[TWA] You Wouldn't Hear Me Anyway - 1st Melbourne Regionals

DonutTaganes 2553

"Are you listening? It doesn't really matter. You wouldn't hear me anyway..." - Kate, presumably talking about her incredible stealthiness while tossing corporate assets into the slums on Salsette Island and leaking corporate plans to film critics.

This is the Stealth Kate deck I've been working on for quite a while, and it served me well at Melbourne regionals on the weekend!

As my good friend the @BigBadWolf said to me after the tournament (where he also played a similar build): "HOOOOOWWWWLLLLLLLLLL!"

I couldn't agree with him more, and the deck is heaps of fun to play. You pressure R&D and remotes, recuperate, control remotes and pressure R&D some more if it's safe to do so, build up for some massive runs late and then go for it.

That being said, knowing where the agendas are likely to be, and what your opponent is going to be trying to do to win are the two most important things to do when playing runner in my opinion. This deck has the flexibility to adapt to play at most speeds, and the cards to deal with most threats.

It doesn't necessarily deal with every threat as well as some other decks might, but the fact that it can deal with nearly all of them in some way and doesn't straight up fold to much is what keeps me coming back.

Deus X is one to consider adding in if you're expecting lots of Snare!, but I wasn't really (considering that Sports Hopper just came out.

One last thing, and I don't mean to gripe, but people seem to LOVE taking R&D Interface and Modded out of this deck, but I genuinely love them both, and highly recommend you keep them.

Thanks for reading! :)

19 comments
23 May 2016 stoppableforce

Congrats on the win!

How useful was Artist Colony on the day? It seems so unusual these days to see it without its accompanying Fan Sites, but that's an awful lot of deck slots.

One problem I've encountered against asset spam decks is getting my hand filled up with Astrolabe draws, reducing the value of ProCo overall. Is this worth using another console, like bigbadwolf (if I remember correctly) did, or is the free clickless draw worth getting less value out of ProCo overall?

Did you ever miss having something for HQ pressure like a Legwork or an HQI on the day?

23 May 2016 Stonar

Do you have problems with program trashing? I've been running a glaciery/tagstormy NBN deck lately, and I've been seeing more and more stealth Kate/Hayley/Andy, and landing a Data Raven/Keegan Lane pretty much ends the game, usually. You have 3 Clone Chips, sure, but do you usually use them to get the rig up and running?

23 May 2016 BigBadWolf

@stoppableforce I think it comes down to play style. One of the reasons I love this game is because of how a minute change can alter the style. Jesse tends to play this list a little more aggressivly than I, and I enjoy having the extra mem for SMC and another modded target.

That said, Jesse's point about astrolabe in an asset-spam meta is very sound.

24 May 2016 DonutTaganes

@stoppableforce - Thanks! I love Artist Colony. It allows you to be so aggressive, because you can control how much you value things if you are going to get blown out by ICE. For example, you can run without a Dagger on critical turns, knowing that if you really need it, you can go and get it and slow yourself down (by forfeiting an agenda) but if they don't have the punishing sentry you just cruise on through.

It also helps with News Team and Shi Kyu, both of which you see occasionally. Lastly, it can get you Ghost Runner, Clot (/Clone Chip), PolOp or other crucial cards in a pinch, right when you need them, to stop yourself losing the game or to prevent a Nisei/Astro score. That's pretty awesome.

Not having HQ pressure can be a bit annoying, but really as long as you are pressuring HQ even for single accesses, they have to defend it, which means that ICE on R&D will necessarily be weaker/fewer.

I would rather have the HQI or Legwork than not have them, but I would rather have the Salsette Slums, Employee Strike and PolOp than have the HQ pressure, because those three cards turn matchups from <40% to >50% on their own. That's massive.

@Stonar - I have never had a problem with running out of program recursion. Clone Chips are really there for redundancy and allowing you to recover from a Keegan here or there. If they Keegan you 4 times and you haven't won, there's probably something you could have done differently along the way!

24 May 2016 SnowB0und

@DonutTaganes Are there any concerns about memory usage in this deck? I can see some concern moving into the late game and having three breakers and needing to make a difficult choice between two cloaks and a paricia, etc.

24 May 2016 rwknoll

Any room for 1x Notoriety? I've found it very helpful in many match ups due to the typical agenda spread Corps are running.

24 May 2016 CodeMarvelous

@DonutTaganesthis looks very interesting. What was its record?

24 May 2016 BigBadWolf

@CodeMarvelous it went undefeated through swiss and top 8

25 May 2016 OnePunchMan

Not trying to diminish @DonutTaganes win as winning a regionals is a great effort but I think @CodeMarvelous wanted to know the win-loss record which I believe was 4-0 due to a bye and 2 ID's in Swiss

25 May 2016 BigBadWolf

@OnePunchMan yeah. This deck and it's variants also won multiple store champs, top 4s, top 8s, won Nationals 2014 and got Top 16 of a Worlds 2014. The engine/core gameplan has remained yhe same with only the breaker suite changing and adapting. It's very strong and remarkable consistant. Hopefully that clears things up for @CodeMarvelous

25 May 2016 Smattc

I dare say those results are the pilot and not the deck that is consistant. As kate in this form has been crazy popular over time yet the pilot is the one who has consistantly been up there. (Yes kate was on top for a long time i know as well)

25 May 2016 BigBadWolf

@Smattc I dunno. I've been piloting this deck and adjusting as Jesse saw fit for a number of years now. I think the deck is crazy good. It takes a little while to get your head around as it plays a little differently to the more popular lists. I've had a fair amount of success with it too.

25 May 2016 Smattc

The deck is top shelf. I was not disputing that. But you quoted all of jesses results as if it was the deck. He got the win over me on the weekend through ability more than the deck. He waited for my mistake and made me pay dearly for it. (Of course the pressure of my rnd getting pillaged because of the deck helped).

25 May 2016 Senex654

@DonutTaganes Jesse, you say to keep Modded, but there are only 5 value targets to hit. I get that it is nice to overdraw with Professional Contacts and use 2 cards and no credits to install, but how key are they? My second question is about the Technical Writers - How much do you sack them for? What is a general amount you look for to make them worthwhile? Congrats on the win!

5 Jun 2016 popipunk

probably a superstupid question but how do you run that many programs with so little memory. seeing how you need the stealth creds? (i'm just learning to play netrunner so don't shoot me plz :) )

5 Jun 2016 DonutTaganes

@Senex654 - You can afford to wait to install Interfaces until you have Modded, and if you do so, it really helps with smoothing out your economy. When you want to be installing 1 program/hardware most turns after contacts 1-3 times, you can afford to wait on Interfaces.

@popipunk - You have 5 memory when you have Astrolabe out, and you only have 3 breakers you need to have installed (Corroder, Dagger and Refractor). Your other 2 memory are usually for 1 Cloak and either Clot or Paricia, which then becomes 2 Cloak later in the game (and sometimes it's 2 Cloak all along!)

23 Jun 2016 JDC_Wolfpack

What are your thoughts on adding a NRE to help get through Archer/Archangel? I was trying to find room but there doesn't seem to be anything you can cut from the list except AC and that can be just as important if not more.

23 Jun 2016 DonutTaganes

@JDC_Wolfpack - Thanks for dropping by! I like the idea of NRE - with lots of 3+ strength code gates around (including the new 1 inf Magnet) and Little Engine/Archangel in lots of NBN builds, there's lots of pressure on the stealth suite. NRE is a nice solution, but I also would like another Lockpick in there too. Either way, I think it would be a neat addition.

Given the number of open R&Ds (and Snares) around lately, I've also cut Technical Writers in favour of Indexing, and I've cut Slums to go back to 3 Lucky Find.

I've used the 3rd Tech Writer slot to include a second plascrete (as I'm seeing a LOT more Scorched Earth around and sometimes you just need that second one) but I could see making that slot a Lockpick instead!

23 Jun 2016 JDC_Wolfpack

@DonutTaganes Thanks for the deck updates. I'll definitely try them out.