Black Swan

Snake Eyes 4651

This deck's core idea was siphoned from Mediohxcore's account during his visit at the Bad Publicity YouTube show.

I've played it out about a dozen times since building it, and have won every one of my matches.

The full rig is 2x Silencer, 2x Cloak, Refractor, Corroder, and Switchblade - although both Ghost Runner and Faerie can fill in for the recurring stealth credit support.

The stealth suite is an incredibly economic means of burning through any annoying ICE like Tsurugi, Komainu, Information Overload, etc. Being able to cut through zero str sentries like Rototurret is even nicer.

Desperado, Security Testing, and John Masanori for optimum click efficiency and draw engines. These are all maxed out to ensure that they arrive asap. 3x Dirty Laundry are given and only 2x Sure Gamble help feed that sweet spot of 6 credits and 1 card draw for one click. Dirty Laundry is a better card than Sure Gamble in this deck for the reasons of how much more economy it becomes.

R&D Interface and Legwork for extra accesses on the fly. A single Same Old Thing to recur whatever you want, and a single Plascrete Carapace to dig you out of basic Scorched Earth // Punitive Countermeasure trickery.

Inside Job to help pick through early servers when your rig isn't set up. Emergency Shutdown to kill expensive rezzes - best done after Account Siphoning.

A single Quality Time helps pump up some card draw in the early-mid game while trying to establish your board state. If there were influence for more, I'd take another.

17 comments
13 Dec 2014 Phenix

I like your idea, but if you're unlucky vs an Jinteki deck, how would you retrieve your breakers ?

13 Dec 2014 Snake Eyes

Just don't lose them in the first place. That's a piloting call to avoid that happening.

Don't draw last click. Install all of your breakers immediately.

14 Dec 2014 johncraven

Check out my build for a stealth deck. I prefer datasucker over cloak: more flexible and good enough in the average case. The only one that's really stealth hungry is switchblade and 5 out of silencer/ghost runner is enough for it: netrunnerdb.com

14 Dec 2014 saltytacopanda

I mostly play Shapers so might be a silly question but, then why 2 Switchblades? Could swap one out for another Sure Gamble.

14 Dec 2014 moistloaf

@saltytacopanda maybe to reduce the likelihood of you having to Special Order for one... not sure

14 Dec 2014 Snake Eyes

Well I guess you could try cutting down to one. I feel as though for the build the number is right though. Special Order will make sure that you can hit your Corroder and Refractor early on.

I like having the extra killer support as hitting a Grim or a Rototurret that you're not prepared for could really mess up your game. Definitely want to hit a Faerie or Switchblade very early on.

14 Dec 2014 oNiBi

I agree with Phenix in that you shouldnt really play with one copy of each breaker but no Clone Chip. One Shutdown and thats basically it. You could go with 1 Corroder, 1 Gordian, 2 Cloak, 2 R&D, and 1 Clone Chip.

14 Dec 2014 Snake Eyes

Cloak, Silencer, and Faerie are all safety targets for Power Shutdown here.

Aggressive Secretary is a card that concerns me more than Power Shutdown tbh!

Going with Gordian Blade as your main sorta kills a lot of the whole stealth suite idea. Refractor is amazingly efficient. Hang onto that with this deck for sure. I guess if you really want backups, you could find space for Cerberus "Rex" H2 and Breach - but I'll hang tight on that unless I ever see rig destruction as a problem.

14 Dec 2014 oNiBi

In my experience you dont get the right pieces in time too often when playing like this, lose something important against shutdowns (and by this I mean well timed double shutdowns for instance) or net damage, or have to hold on to something in hand for too long. I tried playing with Gordian Blade and found that since you have Faeries for the early game there is usually enough time to get the Switchblade rig up while running and reacting. Also, when playing both Refractor and Switchblade, you may run into trouble mid to late game because there is not enough stealth to run deeper servers, as soon as Ghost Runners run out. Always a tough thing to balance these kinds of decks.

14 Dec 2014 oNiBi

Try this for consistency: netrunnerdb.com

14 Dec 2014 Snake Eyes

How would you lose something to net damage if you install it right away?

That's a piloting call mang! Don't draw last click against PE if you don't have your rig up.

14 Dec 2014 DoubleAitch

What about the Masanori draw? Do you still use him against PE and other potential trap decks or do you not bother to avoid the potential damage to key cards you just drew? The free draw is great against PE but without recursion or redundancy it could backfire.

14 Dec 2014 Snake Eyes

Your deck looks pretty good @oNiBi - but if you're avoiding using Refractor - why use Cloak at all? You could probably save the influence on them, add in Ghost Runner - then have some more room for stuff like Indexing, Datasucker, Sneakdoor Beta, etc. Silencer is doing the heavy lifting for Switchblade - and Ghost Runner could probably pick up the slack.

Unless you just like the extra recurring credits - which are super nice to have, no doubt.

If program destruction is really a problem for running this deck - yeah, I guess you could cut a Cloak for a Clone Chip - I've just never had the issue. Closest thing was being hit by a Will-o'-the-Wisp - so I Same Old Thing'd my Special Order to get it back online the next turn.

14 Dec 2014 Snake Eyes

@DoubleAitch tbh I don't think I'd install John Masanori against Jinteki: Personal Evolution until I had Security Testing up. That way you don't access anything, and get your free draw + 3 credits (combo'd with Desperado) to install whatever program you just drew immediately with your 2nd click.

14 Dec 2014 oNiBi

@Snake Eyes If you want to run deeper servers mit to late game you will need 4 stealth credits in order to use Switchblade twice, and good opponents will certainly exploit this obvious weakness of Switchblade stealth. Ghost Runner is not an efficient card and if you can avoid it (and you can in my build, I feel) you should imho. Thats why I argued against Refractor: In a competitive match you will certainly have problems drawing into enough stealth to power both Switchblade and Refractor to outplay a smart enemy.

15 Dec 2014 Sojourne

I like it. Would this be better in a Gabriel though? Considering you are looking at making one good run a turn.

30 Dec 2014 Snake Eyes

@oNiBi, eh, reasonable point. If they stacked 3 back to back punishing sentries... yeah then this deck would be in trouble. Otherwise you can just use Cloak to support Silencer.

After about 40 matches (1 loss) I've been finding that a 2nd Switchblade isn't so useful. Stealth creds have never really been a problem here - but if you're worried about them you could take a 3rd Silencer.

@Sojourne I agree. I built a Gabriel Santiago: Consummate Professional taking some of these ideas the other day, but I'm keeping that decklist under lock and key until I have about 30 matches in with it. I'd say give it a go!