The Novelist

The one thing to be aware of with Harbinger that I think has been mentioned is that the wording on it will likely trigger Hayley's ability for the turn, but it will be for a facedown card. Because facedown cards have no type, the ability would be wasted for the turn. May need a ruling.

@MrAaronSA Yeah I'm not sure myself on whether the Harbinger sell triggers Hayley, but to test the viability of the deck, I've generally played it as though it does. It hasn't really been an issue with how I pilot the deck, but we get an official ruling that it does trigger on the trash, I'm sure those 3 slots and 3 influence can be interchanged with something just as strong.

@MrAaronSA as for what can replace Harbinger, I have found Street Peddler is a strong replacement. Given the number of cards you can install, it pretty much never whiffs and just lets you go through your deck even faster. Plus you can use it to trigger Hayley's ability on the Corp's turn as well which just increases your efficiency.

How do you draw? Maybe a baby or a ProCo could shine in there.

Love it. I will give it a shot. Gettin' bored of my Prepaid Kate.

With no clot, how do you come close to beating NEH?

@gandrasch Diesel and Quality Time alone will let you draw through almost half of your deck, along with aggressive clicking to draw, you should have no problem going through your deck quickly.

@mendax During inception of this deck, Parasite used to be a Clot until before I started testing the deck. What I consistently found was that the R&D lock was established very easily and quickly, particularly against NBN. I found that I was never playing Clot because the Corp was never really drawing into any more agendas after the R&D lock was established. Together with the strong economy of this deck, the efficiency of Chameleon & LLDS Processor, the Corp can't ever keep you out of R&D no matter how much ICE they install. Sure, there might be a game or two that I have against Fast Advance where Clot would have been useful, but through testing I've found that Parasite just has more utility than Clot against popular matchups.

One thing that absolutely destroys this kind of deck is Housekeeping. Have you ever played against it and ih you have, how do you deal with it?

Deck looks great, can't wait to give it a spin! One thing bothers me though: is Data Raven+Keegan Lane combo just a hard counter or am I missing something? I'm a bit new to the game, but it seems to me even the threat of it either locks you out from a server or snipes most of your rig on Scheherazade... Do you just take it and depend on recursion? Instal essential stuff off Scheh and suffer a kick in the econ? Would love to hear your input.

@lyn I've actually encountered Housekeeping multiple times and to be honest it hasn't really been an issue. Since it's once per turn, and you get to choose the card you can often just get around it by overdrawing (which is easy thanks to Diesel & Quality Time as well as Hayley] just having that extra to spare), and then discarding the card you need least.

Housekeeping is one of those cards that sounds really bad for this deck in theory, but in practice it doesn't really do much. I find my turns often consist of bursts of installs or bursts of draw with runs peppered in between as I see fit.

To be honest, the current I hate to see the most is actually Targeted Marketing from experience. Once the Corp figures out your deck is a Chameleon deck, having them gain 10 credits for each install is nothing to laugh at. Thankfully, I've mitigated this somewhat with an Atman include (used to be a Sharpshooter). D4v1d & Parasite also function nicely and allow you to play around it a bit. Having high impact runs on R&D also helps nicely, so that if you really need to install Chameleon you'll probably be stealing an agenda that turn and making the current go away.

@mifu I generally don't go all in on Scheherazade, only hosting programs on it that I know i'll be selling soon (along with Chameleons which will be going back to my grip).

Programs like Sahasrara don't get hosted on Scheherazade because I'm OK with suffering the 1 credit hit. The economy of this deck is very strong - I find that I am floating on 20+ credits by mid to late game in about 80% of my games, and 10-15 credits is where I usually hover in the rest of the games, so the 1 credit hit isn't really a big issue.

As for program trashing - I don't play with fear of that. Almost all of the programs here are dirt cheap to install, you have a ton of recursion because you are Shaper and even if you somehow lose your whole rig, you'll be surprised by how quickly you can get it all back just because this deck runs multiples nearly everything and you are Hayley. Hope that helps.

I don't have time right now to read the commentary up to this point, but I wanted to comment on my extensive testing so far.

I also attempted to go with Dave, atman and Lady to side with the chameleons, and I think it could be a great change.

I do feel like the lack of Personal workshop is going to make you miss lots of triggers and thus lots of credits from tech writer (corp turn triggers). On that note, the lack of armitage or daily casts seems like a scary prop to me, as econ can run out sometimes for me, but the "take 8" turn helps fuel several turns.

I also considered scavenge, I think its a solid include, as people will annoyingly damage me just to hit my chameleons.

I'm running 1x replicator, and its so insanely good when I find it, I might go to two.

Good stuff, liking the changes, might incorporate it into my testing tonight.

Another note, I cut 1 harbinger for crescentus and its amazing. Harbinger triggering hayley dead that turn is annoying, I got around it by using the Personal workshop to install something on the turn I plan to aesop's a harbinger. I bet you run into quite a few turns of lowered Tech Writer due to your lack of PW. Something to consider.

@x3r0h0ur I have tested Personal Workshop (subbing out the 2x Sahasrara for it) but I found it underwelming and went back to Sahasrara. Couldn't quite put my finger on it, but something felt off about the deck in testing with the Personal Workshops. I might need to do some more testing though to make sure.

As for economy, I haven't found it to be an issue so far - this may be partly due to the Scavenges; they effectively function as a Sure Gamble with zero credit threshold when I have Scheherazade and a Cache install. Also, against faster decks, I tend to be quite liberal with my Clone Chips to give me the quick short term burst of money I need by just installing Cache as the end of the Corp's turn; usually I can trigger a Harbinger or Self-modifying Code install as well which gives me a quick burst of money when I need it (especially with an Aesop's sell.

I haven't tried out Replicator, but it looks like it could do work - my biggest problem is finding slots in the deck for it.

Also, as a side note, I have been playing with Street Peddler as a placeholder for Harbinger (while its still bugged on Jinteki.net), and it's been doing great work. I think it's been increasing the consistency of the deck even more by just accelerating the rate you can dig through your deck.

WRT to PW, it also helps you pull one out retroactively, once you know the sub type you're hitting, and you can still trigger the next chameleon from hand using it. I would most certainly run 1 or 2!

I find using chips for econ to be hard on breaker management, but I ran 1 of each type just in case. Archer is kinda a thing these days, and relying on having all 3 LLDS and chameleon installed scares me, esp if I've used all my recursion on econ!

Replicator and plascrete ended up putting my deck at 46 in the latest iteration (which runs 2x scrubber). 1 pairicia would be good for you too I think.

I know @bahram who does this out of kate runs 3x peddler and a similar breaker structure to yours, he loves it, and it is quite good.

I would also recommend parasite become clot, clot is just too important in NEH matchups for me to consider cutting it. You can only bluff it so much. And against less good players, you can surprise them by installing it when they think you can't. I've sniped agendas by installing chameleon off workshop and hayley installing clot a few times, totally worth it :P

In order to be tier 1, you need to be able to beat the tier 1 decks. And those are: 24/7 Haarp, NEH Fastro (turtles optional), RP, & foodcoats.

You have 0 plascrete. You have 0 clot.

This is at best tier 3.

@gumonshoe He says that he has tested vs. a wide variety of corps, surely that includes RP and astrotrain.

@turtle If I'm honest, the lack of any protection from meat damage scares me too. How do you duck Blue sun return big ice to hand, sea source, scorch scorch on a turn when you steal? Just have so much money that even when they suck up curtain wall they can't get you?

This is an odd question, but how is the decision fatigue on this deck? One thing I see as a hidden strength of many tier 1 decks (esp AstroBiotics) is that Gen Con was 7 rounds and Worlds is 8: by the end of it your brain is going to be a quivering sack of suet and this is when it shines if your deck "plays itself." Avoidance of becoming mentally depleted is something I'm kind of wary of.

@Waltzard and others, you can protect against scorch for some time by picking up all 3 chameleons at the end of your turn. Otherwise, staying up on money is the other answer (doesn't help vs 24/7)

@Grimwalker My version is very mentally taxing to remember all your triggers and how to have them all available to you, this is my major concern with playing it at worlds. My practice with it doubles as my training. So yes, it is tough to play.

It's an interesting and rich deck. The points about 24/7 do hold some merit though. Anarch has several ways to deal with 24/7 Breaking News, Criminals have already accepted the deck slot hits, and reluctantly I think Shaper must too. Clot is icing on the cake and I could see this deck being rich enough to content NEH Fastro with decent luck. Fast Track does exist.

But the cake itself is 1x Plascrete Carapace. It's infuriating to lose to 24/7 News Cycle when you outcredit Haarp by 3x and that deck. while imo not very good, has windows to 'just win'. Plascrete reduces that window.

24/7 Harp is one of the best decks that exists right now, at the very least. To give absolutely no tech over to it is just asking for trouble.

I tried this out on jinteki.net with Street Peddler instead of Harbinger and it is a ton of fun! When Chameleon first came out I tried to make it work for a long time but it always felt like some much combo investment and lost tempo. Technical Writer changes all of that! It's so easy to build the credits up on this gem. Nice deck!

After tonight's round of testing I'll publish out my cachemeleon v2.0 thats going to be over 10 games of testing with the most recent changes, about 25 or so over the last post. I slotted 2 plascretes.

What about bookmark for scorch protection? It can also hold on to your R&D Interface until you're ready to install and be aesops fodder if you draw your cards back with the click cost.

@Waltzard D4v1d is my go-to card for handling big scary ICE. As for Curtain Wall, Lady isn't a bad answer either. To be honest, I just outmoney Blue Sun to avoid the kill. It just means not running that aggressively in the early game, as your mid to late game economy should far out strip them. So far in my testing, I haven't come across too many kill decks, mainly a lot of Glacier-Type decks which this deck has no problem with. I can see dropping the three Diesels and slotting two Plascrete Carapace and a third Quality Time if you really are worried about the Scorched Earth kill, but I've found just playing a bit more cautiously around those kinds of decks is enough.

@Grimwalker This deck is going to be harder to pilot than a standard PPVP Kate or Good Stuff Anarch, simply because you'll probably be making more decisions overall. I probably wouldn't take to a tournament with more than 5 rounds at this point, however, I've only been playing it for a bit over a month and it's already getting a lot easier to pilot for me than when I first started out. That being said, I find it incredibly fun to pilot, more so than any Tier 1 deck right now, and part of the fatigue I get during tournaments is actually getting bored by going through roughly the same motions over and over again.

@hi_impact I think I've been flatlined 2 times out of the 60 or so games I've played with this deck. Surprisingly, they both came from Weyland and not Haarpsichord kill decks. I haven't yet been the victim of a 24/7 News Cycle into Scorched Earth flatline, but if you really are worried about that then slotting the Plascrete Carapaces will definitely help out. I just favour the speed and extra consistency Diesel offers and I've been building nearly all my runners without Plascrete Carapace for ages now (with the exception of Crims) and just adjusting my play style instead.

As a side note, I think it's important to remember that a Tier 1 deck doesn't have to win every single game against every kind of Corp, it just needs to win the majority of them and consistently. The key here is consistency; having Clot against Fast Advance decks and Plascrete Carapace against Scorched Earth decks definitely helps those match ups, but it doesn't necessarily mean you need them to win consistently. I'm fine with losing a game here or there against those decks, as long as I'm winning against those decks on a consistent basis. Considering a deck Tier 3 without actually testing it out, simply on the basis it's missing a few cards that match up well against other Tier 1 Corp decks, is quite narrow-minded and a bit arrogant if you ask me.

Played something similar to this today; you really have to plan out your Atman ahead of time. Otherwise it can be super awkward if you need to get through a piece of ice this turn and LLDS processor screws with it. Super fun deck, though. I could see it needing some help with the Butcher matchup, though. I never played against it, but from just the list alone, I think it probably just dies.

The while concept of Chameleon llsd processor in hayley with technical writer is def very strong. However as card draw choice drug dealer is too good to pass. Just fits so well in the deck.

I also run Nach and film critic , i don't understand why people still play plascrete.

NACH is so versatile ,and same goes for film critic. best combos in netrunner are when singletons are already great by itself.

Harpy would be Tier 1 if it weren't for employee strike and film critic.

I am not sold on personal workshop as well ,same goes for d4v1d ,but mainly because i am not sure if his 4 influence are totally worth it

Try the dealers, they are selling good stuff

Desperately needs Inti

@moistloaf I'm not sure that's ever been true in the history of netrunner =P Besides, the 1-of Lady does a more than fine job.

@x3r0h0ur the people (or just me) want to know how you fit in Plascretes, because I had to do some uncomfortable cutting to get there myself :). God I hate 24/7 News Cycle so, so much.

3 QT no diesel or scavenege. Remember my build has 1 prominent breaker of each type. Also 46 cards.

Having played this a few times, I still have no idea how you're supposed to be able to beat astrobiotics with it. It's just way too slow - by the time you've found your pieces and been able to exert any real pressure they've already put two astros past you and without clot the game is basically sealed at that point.

This might be crazy, but what about Pawn as a replacement for Harbinger? It does many of the same things (installs for 0c, protects against Power Shutdown) and while it can't be Aesop'd twice, you can chain two of them together to trigger Tech Writers and Scheherazade.

Otherwise I'm really impressed by this deck. It could use something in the way of HQ pressure though.

@mendax Could be a difference in play style, but I haven't really had any trouble with Astrobiotics with this deck. Even if they get a couple of Astros, I just make sure they never see another agenda again. If you find that the deck takes too long to setup, then perhaps you aren't been liberal enough with your Clone Chips and Self-modifying Codes. Using them to tutor and recycle your Caches mean you never run out of money and can keep pressuring their servers. Also, I'm generally not afraid to play a Quality Time even with a full grip and barely any credits, because the chances of me drawing a Cache, Harbinger, Aesop's Pawnshop or any other source of income is high and I'll be able to drop them for next to nothing. If you really are having trouble with Astrobiotics, then just drop the Parasite for a Clot - I just personally haven't found that I needed it in nearly all my Fast Advance match ups so I dropped it. But this deck is built to cater how I play as runner and nothing is set in stone. Add and remove cards as you see fit - that's the fun part of deckbuilding.

@erinrockabitch I thought about Pawn as a replacement, only thing is if you want to host it on Scheherazade, you need that extra click to move it onto an ICE, so it probably only works with Deep Red support. I just haven't found where I can spare the influence for that (Astrolabe is a nice console against horizontal Corp decks as well).

If Harbinger has to go just swap it with a Faust and 2 Daily Casts. Done.

Does the interaction between Atman and LLDS Processor bite you very often? Usually when I want a breaker, I want it right now and LLDS Processor means you're either waiting a turn or installing Atman at the wrong value for repeated use.

@Fry I generally get Atman out at the strength I need (taking into account the LLDS Processors), as I use it to deal with surprises as well. Then I Scavenge it later on to an appropriate strength later on. It can be a bit awkward sometimes, but I usually don't play Atman unless I absolutely have to, which isn't often.

Very early yet but i'm looking forward to seeing how the new deva programs might work in this kind of set up!

Hm... been looking at this. Would you consider bumping it to 46 to include a Levy AR? It seems like this deck is completely based around single-shot econ cards and recursion, and Levy would provide a decent amount of security.

@Disk Elemental The second Scavenge used to be a Levy AR Lab Access, but I found I wasn't using Levy AR Lab Access so I switched it to the Scavenge. Against Jinteki: Personal Evolution I can see this card doing a lot of work, but if you're putting Levy AR Lab Access in just for the economy I wouldn't really worry about it - I think it has enough economy in this deck (barring edge cases) to go well into the late game.

Given the new influence reductions caused by on Parasite, Clone Chip, and Cerberus "Lady" H1, what are you planning on cutting?

I would like to second Delrian's question. How would you modify this deck to make it MWL-legal?