Scholar of Stealth: 1st Place Uroboros Cup 2015 (67 players)

Really like this. The breaker suite is so trim and efficient, leaving plenty of room for economy and multi-access. The only thing missing is HQ pressure, but it looks like you had no need!

I love the look of this deck. Will Clot be a permanent slot do you think or is it a flex spot?

@Brendan Yeah in an ideal world I'd have the HQ Interface instead of Clot, or Shapers would have some kind of in faction HQ pressure, but I got on just fine without it!

@Heartthrob I haven't played against NEH with this without the Clot but I would imagine it would be a lot tougher without being able to buy yourself some breathing room early to set up. Astrolabe helps hugely in this match up too, but I don't think I'd drop the Clot unless NEH loses popularity dramatically.

Did you consider Personal Workshop at all for the installing 2 on the opponent's turn hilarity? I don't know what you'd cut for it, though.

@Wookiee Nah, everything is so cheap to install as it is and there isn't really enough hardware and programs to install to make it worthwhile, I think it would slow you down rather than speed you up!

Looks like a great deck! On HQ pressure, Shapers have Escher in faction, which should be useful in a stealth deck?

@ulrik03 A friend suggested that to me too and I would have loved to try it during the tournament but I didn't have the card with me. I'll see if I can squeeze it into the list and see how it performs over my next few games!

Amazing deck! What do you think about changing 2 Earthrise and 1 symmetrical for 3 ProCo?

@gumed85 I considered that but the clickless draw in Hayley is too good to pass up imo, it makes your turns so much more efficient, especially with Armitage and Kati as your main economy. ProCo is certainly easier to play with Career fair but I prefer the Visage as you're less reliant on seeing it early and its cost makes it easier to double install with Hayley.

@gumed85 If you are looking for a Stealth Haley deck using ProCo, I have a rather similar build to this here. I've dropped the second Refractor for another Armitage since putting that up. I've tested it quite extensively in my play group and I think it's pretty well solid in that form.

@NicoleyMoley You might remember me from your Blue Sun deck's comments. Completely by coincidence (I swear!), I am also working on both Blue Sun and Hayley decks for upcoming tournaments! I edited my list to incorporate the click-less draw engine here and try it out, since I already feel satisfied with my ProCo list. At first glance it seems like it's going to be quite effective, though! Thanks for sharing your decks!

Is there a default atman you like to put it at?

@thebriarfox Atman is in there solely to deal with ice that can only be broken by AI like Excaliber. You could also use it in situations where the Corp has managed to stack enough ice to tax your stealth credits so you can't get in, or if they're playing a lot of high strength barriers but I've yet to actually install Atman in a game, the stealth rig and corroder should be more than enough in 90% of games

@NicoleyMoley I've been hyped for Hayley since she was first spoiled. I've been hoping for a new Tier-1 Shaper to come along, and I really think Hayley is it. However, the first few decks I tried just weren't working. I always felt that I was getting something wrong with her... I tried a Resource & Replicator Stealth deck, and while it got the supporting pieces of the rig set up amazingly fast, I noticed that my economy and programs all got left behind in the deck, and by that point I was usually too far behind economically/points-wise due to installing Chips/Interfaces to get into a position to be a serious threat to the Corp.

Then I read this list. This is it. This is the build was looking for. Ironically, it looks a lot like my very first build for her, the one that I never actually played and dismissed as janky because of the inclusion of Career Fair, and Earthrise. Just goes to show you should always playtest, because you might be surprised!

Just a few questions for you: Have you ever found yourself wishing you had a LARLA, due to burning through your resources or taking lots of net damage? Do you find the 1-off Symmetrical Visage to be sufficient? What do you think are the hardest matchups for it?

Great to see a strong Hayley build, and a hearty congrats on the win!

@gumed85 I can vouch for what she's saying. ProContacts takes too long to get back in the black unless you Career Fair it, and I've seen people who get sucked into clicking it way too much. Visage is nice because of its once-a-turn limitation making it a much cheaper install than ProCo. Between Earthrise, Astrolabe, and Diesel, you shouldn't need to click for cards that often anway, and the limitation of only getting its effect once per turn prevents you from falling into the ProCo "click trap."

@Alrik_40000 After play testing this deck myself, I believe that you should be alright on econ via Kati and you should have enough stealth credits to get you through the majority of the game without having to recur Ghost Runner. That said, I also didn't include Symmetrical Visage in my slightly modified decklist and didn't miss it, so I'd say if you feel more comfortable with a Levy then I think that's the slot to throw it in.

I have a ProCo based stealth Hayley deck (as I mentioned above) and, after playing with this list, I would have to agree that clickless draw may very well be the way to go for stealth Hayley. The econ missed from ProCo seems to be made up for by including Kati, instead, and the accelerated draw from Earthrise and Diesel help you set up just as fast. Plus you don't get that huge tempo hit from the ProCo install. I still have experimenting to do with the ProCo build before being definitive, but that's the way it's looking.

If you click Professional Contacts 6 times, you draw 6 and gain 6. For the same install cost (5cr), you get Earthrise Hotel and Armitage Codebusting installed, draw 6 cards and get 12 credits if you click 6 times. And it feels much more flexible having clickless draw if you need the clicks. Yeah, you have done the job right @NicoleyMoley!

What about All-Nighter ? When Hayley was first spoiled, that was the very first card I thought of.

Normally I would have said All-Nighter is terrible because you have to click and install it, and then later click and trash it to gain two clicks, meaning all you really did was take a click from one turn and put itaside for later. However, by piggyback installing it off something else like an Armitage or Ghost Runner, you can install it for free, and later on convert that free install into a 5-click turn.

I don't know... I've thought about including it because Hayley is literally the only Runner who could ever get use out of that card.

I've been running it in my Game Day/Beach Party deck. It's really nice a free second install, and the clicks are useful. But even then, I'm considering replacing it with Armitage or some other very low cost resource.

It's 3 card slots for reasonably minimal advantage. There's not anything I'd pull out of this deck to put in All-Nighter. While being able to take a 7 click turn can be useful, it's far too situational for me to recommend it.

I brought this decklist to the Detroit Regional and went 5-1 with it. My only loss was to Blue Sun with IT Department. And there aren't many runner decks that have the economy to deal with that when the IT Department gets up and running on turn 2. Other than that, I was basically able to go where I wanted, whenever I wanted. Sadly I went 0-6 on the corp side.

@Alrik_40000Thanks for your feedback! I've never had any problems with long term economy or net damage so I don't think a LARLA is necessary. I guess if net damage decks came back in a big way I'd consider putting in a Feedback Filter maybe. The one visage has been working fine, it's nice when you see it but not necessary for the deck to work, I'm considering swapping it for an Escher to see how it works! I'd agree with @Kopiok that the Visage could be dropped for LARLA if you feel more comfortable with it. As for the toughest match ups, RP can still be tricky if you let them get set up with Caprice/Ash and Nisei tokens, but that's the case vs every runner deck. You need to play carefully versus trap based decks and meat damage decks like Butcher Shop or BS but the deck should handle them fine if you're experienced playing vs those kinds of decks.

I really don't think there's any room for All Nighters here, there's nothing in the deck that you can take out for them that wouldn't make it worse. I agree with @Wookiee that overall they're too situational to be worth taking anything out for them.

@xarlstaunzund Glad you had success with the deck! Shame about your corp deck but I'd love to hear how you do with this list if you bring it to any other events!

Daily Casts and Armitage make me really long for Aesop's Pawnshop.

Suffice to say that next time I play against this I will probably not be rocking Astrobiotics, despite my fondness for decks from 2013 or earlier (My runner on the day was a classic Andysucker build).

@NicoleyMoley I know what you mean about ButcherShop decks... I have a friend that is considering taking one to a tournament this weekend. I played a few test matches against it last night, and I lost miserably each time. I wasn't drawing my resources, mainly just hardware pieces, and was down to clicking for draws and credits. He's the kind of person who will Scorch you even if he can't kill you just to get rid of your hand and slow your tempo. Between that and the Dedicated Response Teams, without recursion, I was just losing too much of my deck to damage. I also felt like Clot was a liability in those games, because staying in that "holding pattern" of maintaining 4 credits and an SMC kept me from aggressively attacking him. However, when I didn't bother with Clot, he would just fast advance out and win anyway.

This deck can handle Glaciers very well, it seems, but due to the setup time for Stealth and the need to maintain the "ready state" for Clot, fast advance still feels like a problem, even with Clot in-deck. It also still feels a bit short on money to me, but maybe that's just because I'm used to bursting out tons of money with Prepaid Kate...

Maybe all of that was just a bad matchup and bad variance, though.

I realized this deck may have a bit of problem with RP where the runner are forced to run 2 servers, or make you run a taxing server twice (such as through Nisei MK II or Caprice). How do you tech against that?

@NicoleyMoley Nice deck! I was the other player rocking Hayley up at the top tables at Uroboros. Congrats on the win, I think this version is slightly better than what I was playing on the day, but I've since made some modifications that I think really strengthen it.

You commented that sentries are falling out of favour, which is something that I've observed too and, as such, I went back to playing Dagger. This meant I was able to drop the Silencers as well, which saves a tonne of influence. The main advantage is that you're less reliant on the stealth credits and can run sooner if a sentry does hit the table. It does cost you a bit more in real credits to break the multi-sub sentries, but Komainu and Tsurugi have really fallen out of favour with the RP players lately, so it mostly just costs you the odd credit here or there against things like Architect and Caduceus.

I don't have Career Fair or Earthrise Hotel in my deck, but I'll certainly be experimenting with them! I've gone for 3 x I've Had Worse for extra speed and protection vs. Butcher Shop and any errant net damage decks. I've also gone for a Utopia Shard. This gives some of the HQ pressure you're looking for and can also disrupt kill threat combos. It's also pretty sick to run HQ, install this for free and chain it with an Armitage Codebusting or Daily Casts without spending a click ;-) I also have a Lucky Find as well, but I might replace it with a couple of Career Fairs as it's the same net economy per click, but a lower credit threshold.

I've included Net-Ready Eyes, partially for the synergy with I've Had Worse, but also because it's effectively a minor economy card. Its power is not to be under-estimated because boosting a breaker can often save you multiple stealth credits; similarly it means you can have a choice of strength on Atman (usually 3/4 or 4/5). I think I use Atman a bit more than you, it's very effective at 4 (particularly vs. HB glaciers) and will save you a tonne of cash compared to using Corroder on Eli 1.0. It's also good at 10 in the Blue Sun: Powering the Future match-up to neutralise their Curtain Walls - if you use it once it's slightly more expensive than Corroder, any more than that and you're in significant profit. I've also had to use it at 7 on occasion, to deal with Susanoo-No-Mikoto and Wormhole) in a game where my stealth was being taxed out by stacked sentries and code gates.

@Alrik_40000 The deck really does not struggle financially. Kate players look at it without realising how efficient the runs are. I probably pay more real credits per run than @NicoleyMoley because I only run one Lockpick and no Silencers, but I still don't find it to be an issue.

@xxKuroMeista The only times I've really come unstuck for money have been when I've been tempted to pay Ghost Runner credits in order to steal an NAPD Contract early in the game and the match has subsequently gone long, allowing the Corp to establish a deep server which has taxed out my stealth. RP can be annoying, but actually it generally doesn't cost you much to get in, it's just the psi-games that destroy your will to live. I've actually considered Unregistered S&W '35, but I don't know where to get the influence from. A lot of the decent UK players are now running Vamp for this purpose, but I don't think Hayley's economy is quite strong enough. I tend to rely on R&D pressure in the RP match and hope to top-deck. The newer style RP decks are a bit more vulnerable than the Worlds era ones because they defend themselves a little bit less. Many are now favouring Hades Fragment instead of The Future Perfect, which means at least one fewer psi-game :-)

Tnx for the decklist !

I Took it for our spin in our regionals, and it worked like a charm ! It takes a few games to really get the hang with her ability, but then u really almost have a 5th click every round.

Only change i made was get rid of the atman (really couldnt see the point :?) and ad in a second plascrete. Which given the amount of Scorches in our meta was definitly the right choice. (managed to get both out 2 times :P )

Only real problem i had was that i ran into quite a lot of heimdal 2.0, hadrians, hive's and asteroid belts. So i think i will drop either the clod, or a career fair and try to fit in a black cat .

On the otherside im not completely convinced about switchblade, not sure it deserves its 3 influences over dagger. Might switch that out, and use the 2 influences for a little more burst-econ. (stimhack ?)

@t-lor, I tried a version with Blackat. It's a pretty reasonable inclusion although you'll occasionally find yourself getting annoyed at the fact that it's more expensive to install than Corroder. This is a relevant consideration because you want to be installing programs in your opponent's turn to get another extra click of value out of Hayley's ability, but this means you don't have that turn's drip economy available from casts etc.

I came to the same conclusion regarding Switchblade vs. Dagger (see my above post). I pulled out all the influence from criminal and slotted in a couple of I've Had Worse - this makes the deck insanely quick and gives you the extra meat protection you're looking for.

I would definitely recommend putting the Atman back in. It's invaluable against certain untyped ICE, as well as being able to tune its strength as required. Set it to 10 in the Blue Sun match-up and it becomes insanely cost-efficient to break Curtain Walls; 7 deals with Wormhole and Susanoo (both of which need two stealth to boost breakers the hard way); 4 is good vs. Eli, Ichi and Lotus Field. It's not there as a primary breaker, but it adds redundancy in some cases and efficiency in others, as well as a get out vs random trap ICE. If a game goes long you can find yourself being taxed out of a deep server by stacked sentries and code gates; so Atman can save you having to use all of your stealth credits.

@Arkhon @t-lorI see your point re: Dagger and it's something I'm planning on trying out. I do really like Switchblade though, and have found saving those extra 1-2 credits on common sentries like Pup, Architect and Ichi has been crucial in lots of games. I don't think I'd drop the Silencers myself, I feel it would put a lot of pressure on your Ghost Runners and the extra recurring credits can be really important when the Corp starts stacking ice. As a Blue Sun player I would never, ever play an Atman at 10 vs Curtain Wall, because I would personally be more than happy to see a a runner pay 13 credits to bring it out and then have it be useless when I put another ice in front of Curtain Wall and still tax Corroder 7 to break each time, that's a huge swing in the Corp's favour. Atman is a great back up breaker for certain ice (especially ones that can only be broken by AI, you don't want to lose by hitting an Excalibur), but not CW :P

I can see the usefulness of IHW but personally I'd much prefer the Silencers. I've never had any problems playing against Butcher Shop with Clot and Plascrete as long as you play carefully. There is more than enough card draw in the deck already and splashing card draw into Shaper makes me sad :P

I hate BlacKat, it drains stealth credits and is only marginally more efficient than Corroder vs some barriers, and not even the most common ones. It's a headache to figure out the maths in high pressure situations too, and it's way overcosted compared to Corroder in terms of install cost and splash.

@NicoleyMoley I had a chance to do a couple of rounds with BC in, ofcourse everything is personal preference. But i think your being a litte bit to harsh on the cat :P Its only 2c more to install, but its already at str3. so within 2 times of breaking eli/markus/firewall (which are the most encountered bariers in my meta) it has already payed itself back in credits. And thats not even counting the stealth options.

And thats the main point. after you installed it you can just use it as a Corroder with 1 extra str built in. And if it happens i have spare cloak tokens lying around , it just makes it that much better. And breaking an ai-oversighted hadrians for 2 using 2 cloaks and 1 normal cred felt very nice :)

@t-lor If it works for you that's cool but I don't think I'd ever consider the extra splash and install cost worth it over Corroder. From my experience the savings made against the few ice it is more efficient against compared to Corroder is offset by the ice that it isn't. I often use spare cloaks to save money using Corroder anyway so the discounts with BlacKat using the same Cloak credits aren't that amazing. In general the deck makes enough money to not have to worry about using Corroder as a fracter, so I see no reason to change it. If I ever was going to change fracter I'd probably try run Lady over BK tbh.

Really loving this deck! I used it in a recent OP night, and it just plays so smoothly. I only won 1 of my 3 matchups, but that's more a reflection on my skill than any weakness of the deck.

One thing I had an occasional problem with was memory management. Both of my HB opponents were using Architect, and I found myself struggling to make multiple R&D runs while preventing Architect from firing, for lack of stealth credits. More Cloaks would have helped, but then I had no room for Self-modifying Code, and my Akamatsu Mem Chip only showed up once in three games.

Anyone have any thoughts on tossing a Leprechaun in here to hold SMCs or, in a pinch, a couple Cloaks? What about an Omni-Drive for holding a single Cloak? If I did either of those things, I'm not sure what I'd cut. Unfortunately I'm going to be traveling for the next week so I can't test it myself until I return.

I feel the same pain, especially since i added a parasite :) Omni - drive on a cloak makes no sense :P I think the best thing is just adding in some more akamatsu's

@t-lor``@NerdimusPrime Glad you're enjoying the deck! I don't usually have memory problems tbh and find the deck usually functions fine on 5 memory, the mem chip was mainly added for comfort to support 3 cloaks or Clot/Atman if needed. If you're struggling you could probably find room to add another mem chip, or swap to a big mem chip (although that might be a pain with the added cost if you need it up early).

Other solutions if you're mainly having problems with too many sentries is to either install an Atman to help save some stealth credits, or swap Switchblade for Dagger. Tbh you shouldn't need to run R&D more than once a turn very often, and when you do need to you should have enough Ghost Runner credits to get by.

Great deck. Pounds of fun. What's the ideal starting hand?

@aero Ideal starting hand is definitely any hand with at least 1 career fair OR 1 Sure Gamble OR 1 Armitage & 1 Earthrise Hotel. The boost that the cheap draw gives you is too much but you need money to offset it. Armitage is great. You can combo the Armitage off the Earthrise install and then take 6 and be ready for anything.

@aero Basically what @Kopiok said! In certain match ups you might also want to consider keeping a starting hand with Astrolabe or an SMC, but economy and draw are your main priorities! Glad you're enjoying playing with the deck! :)