Where'd I Put My Red Dress?

Zepaw 17

Although Anarch and Criminal have a lot of fun tricks I quickly found Shaper is my faction calling. I love the security of having a full rig that can push through anything the corp lays down. I don't mind laying back a few turns to get it built. I have to keep it as fast as I can with the prevalence of FA but better to throw a few turns away to build that rig than run in and get crippled beyond repair.

This deck was directly inspired by In A Red Dress and Alone by Lodan. I was looking to make a Kate deck and loved the combos that deck was powered by. I went through a bunch of card changes and quickly realized my version was crying out to be a CT deck. It doesn't make much use of Kate's ability, I prefer cutting down the deck size for efficiency, and MU is very valuable to it. Most matches I'll end with at least 8 MU. I want a full rig of Torch, Garrote, Corroder, and Magnum Opus which is 6 and I need room to comfortably bounce Imp and Self-modifying Code around when needed. The main fuel for those MU is the simple Akamatsu Mem Chip. Until Up and Over it ran with no console. However I quickly threw out a few lesser playing cards so I could put in 3 Astrolabe when it came out. I always need that MU and the ability to draw does a lot to mitigate the power of NEH, EtF, and RP which are 80% or more of the Corp Meta lately. I took out All-nighter to do so which I think I will try to finagle back into this deck. Having that click to spare at a critical moment can make the game for you.

This deck is fueled by a few combo, most of which even combo off each other. I want Motivation out as soon as I can. Aside from some handy inside knowledge of my stack Motivation and Oracle May is a couple free credits with my first draw each turn. I have to reveal the card but I very rarely care about the Corp knowing my draws. It also sets me up for some sweet Eureka! moments. The other primary combo is Test Run -> Scavenge. Bring a breaker out with Test Run then use another click that turn to Scavenge it to your heap and install it permanently.

As for Breakers Garrote and Torch are simply some of the best out there and I have several ways to make them free or very cheap. I went with Corroder because of its versatility. Lodan's build uses Morning Star which is a powerhouse but was shut down anytime I hit a boosted Curtain Wall or Hadrians Wall. Any properly equipped Weyland could make a literally unbreakable server with just one card. Blue Sun makes those cards a near certainty.

My economy is Magnum Opus through and through. I'll often Mulligan if I don't see one. My other econ cards only exist in case I was unable to start the game with MO and need to fund myself until I can draw one. There's no shame in spending a full turn on 8 creds knowing you can now power your rig through almost any server next turn.

Woman in the Red Dress is a really fun card that has all sorts of strategic benefit. I've never seen anyone else play it at my LGSs so no one tends to expect it. It puts the Corp on the defensive in a way they aren't used to. With one simple card I'm given a constant stream of information about their play style. Traps, Assets, Agendas, what have you. The name of the deck comes from my terrible draw luck when I play NetRunner. Of the dozen+ matches I've played with this build I have lost count of the times all 3 copies of Woman in the Red Dress were in the bottom 10 cards of my stack.

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