Knight Deliveries

---TL;DR

Knight Deliveries is a very lean and honed deck. It's not like standard Criminal builds that seek to break the Corp with a constant 'lock' or devastating Siphontrain, but instead allow you to suddenly hit out of nowhere with your hard-hitting run events. The central 'puzzle' of this deck is identifying your windows of opportunities for your run events to connect well. Making the nerve wracking decision to do an all-in Hail Mary run to decide the game is more common with this deck than many others, and that I think, is the spirit of Ken "Express" Tenma.

---The philosophy of 'Express'

The issue with many Tenma decks I see out there is simply, wouldnt that exact same build just be better with Andy or especially Gab? .

Gab's ability encourages 1 strong run (preferably HQ) every turn, and many would think that Express should be built the same furious way, or adopt Andy's insane cheap constant runs fashion. However, I think that Express' ability encourages sprints, and not marathons. That 1 cred per run event is not meant to fuel an economy (like how Gab's can be), but instead make those big occasional clutch runs just that much slightly easier to pull off. In fact, the design decision to have Ken's free cred kick-in on play of a run event and not on a successful conclusion of gives us a good sense of how an Express deck should be built.

---The backbone of the deck

Setting up to play 3x The Maker's Eye and 3x Legwork is your goal with this deck. Indexing is a pretty sweet killer if you can find the opportunity. Spending entire turns just clicking for creds and prepping for a sudden 3 card access next turn is Express' style. Keep probing servers like any good Criminal early game. Once you are shut out of cheap ( ~1 cred after Desperado) single card accesses, start setting up for Makers/Legworks.

This deck has been through many iterations and many plays, and has a pretty good success rate. Quite often it just comes down to whether your Makers or Legs hit. Additionally, it is decent against the glacial RP these days. Taxing ice is not so much a concern for you as your game plan is not to hit every turn. The deck is ready for you to just pick up and play, so long as you remember the mantra of 'sprints, not marathons'. Read on though, if you want a more in-depth discussion of the rationale behind the card choices.

3x Armitage Codebusting

The economic option of Armitage exemplifies the spirit of Express. It's click intensive, but that's fine, what you are looking for is just a flexible source of credits you can use to exploit open windows of opportunities for your run events. Kati Jones might theoretically fit the explosive nature of the deck well, but in practical terms she simply is too slow and inflexible to allow you to seize the same said windows. Drawing Kati multiples sucks too, plus she telegraphs to the Corp when you are about to attack and the good Corp player can and will respond accordingly. Daily Casts suffers for the same reason, in that its returns come too slow.

1x Account Siphon

Only 1 Siphon? If you want to do the Siphontrain-beatdown-then exploit, just go Gab or Andy builds, they do it more effectively. That said, an AS hit at the right time is still as devastating as ever, but keep in mind it's not your primary goal.

3x Public Terminal

Why not Prepaid VoicePAD? With Terminals, you are trading long term efficiency for faster returns, which is what Express needs for his sprints. A PPVP economy (as evidenced why it works so well in Shapers), is that it needs fast draw power to work too, and Criminals lack that. Good Shutdown protection too.

3x Express Delivery

I just love this card. For me, I am happily willing to trade away the 3rd Desperado, Same Old Thing, and Special Order for the flexibility and 'clutch' nature of Express Delivery. A tip, this card tends to get better as the game goes on and your deck thins out. So, still doing normal draws when you already have an Express Delivery in hand can sometimes be a pretty good idea. When you are at a critical juncture of a game when you desperately need an answer, an emergency Express Delivery can be a Runner's Jackson Howard hallelujah moment. Best of all, unlike Special Order, I like that you do not have to reveal what you picked, which simply terrifies the Corp.

---The breaker suite

3x Faerie is necessary for when you are early probing centrals, if just to see what kind of breakers you need. A solid 3 of.

3x Knight. Fulfills 2 functions. First is that you can sit a Knight unhosted out on the table, and the Corp will take bigger caution in building a remote expecting a Inside Job + Knight. This is when you hit with a Legwork. Second is that it will help you with problematic ice your central breakers have trouble going through well, such as how any strength 5 code gates cruelly gives Passport fits. 5 credits to get through a Knighted Tollbooth is actually decent when you compare to other breaker options. Discounting Femme of course, and that leads us to..

Why no Femme Fatale? Femme is best in decks where you run often to exploit her ability, or especially in Siphontrain games where huge credit swings are common. With Tenma, sinking 9 into a Femme is too much, even if it allows for the unexpected Indexing or similar.

All in all, your breaker suite is not designed to hit remotes that much, but Knights and Inside Jobs give you good flexibility in that area.

*Just be smart against the annoying Jinteki PE decks, your entire play-style has to change since your biggest resource to be concerned with is no longer credits nor clicks but instead cards in hand, but since that applies to many other Runner decks too, I shall not go into it here.