I Am All: 3rd Place Boise, ID Regional 5.9.15

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mattastrophic 233

I Am All: 3rd Place Boise, ID Regional 2015 - All About Games

Also 4th Place SC (2nd after Swiss) - Guardian Games - PDX, OR

It's arguable that Prepaid VoicePAD Kate "Mac" McCaffrey: Digital Tinker decks are incredibly strong, and they have been popping up pretty often locally with strong finishes at local Store Championships. A pretty iconic example can be found here:

Calimsha's Blitz Running PPvP Kate: http://netrunnerdb.com/en/decklist/14938/blitz-running-ppvp-kate

What this means is that we've been gradually figuring out how to play against Prepaid Kate. This deck, "I Am All," is my own attempt to address the gradual adaptation.

Prepaid Kate's economic engine is very elegant, as it can generate a lot of money in short amounts of time as well as over the course of the game. The single Levy AR Lab Access ensures that she can build up economic momentum as the game goes on. Her breaker suite is also very efficient, but in my experience very fragile, as it relies on temporary and one-shot breaker and Parasite recursion.

Kit, however... All I had to do was replace a Cyber-Cypher with a Torch, and the rig became much more sturdy. Femme Fatale also has natural synergy with the Test Run-Vamp attack, because Kit can play a Femme blindly on an unrezzed back ICE of HQ, let her Code Gate breaker handle the front ICE, and land a sure Vamp.

Kit's ability also synergizes very well with Cerberus "Lady" H1. Unlike with other Shapers, if Kit runs into a barrier as the first ICE encountered, she doesn't need to spend Lady's power counters to break it. This means that her Ladies can only last longer than Kate's.

I also found it foolish to attempt to replicate Prepaid Kate's event-driven Prepaid VoicePAD economy in any identity but Kate, because Kate just does it better thanks to her ability. Kit also doesn't have enough influence to afford three copies of Lucky Find. So I instead turned to the classic Magnum Opus. Kit's ability to make runs with only a single icebreaker greatly helps with the memory crunch felt when using Magnum Opus.

So, I've traded away the awesome power of the Prepaid Kate economy for a sturdier setup that leverages Kit's ability to use the awesome Torch as her primary breaker. The single Cyber-Cypher is there to be searched out with Self-modifying Code when Stimhack isn't around. Paying full price for Torch is often a terrible idea.

The deck did quite well at the Store Championship. I went 5-3 with it over the day, winning three times against Blue Sun (which is a GREAT matchup for Kit, since the Blue Sun ability doesn't really help with making the ICE towers needed to keep Kit out of servers), and twice against Astrobiotics. My three losses were to an Astroscorch deck, a Astro-trick deck, and I got eliminated by an epic 6-7 match against Johnnycreations's super-strong High Assets deck: http://netrunnerdb.com/en/decklist/18139/high-assets-v1-1-2nd-place-sc-guardian-games-pdx-or

I might not have gone up against Replicating Perfection or Haas-Bioroid, but I feel like "I Am All" is in a good place going into the SanSan Cycle. I'm really look forward to the upcoming London Library...

Update: "I Am All" also look third place at the Boise, ID Regional. This time, it only went 4-3, though. The wins were against Titan Transnational, Gagarin Midseasons, Replicating Perfection, and Making News Scorch in the elimination rounds, while the three losses were to a Replicating Perfection, an HB Fast Advance played by the eventual #2, and another Replicating Perfection played by the Regional Champion. I had trouble getting everything together against RP, an issue I will have to work on and update the deck for as the Regional season continues. I already have excellent matches against Blue Sun; it appears that my game against RP is what needs work. RP is winning Regionals left and right for a reason.

-Matt

13 comments
30 Mar 2015 Bananifier

With no parasite and no escher, how did you handle pop-up window?

30 Mar 2015 x3r0h0ur

If you have opus and can't handle a pop up window, you're doing something very wrong, lol. Seems like a solid build. Hinke's kit + stimhack seems quite good.

I think the stimhacks could also be legwork though, but once NEH slows down, it'll be less important.

30 Mar 2015 Bananifier

Pop-up as an outermost ice strongly reduces the usefulness of Kit's ability. The same could be said of other low-cost code-gates, which are overall quite common (Quandary, Datapike in Blue Sun). For instance, the following HQ would slow this deck quite a lot:

HQ Root -- Wraparound -- Pop-up

I chose pop-up as an example due to its prevalence (and NBN's) in the current meta.

30 Mar 2015 mattastrophic

I had a previous version with 1x Parasite. I found that the effort involved to actually use it on Quandaries, Pups, and Pop-Up Windows would break my momentum. Yes, Wraparound and Pop-Up in the same server is rough. I recall one game in eliminations where my opponent had an Eli and two Windows in front of R&D. Instead of searching for the Parasite twice, though, I just brought out Lady and kept running it. 3c and a Lady counter to see two cards was enough for me to establish the R&D lock I needed to beat him. If he wanted to break the lock, he was looking at installing another Eli or a Wraparound or something, which would have turned Kit's ability back on.

Point being, I find that Parasite costs me an SMC or Test Run that is more often effective when used to grab Lady or Femme. Pop-up might be a pain, but it doesn't keep me out of the server.

-Matt

30 Mar 2015 mattastrophic

Basically, Parasite wasn't helping me win games. So I dropped it.

-Matt

30 Mar 2015 Bananifier

Alright, thanks for your insight!

30 Mar 2015 mattastrophic

After some more thought, as well as some consideration of replacing a Vamp with a Parasite, I have an example...

Let's say NEH puts a Wraparound and a Pop Up Window on a central. That's a doomsday scenario for Kit. Let's say her rig is up to:

Magnum Opus, Cyber-Cypher pointing at the server (or Torch), A memory chip, A Self-Modifying Code

So, she could spend 4c and grab the Parasite, then another 4c to break the Wraparound. That's not a bad plan. Kit's ability turns back on and everything.

Problem is... On NEH's turn, they install another ICE in front of the Wraparound. Uh-oh. Now Kit is locked out until she can find another way to either retrieve her Parasite or find Lady.

Or, she could have spent 6c to find Lady, then 1c and a counter to get in. The Corporation has failed to stop Kit, and they are now going to need a third ICE to slow her down. And on top of that, that third ICE is going to be subject to Kit's ability. If it's an Eli 1.0 or an Architect, or anything at all, Kit is STILL getting in. NEH is going to need a FOURTH ICE to hope to stop Kit!

Point being... She's going to have to find Lady anyways, because that server is going to get double-ICEd. Here, Parasite slows her down more than it helps.

This sort of situation also shows why I am preferring Cyber-Cypher and Torch over Gordian Blade or Zu.13 Keymaster. In the above scenario, if NEH were to install an Eli 1.0 on the outside, Kit would be significantly slowed down with those breakers. 5c to break with Zu.13? Ugh! She's better off clicking through it. But with Cyber-Cypher, it would take a Tollbooth to even make Kit flinch. And then it's Femme Fatale Time.

-Matt

30 Mar 2015 x3r0h0ur

Why not just run 1 inti to cope with wraparound and small barriers, free to install, and costs a buck to break those painful ice. Seems like it answers taht problem much easier than worrying about parasite. I'd go to legwork sooner than parasite. Opus should have no issues paying through most things.

Also the TME could be indexing if you're vigilant in checking for shufflers (atlas, boot camp, jackson, etc). You're more likely to get the most out of attack windows with indexing + RDI.

30 Mar 2015 afishisborn

I've played against you up here in Seattle, and both times your Kit tore me apart. You got set up rather quickly, and put me in a position where I could either keep you out or try to win. As it happened, I actually didn't really have either option, and you quickly had a full suite of efficient breakers.

On the thought that cheap ice can be put on the outset of servers to turn of Kit's ability, yes, this is a thing. But it comes at the cost of a lot of corp tempo, without costing the runner much at all (finding an smc, test run, or the relevant breaker is not the most difficult of chores).

The one thing that concerns me, having spent a lot of time with Lady in shaper, is running out of counters, i.e fracting potential. I like @x3r0h0ur's suggestion of inti, but then, I wonder if it's even a problem. Have you ever had a game where you couldn't break any barriers?

30 Mar 2015 mattastrophic

Between Test Run, Scavenge, Clone Chip, and Kit's ability, I just don't run out of Lady counters. Keep in mind that Kit's ability means that outer barriers don't cost her Lady counters. This has been relevant quite often. It means that a double-Eli server only costs 3c and a Lady counter, instead of 2c and two counters.

For awhile, I was very much considering a copy of Inti. I ended up choosing consistency, as we'll as the ability to bust through an Eli+Wraparound server for cheap.

That being said, if I went up against NEH and Grail ICE more often than I do at a typical tournament, I would be more likely to have 1x Lady and 1x Inti. But I've seen way more Curtain Walls than Wraparounds this season.

Nice seeing you here, Mr. Fish! Your Goodbye to You deck has gotten a lot of buzz down in PDX!

-Matt

30 Mar 2015 mattastrophic

Also, @x3r0h0ur, I have thought about Indexing, but it doesn't synergize well with Kit's ability and Vamp followed by The Maker's Eye is a great play.

-Matt

31 Mar 2015 x3r0h0ur

By that logic wouldn't vamp into indexing be better?

31 Mar 2015 mattastrophic

Ehh, I don't see anything wrong with Indexing besides some anti-synergies. Personally, I would rather have to run into R&D once and access 3-5ish cards with The Maker's Eye than need to run in twice with Indexing. The Vamp Attack turn is very compressed is why. Test Run for Femme Fatale, then Vamp, that leaves two clicks left to make runs on the advanced remotes, run R&D, or shake the tag in the Blue Sun case. I see the merit in Indexing, but I like The Maker's Eye here.

-Matt