Turbo Stealth

Bandura 307

This is a deck that I took it to a GNK tournament last Sunday, where I ended up placing third. My corporation deck is here: Good Medtech

I was looking for a deck to beat the Worlds winning Foodcoats archetype. I believe that stealth is the answer. I also think it works best with Hayley.

I wanted to be able to set up as fast as I can, perhaps at the expense of some long-term lockdown power. So that's why the name "Turbo Stealth".

Deck composition is simple:
- a stealth package
- a lot of cheap money you use to set up / get in / trash stuff
- draw engine on Drug Dealers and Diesels
- 2 R&D interfaces to pressure R&D and, eventually, lock it
- Legwork and Vamp to exploit a (usually) weak HQ

Some comments on specific card choices:

Stealth cards - Cloaks and one Ghost Runner is usually all the stealth you might need over the course of a game. I never felt like I lack any stealth credits.

Money cards - ProCo and Opus are too slow. Plus, Armitage that ends with Aesop is as efficient as clicking Opus. Kati is the engine in the late game plus she is sometimes useful to keep Drug Dealers from taking your money.

Draw cards - with 3 Drug Dealers I did not feel like I needed any extra draw save Diesels. Drug Dealers are amazing. You can not pay them like more than half of their life and eventually you can sell them to Aesop for organs!

Dagger - always better than a Switchblade unless you are drowning in a throng of Ichis. Lets you start facechecking earlier.

Blackcat - a show off choice. Could have really been a Corroder.

Vamp - hello Caprice :-)

Memorable matches of the day included:

Blue Sun. A super long game. Breakers took a lot of time to show up, even with 3 Drug Dealers on the table eventually. Opponent quickly got rich with two Oversight AIs on one Curtain Wall and scoring a Priority Requisition into another one.
Once he scored a High-Risk Investment however, I had enough money from Kati to be safe from 3 Punitive Counterstrikes that my opponent had assembled.
I found my last breaker, Refractor, when there was like 7 cards left in the deck. Then I picked up the winning 5/3 from a huge remote. First two 5/3s I was able to get off R&D earlier. 9-6

EtF. I trash Adonises as soon as I can, three of them, and get a Vitruvius in progress.
Once my opponent installs a second and a third card into a remote with 2ICE, I run it, forcing a rez of Ichi 2.0 and an Architect but have just 2 credits left seeing ASH, BBG and Eve. I maybe should have let one of Architect's subs to fire so that I could trash ASH, but it's a tough call.
With little time left on the clock, my opponent trashes Eve and install-advance-advances a GFI into that remote. Time is called on my turn, I need 2 runs on that remote to get the GFI, but can only get in once, being 3 credits short for the second run after trashing ASH. So I get some money on first two clicks, run third click and let Architect's R&D sub fire. He finds a second ASH off R&D and installs in in this same remote. So there's 2 ASH in there and I can't do anything at all about them. He scored the GFI next turn. 2-3, a timed loss

Sync FA. I manage to get one Astro out of HQ, but he fast tracked and biotic labored another one, and rode the train to victory. A couple more cards and I would have found the second SMC to get Clot, but my opponent scored out too fast for that to happen. 2-7

Argus. During turns one and three I facecheck Psychic Fields, losing both psi games and discarding a total of 10 cards. Mostly money though. Still, the worst start ever.
Checking potentially damaging remotes is dangerous with this deck, but I had almost no critical cards in my hand, so I gambled.
I continue making it a point to check remotes, hoping that agendas accumulate in HQ. Fortunately for me, they accumulated there quite well. I get to 6 agenda points after a couple of HQ accesses and ultimately a Legwork, after which I have no cards in my hand and no money left. Two Cloaks and a Blackcat turns out to be sufficient to continue getting in. After drawing three (fearing a Snare) I run HQ again and steal one last 3/1 for the win. 7-1

Conclusion: this is a strong deck, and almost MWL compliant (just 1 Clone Chip from the list). I will continue playing it as is, maybe swapping one Drug Dealer for a Symmetric Visage or Blackcat for a Corroder or the Silencer for the third Ghost Runner.

9 comments
4 Jan 2016 Pinkwarrior

@Bandura I agree with the Aesop's Pawnshop I feel like that's the best way to go with Hayley. (I am not a fan of stealth my self I personally feel it's too slow)

I would think that Earthrise Hotel would be good here also I find that Sacrificial Construct is a great call for this kinda econ as you can use it as an Easy Mark or use it with Clot to stop Cyberdex Virus Suite / to stop trash effects. These are just ideas to think about trying the deck dose look strong tho.

4 Jan 2016 Bandura

@Pinkwarrior, yeah, i agree on Sacrificial Construct. It is good against FA.
Personal Workshop is a nice addition for speed.
There was also a fun idea of playing Heartbeat to protect against butchershops and those nasty Ronin vs Overwriter guessing games.
One Film Critic could also be played.

So the card universe is quite large for this deck.

4 Jan 2016 Pinkwarrior

@Bandura I do like the idea of Heartbeat actually but sadly that's alot of Influence and you lose the draw from Astrolabe so I would think Box-E / Public Sympathy would be a better solution their still worth trying tho you never know till it gets tested in this game.

5 Jan 2016 Sarakhan

Very nice deck Congrats on the placement

What will you change in the post MWL era?

5 Jan 2016 Bandura

@Sarakhan, the most straightforward change is to swap BlacKat for Corroder, to acomodate the Clone Chip being on MWL.

In the end it really depends on what happens to the meta though. I have a nasty feeling that even despite the Astro nerf, FA decks will become more prominent as a result of MWL. That will need to be addressed.

5 Jan 2016 lolpaca

Drug Dealer in Hayley is a great idea, I've never considered that! Also glad to see some love for Armitage, I've been running it in my Hayley decks for a while and never missed the Mopus.

5 Jan 2016 Bandura

Drug Dealers have incredible synergies with Daily Casts, Armitage Codebusting, Kati Jones.

And all of them together synergize well with Hayley!

13 Jan 2016 tomasulo

I've been playing around with a similar deck and really enjoy Hayley! I borrowed (err... stole. Thanks!) your inclusion of Armitage Codebusting and R&D Interface, and they really rounded out my deck. (Former for Drug Dealer synergy, the latter for wrecking havoc on R&D).

I have been using the Personal Workshop - Order of Sol combo to speed it up a bit (and to really annoy my Corp friend, when I can: 'pay to install a card', 'get a credit', 'install another card' all on his turn).

Thanks for posting your deck, its very enlightening.

14 Jan 2016 Bandura

Thanks for the feedback. Glad you liked it. Order of Sol is a cool idea! You can get credits on both your and opponent's turns.