Using My Third Eye

Nice, I've been trying to find a breaker suite I like for Leela, and I was thinking Overmind would fit the bill nicely, but hadn't considered Grappling Hooks. I'll give this a try!

I have a few questions:

• How do you like Security Testing? I know it's an auto-include in so many criminal decks, but it seems counterproductive with Leela, since you give them more opportunities and incentives to rez ICE. I'd much rather they not ice archives and give me the opportunity for devastating mid-game Sneakdoors.

• Looks like you have 2 spare influence. Maybe a 3rd clone chip? Or Deja Vu (same purpose, but a bit more flexibility and can be recurred with SoT).

• I'm using Test Run in my build, which is consistently an MVP, getting me surprise Keyholes, Sneakdoors and Femmes. Seems like it would be pretty synergistic here too, since you can tutor an Overmind, break a few pieces of ICE, and then play it from hand again to recycle counters. Question is what to cut - one Indexing could easily go since they're tutorable and recurrable, but ideally I'd like to use 2 Test Runs. At the same time, dropping to 1 Clone Chip is probably not advisable.

Security Testing is always worth having to me. Often players will leave a naked server with a Jackson, Adonis, or some other econ piece. Archives is also a go-to most times. It forces the corp to put out more ice, more often than not more than they can rez. Sometimes they foolishly rez trying to stop you and occasionally leave themselves too short to fully rez and protect another server, leaving an opening. The threat of security testing alone forces the corp to burn clicks for other things, which over the course of a game is at least a turn.

The 2 spare influence has been there all along. I've never been one to try and use it all, as it just isn't necessary. You undercut the primary strategy of your deck at times trying to use all of your influence. It's the reason I don't play Tenma; I find myself using 15 or less influence, so I might as well go with another ID most times. In Leela's case I don't have anything I'd take out and I certainly wouldn't want to push over 45 cards to use the influence.

The econ in this deck is tight. Using TR you'd pay 3 for the card, then it's face value again. I'd rather dig manually or use Mr Li to get there, and in the interim Logos makes up the difference. I definitely wouldn't cut the Indexing. Too many targets for Logos means you won't be as effective and you'll have to make a choice that leaves you short one way or the other. Since Logos will only go off 3-4 times at most in a game those tutors are precious.

I think if nothing else, I would cut 1 Unscheduled Maintenance for 1 Clone Chip and never look back.

I hear you about the econ hit for Test Run, and maybe that's enough reason to not use it, but I don't agree about Logos targets being an issue. (a) TR is itself a tutor, so you're adding more tutoring to make up for more silver bullets, (b) Mr. Li & Express Delivery are also (much weaker) tutors, (c) TR into Sneakdoor or Keyhole & run 3 times is often better than playing them outright, because you might not want to keep them around due to memory constraints. The way I see it, they're really there for that one devastating turn when the corp left you a window, and then you're happy to have them off the table leaving more memory for Overmind.

I'm still no expert at this, so please excuse the ignorance. How do you make this work with only Overmind? It seems Leela needs to run a lot because she only triggers when you hit, so to me it seems you would burn through Overminds quickly looking for those agendas, then you're done for. Or the corp throws up a bunch of cheap ice in your way to eat up Overminds. Or you never find your overminds, because you only have 3 breakers in the whole deck and no special order or anything else to tutor for it.

I guess I'm just not experienced enough to understand how to play this...

When I started playing Leela I approached her the same way, thinking that she's a super-aggressive runner, but I found that she's actually the opposite - instead of constant pressure like Gabe or Andy, she excels at tactical strikes, and Overmind is perfect for tactical strikes. I haven't had a chance to play this yet but theoretically it should work quite well. @locusshifter says "I find that I want to attack early and late, and let the mid game drift if they've iced up enough", which is spot on - you really don't want to give them the chance to rez too much ICE, because it negates her ability.

Ideally, by mid-game you have Logos out, and you're using Mr. Li and Kati to build up, daring them to score (or try to score) an agenda. If they do, then you bounce a key piece of ice and go to town with Indexing/Account Siphon/Keyhole. If they don't, then they're letting agendas pile up in their hand, so you get out an HQI or two and Sneakdoor away.

Of course, there's always the chance to combo out and bounce everything on turn 1 if you get lucky in R&D or something, but that's not something you should count on.

@Ragnarook has it right; you really don't want them to rez ice all that quickly. Truthfully, even in a situation with say tag n bag, where you'd like them to rez more ice and want to keep the corp's econ down, you'll just want to rely on plascrete and still just pick your moments.

I know the breaker suite seems nuts but I tell you it works. You can blaze through up to 4 pieces of ice if you have to with it. You have to realize that you simply pressure which server is weakest, even using Sneakdoor to push against HQ harder, which is where the final agenda normally comes from, as between being able to pounce on remotes at will or bouncing that advanced card back to their hand, they're likely floating a couple agendas in hand.

I also have to say that I've been finding the express deliveries unnecessary. Mr Li is burying the cards you want less, or don't need, and ED shuffles your deck and ruins the thinning effect that builds over time with Li. I would probably drop those in favor of a test run and an extra E3 for the next change, but even then the TR still feels wrong econ wise. More playing, more testing, and I'll post again when I tweak next.