Quest For The Perfect Lat 6th@ German Nats

Let me start off with a shoutout to my dear buddy Leopold aka Der Kaiser who piloted this deck to 6th place at German nats. :)

The state of Lat

Lat much like Hoshiko is a very generally strong ID and as such becomes home to many different deck ideas. RWR was a huge boon to the shaper faction, with every card except Spree seeing moderate to huuuuuuge amounts of play. This of course meant we were going to see more Lat builds than ever, notable examples without Aesop include.

Sokkas “Boring” controlling Deep Dive Lat builds.

Ryanbantwins 1-of Hermes Lat with Cataloguer.

Different Swift Lat builds like that of Rubenpieters now boosted by Trick Shot.

Broadly speaking I believe the ID is really strong and that it can basically beat anything if your Lat build is “the right” Lat build for the matchup. But can we make one that is well rounded enough to have a decent/good matchup across the board?

Let’s look at some general issues Lat can run into:

• Lean breaking rigs help you contest early but can be inefficient(Pressure spike, Unity)/limited use(revolver/propeller/entangler).

• Turbine rigs are generally very efficient but suffer from slow setup speed and specific problematic ice(Archer, Piranhas, Rime for example)

• Lack of in faction drip leading to running out of steam in games where we are continually taxed on credits(vs glacier for example).

• SMC can due to the low amount of programs become a dead card, the 5 memory limit of a lot of builds can also make it harder to install.

• Simulchip is basically also always included, but not often enough leveraged for the full 3 creds

• Multiaccess eating up a lot of deck slots, and specifically for Deep Dive the effectiveness will vary a lot depending on the matchup.

Program Lat

Me and a lot of other people have been trying program heavy Aesop-based Lat builds <- This is mine from interconts. Here is my earlier EMEA attempt

My initial attempts at this solved a few of the Lat problems:

• SMC, which you have to include basically regardless of Lat Build, is now never dead and memory is rarely an issue

• Simulchip, which you basically also have to include, now usually gives a 2 credit discount and without having to trash extra programs.

• We now have strong IN FACTION drip for a steady money supply.

Of course we introduce some new problems here:

• We now have to draw our boiii Aesop reasonably quickly or we will be too slow.

• Triple Lilypad and Aesop leads to dead draws.

And there was still the issue of the breaker suites effectiveness being very variable.

Let’s list the general upsides of program based Lat:

• In faction long term econ

• Lots of memory to play with. Lilypads effect and memory is strong for its cost.

• Flexiblity: With SMC, Muse and Simulchip it is very easy both to tutor the card you need for a situation but also to recur it later if you need it again. This means usually one copy of a card is all you need not only to see it, but also to use it multiple times. Because of coalescence this also means a lot of cards in your deck can be money when you need them to be.

Because of all the upsides I was optimistic that the Aesop Lat builds could be improved and solve most of the Lat Problems to become the well rounded goto Lat that I am looking for. This list is an attempt at that.

How are we solving/mitigating the remaining problems?

Flexible rig:

• -1 Entangler
• -1 Revolver
• -1 Unity
• -1 Pressure Spike
• +1 Cleaver
• +1 Buzzsaw
• +1 Echelon
• +1 K2CP Turbine

We are mixing a lean rig with a turbine rig.

The lean pieces retain our ability to get into servers early and lets us assemble a board with each breaker type faster. This gives us a smooth transition from our early game rig to our final rig where we are less likely to be left toothless at any point. Revolver/Propeller/Entangler are also cards that often are not dead even if the full Turbine rig has been assembled.

The lean rig pieces also help mitigate some of the final turbine rig weaknesses. Notably Entangler gets us past pesky Archers and Piranhas, and a loaded Revolver with Turbine breaks Archer for 2 credits.

The Turbine rig pieces ensure we eventually reach a rig that is efficient enough for us to not get taxed out. Having breakers with unlimited breaking ability also means we are free to use our Muses/Simulchips for other things like money/multiaccess.

Memory:

• -1 Lilypad
• +2 DZMZ Optimizer

Shoutout to Chouflower and her Engine Lat for reminding me DZMZ is a card to consider for these lists and showcasing an interesting different way to build Aesop Lat.

Extra memory is important for this list simply because we want to have a lot of programs installed, even more so if Aesop is arriving a bit late to the board. With this change we have a smaller risk of dead draws, higher chance to see more memory early, and we give ourselves the option to go to 7 or 8 memory if needed, all while making the core of what we already do more efficient.

Multiaccess:

• -1 Nyashia
• -1 “Pretty” Mary Da Silva
• -3 Trick Shot(Say whaaaaat?!?!? +3 Environmental Testing)
• +1 Stargate

Having the ability to make threatening runs on R&D and HQ is really important but we want to spend as few slots as possible to achieve this, while still making sure we have easy access to it. As cool as the Nyashia + Pretty package was I felt I could achieve similar levels of pressure with only Stargate now that there is more memory available in the list.

This also means that both the multiaccess pieces in the list double as disruption for maximum flexibility.

Cutting Trick Shot is a bit of a shocker I realize because it is a really powerful card. However it is a conditional card that forces you to do something you may not want to do to make use of it. In some games it would be hard to get out of hand(which is bad for Lat) and so I decided that for this list Environmental Testing is a cleaner way of getting money, usually an easy and quick +6 credits no questions asked. This could definitely be wrong :D With this the responsibility to force R&D ICE falls on stargate.

But you have to draw Aesop though??!:

True.

Basically the theory here is that the upsides of what a program based Lat engine offers will make up for the games where you just cannot draw Aesop to save your life.

Strong Shell:

Of course there is no such thing as deckbuilding in a vacuum, for example this deck would not have any good way to get past a triple advanced Pharos if The Worlds Grind would ever reappear. But the general Engine is strong and my hope is that this can be adapted to fit whatever meta appears. As a tech card hater I can happily say that the only tech card in the list is Paricia, feel free to tech to your needs.

Concerns?

The fear is that the deck will be too slow, or that the Aesop inconsistency is just too bad.

The cutting of Trick Shot may also hurt us in the faster matchups. It might be possible to reintroduce it to some degree, but we need to find some slots for it.

Dealing with just void seems doable by just throwing money at the problem, however if skunkvoid is established our main solution is to pivot to central pressure, but it may take too much time to find the memory for stargate.

Has this been tested?

In my brain quite a lot yes!

Oh you mean like actual targeted testing? No not really, I’ve jammed it on jnet a bit and have loved the feel of it, I welcome people to test it more.

Leopold was quite happy with the list, though it only went 3/2 he felt the losses were winnable. Would love to hear more of his thoughts in the comments ;)

Preempting questions about includes and possible solutions:

• Spec work - At EMEA I was thinking about this to clean up memory for when you don't draw Aesop, and after Interconts Jai was also suggesting it.

The idea is attractive because of how bad the deck looks if you don't get Aesops on time, but really including this card means you are essentially planning for failure. It is not particularly good on its own and if you actually draw your Aesop you probably never want to play this, just git gud and draw the Aesop :D

• Cataloguer - The card is great and would free up influence. If it turns out the DZMZ + Stargate plan is too ambitious and slow then it would be possible to go back to a triple Lilypad Rig relying on cataloguer for R&D pressure(I reckon 2 copies).

• Conduit - Honestly this card kind of slipped my mind while building this. For my previous version making repeated runs on R&D would be too taxing for my limited use programs, but in this list I could see this working much better, and this is easier to fit into our rig than Stargate. However Conduit is easier to play around and does not provide disruption.

• Nyashia - If Stargate turns out to be too slow or clumsy, Nyashia is actually not that bad of a card in this archetype :D Especially if Trick Shot is reintroduced. Upside is it is tutorable, only takes 1 slot, and has Lilypad synergy, downside is it takes memory and is not the most impactful MA for R&D.

• Pinhole threading - A card I try to avoid including because it can be quite situational and it often needs to wait in hand for a while, which again is something Lat doesn't Like. It also is not a perfect solution as the corp can always just have more copies of void/skunk/cacador to install. However I think it is fair to always consider if this card is needed, one of our main strengths is remote locking and pinhole would reinforce that.

• Euler - Part of me wants a solution to get past double Piranhas with one card, but for now I am assuming this is not necessary and that the one entangler will be enough in most cases.

• Ika - If you really need to free up some influence this is probably not the worst option, but I would not do it lightly because Revolver is amazing and also synergizes quite well with Turbine.

• Hush - Would help with some problematic ice like Border Control, Data Loop, Gatekeeper, Pharos, Tree Line. But would require cuts from our current influence lineup, so make sure it is worth it.

• Clot - Fast advance is a threat, in particular from OB, but considering there are strong corps like PD relying completely on remotes for scoring I don't think we can afford to dilute our build with this.

If there is extra influence I might consider Imp as a more flexible alternative to Paricia, and perhaps Botulus or another entangler :)

Closing statements:

I’m excited to see what the future has in store for Lat builds, and if something like this build will have a role to play. In particular I’m eagerly looking forward to attempts at the most well rounded Lat, whether it be with or without Aesop. I don't think we are anywhere near the end of the theorizing, the meta is still young.

Big shoutout to my testing group Bridgeman for helping out with this deck!

Hit me with your questions :D