Dreams of Armageddon v0.3

dtelad11 964

The fact that there are no Kate Apocalypse decks on NRDB, months after D&D has been released, is ridiculous. I guess it's my responsibility to fill the gap!

This is a completely experimental Kate Apocalypse deck. I've been toying with it for a few days, with a little bit of assistance from the almighty @westonodom. I hope to get it ready in time for Store Championship, then feel awesome for playing something "original".

The purpose of this deck is to play Apocalypse. As I stated in my Apex build:

http://netrunnerdb.com/en/decklist/28483/apex-hyperdriver-king-of-servers-2015

When you play Apocalypse, you want to do it early and repeatedly. The first one is the most important. You don't need to wait for some perfect board position or to maximize the damage using some arcane optimization metric. Wait until a couple of pieces of ice are on the board, maybe an upgrade or an econ asset, and go to town.

Specific card choices:

Economy seems to be working well. Day Job and Sure Gambles fuel you early on, Daily Casts is a reasonable drip economy, and Aesop's comes in post-Apocalypse to pick up the remains. 3x Diesel and 1x QT help with draws. I tested Symmetrical Visage but did not feel that it's worth the slot.

Breaker suite is rather standard. Do not drop the Sharpshooter, that is insanity. 2x CyCy and 2x Lady help with accessing the centrals. The 1x Atman is for surprise situations (like a Susanoo on R&D), or sometimes at strength 4 for plowing through stacked Elis and Ichis. I tested Crescentus as an anti-Architect tool, but since this is Shaper you can get your Mimic post-Apoc rather easily.

Levy helps you recover after you Apocalypse. It's there for the super-late game, an emergency button that might not be necessary; more testing needed. I often discard it, but when I need it it's good to know it's in the deck. Also it's your route to 4-5 Apocalypses, though I pity the Corp that faces that.

Hyperdriver is MVP. It lets you do things that you would not be able to do otherwise, like Apoc through 3-4 pieces of ice with no breaker. End the run subroutines are not in vogue right now (I heard that EtR is a crutch?) so a nice bank and a Hyperdriver might be all you need to Apoc. It also serves as Diesel 4-6. I love having three.

Finally, the R&D pressure: 2x Indexing and 2x The Maker's Eye. You want to pummel R&D after you Apoc and these four help you there. Oftentimes they cannot defend post-Apoc, so Indexing is wonderful. With Hyperdriver you might Indexing, hit HQ and Archives, Apoc, and then hit R&D for these sweet agendas.

As I mentioned in the beginning, much more tuning is necessary. I'm not sure about the Levy, the 3x Clone Chip/SMC, and the Clot. More QT would be welcome. I would love to hear comments/suggestions.

16 comments
3 Dec 2015 Mechanoise

I'm surprised you don't use Mimic and Faust as your primary breakers for Apocalypse. If you want to ante the pressure without having to spend time and money on breaker installations then this could serve you well, since you'll have a Hyperdriver to allow you to Quality Time up before the run.

When playing Apex I've found Utopia Shard to be a God send. Any good corp knows that when faced with Apocalypse they need to retain ICE, Jackson Howard, or the kill, so Utopia is well worth it.

3 Dec 2015 Icedman

Love the idea El-Ad. I thought of a similar one using a certain other Shaper ID that would benefit from an early-game board-state :-) Maybe when I test it a bit I might have to share.

3 Dec 2015 dtelad11

@Mechanoise While I love the Faust idea, I would like to be able to apply pressure other than Apocalypse. The more traditional breaker suite helps with that. So far, the main barrier to playing Apocalypse is drawing it, not getting into the centrals. Utopia Shard makes sense, I might try to squeeze it in.

@Icedman I was actually thinking of Nasir Apoc :-) Would love to see someone try to make it work.

3 Dec 2015 mittens

Do you think that the 1 plascrete is enough protection? I've found FA and Butcher shop to be the two hardest matchups with apoc decks. Utopia Shard seems like it might help with both. An Imp might be good too, but it's hard to find the influence.

Also, is one SOT enough to reliably play Levy? I would be worried about Apocalypse-ing it away.

3 Dec 2015 dtelad11

One Plascrete Carapace is probably not enough protection. I hope that they're not playing 24/7. If it's just standard Butcher, well, I'll have to do a good job dodging ;) I would love to squeeze in 2x I've Had Worse but I don't really see that happening. No chance I can put an Imp there.

The Same Old Thing is actually mostly for Apocalypse (along with Hyperdriver). Levy is for late-game situations, and then I aim to play it from hand.

3 Dec 2015 mittens

I wonder if 3 Apocalypse is necessary.

Maybe -1 Clot, -1 Apocalypse, -1 QT, +2 I've Had Worse, +1 Utopia Shard?

3 Dec 2015 dtelad11

As I stated above, the main barrier is drawing Apocalypse. The deck needs three copies.

6 Dec 2015 dtelad11

Here's another one:

youtu.be

I added a Plascrete as card number 46.

6 Dec 2015 dtelad11

Here's a good one:

youtu.be

16 Dec 2015 8shanrahan

I Really like this deck, I used it as a guide for making mine. I imported keyhole, It's worked really well for me. It then frees up deck slots occupied by Indexing and the makers Eye for more Econ, like Dirty Laundry. You can tutor it with SMC/clone chip, and you can really put a stranglehold if they leave R&D undefended, especially with Hyper Driver giving extra clicks.

I cut Day Job for Armitage Codebusting, to free up influence. With Day Job, you can't use Kate's ability, but with Armitage, you can click it 5 times, leave 2 on it, and sell it to Aesop's for a net gain of 12.

12 Jan 2016 Icedman

So @dtelad11, what's the outlook post-MWL? Have you been testing at all?

12 Jan 2016 dtelad11

Of course! I actually took a pre-MWL Apoc Kate to the Portal Store Championship at Manchester, CT. Ended up fourth. I plan to continue piloting Apoc Kate until a better deck comes along. This list is quite out of date, actually, I haven't been using Clot, CyCy, or TME for ages.

12 Jan 2016 Icedman

It's a bit cheeky, but given I'm on the other side of the world to you, our chances of crossing paths for anything other than virtual play is nil :-) Mind sharing your latest monstrosity, as I'd love to troll some local Store Champs. I have an Adam deck I'm testing as well but love the Apoc idea.

12 Jan 2016 dtelad11

No prob:

netrunnerdb.com

Where are you located?

13 Jan 2016 Icedman

Australia, not close the the Winning Agenda guys either :-)