Apoc is probably worth it as a 1 of in Eater/Keyhole MaxX. Eater enables you to money up and just hit all three centrals. Since she already plays Levy, there is very little loss for Tempo and she really exploits the board being completely wiped.
In theory, this is what I was hoping for with Apex, as Eater/Keyhole MaxX is probably my favorite runner archetype in the game right now. Unfortunately, Apex has a few bigger problems going on in his build, mainly that he cannot for the life of him get quality card draw in the current card pool.
The more I think about this guy, the more I think he was just meant to take everything that is not an end the run sub to the face, at least out of his initial cardpool. Heartbeat protects you pretty well from damage mid to late game and he doesn’t really run many resources so theoretically he doesn’t care that much about tags. Especially since you can immediately pop hunting grounds if you are worried about your tags.
The only things that give him trouble are trash a program cards and Architects. Architects are pretty ubiquitous right now (and probably will be for the life of the card), so you seemingly need an answer to them. Although the subs on Architects don’t matter as much to you if you go all in on the ‘take it on the chin’ strategy, it is the only piece of ice in the game that will survive an apocalypse and that you cannot prey on at all. So you cede tempo each time you run through it.
I think if Apex is going to have any sort of playable build, it will be built around going all in on ‘taking it on the chin’. Giving up that aspect of deck building allows you to concentrate on the two other weaknesses of his card pool, which at least seem manageable.
The question is it good that you have to include several copies of your breakers (or any cards really) so that if they get face-down’ed during the apocalypse, you can get them back after levy. I would wager just ice destruction should be enough pressure, if you get to the point you need to or would gain dramatic benefit from destroying all corp cards, you probably already lost.
Great point. Although it probably would be a huge pain in the butt to score out your last points if Apex is sitting on an immolation script, post apocalypse. Chances are he has the ability to either get in with Endless Hunger or has the ability to destroy anything you throw in his way.
Maybe that is a reason to try out Traffic Jam? Which is only good mid game?
Probably not. I think I am just too enamored with the idea of immolation script in Apex.
I just fooled around with this ID on netrunnerdb and it comes off as an ID where you need to adapt the mentality of “F*** it” with any and every card in your deck. Think of it as anarch to the Nth degree.
So it seems for laughs they decided to create something that completely goes against a players desire for accumulating “stuff”. Apex may be someone’s private joke and/or way of (bleeping) with us.
Right now, his number 1 is probably either legworks or makers, post apocalypse. I haven’t figured out anything else so far.
The second question is pretty easy to answer (against kill decks) with a heartbeat installed. Five installed cards puts you out of double scorch and easily out of neural emp range. Against fast advance, they typically only use etr ice anyway, (except for data raven and pop up) which means it will typically be very easy to get in with just endless hunger and prey.
Architect is a problem and probably just requires a face check and then run elsewhere while you are digging for a Mimic.
On the plus side e3 pretty much means ichi and bioroid ice is a joke for you.
I had more playtime with Apex yesterday and it seemed I smoothed out the draw enough so it was not much of a problem at all. Instead, I was delayed both games by my need to find my breakers slightly and it seems to me that Apex needs some kind of burst econ like day job or lucky find. Otherwise he will struggle to even play sure gambles!
Endless Hunger ought to help you out with Apocalypse-Levy AR Lab Access in that you can deliberately eat all your important cards (even Endless Hunger itself on the last end the run subroutine) breaking into the centrals so they don’t get turned face down when you Apocalyse your opponent!
It’d be an influence hit importing it into another ID though just to install it for that one task.
To me it seems like the best post-apocalypse plan should be Medium and Prey. This is ideal and probably hard to do consistently, because card draw. But if you can Medium and have two Preys available, as well as a good number of facedown cards… then you might win!
For full combo-wombo mode, three copies of Hyperdriver and a couple of copies of Leprechaun and a Medium is 16 influence. Hyperdrive at the start of your turn, unleash the apocalypse over four clicks, install Medium, then dig for five clicks (eight if you manage to get all three copies of Hyperdriver)?
Maybe import it into Shaper instead, influence-wise?
Prey is indeed wonderful post-apocalypse. Medium would be great too, but I have no idea where I would get the extra influence from in my current build for 2 copies.
I could run just 1 copy, but I worry about consistency.
I’m trying a few Hyperdrivers in my next version. Can use a bonus click to install Endless Hunger. And can also install a second Heartbeat after Apocalypse to not die.