Mechanoid Dash
Hyper Drivers without High Octane.
Dash I/O is one of the more interesting heroes. Most Dash builds lean into raw boost damage, but this list is more of a hybrid build with Construct Nitro Mechanoid and turn the rest of the game into a clean-up job.
The deck has been surprisingly strong. The Mech threat alone forces opponents to play around an inevitable transform turn, and even when the combo doesn't come together, the boost shell underneath is still a fast, damaging deck on its own.
This guide walks through every group of cards in the list and why they're there, in roughly the order they matter to the gameplan.
The wincon is Construct Nitro Mechanoid. It transforms a mechanologist head, chest, arms, legs, weapon, and 3 hyper drivers into Nitro Mechanoid. If you don't have all pieces, the card negates itself, so the entire deck is built around making sure that state is mostly reachable.
The hyper driver split is 3× Hyper Driver (ARC, 1-pitch, 3 counters), 3× Hyper Driver (DYN, 2-pitch, 2 counters), and 1× Hyper Driver (DYN, 3-pitch, 1 counter). The mix gives you flexibility — the blue can pitch for the 4-cost transform itself, while the red sticks longest on the table. (And they stick around for a while in this build!)
Supercell is the safety net for long games. It seeds steam counters onto existing drivers, creates a fresh token, and shuffles a Construct Nitro Mechanoid back into your deck from banished if X is 3 or more. This isn't likely going to happen, but it can still block for 2 and it's blue.
Hyper-X3 is the head of choice. Banishing a driver from boosting normally feels bad since it's hard to get 3 hyper drivers in play, but Hyper-X3 banks them and cantrips on the third. It also satisfies the head slot for the transform and can give you a few extra swings with Construct Nitro Mechanoid
Galvanic Bender is the arms. The material text — +1{p} on whatever permanent it's attached to — carries through into Nitro Mechanoid once it transforms. So 6 damage for mech, it's a 1 block battleworn so it's fine.
The weapon slot is Symbiosis Shot. It's fine on its own and can do its regular shenanigans after cranking items off the top.
Big Bertha and Crankshaft each pull double duty in this list — both run at two and three pitch values. They share the same on-banish trigger: pitching either version still puts a steam counter on a hyper driver, so they're never dead cards. Running both pitches lets you tune your pitch stack without losing the boost synergy.
These are the glue attacks. They're rarely the strongest play of the turn but they're always doing something — either as a 5-power swing, a steam counter, or a clean pitch into a bigger card. Fortunately with Dash's hero ability you do get some better chances of finding them.
This is the meat of the boost suite, the cards you'll see most turns.
Fast and Furious is one of the best cards in the deck. Crank in the turn and it's effectively a free attack with steam payoff. The on-banish counter onto a crank item is genuinely huge, it lets your Cerebellums and Null Time Zones stick around an extra turn. Nothing new here.
Zero to Sixty. 0 for 4, nothing to say here.
Zipper Hit is a clean efficient 1-cost 5-power red, same as usual.
Pulsewave Harpoon is the disruption attack. The reveal-and-block clause forces opponents to bleed defense out of hand, which is exactly what you want against decks that hold up reactions. Try to optimize as usual, but this build doesn't do anything really different it didn't before.
MetEx is the 1-cost on-hit item dump from hand. Great for slamming a hyper driver into play mid-chain on the way to a Construct Nitro Mechanoid turn. Just running a singleton, but have played around with different amounts.
Teklo Trebuchet 2000 is the pre-pump 0-cost. Attack with it first, then the next attack you boost gets +2{p}. Pairs well with everything. This card feels like a zero to sixty many times and is a great upgrade over other blues.
A singleton Expedite is also in the deck as a flex spot. Same shape as Zero to Sixty with the bonus on-hit item dump, currently being tested.
This is what makes the Mech plan reliable.
Spark of Genius is the headliner. Cost X to search out any mechanologist item. The key addition here is that you can also find the following:
Assembly Module is a deck-only hyper driver tutor, but it also rounds out as a 0-cost crank item that sits in the arena until you need to use it.
Dash I/O herself is a tutor in disguise. Look at the top card of your deck at any time, and once per turn play a 0 or 1-cost mechanologist item from the top as if it were an instant. That's a free hyper driver into play whenever the top of the deck cooperates. Just keep in mind that Hyper Drivers cost 2 resources off the top and you don't get to crank them like Maxx does.
Heist isn't a tutor in the search sense, but the on-hit (item with cost 0 or 1 from any banished zone into the arena) means it tutors out of your graveyard. Boost-banished hyper drivers come right back into play. Additionally they do all the usual shenanigans you had access to before.
Bios Update is the connective tissue. Next attack gets +3{p}, plus the next mechanologist item (cost 2 or less) banished to pay a boost cost returns to play. Just a great card and blocks 3.
These are the crank items you'll see in almost every Dash list, doing their normal jobs.
Boom Grenade is the red on-hit finisher. Any mechanologist attack that connects with a Grenade in play deals an extra 4. It eats a steam counter at start of turn so it doesn't stick around long, but one good turn is often enough. The deck might warrant running 1 or 2 of the yellow one like most classic Dash builds (they run 3), but we'll see what we can get away with.
Backup Protocol: RED is graveyard recursion for your red attacks. Crank means it self-destroys if you don't maintain it, but the recursion ability is worth the discount red pitch and 0-cost slot. Awesome interactions with cards like Heist, Max V and Pulsewave Harpoon.
Cerebellum Processor is the cantrip. 0-cost action: draw a card. Two steam counters lets it live two turns by default, longer if you boost Fast and Furious to add steam to it. This is the engine card that makes the deck feel smooth.
For the long games where Mech assembly isn't on the menu or you've already cashed it in once.
Maximum Velocity is the 10-power closer. You need to have boosted 3 times in a turn to play it, which sounds restrictive but is trivially easy in this list.
Twin Drive is two boosts on a single card. It accelerates both the Maximum Velocity threshold and your steam counter generation in one shot.
System Reset banishes X 0-or-1-cost mechanologist items you control and returns them. Great for resetting crank counters on Cerebellum Processors, Boom Grenades, and Null Time Zones for another full cycle. Still testing this card, but I think it can be useful for fatigue matchups.
Null Time Zone is a blue utility item that locks a named card. It's strong against combo decks that depend on a few key pieces, and it doubles as a way to shut down defense reactions for a critical attack chain.
The supporting cast.
Teklo Core, Teklo Foundry Heart, and Master Cog are your ramp triad. Teklo Core gives you a free {r}{r} every action phase. Teklo Foundry Heart turns boosting into a deck-banish-for-resource engine...as well as getting Hyper Drivers into banish zone for Heist, and just digging for items in general. Master Cog gives a steam counter on pitch. Nice to finally have a place for this card.
Cogwerx Base Legs is the legs slot for the transform, but the once-per-turn {r} for an action point is the real value. It also satisfies the boost-this-turn condition for follow-up effects. I really like using the Base Legs after tutoring up Assembly. This lets you find a red Hyper Driver, and then another the following turn after boosting.
Re-Charge! is a 1-of that puts a steam counter on a hyper driver, plus +4{p} to the next attack you boost. Nice to also help push a boom grenade or Heist through.
Hyper Scrapper is the X-cost finisher when Mech is off the table. Banish items from graveyard, gain +X{p}; if 3 hyper drivers are banished, gain {r}{r}{r}{r}{r}{r} and go again. Doesn't come up often, but it's still a blue block 3 that has relevant text.
The sideboard is split across two purposes.
Achilles Accelerator and Viziertronic Model i are arcane barrier pieces for the arcane damage matchups (Aurora, Oscilio, runeblade variants). They don't disrupt the game plan much, Achilles is still legs you can transform off of, and Vizertronic is still a head that has some niche plays. Both are good against T-Bone type cards too.
Crown of Providence and Adaptive Plating come in for matchups where the Mech plan isn't reliable. Shred-heavy decks like Arakni 5LP3D, Jarl, Puffin and anything that pressures your items hard enough that your equipment won't stick around. In those games you pivot to a more traditional Dash I/O boost-and-raw-damage build. You lose the inevitability but gain consistency.
A second Maximum Velocity comes in for grindy fatigue matchups, or any time the Mech package gets sided out — the extra copy gives you a real closer in those games.
That's the deck. The list is still in flux — the singleton Expedite is a flex spot I'm testing, and the other singletons (Hyper Scrapper, Re-Charge!, Teklo Pounder, the lone blue Hyper Driver) are all candidates for tuning. I'd also like to put more reps in the new format.