[TWA] Post-MWL Stealth Kate

This looks very similar to where I was going with it, no room for Diesel though?

This also looks very similar to a Stealth Kit deck that I've been toying around with. My Kit deck runs more copies of Refractor, for obvious reasons (better early game consistency), and Kate has more influence to fuel the list. Otherwise, a lot of the core cards are the same, and it has helped my Kit deck be pretty successful.

Have you considered swapping out Modded for Dirty Laundry (or possibly 2 Dirty Laundry, 1 Escher)? I've found that late-game Modded is not as important for a stealth rig, especially with Kate's economic advantage. Dirty Laundry can be used early game to buffer against the tempo loss of installing ProCon, but can be used in the late game to simultaneously run (basically free with a full stealth rig) and gain credits. I think it helps consistency more than Modded. In a pinch, you can also get by on event economy in tag-storm matchups where your resources are trashed, an issue that really throws a wrench in your economy engine early in the game.

1x Escher is great for catching them off guard or making a server far easier to get in, and fits very well in a stealth deck.

No Comet.... :(
No worries, I will always enjoy Comet in Stealth Kate.

Only 1 lockpick seems a strange choice. Given you cannot install the 3rd cloak and have 3 smcs + 3 clone chips to find cloaks if you need them, my suggestion would be -1 cloak and +1 lock pick. Technical Writer has a big upside for sure, but for 2 clicks, I'm wondering if Daily Casts wouldn't be the same average number of credits with more consistency.

@CodeMarvelous I know - it's annoying! You could conceivably cut the 2 Film Critic for Diesel, but I can't bring myself to do that. I do love Diesel in the deck though!

@sruman - I like having the 3 Cloak so that you are more likely to naturally draw one early in the game, and then naturally draw the second later in the game without having to use SMC for it. This is particularly important for the second, as you often can't install SMC at that point without going over memory, but you also need the second Cloak to get through a double sentry server consistently.

The one Lockpick is a lategame piece that gives your stealth rig more reach, and means they need one more ice to lock you out, which is often enough to keep your accesses going for the vital few extra turns you need against a control list. Having another would be good, but isn't essential and I would probably play Diesel over it.

@rwknoll I had both Dirty Laundry and Escher in the deck, but cut them both. Dirty Laundry is often worse than modded, as the extra install in turns where you use Professional Contacts multiple times can be useful to get two cards out of your hand, and that is often better than a run on those turns. That's a personal playstyle preference though and I can see why you might prefer the Dirty Laundry over it. Escher, however, I don't think is very good at all. It's actually quite expensive, the HQ access is unlikely to be good if you are keen to get into another server at that point (which is presumably what you're Eschering for), and a lot of decks have pretty flat ICE structures, meaning that the cost of breaking through the HQ ICE and playing Escher is rarely outweighed by the benefits (lower cost of access to R&D). Additionally, even if there is a big cost differential in ICE, the corp can react by using whichever server you put the good ICE on (HQ or the remote usually) to hide their agendas or score them.

My build has a one of Kati Jones, which I am pretty happy with. I don't run the Technical Writers though. Do you feel like the economy package is enough without Kati Jones and with Technical Writer?

Took this deck to a store champs yesterday and it performed admirably, getting me to the top 8 out of 26. Got knocked out early unfortunately. I only made one small tweak of swapping one modded for an artist colony. That colony did work all day long. Thanks for posting this, it was fun to play!

@TheTick - Glad the deck performed for you :) I would certainly consider Artist Colony! What did you find yourself using it for most? Plascrete and Clot?

I had put in expecting a lot of SYNC and News Teams. It actually won me a game against industrial genomics. I ran archives and took a shi kyu and a news team as negative agendas. After I had seven real points I dug out artist colony, slapped it down and said " I Win". I'm embarrassed to admit, though, that the idea of using it for plascrete hadn't occurred to me and it could have saved me from a 24/7 flatline. My opponent mentioned it afterward and I had a bit of a face palm moment.

@slevin38 I'm sure @DonutTaganes can speak to this better than I, but my experience from playing the deck is that Technical Writer can earn you boat loads of credits if you get one or (be still my heart) two early on. You get paid cash money for shaper bullshit. Burn a clone chip to install an SMC which you then burn to put a dues X out to break that Janus AND get 4 credits on your two technical writers is soooo satisfying.

I just won the Bakersfield, CA store champs with this deck & my version of etf foodcoats (http://netrunnerdb.com/en/deck/view/565570). This deck is amazing. I've been it for the past few weeks. It is so well positioned in the current meta, not really having any bad matchups.

Thanks for the deck & more importantly thanks to all you guys at TWA. Love the podcast & keep up the good work.

@uclapunk69 I'm so glad to hear! Congratulations :) Thanks for stopping by to let me know too! Good luck with Regionals!

@DonutTaganes Have you still been playing versions of this deck lately? I'm looking at it with a fresh eye and enjoying the idea of a stealth Kate deck. I've played around with a PPVP/steal hybrid version, which feels fun, but lacks influence for some of the most helpful cards against taxing ice (e.g., Parasite, D4v1d).

Any suggestions for how to update this deck with cards from the Mumbad cycle? And how do you feel about Cerberus "Lady" H1 vs. Corroder?

@rwknoll - I have been! I've been constantly updating to address metagame issues and bad matchups. I'm currently -1 HQ Interface and -1 Lucky Find to fit in +1 Salsette Slums, +1 Political Operative and +1 Employee Strike influence-wise.

Then I've also cut 1 Film Critic for an Artist Colony and cut the Deus X for space.

I've also been on +1 Astrolabe and -1 Plascrete Carapace because Artist Colony makes Plascrete easier to find, and the number of Asset spam decks increases Astrolabe's use significantly.

I've been playing this deck since Store Championships, and it is nothing short of amazing. It's fun, consistent and has great match ups against almost every thing. I finished third during a store championship in Bakersfield (bad corp play cost me first) and finished 11th overall at the Nor Cal regional (SOS pushed from 6th to 11th). I am still playing it today. I adjusted a couple of cards for my play style (-1 Lockpick, -1 Astrolabe, -1 Maker's Eye for +2 Akametsu Chips).

I like the new tweaks you made for IG/Asset Spam decks. How has it been working for you?