This is fun little deck I’ve been playing almost exclusively for the last two months, racking on and offline 60-80 games total. It’s blast to play and sometimes you even win! Okay, not sometimes. More often that I expected. When I put together the first version, the one with THREE Chameleons, just to try and see how it could work, I was surprised how efficient and fun it was. Then, as always in Android Netrunner, came rafination of the process, and I’m very pleased with the results.

The basic game plan is simple: Chameleons with Self-Modifying Code give early remote pressure which later with the help of LLDS Processor translates in efficient runs and R&D lock. There are types of decks it works wonderfully against and ones that are struggle, so in no way this is “perfect” or “highly competitive” deck, but it brought me to TOP5 of Warsaw Netrunner League (42 participants thru the whole season) so if you want to take it to Worlds, just please credit me during award ceremony.

At least I hope there will be any award ceremony… Now let's take a look at the card choices.

Draw and Economy

• Professional Contacts are here, because I liked how they worked in my Kit decks. You click for card and credit and install something cheap or host it on Workshop. This is classic Shaper and I’m always surprised how fast I can keep up with corp in terms of money. Mulligan for this card.

• Aesop's Pawnshop is central piece of your economy. You want to find it fast, sell all the things you don’t need like depleted Lady.

• Personal Workshop is many things. Hatchery for your Chameleons, drip economy, handy toolbox that keeps everything you need during the run in one place so you can use them anytime.

• Cache is fun, basically. I was bored with Prepaid VoicePAD's and Kati Jones and wanted to try something new. You are Kate so you want to install it for free and receive 3 credits and next turn sell it for another three with Aesop. In tight situations you can always bring it back thru Clone Chip during the run or at the end of corps turn for a six-cred-no-click burst.

• Sure Gamble isn’t that obvious. In few iterations I played without it and decided to include it back. You need that burst to keep up with all the assets corporations are installing right now. What was I thinking?

• Daily Casts can be speed up nicely with Aesop’s Pawnshop but I’m not completely sold on them. If there is any card that could be replaced for Diesel, look for it at this slot.

Breaker Suite

Chameleon. So what’s all the fuss about? Yes, this card is click intensive. Yes, you need time to set up. But you are rewarded with a swarm of cute little critters running around your Kate, jumping in and out to break into any server you want.

You host them on Personal Workshop and run when you are ready, or just jump with SMC installed and see if you need them. When the ICE are rezzed and you exactly know what you need to get in, you can install them from hand with Kate’s discount and jump third or last click. Don’t jump last click.

With one LLDS Processor installed, you break Lotus Field or Data Raven for one credit. With two Processors you break Tollbooth for four credits. With three… you just laugh at their Archers. Chameleons exploit current situation in Netrunner, where there are not many high strength ICE because they are too expensive to play. And any time there is one type of ICE stacked on a server, you install Chameleon with STR 6 and break them all. Since you can install them for "almost" free, LLDS Processor "pays" for pumping strength, so you pay "only" for breaking the subs.

One Chameleon is not enough to give you flexibility you need, three are too much. Two is the sweet spot. Stinky and Binky are sometimes sad they can’t play with their sister Cindy, but this is Android: Netrunner, this is hard work.

Remember that Chameleon comes back to your hand AFTER the hand size check. Having six or seven cards at the beginning of corps turn can save you in few situations.

Also, Chameleons are not AI, so they can break Turing, but they are not Fracters, so they don’t lower the strength of Wraparound.

Other things used to break into servers:

• Cerberus "Lady" H1 I finally learned to love thanks to this deck. It saves you money, it breaks ICE that could be too much at this moment for your Chameleons and finally… it makes your opponent stack Barriers, so you can just install Chameleon and save Lady tokens! If they are depleted, sell Lady at the Pawnshop and bring it back with Clone Chip. Or leave it installed to keep Wraparounds at zero.

• Gordian Blade is here to do all the heavy lifting against the Code Gates. If they stack them on one server, Gordian will take care of them, so Chameleons can break Sentries or Barriers. Gordian is what separates real Shaper Master Race from the filthy Criminal Peasants with their ZU.13 Key Master.

• D4v1d. Four influence! But you are Shaper. You can bring it faster with SMC, sell to Aesop if depleted and install back with Clone Chip. D4v1d will break anything too big for your other breakers and save you from some nasty mano-o-grim situations. Such a great card. Keep it secret or just host on Personal Workshop and watch those Blue Sun: Powering the Future players doubting their life choices.

• Deus X. I’m not a very good player, and this card wins me my Jinteki match ups. Even after I run into that Cerebral Overwriter, Deus Ex is always there for me to save me from Ronin or Snare!. I don’t know what would I do without him. Probably cry a lot.

• Sharpshooter is your temporary and easy fix against Destroyers. Later Chameleons will take care of them. You can always install it cheap and sell to Aesop.

Support Cards

• Scheherazade is here for bonus economy and lulz. We all know that Personal Workshop works a little against Kate’s ability. Scheherazade can bring you that one credit back if you need. Or you can install Chameleon from hand for total zero credits. And it makes your Cache even more efficient. Just don’t host everything on it if you are suspecting that your opponent plays Power Shutdown. Chameleons will come back to your hand anyway, but it would be sad to lose some more expensive cards.

• Clot is your shot at winning against those pesky Fast Advance decks. If they think you have it, they will play a little bit slower, if not, they will try to score something from hand and you will stop them. #slottheclot

• Paricia is an experiment. There are so many important assets to trash right now that I felt I need something more to help me deal with them. So far it works… nicely. If you know that your opponent will play very horizontal deck, bring it fast with SMC and save some money. Just remember it pays only for Assets. Upgrades like SanSan City Grid or Ash don’t count.

• Parasite helps you against NEXT ICE suite or can be used on some beefy ICE to lower it to Chameleon’s range faster.

• LLDS Processor I mostly covered in the part about Chameleon. This is most important part of your deck. Don’t lose it. In most games two will be enough. Remember they work on any program installed, so if you put Lady or Gordian on the table, they will be stronger for the rest of the turn too!

• Clone Chip and Self-modifying Code. Shaper bread and butter. You play green faction for those cards. Only problem is, there are many programs that rival for Clone Chip recursion, so you will need to learn when you can use one as an economy card with Cache or ICE breaking tool during the run. SMC can always be installed on Scheherazade and sold to Aesops.

• Astrolabe is a nice little console that suits all the memory needs of this deck. I rarely need more then 5 MU and additional draw will almost always help.

• R&D Interface. I don’t like The Maker's Eye. RDI trades TME speed for reliability and more firm lock. This is not event deck so there is not a lot synergy with Same Old Thing. You can come back every turn to RD if you really want and see two or three cards. You can run more than one time in a turn if you know you will see new cards. It’s expensive, but you can install it with Kate’s discount or host on Personal Workshop until you need it.

• Film Critic helps a lot in various matchups, especially against Jinteki decks. Having two would be nice but I don’t know if I have the slots, so it’s not as reliable as I would want, but what can you do.

• Plascrete Carapace is a hate card I hate. It is useful only in few match ups and usually you won’t find it fast enough to really change the outcome of the match against aggressive NBN kill decks. If Bookmark wasn’t so click heavy to use and fragile against Power Shutdown I would probably use it instead.

• Levy AR Lab Access is here to reset your deck and bring back all the economy and used breakers you need. The problem is, I use it very very rarely, maybe one game in 10 or even less. Games are usually over one way or another before I see the end of the deck. I guess I use it to play more aggressive because I know I can always play Levy. But usually it just clogs my hand.

• Legwork is for not so surprising HQ pressure. It wins games.

• Same Old Thing can be installed so you can ditch LARLA into heap and provoke your opponent to score Chronos Project even sooner. Or you can use it in a time of need to once again play Legwork. If you know of course that you will be still able to reset with LARLA.

• Utopia Shard is your shot against various combo decks that want to kill you with their operations. Sometimes, if HQ is locked tight, play it and discard to see what you got. Just remember to be sure there are no Jackson Howard or overscored Project Vitruvius on the table.

Matchups

This deck needs a little time to set up all the moving parts so of course FA match-up is not favourable. But whose is? Treat games against Near-Earth Hub: Broadcast Center as a Hard Mode and be proud of any wins that come your way.

Jinteki kill decks are usually a breeze thanks to Deus Ex and Film Critic. Just out mind your opponent's mind games and lock his R&D where there are far less traps and The Future Perfect is waiting for the Film Critic’s warm embrace.

Glaciers with Caprice Nisei. Make them rez Caprice on remote and lock RD. Or make them rez Caprice on RD and lock remote. Basicly just be better at psi games, it is quite easy I heard.

Glaciers with Ash. Run once, trash Ash 2X3ZB9CY, run again, grab agenda. Chameleons stay for the whole turn, use it to pressure multiple servers!

Horizontal decks that try to waste your time checking every remote server. Install Paricia and check every remote server. At least you don’t need to install Chameleons because they are not installing ICE. Or just ignore their remote rituals and lock R&D.

NBN kill decks are hard. Film Critic helps a little, but having more money helps a lot more, because they start to slot SEA Source once again. You have a lot of valuable resources you don’t want to get trashed, so keeping tags is a last ditch effort.

Weyland kill decks are not that hard. They are usually slower than NBN variants which can give you time to money up and find that Plascrete.

Final words

Deckbuilding in Netrunner is fun. I hope my deck will bring you some exciting games!