The Vampire Diaries - Kati variant

For when you need that extra speed.

This is the latest variant of The Vampire Diaries that I whipped up after numerous playtests with the old version. You'll notice this build is a bit rougher around the edges, and isn't necessarily as concise as its counterpart, but after playing both versions, I honestly believe this is the better way to run the build with Kit.

The ID's biggest advantage is the speed with which Kit can come out of the gate, and the sustained pressure she can put on all servers while building up her rig. Magnum Opus is antithetical to that entire philosophy. In an ideal world, you'll spend your entire first turn -- all of it -- getting Magnum Opus out on the board, either through tutors, some of which (SMC) require you to click for credits first, and then you'll spend the next turn recouping your money/putting down stealth sources if you were lucky enough to draw into them, and then perhaps the turn after that getting a Refractor or another tutor on the table, and then taking money and, hopefully by turn four at the earliest, you're ready to make your first run. And all this is assuming you don't have to spend any time digging for the pieces you need. By this point, it's entirely possible for corps to have multiple servers double-iced, meaning you'll now have to fish for your sentry breaker because you can't afford to lose the Magnum Opus you just spent so much time getting out to program destruction.

Another problem with Magnum Opus is how much it cripples your MU. Immediately losing half your memory on turn one means you have to hope your mem chips turn up soon, especially if you draw into a Cloak as your first stealth source. When you do the math, Magnum Opus is no doubt the most powerful econ engine in the game, which is all well and good, but you don't play Netrunner in a vacuum. As you're building your rig, the corp is building their servers, and at a certain point, it doesn't matter that Magnum Opus is so powerful because in practice, it's a card you very much have to play around. It already forces a tempo sacrifice that in some ways turns off Kit's ability, it pigeonholes you into a pretty rigid strategy where you can either draw cards or take credits, but never both; and because of the MU issues, it stifles the amount of pressure you can put on in a pinch. In short, it kills the flexibility of Shaper.

The answer then becomes Professional Contacts and Kati Jones, and the earlier you get them on the table, the more successful you'll be. I've had to rearrange a lot of the deck to make room for the new econ engine, but the advantage this new set-up gives us is a more versatile answer for more problems. Deus X and Parasite recursion becomes a lot easier with Clone Chips. The 3x Modded have come out for 3x Sure Gamble because with Mopus swapped out, we'll be shorter on money while we put those future credits on Kati, and because by giving ourselves more options for more situations, holding combo cards in hand becomes less and less desirable. And we now have a Levy to give ourselves that extra juice when we're nearing the end of the mid-game.

One last note: Vamp still works. Windows to pull off a successful Vamp were still pretty narrow even with Magnum Opus, and the more I played with the card, the more I realized just how opportunistic it is. If you have to spend two or three turns clicking Mopus for 8 credits just to get off a powerful Vamp, the card becomes just as useless as if you didn't even have it in the first place. And with how bursty Kati can be, drawing into a Vamp when you already have 9 or 12 credits on her can be exactly the edge you need. And for ultimate laughs, discard your first Vamp when you know you won't need it, and watch the corp scramble to ice up HQ.

Overall, I believe this deck is better than its predecessor. It takes a little more know-how to play, but not much. As long as you're digging for pieces, you'll find yourself coming up with an answer for at least one of the things you've been trying to do. And if worse comes to worse, spending three clicks drawing with your Professional Contacts and one click putting money on Kati is never a bad play. Try this out and let me know how it works for you - I think you'll find yourself with a lot more room to maneuver than you did with Magnum Opus.