Leela Patel and the pragmatic Keyhole v3

omegalife2002 3033

So, here is the latest version of my Leela deck. Here are my thoughts on some of the changes:

Hostage – I originally messed around with 3 Hostage and dropping Mr. Li and Kati Jones down to singles, but I was having issues with lack of doubles when one of them got trashed either by accidental tag float or getting sniped from hand by Jinteki. So, I dropped Hostage and went to 3 Li and 2 Kati

Lawyer Up – I really want to like this card but it tends to psychologically hold me back. I will wait to use the Account Siphon until I draw LU, which is often a bad play. Other times I will hold it in my hand waiting for tags.

Unscheduled Maintenance – I’m testing not having this card in the deck. Often I find that it does nothing because the corp doesn’t have tons of ice, or I won’t draw it when I’m facing down an HB ice tower deck, which is irritating. So, I’m going to mess around without it

Security Testing / Armitage Codebusting – I dropped ST and added AC and I have been very happy with the results. There are a lot of times I just need to sit back and click for creds and this works

Utopia Shard – I had one spare influence and I like the feel of this card. I had a clutch moment last week where the corp Fast Tracked the winning agenda into a 3 card hand. If I had US installed, I probably could have swiped the win out from under him (was a 6 to 6 game against NEH)

Programs –

Against Jinteki specifically, I have been having issues with stuff getting trashed (and the out of faction Snare! too) and having no back up. So, I decided to focus on backups with this version. I didn't want to try and force in Clone Chips, so I went another route, thus the second Keyhole.

I switched to central breakers (Alias and Passport) for Sentry and Code Gate. I have found that Leela really prefers to just run centrals, while just being able to threaten remotes. So, with this breaker suite, I can get into centrals a lot easier, while still having a breaker for remotes (Corroder, Femme, & Rex)

Thoughts for the future:

I might drop the second Keyhole for a Levy (since I already run 3 SOT) but not sure yet. Need to test.

HB super deep ice was a bit of a problem for the old version, not sure about this new one yet. Time will tell.

7 comments
9 Dec 2014 sebn83

I run a slightly different Leela deck which is having a good deal of success on OCTGN (a lot of corps really underestimate how set up they need to be to safely score...)

I think my deck evolved in a similar fashion to yours: removing hostages and upping the Li/Kati count was very helpful.

Re. the jinteki match up I pack 1 feedback filter (easily tutored with logos) and just money up, then if i steal/run a trap I just pay to avoid the damage if i have something in hand i cannot afford to lose or to avoid flatline.

I also pack a 1 of E3 just because it ruins HB and any imported Elis. The true benefit of Logos is that corner case 1 offs are totally justifiable (esp. with Mr Li. as you can just not draw them).

Main difference between my deck and yours is I went for R/D interface + Makers rather than Keyhole, with feedback deep digs on Jinteki aren't so problematic but keyhole would be equally punishing hitting R/D 3 times in a turn with Hades shard at your disposal.

Love this ID - no idea how strong it is in competitive play but i feel it can hold its own.

9 Dec 2014 Hongkong Koma

Against Jinteki I usually work with Keyhole. It's too good for those Cambridge Style decks. But I agree: a Logos'ed Feedback Filter will make it even easier. I played with your deck a bit and also removed the Hostages and Lawyer Up early. For recursion, I added a Deja Vu. Good to get trashed stuff back (Events, Progs, Katie, Breakers) - good synergy with SOT too!

9 Dec 2014 sebn83

have to agree with both of you re. lawyer up - lovely when it happens but Account siphon is such an opportunistic event that looking to chain it with another card is asking too much. i also got rid of it.

10 Dec 2014 Manticore

What's the rationale for dropping Faerie? Finding Alias + Femme sufficient?

10 Dec 2014 omegalife2002

@Manticore Basically, yes. Faerie just seemed like overkill for what I need with this deck, and since I don't have any real recursion, I decided to cut her out and stick with the others. Has proven solid so far.

10 Dec 2014 omegalife2002

@HongKong Koma Oooo, I like the Déjà Vu idea! Good call. If I was to do that, the simplest change would be to drop 1 Keyhole and the Utopia Shard (which sucks, cause that card is fun), and drop in 2 Déjà Vu. I can definitely see that being a solid move.

10 Dec 2014 Hongkong Koma

@omegalife2002 Faerie was indeed too much - in my meta it has been useless so far.

In my version I also added 2 Dyson Mem Chips - but it's a very persoanl choice. I hate having insufficient MU and want to stay flexible with my breaker suite.