[TWA] Post-MWL Stealth Kate

DonutTaganes 2548

Hi all, Jesse from The Winning Agenda here.

As discussed on TWA Episode 66, this is my latest Stealth Kate deck.

Based off my existing stealth build and updated for the post-MWL meta, this deck utilises the most efficient and flexible rig available to Shaper, which requires only two influence to put together!

The breakers deal really well with currently popular ICE, particularly Turing, Assassin and Tollbooth.

Film Critic has so many uses, tilting Haarpsichord, PE, Argus and RP match ups in your favour, and ensuring that you won't be blown out by Midseasons.

Professional Contacts allows you to access the pieces you need to put together the stealth rig, and combined with the event economy suite of Lucky Find, Modded and Sure Gamble, keeps your credit levels healthy throughout the game.

Technical Writer has great synergy with the SMC/Clone Chip plus breakers plan, and also triggers off the interfaces and stealth pieces to boot! It brings you back into the game when you would otherwise be dipping dangerously low on credits.

As opposed to Switchblade, Dagger doesn't require two stealth credits to face check non-Archer sentries. I've been feeling like Dagger is much smoother, and allows you to be far more aggressive without draining your Ghost Runners too much.

While playing the deck, I like to get a Cloak out early and find breakers as required, then install the second Cloak as my fifth MU if possible.

Clone Chip helps with Clot recursion, rescuing breakers, recurring Deus X and reusing SMC, fuelling Technical Writer all the while.

The HQ Interface allows you to utilise your stealth credits for impactful runs beyond R&D.

Clot helps you defend against the biggest threat to runner decks like this - fast advance, the best aggressive corp strategy.

15 comments
19 Jan 2016 CodeMarvelous

This looks very similar to where I was going with it, no room for Diesel though?

19 Jan 2016 rwknoll

This also looks very similar to a Stealth Kit deck that I've been toying around with. My Kit deck runs more copies of Refractor, for obvious reasons (better early game consistency), and Kate has more influence to fuel the list. Otherwise, a lot of the core cards are the same, and it has helped my Kit deck be pretty successful.

Have you considered swapping out Modded for Dirty Laundry (or possibly 2 Dirty Laundry, 1 Escher)? I've found that late-game Modded is not as important for a stealth rig, especially with Kate's economic advantage. Dirty Laundry can be used early game to buffer against the tempo loss of installing ProCon, but can be used in the late game to simultaneously run (basically free with a full stealth rig) and gain credits. I think it helps consistency more than Modded. In a pinch, you can also get by on event economy in tag-storm matchups where your resources are trashed, an issue that really throws a wrench in your economy engine early in the game.

1x Escher is great for catching them off guard or making a server far easier to get in, and fits very well in a stealth deck.

19 Jan 2016 podoboyz99

No Comet.... :(
No worries, I will always enjoy Comet in Stealth Kate.

19 Jan 2016 sruman

Only 1 lockpick seems a strange choice. Given you cannot install the 3rd cloak and have 3 smcs + 3 clone chips to find cloaks if you need them, my suggestion would be -1 cloak and +1 lock pick. Technical Writer has a big upside for sure, but for 2 clicks, I'm wondering if Daily Casts wouldn't be the same average number of credits with more consistency.

19 Jan 2016 DonutTaganes

@CodeMarvelous I know - it's annoying! You could conceivably cut the 2 Film Critic for Diesel, but I can't bring myself to do that. I do love Diesel in the deck though!

@sruman - I like having the 3 Cloak so that you are more likely to naturally draw one early in the game, and then naturally draw the second later in the game without having to use SMC for it. This is particularly important for the second, as you often can't install SMC at that point without going over memory, but you also need the second Cloak to get through a double sentry server consistently.

The one Lockpick is a lategame piece that gives your stealth rig more reach, and means they need one more ice to lock you out, which is often enough to keep your accesses going for the vital few extra turns you need against a control list. Having another would be good, but isn't essential and I would probably play Diesel over it.

@rwknoll I had both Dirty Laundry and Escher in the deck, but cut them both. Dirty Laundry is often worse than modded, as the extra install in turns where you use Professional Contacts multiple times can be useful to get two cards out of your hand, and that is often better than a run on those turns. That's a personal playstyle preference though and I can see why you might prefer the Dirty Laundry over it. Escher, however, I don't think is very good at all. It's actually quite expensive, the HQ access is unlikely to be good if you are keen to get into another server at that point (which is presumably what you're Eschering for), and a lot of decks have pretty flat ICE structures, meaning that the cost of breaking through the HQ ICE and playing Escher is rarely outweighed by the benefits (lower cost of access to R&D). Additionally, even if there is a big cost differential in ICE, the corp can react by using whichever server you put the good ICE on (HQ or the remote usually) to hide their agendas or score them.

20 Jan 2016 slevin38

My build has a one of Kati Jones, which I am pretty happy with. I don't run the Technical Writers though. Do you feel like the economy package is enough without Kati Jones and with Technical Writer?

7 Feb 2016 TheTick

Took this deck to a store champs yesterday and it performed admirably, getting me to the top 8 out of 26. Got knocked out early unfortunately. I only made one small tweak of swapping one modded for an artist colony. That colony did work all day long. Thanks for posting this, it was fun to play!

8 Feb 2016 DonutTaganes

@TheTick - Glad the deck performed for you :) I would certainly consider Artist Colony! What did you find yourself using it for most? Plascrete and Clot?

8 Feb 2016 TheTick

I had put in expecting a lot of SYNC and News Teams. It actually won me a game against industrial genomics. I ran archives and took a shi kyu and a news team as negative agendas. After I had seven real points I dug out artist colony, slapped it down and said " I Win". I'm embarrassed to admit, though, that the idea of using it for plascrete hadn't occurred to me and it could have saved me from a 24/7 flatline. My opponent mentioned it afterward and I had a bit of a face palm moment.

8 Feb 2016 TheTick

@slevin38 I'm sure @DonutTaganes can speak to this better than I, but my experience from playing the deck is that Technical Writer can earn you boat loads of credits if you get one or (be still my heart) two early on. You get paid cash money for shaper bullshit. Burn a clone chip to install an SMC which you then burn to put a dues X out to break that Janus AND get 4 credits on your two technical writers is soooo satisfying.

22 Feb 2016 uclapunk69

I just won the Bakersfield, CA store champs with this deck & my version of etf foodcoats (http://netrunnerdb.com/en/deck/view/565570). This deck is amazing. I've been it for the past few weeks. It is so well positioned in the current meta, not really having any bad matchups.

Thanks for the deck & more importantly thanks to all you guys at TWA. Love the podcast & keep up the good work.

22 Feb 2016 DonutTaganes

@uclapunk69 I'm so glad to hear! Congratulations :) Thanks for stopping by to let me know too! Good luck with Regionals!

15 May 2016 rwknoll

@DonutTaganes Have you still been playing versions of this deck lately? I'm looking at it with a fresh eye and enjoying the idea of a stealth Kate deck. I've played around with a PPVP/steal hybrid version, which feels fun, but lacks influence for some of the most helpful cards against taxing ice (e.g., Parasite, D4v1d).

Any suggestions for how to update this deck with cards from the Mumbad cycle? And how do you feel about Cerberus "Lady" H1 vs. Corroder?

16 May 2016 DonutTaganes

@rwknoll - I have been! I've been constantly updating to address metagame issues and bad matchups. I'm currently -1 HQ Interface and -1 Lucky Find to fit in +1 Salsette Slums, +1 Political Operative and +1 Employee Strike influence-wise.

Then I've also cut 1 Film Critic for an Artist Colony and cut the Deus X for space.

I've also been on +1 Astrolabe and -1 Plascrete Carapace because Artist Colony makes Plascrete easier to find, and the number of Asset spam decks increases Astrolabe's use significantly.

17 May 2016 onibaku06

I've been playing this deck since Store Championships, and it is nothing short of amazing. It's fun, consistent and has great match ups against almost every thing. I finished third during a store championship in Bakersfield (bad corp play cost me first) and finished 11th overall at the Nor Cal regional (SOS pushed from 6th to 11th). I am still playing it today. I adjusted a couple of cards for my play style (-1 Lockpick, -1 Astrolabe, -1 Maker's Eye for +2 Akametsu Chips).

I like the new tweaks you made for IG/Asset Spam decks. How has it been working for you?