Kate: Peddling the Tech

Phoenix 247

So we have all been seeing a lot of Geist since the release of Tech Trader, but I haven't seen a lot of use for the card outside of those decks.

Don't get me wrong, Geist is pretty awesome and has an awesome glacier match up now. The problem is, he has very little game against fast advance (no clot threat), and struggles to set up a strong R&D lock.

What I have tried to do here is to port the Geist Tech Trader economy package into Kate who is more than capable of securing a Clot lock with access to Self-modifying Code, Clone Chip and Sacrificial Construct. What is even better is all of those cards also trigger Tech Trader - awesome!

So, wanting to make the most out of the ability of Tech Trader I have also included Technical Writer, Street Peddler, Sharpshooter, Same Old Thing and DaVinci. DaVinci is, I think, an undervalued card. True, it doesn't synergise well with Kate, but it gives you some reward for checking remotes against asset spam decks, similar to that which Desperado gives.

In total, there are 18 cards in the deck which trigger Tech Trader which I think is enough to make it worthwhile. The deck would also do equally well out of Hayley, but I love Kate so.

Anyways, comments and criticisms welcome. I have been playing it on Jinteki.net all night and have gone 5-0 so far, although that is not the best indicator of a decks quality.

3 comments
31 Mar 2016 lilelia

I've been playing with a similarish deck out of Hayley (no dagger, few more tech cards), and I found that while I could stop fast advance in its tracks and laughed at glacier, my economy still struggled against asset spam (even with the paricia mine has) and kill rush decks early. Have you come up against those and how have you fared if so? I probably just need more practice not playing a super aggressive deck being an anarch at heart.

31 Mar 2016 lilelia

Also yay for someone else using Tech Trader out of shaper :)

31 Mar 2016 Phoenix

Yeah I have been determined to try Tech Trader outside of Armand "Geist" Walker: Tech Lord. I mean most Kate decks are including 9 cards which trigger it anyways (SMC, Clone Chip, Technical Writer) so it wasn't much of a stretch.

Glacier and Pure Fastro this deck does do well against. It is also fairly good against Jinteki (well as good as any deck can be) as it has a Levi and some click less economy.

This is an early version of the deck, and my early decks do not tend to include cards like Deus X, Plascrete, etc as I'll play it to see what I think I can cut for them first. For sure the deck needs a Plascrete as the economy is not fast enough to keep up with Blue Sun, for example. I generally include 2 or 1 Plascrete/1 Film Critic/1 Artist Colony, whatever I can fit in. Just need to find what to cut.

I would encourage you to try Dagger. It handles Assassin nicely, and that is the most common sentry in the meta at the moment. Yes it is extra decks lots, but stealth is an economy all of its own.

As to asset spam decks well there is no way you can keep up, so it's a cast of trying to both Clot and R&D lock, which this deck is capable of.

Last thing, 2 Kati Jones would be awesome. If you have any ideas what to cut I'd be open to suggestions.