Dash I/O

By Brage Sekse Aarset

Table of Contents

Dash I/O is a mechanologist that can play items from the top of the deck at instant speed. This is a very powerful ability that that means they often get to play more than 4 cards in a turn and can also gain bonus action points by cranking an item played from the top of the deck.

Dash’ ability goes hand in hand with the boost mechanic, not only because knowing what they boost makes it easier to benefit from the effects of Fast and Furious and Sprocket Rocket, but also because boosting away cards helps them dig for items that they can play from the top of the deck.

Dash’ gameplan

Dash I/O is generally played as an aggressive combo deck that tries to defeat the opponent with overwhelming damage output. The deck contains a lot of boost cards to filter through the top deck until they find an item and play it at instant speed, often ending their turn by putting a card in arsenal. Some turns they might attack less, choosing to not crank items since they want to keep them around for later. Typical setup items are Cerebellum Processor, Teklo Core, Boom Grenade, Teklo Pounder and Backup Protocol: RED. When Dash has a card in arsenal and one or more items in the arena, they will typicaly play a big turn with lot of which makes it easier for them to push through a Boom Grenade and also allows them to play Maximum Velocity (which is also the best way to push through grenades).

Playing against Dash I/O

Denying the triggers of Boom Grenade is paramount. Since it can be played as an instant from the top of the deck, it is effectively an attack reaction that could come at any time as long as they have one resource. Having a defense reaction in arsenal is a great insurance policy against Dash since it lets you react to the grenade when it is actually played rather than having to defend everything up front, which can deplete your armor and make you ill prepared for later Maximum Velocity turns.

Boosting as much as Dash does means that they are pretty much guaranteed to run out of cards before you do. Even if you don’t pitch a single card in the entire game, you will still have more cards left than them. This makes playing hyper defensive a very viable path to victory. If you choose to go about the game this way, it’s important to keep in mind that defending for 2 with a card (e.g defending Symbiosis Shot) is a better use of a card than pitching it to attack for 4 with your hammer. Dash’ life total is utterly irrelevant in these games, so dealing 4 damage is not advancing the game in your favour even if it’s technically a higher value play than defending for 2.

Dash I/O rarely uses any kind of defense reactions or above rate defense cards, so once her armor is used up, there is not much they can do to prevent disruptive effects. If your deck is set up with a good array of disruptive attacks, this can be a great way to stop her from making her big plays. This can make some of her cards very inefficient and dififcult to use, such as Maximum Velocity, Convection Amplifier, Backup Protocol: RED and Cerebellum Processor.

Useful Cards against Dash

• Fate Foreseen, Sink Below and Shelter from the Storm are great for playing against Boom Grenade, as described above.
• Command and Conquer is a great way to disrupt, since Dash nearly always wants to use the arsenal for setup.
• Spinal Crush takes the wind out of the sails of big Dash turns.
• Steelbraid Buckler and other shields make it easier to have enough blocking equipment available to fullly defend a T-Bone, Boom Grenade and Maximum Velocity turn.

Bad cards against Dash

• Boulder Drop is pretty bad against Dash, since it can actually help her by letting her put an item from her hand on top of the deck. Playing items from the deck is much better than playing them from hand since they don’t cost action points when played that way.