Chaos Thievery (Chronos Bratislava First Place)

PeekaySK 8126

Took 1st with this at our Chronos yesterday, went 3-2 in a field of 19 players from 3 countries (Slovakia, Austria, Hungary). Great fun was had by all!

One of the losses was due to a bad guess as to the opponent's agenda composition, the other one was plain and simple stupidity on my part, caused by tilting from the first loss.

This deck is an evolution of my winning CI deck from the Vienna store champs (which should be listed under "derived from", unless I messed it up). Huge props to fellow netrunnerdb enthusiast secretsecret for suggesting a wildly more appropriate name for the deck! If you haven't read the description on the previous version, you might want to do it, I explain how to play this even though it'll probably seem very inconsistent and fragile at first glance.

Unlike my corp deck, this one didn't change nearly as much between the events. One of the changes was the inclusion of a Chakana, which I considered the right move even leaving the previous tournament (and which is even more essential now, not just for the NBN matchups but also for the HB ones), the other one is the swap from Tinkerings to Test Runs.

Huge props to Travis Chance on this one - I originally tested Test Runs here, but only in the context of a version that also ran Scavenge. That one was too slow for what I was trying to do, and I didn't really come back to them. Once I started thinking about them as Tinkering alternatives, rather than SMC alternatives (thanks to discussion with Travis), it clicked. Test Run here can sometimes tutor, sometimes Inside Job for a first turn Siphon, and sometimes recover from program trashing. Beware though and don't make the same mistake I did in the tourney - because there's only one Femme in the deck, inadvertently drawing it when you want to Test Run will delay you by an entire turn. One of the losses was actually caused by a stupidly played Diesel on click one of the game... which drew me the Femme. As a result, I couldn't test-siphon for the follow-up Indexing. Learn from my mistakes :)

One of my favorite plays of the tournament involving Test-Running an Atman, then using Levy on the same turn. That way, the Atman was the top card of the deck after the reset, ready for deployment.

Also, Test Run has CT on the illustration, so that's always a plus.

21 comments
13 Apr 2014 hypomodern

I've tested Chakana in my turbo-CT builds, and I like it. It definitely puts The Fear into FA corps, and boy who doesn't like that?

13 Apr 2014 PeekaySK

I've found that the biggest trick in using Chakana is not trying to get it online ASAP (at great cost). You don't need it to stop the first agenda, you need it to stop the last one (or rather, get you a turn's advance warning).

So, what you do is you just let it hit the table (it's best in CT because there you won't be missing the 1 MU as much), then it slowly feeds off Indexings and random accesses. That way, by the time you need it, it's online.

13 Apr 2014 hypomodern

Yes, definitely: don't break the bank or expose yourself trying to get 3 tokens on the Chakana.

14 Apr 2014 secretsecret

Grats on the win PK - and thanks to everyone who helped organizing the tourney! Was a really fun day! Hopefully we can stop you in Vienna next week :-)

14 Apr 2014 Alsciende

Congrats! Too bad you didn't wait Monday to publish, you can't run for this week's "decklist of the week" :-(

14 Apr 2014 PeekaySK

Hey, I can always try for next week... besides, this week's DLotW is so awesome it'd be a damn shame if he didn't get a spotlight!

14 Apr 2014 evilgaz

Good to see you get the Test Runs in there for the new version, they're definitely worth it ;)

I tried my version of your older version out again but kept getting snagged against lots of low cost Ice. Admittedly some of my problem was forgetting to get that Magnum Opus early and get the economy going. I think I was unlucky with Indexing too (one game I got nothing out of ten cards seen).

Congrats on the win!

One new question - do you get use of the Deus Ex? I've played quiet a few games with similar decks now and can't think of a single occasion where I've used it. Has it saved your bacon?

15 Apr 2014 hypomodern

I like Deus X mostly as a way to beat down big bioroids (Heimdall, Janus) for cheap. It's also insurance going into a Jinteki IAA that you really need to intercept.

15 Apr 2014 PeekaySK

@evilgaz: yeah, for taxing setups (either because of many subs, or because of many small pieces of ICE) you definitely need Opus ASAP. Getting "nothing" out of two Indexings is hard to believe though - if nothing else, you got to see 5 cards and you got to re-order them to the worst possible configuration, non? :P Agendas are not always the point of Indexing, actually, delaying a problematic card (be it a Tollbooth, a Closed Accounts, a Scorched or what have you) is just as valuable.

Deus X: I definitely got use out of it. First of all, having it out if you're going into a remote with an advanced card is usually a good idea - Junebug just costs 1 inf, you never know. And then, there are all these other uses:

In one game, an early Indexing showed me a Snare, so I just dropped DX and that was that. In another, I used it repeatedly to break through a Heimdall 2.0 that would otherwise end the Indexing run in progress. In a third, I got through a chummed Data Mine that would have otherwise killed me (especially in conjunction with the Fetal AI that was waiting on the other end :D). And in yet another game, it served as a reasonable deterrent to an opponent running Punitive Counterstrike in conjunction with Neural EMP (though I lost that game in the end, without DX I'd probably lose a lot sooner). Also, it's hands down the cheapest way to get through a Flare for me.

tl;dr: what Hypo said :)

7 Jul 2014 pattom

PeekaySK . Hi. I need you opinion, pleace :-) netrunnerdb.com

7 Jul 2014 PeekaySK

Sure, why not :)

24 Aug 2014 Ber

Hey, I was poking around for nice fast Shaper decks that would be strong again NBN NEH FA and this seemed like a likely option.

It occurred to me that from Honor & Profit, trading out an Account Siphon + ? for a Legwork and a Planned Assault would be a nice updated to the deck. What do you think?

Also, are there other new cards that you think belong in this deck?

25 Aug 2014 Alsciende

x3r0h0ur published an updated version of the deck for H&P.

-2 Account Siphon
-3 Dirty Laundry
+2 Legwork
+2 Planned Assault
+3 Scavenge
-1 Clone Chip
-1 Plascrete Carapace

25 Aug 2014 PeekaySK

@Ber Yeah, I originally built this specifically against TWIY Astrobiotics, so it being good against NEH isn't inconceivable :)

For the record, x3r0h0ur's version is pretty far from how I would update this. You lose a lot of tempo with Planning for a Siphon instead of playing it straight up - one of my most-often used moves was a first turn Siphon followed up by an Indexing... this is something you usually can't pull with Planned Assault (you'll end up being short on both money to get the initial Siphon through, and clicks for the post-Indexing run).

The biggest tweaks needed after H&P (and Upstalk) are actually in the icebreaker department, because you're now facing a different ICE selection than I did when I played this deck. Specifically, you need a second, cheaper Sentry breaker (because you really don't want to have to have Femme out for Komainus) and probably at least one more Atman.

Doing those needed tweaks without influence could get tricky, though - from my testing, dropping down to 2 Siphons hurts consistency too much.

25 Aug 2014 Ber

Hmm interesting feedback, thanks Alsciende and Peekay.

Peekay, if I still changed an AS for a Planned Assault, I could afford a Mimic, which would be great against little sentries. Or as a no-inf-cost option and keeping 3 AS, if I'm mostly targeting Rototurret & Komainu I could put in (the rarely played) Pipeline?

I'm curious why you would add another Atman. Is it just to draw one earlier? Or you want one installed at 0 and another at 4 / whatever suits the deck?

26 Aug 2014 PeekaySK

Personally, I'd try for the Pipeline play. Your biggest pre-Femme problems are Rototurret and Komainu, with Tsurugi and Fenris being a relatively close second. For all of those, Pipeline is either equivalent to Mimic, or at least somewhat close.

Another Atman: so that I can set one to whatever I actually need (think 4 vs. Lotus Fields, 5 vs. Tollbooths, etc), and still have a second one to plug my sentry-breaking holes, increasing efficiency. Atman at 0 wrecks people that rely on Chimeras and Rototurrets as their defense exclusively (and sometimes that's beyond awesome), but it's not always actually needed. Don't fall prey to the mistake of formulaic thinking, consider what strength Atman would help you best in each given scenario :)

26 Aug 2014 Alsciende

On the other hand, if I have to spend 12 credits to break a Tollbooth, I'd say the deck has failed. I'd much rather Scavenge a Femme to bypass the Tollbooth.

26 Aug 2014 PeekaySK

But if you need to pressure several different servers with Tollbooths on them (which is far from an unusual scenario these days), a single Atman starts being a tad better than a Femme you have to keep swapping around. The fact that it also protects you from Inazuma and Grim is another very nice bonus.

It's a late-game kind of plan, sure... but I like to have those as backup :P

27 Oct 2014 aero

Just a thought...

Would it work to remove ZU.13 and two other cards of choice (Same Old Thing, Sure Gamble, Dirty Laundry?) and replace them with two Lockpick and a single Refractor?

27 Oct 2014 PeekaySK

What do you stand to gain from doing that? You weaken your early game economy/start, ability to sustain pressure, and ability to get through multiple code gates. Also, you lose 1 virtual MU (because Zu + Toolbox). The upsides aren't worth it at all.

2 Jul 2023 Hasimir

Über-n00b here :) How do you deal with the tags accrued from Account Siphon? Do you immediately (or as soon as possible) spend 2 clicks and 4 creds to remove them? Or do you ignore them, hoping that the corp you are facing won't play on them somehow? Is there an obvious and less costly strategy I am missing?