CutLatery (Making Shaper Great* Again)

Let's make Shaper great* again

This deck started out as an experiment into how much I could abuse Harmony AR Therapy and ended up being a deck that I’ve had a lot of fun with, decent win-rate (currently 77% in 100+ games) and takes shaper in a direction they do not usually go in (currently) allowing for a very run heavy, pressure-based game.

Let talk about Harmony – a card that (quite rightfully) doesn’t see much play, as its tempo negative and the 5 DIFFERENT cards clause really limits it compared to its Anarch relative. There are 2 in the deck so we can happily discard the first one and Harmony it back (or recur 1 of 2 lost ones using Dj Steve )

Going through the card pool the most cohesive group of differently named cards that are both powerful and worth recurring is imo the Cutlery. (You should aim to not play a Harmony until you have at least 2 pieces of cutlery to recur) This brings us onto the lynchpin of the deck…

Pelangi – One of my favourite cards, this not only allows some incredibly efficient breaking options (Anansi for 4c with clip, 10st Surveyor for 5c with Unity etc) but allows us to fully utilise which ever piece of cutlery we have to hand at the time.

Pre-paid VoicePAD – The aim of the deck is to get away from the long set up shaper playstyle so we don’t have time/mu for rezeki, Prepaid gives some vital drip to keep us economically stable, 2 is the right number for the deck and you should usually only install 1.

Telework Contract – Is worth mentioning as it is a great tool for activating Lat, leave it around until a turn where you have already matched handsize and have a click left.

Dj Fenris – A decent amount of matchups you will be Djing for Steve Cambridge to apply additional HQ pressure however certain matchups (especially Weyland with advanced Akhets) you will get more millage out of Dj Quetzal (who can also be great when you have access to Pelangi)

Conduit – Our win con, and a card that is usually not great in shaper – but very powerful once we’ve destroyed all the ice guarding R&D. Most of the time I would recommend discarding the conduit so you can install from the bin at instant speed and for a discount with simulchip once you have destroyed some R&D ice

Deep Dive – A card that wasn’t out when I created this deck but one that would fit in fairly easily. Anything that shuffles the deck is good when Conduit is your main win con, and this can be a nice closer (even without much support) and another card that is worth recurring – I would slot a maximum of 1x and drop to 2x Daily Casts

Ika – does have a small nonbo with this list as you don’t usually want to trash ice that Ika is installed on – therefore where possible use Pelangi +clip/unity to deal with sentries where possible and come back to destroy them with cutlery. Ika is a great back up though and 0c instal that boosts Unity’s efficiency

Plan your turn – The Classic Netrunner rule but significantly applies here – you should be able to trigger Aniccam and Lat 1ce a turn for most of your turns you also want to make the most of your recurring prepaid credits – do you need to play that gamble for +4c now? or can it wait for next turn where it gains you 5-6c and a card draw?

Final piece of advice – Just because you can destroy all the ice protecting a server doesn’t mean you always should – focus on the pieces you can’t get through efficiently (or are named Border Control)– having a surprise piece of cutlery in hand to play is usually better than clearing a final Hagen/Ip block that you break for 2c.

*By playing this deck Baa Ram Wu does not guarantee shaper will be great again, any incidences of shaper greatness are purely coincidental. Shaper win rate is subject to change. Please consult your local shaper player for balance before changing faction.