Classic Constructed Deck Tech: Dash I/O - Mechanologist

Bright Lights is among us! Despite how little time has passed, and the great confusion in the metagame created by some heroes hitting Living Legend status, some heroes have already presented good results since the new set was released. Maxx 'The Hype' Nitro performed well, and Teklovossen, Esteemed Magnate premiered quite timidly, but can be a wild card in tournaments. However, a new hero has been stealing the spotlight in the last few weeks, particularly after an almost perfect performance at The Calling: Melbourne.

Today, we'll discuss Dash I/O, the newest favorite among Mechanologist players. If you aren't familiar with the new set and the new heroes' mechanics, I strongly recommend you read our review article first.

Almost every Flesh and Blood player knows Dash, Inventor Extraordinaire and her younger version, Dash. This extraordinaire inventor was, for a long time, the only playable hero in Classic Constructed and the only competitive hero in Blitz. The Mechanologist class struggled due to how long it went without support, and got stuck in time until Bright Lights came along.

And with so many new cards released to this class, how about upgrading this hero as well?

Dash I/O (and her younger version, Dash, Database) is the "2.0" version of this Mechanologist, but she brings a new ability and a new way to play. Unlike her old version, her new ability is much more geared towards items. Let's discuss it a bit more in depth first.

The Power of Knowledge

We can split this hero's ability into two: Looking at the top of our deck at any point, and playing items from the top as if they were instant cards.

Looking at the top of our deck on its own is already a powerful ability. With this knowledge, we can predict what we'll draw, and, like so, prepare a turn based on what we know. However, the Mechanologist class has one extra advantage: it can constantly manipulate the top of our deck as well.

Because of the Boost ability, it is common for us to swap the top of our deck, like so having access to more cards, and, consequently, new decision-making opportunities too. Is it essential to have access to Maximum Velocity in our match? When we see it on the top of our deck, we can end our turn (or not activate Boost anymore), prepare the arsenal and try to set up an attack on the next turn.

Alongside this ability, playing an item directly from the top makes us, virtually, have "five intelligence", and, as we play items at instant speed, this action won't consume any action points, can be made on our opponent's turn, and we'll be able to play these items at our reaction step (which will be quite relevant).

Mixing all of this together, then, means Dash I/O wants to play items from the top, manipulating them through the Boost mechanic. Let's combine these concepts and see what would a Classic Constructed Dash I/O deck would look like.

The deck we'll discuss is based on the version that got second place at The Calling: Melbourne, played by Thomas Dowling, with some slight changes.

This deck in general is aggressive and deals as much damage it can in the shortest amount of time. To understand how this will happen, let's split this deck into its items, its attacks, and its key-cards to end the game.

The Items and the Importance of Crank

Before Bright Lights, the most played 0-cost item (and the best target for Spark of Genius) was the Teklo Core specialization. It will be the same here: getting two resources for two turns is quite strong for explosive turns. The possibility of playing this card from the top even allows us to set this up in our opponent's turn, and also makes it common for us to stack more than one on the board. However, the true item revolution is in the Crank mechanic.

Crank means we can remove a steam counter from an item when it enters the battlefield, and, if we do it, we get one action point. If we play these items from our hand, we can remove the steam counters and carry on with our turn without further issues. This allows us to play Spark of Genius more "aggressively", tutoring a 0-cost item, drawing a card, removing the steam counters and carrying on with our turn. But, what if we play these items from the top?

This is where Dash I/O "cheats". Because we play items from the top of our deck at instant speed, this doesn't consume our action point, but, if we remove the steam counters when they enter the board, we get another action point, leaving us with, then, two of these points. We'll discuss later on what we can do with these extra action points.

Boom Grenade (1) is our main combat trick, and is what makes this deck aggressive. We can play items from the top of our deck in our reaction step, and deal additional damage to our opponent with the grenade. Just by this item existing, our opponent will always be threatened by some "unexpected" damage, which will force them to block inefficiently. We'll use red and yellow, but some lists also use blue.

Backup Protocol: RED and Backup Protocol: BLU are excellent items to recover important attacks from the graveyard. While the red item recovers our best attacks (particularly the 0-cost ones), the blue item allows us to create more resources, transforming a yellow card into a blue one, or a blue one into four resources.

There are other items, but we'll discuss them when we reach the sideboard part of this article.

Attacks

To make our entire deck work, we'll use several cards with Boost so we can filter the top of our deck.

Zero to Sixty (1), Zipper Hit (1) and Throttle (3) (with its red version in the sideboard) are the basic cards for any Mechanologist deck. Their increased powers for their cost make them essential for this deck, and we'll always use them.

But, of course, our Boost attacks won't be limited to only these ones. Bright Lights brought an array of great new attacks, alongside a few staples for this class.

T-Bone (1) has an extremely desirable ability considering it taxes equipment pieces against our opponent's will. In some matches, this ability isn't that relevant, but in others when it is much better to get a few equipment pieces (such as Fyendal's Spring Tunic), or force a Warrior to lose some of their defenses, it ends up becoming quite important.

Pulsewave Harpoon is one of the best attacks this class has. Besides being a break point (which is quite relevant for this deck because of Boom Grenade (1)), it allows us to remove key-cards from our opponent and completely ruin their turn - be it by removing a blue card that would pay for all their costs, or even removing the only attack card they had.

Out Pace (1) is one of the various new attack cards in this set, but its ability makes it easier for us to deal damage to our opponent, which is our goal. As it is a break point, it is only possible to block it entirely through a defense reaction, and this is why we gave it preference.

Heist needs no introduction. Its on-hit effect is extremely desirable for this deck. Because items are placed immediately on the battlefield, we can activate Crank and get another action point.

Twin Drive is a revolutionary card for this class. Its simplicity of activating Boost twice can seem odd for those who don't know the other cards we use, but considering how many cards care about how much times we activate Boost (High Octane, Pulsewave Harpoon, and particularly Maximum Velocity), it can enable extremely strong turns, allowing you to do more for fewer cards.

And, as we're already speaking of it, of course we'll use Maximum Velocity. Besides being easier to use it because of Twin Drive, this deck can draw so many attacks or return so many of them from the graveyard with Backup Protocol:RED that playing it isn't something your strategy will struggle with.

Non-Attacks

But a deck can't live only from attacks. So we can buff some of our turns, we'll use some action cards.

Our hero's specialization, Spark of Genius, was used quite restrictively when we played Dash, Inventor Extraordinaire. The main target was Teklo Core, and, sometimes, at the beginning of a turn, Teklo Pounder. However, with Dash I/O, the number of items we have allows us new ways to use it. Thanks to Crank, we can set up an "aggressive Spark", when we tutor Boom Grenade (1) or Backup Protocol: RED, draw a card, and still carry on with our turn.

If High Octane was already good with Teklo Plasma Pistol, it is even better with Symbiosis Shot, with which we can shoot several times "for free", and, besides this, our hero can use the extra action points in several ways, such as keeping the counter on an item without ending our turn, not needing to activate a Boost, and other things.

Generic cards have always been considered suspicious in Mechanologist decks because they can fail a Boost or waste a Teklo Foundry Heart resource, but Dash I/O can use them more thoroughly.

Because we know our the card on the top of our deck, we can plan ourselves if Tome of Fyendal is there. We can end the turn and plan a bigger turn later on, or we can remove it from the top with Twin Drive without losing an action point, or activate Teklo Foundry Heart. Besides this, we have enough action points to play this tome without ending our turn - be it through Achilles Accelerator, High Octane or Cranking an item from the top.

With this deck in mind, let's analyze the best equipment pieces for it.

Crown of Providence is perfect in this deck. Besides bringing you all the advantages of correcting a hand (particularly one with too many items) or the arsenal, we can also use this crown to get this card (qual carta que a coroa ta trazendo????), allowing us to transform a mediocre turn into a big turn, be it with High Octane or Tome of Fyendal.

Teklo Foundry Heart is almost mandatory in any Mechanologist list. Besides creating more resources (as if it were a Fyendal's Spring Tunic) every turn, it can also clean the top of your deck, besides, of course, its defensive value, which is three.

Goliath Gauntlet is an excellent aggressive option. Even though we have just a few 2-cost attacks, granting two more power to a Maximum Velocity and, particularly, Heist (this equipment's favorite target) can make it harder for your opponent to block efficiently.

Achilles Accelerator is any Dash deck's favorite card. Besides having Arcane Barrier 1, its ability of creating an action point not only allows you another Symbiosis Shot, but it can also save a turn in which Tome of Fyendal was exiled through Boost, or when we play this tome without an extra action point.

Our hero's signature weapon, Symbiosis Shot is custom-made for her. Unlike Teklo Plasma Pistol, we don't need to pay anything to attack, and its condition of placing counters is quite simple for this deck, which makes it the best weapon possible. Besides this, its strong synergy with High Octane makes it an excellent game finisher.

As we have "five intelligence", this deck is much more susceptible to fatigue than any other Mechanologist deck. As a result, there will be many matches in which it will be preferable to use more than 60 cards in this deck.

Adaptive Plating is the new star in this set, and is one of the best equipment pieces for this class. Thanks to its Modular ability, we can use up to three copies of this card each equipping into a different slot, but we'll just use one, replacing Goliath Gauntlet in matches in which it's best to tank some damage. The other equipment, Viziertronic Model i, is useful exclusively against Wizard.

Dissolving Shield (1) helps prevent damage mainly in matches against disruptive on-hit effects, such as, for instance, Bravo, Showstopper and Azalea, Ace in the Hole, but it can be used if you prefer to hold off a bit more damage. Alongside Adaptive Plating, it is possible to block up to 5 damage (two counters from this item plus this equipment's Galvanize ability).

Convection Amplifier and Penetration Script are excellent items in matches which our chances of being fatigued are high. While Penetration Script increases the power of all our attack cards (making it harder for our opponent to block efficiently), Convection Amplifier can guarantee some damage, and Maximum Velocity or Heist are the best targets, like so allowing you to break Boom Grenade (1) and maximize damage.

The other cards only offer more redundancy for this deck, which we'll include in matches which won't be fast, but also won't be short, and the chances of being fatigued are higher.

Some tips with this deck:

- Each Boost activated means a new card on the top, which means new opportunities and new information. Using this to your favor is the key to winning with this deck;

- By playing Tome of Fyendal and drawing two cards, if the card on the top is an item with Crank, you can play it, activate Crank and retrieve your action point;

- Don't be scared when you see Tome of Fyendal on your top deck. Achilles Accelerator, Teklo Foundry Heart and Twin Drive can help you remove it and carry on with your turn;

- Use Spark of Genius wisely. Try to look for Backup Protocol: BLU to get more resources, Boom Grenade (1) to maximize damage, Teklo Core to prepare the next turn or Backup Protocol: RED to take advantage of cards in the graveyard;

- You can play items from the top on your opponent's turn. One of the best items to play is Teklo Core, particularly to correct a hand filled of red cards;

- When the game is ending, use Crank more aggressively to abuse Symbiosis Shot and shoot more;

Regarding what to use from the sideboard:

- If your opponent wants to fatigue you, we add the whole sideboard;

- Against decks with some disruptive value that can't fatigue us, we bring the three Dissolving Shield (1) and remove Backup Protocol: RED and two red Boom Grenade (1);

- In matches in which our opponent's goal isn't to fatigue us, but their deck might end up fatiguing us anyway, we bring all attack cards and the copies of Backup Protocol: RED.

Dash I/O is still being explored, and new lists are still popping up, but this hero has already shown us she can take on big tournaments and conquer incredible prizes. With an innovative design, this hero is very promising, and can be a safe beat for a future meta.

Her list is still being worked on and refined, and remains a great puzzle for players. Is setting up explosive turns the best way to play with her? How about a fatigue version with Prismatic Lens and Scrap Harvest (3)? Or using Teklo Pounder and Bios Update to get the most out of our items?

Only time will tell what is the best way to play with this hero. For now, enjoy and explore this deck in the way that is more fun for you.

Thank you for reading and see you next time.