Snowball Leela

Card draw simulator
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formerteen 1724

wah wah i played criminal while it was still weak

i've played pretty much only criminal competitively since starting netrunner but only since Temüjin Contract came out has that been a sensible decision. i played stealth for a long time to overcome the inefficient engine and breakers in criminal but it would appear that that is no longer necessary! this deck is pretty much just a return to form for classic criminal decks. i played it in canadian nationals this past weekend and came in a humbly-mediocre 14th place (of 61 players) (along with this haarp kill). i dropped a game against a rushy HB (couldn't find Paperclip or Special Order to break Vanilla ha ha) and CI7 (the combination of Gang Sign, Account Siphon, Employee Strike, and leela actually make this a decent matchup against CI7 so i'm willing to blame the pilot for that loss).

what makes this deck unique, of course, is the choice to play leela over andy (even with Rebirth) and the inclusion of Gang Sign. these choices aren't that contentious but i saw shockingly few players playing Gang Sign at nationals. what i did see was 50% of my corp players groaning every time i installed a Gang Sign or an HQ Interface. i also often saw up to 6 agenda points without installing a breaker. do not underestimate how uncomfortable the combination of Gang Sign and leela can make the corp. the decision to play leela over andy was based on 1) hating giving NBN 4-12 free credits on turn 1 and 2) realising that leela's ability is most important in the first two scores of the game and you're quite unlikely to see Rebirth that early. on the other hand, leela's ability regularly wins me games. the snowball is still real.

there's probably further optimisation that can be done with this deck. in particular, i'm not super fond of the draw engine though i'm not sure what should be dropped to slot more draw. if i were to include more draw, i think it'd be either Symmetrical Visage or Fisk Investment Seminar. i know many are skeptical of the latter though i typically find it synergises extremely well with leela's ability and Gang Sign. my problem with it at present is that it's like a free Sensie Actors Union fire for CTM, which often feels bad.

5 comments
13 Sep 2016 locusshifter

I've been running a brutal Gabe that uses Drug Dealer, which helps dig nicely. Normally I only need one, even though I slot 3.

I've got the same rig you do, save one thing; Faerie is out entirely. I'm all-in on Femme as my silver bullet.

I also prefer Laundry over Casts. If I'm pressing the action against a specific server, I set my Temujin there, and stack it to pay me back with Desperado and Laundry to make more expensive runs relatively painless, or make Siphons set up the run against a heavily iced remote.

Right now I'm also playing with Turning wheel in concert with Maker's and Legwork for multiacces with triple SoT to back that up.

All in all, I think Crim is just about back. Once they have Blockade Runner, I think they have most of their weaknesses covered.

13 Sep 2016 formerteen

@locusshifterdrug dealer can be great, for sure! i played it in the most recent iteration of my stealth build, i'm just unsure what would be dropped for it here. it is something i'll try though, i think.

the reason i prefer casts over laundry is that your run economy game is already super strong. the corp knows this too, of course, and will often protect all servers. since temujin came out, i've had plenty of corps spend their first turn icing all 3 centrals, which effectively turns off laundry. having access to a diverse set of econ options (both run and drip) is a must for criminals right now in my opinion. otherwise your engine will be shut down much too easily.

13 Sep 2016 locusshifter

I've taken to thinking about the runs as less making the cash and more breaking even. If I have to spend 5-8 getting through, but Temujin and DL are even payback, that's a good run. Unless Siphon gets you ahead I'm always shooting for just even money so I can keep enough for an extra run in my back pocket.

13 Sep 2016 formerteen

@locusshifter that's valid! i think i'd just be more concerned with getting to that amount of credits if all your econ is run-based and they've been shutting you down from turn 1. it's definitely a problem that i heard some andy players in my meta had at nationals.

14 Sep 2016 mo0man

Yeah, watching the can nats winners bracket finals where Andrej was able to cover all 3 while Aaron drew all 3 laundries in the first 12-ish cards was sad