This particular arcade game, while not completely ingrained in the public consciousness like some other successful arcade cabinets (Space Invaders comes to mind, as does Pac-Man,) has still left it's mark on numerous people. From Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, where the Undead Dread Lord hero quips, "I Hunger!," to the Heavy Weapons Guy in Team Fortress 2 shouting at his foes, "Run Coward!" and "I live!," to director M dot Strange's feature length animation project We Are the Strange sampling lines from the game as well as quoting the game, to music, with musician Renard both using samples from the game in some of his songs as well as naming two of his songs after quotes, to a full musical production based on the game produced by a group of students at the College of William & Mary in Virginia back in 2009, to literature, with an appearance in a Dresden Files novel called Ghost Story.
So what does this have to do with Netrunner?
-prowler_32-: i heard its a dolphin brain in a jar
Thinfoil.Hate: no its an alien from outside the solar system
PrincessSpaceKitten: You JUST told us it was an AI
Thinfoil.Hate: alien AI
Thinfoil.Hate: space is big. they can't come themselves they beam programs across the light years.
Apex is the first (and so far, only,) digital runner identity. We have no idea exactly what it is. It could be a remnant of the virus that took down the Internet before the SYNC protocol was instituted. It could be a person who has been jacked in since birth, with no idea they have a meatspace body. Or it could be an alien AI, out to consume all of our server space.
I AM SINISTAR - 45 cards
Identity: Apex - Invasive Predator
Programs
Endless Hunger - 3
Harbinger - 3
Hyperdriver - 2 (6 influence)
Leprechaun - 2 (4 influence)
Hardware
Chop Bot 3000 - 2 (2 influence)
e3 Feedback Implants - 2 (4 influence)
Heartbeat - 3
Plascrete Carapace - 3
Resources
Always Be Running - 2 (6 influence)
Ghost Runner - 2
Hunting Grounds - 3
Wasteland - 3
Events
Apocalypse - 3
Dirty Laundry - 3
Levy AR Lab Access - 1 (3 influence)
Prey - 3
Sure Gamble - 3
Traffic Jam - 2
Readers of this blog may realize this deck list is very similar to my previously discussed Apex Build, Time Dilation, which I brought to the 2016 Yellow King Store Championship. In order to improve the list, I took inspiration from CodeMarvelous' Apex build, Always Be Hungry and added Always Be Running. This helps with ice that has no subroutines which exactly read "End the Run," such as Assassin, or Resistor. It can also be used to circumvent ice which can be advanced over the strength of Endless Hunger, such as Hadrian's Wall. I decided to go with Always Be Running instead of D4v1d, mostly because of influence, but also because D4v1d costs memory, and memory can be pretty tight until you get either a Leprechaun or Heartbeat. Make sure to remember that Leprechaun can host two programs of any size, so you can host an Endless Hunger on it as well as a Hyperdriver.
I'm still working on the ideal opening draw, but ideally you'll want at least two of the following three: Endless Hunger, Always Be Running, and e3 Feedback Implants. Having at least two of those three should let you get through just about any piece of ice, but you'll need all three to make the massive runs that are necessary to pull off Apocalypse.
I've gone with Traffic Jam as a cheap way of overwriting Corporation currents, but with the release of Democracy and Dogma, it is possible to use "Freedom Through Equality" instead. It costs a little more, but it could speed up your game. I suppose your choice will depend on how your local metagame is regarding both currents and how quickly corps are in scoring agendas.
The big thing is you want to make sure Levy AR Lab Access ends up in your hand, and that it doesn't get discarded. Your main draw engine is the two Chop Bot 3000s, which will let you burn through unnecessary cards to get to the cards you need. You could take advantage of the Hunting Grounds to get out more face down cards, but there's always the possibility you'll accidentally install the Levy AR Lab Access face down if you haven't drawn it yet.
So far, I've had about a 50% win rate with this deck, but my sample is probably not significantly significant. As such, take it with a grain of salt.
I would like to thank the artists Liiga Smilshkaine, Adam S. Doyle, and Shawn Ye Zhongyi for creating spectacular artwork of Apex. I'd also like to thank Wikipedia for being the major basis for the research done in the introduction.
Until next time, RUN! RUN! RUN!
