaufgr · February 28, 2015, 4:15am

Regale me with tales of DLR wrecking fools. I packed 3 Josh B and 3 DLR last tourney but did not draw a single data link reversal all day

ericbtool · February 28, 2015, 4:54am

Kim’s ability is pretty different. Kim is mostly HQ pressure because (aside from econ cards) that’s where operations tend to pile up. Whizzard is more remote pressure. upgrades and assets can be found in HQ from time to time, but generally they’re funneled onto the board.

crossbrainedfool · February 28, 2015, 5:47am

In my experience, they provide completely different things. Whizzard is better at denial/shutting down upgrades, while Kim is just raw disruption.

Elthane · February 28, 2015, 6:03am

Actually Data Link was directly responsible for taking me into the rounds of 8 as top seed. My opponent was playing a pretty standard NEH deck, but seeing Whizzard on the table he remarked that he had no idea what I was doing. He kind of slowed it down and ended up installing 4 ICE over HQ and 3 ICE over R&D before really scoring any agendas (agendas were all at the bottom anyway). The game was starting to run long as I was trashing most of his econ options and running through 3-4 ICE for Siphons to keep my coffers full and deny the Biotic labor, for some reason I don’t recall I couldn’t get an effective Wanton off and he kept trashing my Joshuas. Anyway, his R&D was starting to get low so he started to push agendas through, with HQ and R&D locked up tight I ran a central dropped DLR and milled 2 cards. Next turn he scores Astro bringing him up to 4 points while I am still at 0. My turn, mill four. His turn, score astro for match point and I am still at 0. I have one turn to make it happen so I mill 3 cards up to 9+ face down cards in Archives protected by 1 ICE. last click I pull the trigger and run Archives, all he has is a Grim and I access 8 points and win from 0 points! he tells me that there was 6 points in there and my last mill put the winning beale in the trash (all Jackson were accounted for so it was really do or die).

Elthane · February 28, 2015, 6:10am

I always think of Whizzard as 3 extra credits I get once per turn against corps with 9-12 assets/upgrades in their decks. Whizzard directly effects your economy. whereas E. Kim CAN snatch hedge funds and etc., his ability is most desirable for disrupting biotic labor, scorch, midseasons, and sea source. It is difficult because a well timed Wanton Destruction can accomplish the same while potentially pitching agendas as well.

crossbrainedfool · February 28, 2015, 7:31am

The whole benefit to Kim’s ability is that it just kinda happens. There’s no timing window, no careful read, just “Oh hey look, there goes your Midseasons!”

Talism · February 28, 2015, 8:57am

you would think that , but the corp just insta plays any econ opps, as the risk of holding them isnt worth it, any way back to wizard.

hes been my go to anarch since he came out! had to be HIPSTER!!

Urkh · February 28, 2015, 9:02am

This here makes me believe that running RnD is actually Eddy’s schtick, not HQ. Get the operations before they draw and can play them.

I’m still quite up in arms over whether to play Edward or Whizzard. Need to play more games against more people before I can really make a decision.

PeekaySK · February 28, 2015, 11:55am

For me, the deciding factor is the link.

Humanoids · February 28, 2015, 12:08pm

Imp is there for trashing expensive stuff.

Mjlaufgr · February 28, 2015, 1:50pm

Hahaha awesome.

Elthane · March 1, 2015, 1:26am

Data Link is in the deck more for pressuring archives. It’s really a fantastic card, but it necessitates a certain kind of deck i.e., tag-floating. My deck really wants to flow like water, if the Corp seals up HQ because of Wanton and Siphon then I (flow) Modded–>Keyhole and move the onslaught to R&D. If they seal up R&D, because Keyhole, then you hit HQ. You just have to remember that if you are getting them in HQ you have to be able to get into/compromise the remote. If they put all of their resources into shoring up R&D and HQ, chances are good that they are not playing a remote (or they have Biotic Labor) in which case you make them rez some ICE to protect themselves and then play the DLR, now they go broke/waste time trashing DLR or let you turbo mill. This can also work if they rush an agenda or they think they have a scoring window. Drop a DLR and now you give them a choice, score that agenda or trash DLR and give me another chance at the agenda.

robotmascot · March 1, 2015, 5:23pm

I’ve been struggling to find a Whizzard deck that hit the points I was looking for, Elthane, and then I saw this. Took your list to my 14-man SC, -1 inject +1 Quality Time because the influence was nagging me. Went undefeated vs NEARPAD, Titan shutdown combo played by my old-time rival patlanicus, Gagarin ambushes/shell game, and a Titan self-destruct executives thing. It was glorious, the ability to shift pressure nigh-instantaneously is very real. (Edit: corp deck did not do as well, sadly)

Elthane · March 1, 2015, 7:22pm

Where was your SC? I am glad to hear that my deck worked well for you!

robotmascot · March 1, 2015, 7:52pm

Jupiter Games, upstate NY (Binghamton). I need to poke Seth (the winner) to either post his decklists or give them to me to post.

moistloaf · April 25, 2015, 11:55pm

Here’s the Runner deck I’ve been playing lately. A rework of my take on edmund’s SMC Whizz.

###[Whizzard SMC Visage][1] (45 cards)

[Whizzard: Master Gamer][2]

Event (13)

3 [Dirty Laundry][3]
3 [I’ve Had Worse][4]
1 [Legwork][5] ••
1 [Lucky Find][6] ••
2 [Stimhack][7]
3 [Sure Gamble][8]

Hardware (3)

3 [Grimoire][9]

Resource (10)

3 [Daily Casts][10]
2 [Kati Jones][11]
2 [Liberated Account][12]
3 [Symmetrical Visage][13]

Icebreaker (6)

2 [Corroder][14]
2 [Mimic][15]
1 [Yog.0][16]
1 [ZU.13 Key Master][17] ••

Program (13)

2 [D4v1d][18]
3 [Datasucker][19]
2 [Medium][20]
3 [Parasite][21]
3 [Self-modifying Code][22] ••••• ••••

3 Grimoire may seem a bit much, but it’s pretty important to be able to drop Suckers and Parasites at 1 as fast as possible. The MU is also necessary for SMC. The Legwork could maybe be Wanton to free up 2 Influence (maybe for double Tri-Maf over Liberated, or a second LF), but I like Legwork a lot more, and it will generally score you an agenda for 1 click when you find it in a game. Visage is huge here; games where you find it by the early game are generally a breeze.

moistloaf · November 3, 2015, 9:22am

Huge necro here, from IMO the biggest Whizzard fan in the world ^_____^

Ever since moving to Seattle in September I’ve been playing a lot of L4J. It’s an obscenely powerful deck and I don’t see myself playing anything else (seriously) any time soon.

I’m here because I’m wondering if Neutralize All Threats has a place. The downside is pretty much eliminated by your ID, and it would give this list a serious HQ threat, which is about the only thing it’s lacking. The downside is the 3 influence cost. My first inclination is to cut 1 NRE and 1 Clone Chip for the 3rd Career Fair and 1 NAT.

Am I trying too hard to incorporate a new card ? Am I being greedy by wanting a real HQ threat? Interested to hear what experienced Whizzard/L4J players have to say, especially the creator @spags. I probably have about 30 games in with the original list , most of those being IRL against the full gamut of Corps.

edmund_blake_nelson · November 3, 2015, 10:52am

Wanton destruction is a good way to pressure HQ and fight vs scorched earth murder.

neutralize all threats is pretty expensive influence wise. l4j whizzard builds have to suffer from 3 issues

No SMC=forced to overdraw to find breakers.
no Good HQ pressure tools, I use to use nerve agent but that was a mistake Wanton is pretty decent though
Beating lotus field requires a deadicated breaker of some form, either faust/Atman/net ready eyes. (probably faust)

Whizzard has decent econ in the package of Fair/Liberated/Casts/Stimhack/Gamble/Laundry/Queen’s gambit

I could see running something like

2 Self modifying code/3 Clone chip
2 Neutralize all threats
3 Career fair

with faust/mimic/medium/datasucker/parasite/corroder/yog/Clot for programs

Notice how much MU that is too, we might even need memstrips which sucks because spending clicks+cash for MU makes things really expensive even grimoire is really slow a lot of the time.

Right now i’d prefer trying out wanton and see if NAT is superior. Whizzard is definitely better for a neutralize all threats version but I would probably rather play valencia over whizzard.

my valencia build for reference

###[Val looking for jobs][1] (50 cards)

[Valencia Estevez: The Angel of Cayambe][2]

Event (18)

3 [Career Fair][3] •••
3 [Dirty Laundry][4]
3 [I’ve Had Worse][5]
1 [Queen’s Gambit][6]
2 [Stimhack][7]
3 [Sure Gamble][8]
3 [Wanton Destruction][9]

Hardware (2)

2 [Grimoire][10]

Resource (11)

3 [Daily Casts][11]
3 [Earthrise Hotel][12]
3 [Liberated Account][13]
2 [Symmetrical Visage][14]

Icebreaker (7)

1 [Atman][15] •••
2 [Corroder][16]
2 [Mimic][17]
2 [Yog.0][18]

Program (12)

1 [Clot][19]
3 [Datasucker][20]
1 [Imp][21]
1 [Medium][22]
3 [Parasite][23]
3 [Self-modifying Code][24] ••••• ••••

IMO old school SMC whizzard died when the card l4dy was printed. SMC whizzard was good right before lady made Prepaid kate undeniably the best deck in the format (even though it took until clot was printed to realize it). SMC whizzard only really had the power of SMC+stimhack to make it even remotely viable, when the prepaid kate deck has almost as many good tutor targets as you do with better eco it’s probably time to throw in the towel. Val has the edge of making every server cheaper and being able to use the threat of blackmail to make remotes more dangerous to make. (perhaps 2-3 blackmail over some econ would be a good idea)

Val has access to imp which is pretty OP, along with helping out in the dreaded haarps matchup where Wanton+imp go to work on HQ and break up the combo. I’ve had worse is the only scorched protection in the deck, making playing more than 2 stimhacks sketchy, vs haarp you have to accept stimhack as a card in your hand that just stays there for scorched food.

What does whizzard really have over valencia?