A Kind Of Magic v1.3

I've been playing Stealth Shaper variants since Lockpick and Refractor, the moment I heard about Smoke I knew what my new deck was going to be.

The core idea is to use runs to convert recurring stealth credits into real money via Net Mercur along with Dirty Laundry and Temüjin Contract. The Turning Wheel also allows you to turn those runs (if on HQ or R&D) into future multi-accesses without having to limit yourself to one server with a particular interface.

Daily Casts, Beth Kilrain-Chang, and Astrolabe are there for click-compression, so that you can focus on using your actual clicks to make runs and advance your board state.

Salsette Slums, Fall Guy, Networking, and Feedback Filter are the anti-meta cards. Salsette Slums is not only a strong counter to Controlling The Message (assuming that ruling stands) but it's also a great way of removing particularly dangerous Jinteki cards from the game. Networking is really a must have against Sync, and Fall Guy is much more useful than you might think; at zero cost there's never a good reason not to install it, as if nothing else it's a click for two credits.

Switchblade and Refractor are fairly obvious choices. I opted for Switchblade over Dagger because my local meta contains a prevalence of Gutenberg and Komainu. I use Refractor over Houdini because I can pump it once per-run with Lockpick and convert that into either a credit or card draw with Net Mercur.

Blackstone over the various other options due to influence limitations and because it deals well with barriers at the level of Spiderweb or below, and isn't horrible if you have to deal with the really strong Weyland barriers. It's biggest weakness is against the mid-strength barriers like Eli 1.0, which is fortunately less common in the current meta.

Dai V is only included in case I lose one of my other three primary breakers and can't get it back, as I only have a single Clone Chip. An Atman (at four) would potentially be a better choice.

Femme Fatale is primarily included for Tollbooth, Data Raven and other ice with unpleasant or taxing "On Encounter" abilities. Like Dai V it's an include that I could probably change; I could have gone with Hunting Grounds but I'm already very heavily reliant on resources as it is.

Draw is a bit of a problem, but provided you're making runs you can use Net Mercur for that rather than money if you need to. This concern is also why I've taken Astrolabe rather than Mirror.

If you're careful you can match money (combined between credit pool and Net Mercur) with the Corporation, holding off the threat of Hard Hitting News. Though if you are tagged you need to clear them as fast as possible, and get back in the game because any tempo break and you will suffer for it. Because you can afford it Feedback Filter will keep Potential Unleashed at bay, which given the forty card deck size is very important.

The biggest threat I can see (aside from my own poor play) would come from decks that tried for consistent Net damage and tagging. You can generate the credits to deal with one, but not really both.

Changes I might make include: dropping the Femme Fatale for a second Networking, and swapping out Dai V for an either Atman or a second Diesel.