Congress v.2.0

Card draw simulator
Odds: 0% – 0% – 0% more
Repartition by Cost
Repartition by Strength
Derived from
Congress
Inspiration for
Government Contractor V1.0
Parliament
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Daine 3766

This is the most recent iteration of the Congress deck I've been playing for the last 6 months or so. Now that the NAPD MWL has eviscerated PPVP Kate, I figured I'd post a MWL-ready version in case people wanted to transition to a different Kate.

Congress is a slow archetype. Your game plan is to apply early pressure only when necessary. If your opponent leaves R&D open on turn one, the decision of whether to check it or not depends entirely on what's in your hand. Your goal needs to be to set up your economic pieces, install an SMC, and be able to apply pressure when you absolutely have to. See my write up for version 1 of the deck for examples.

The Supplier has made a return to the deck because it helps the consistency, combos with Kate's ID ability, and serves the same function as both modded and career fair, both of which I wanted to cut for deck slots. Mulligan for a supplier! It's the most important piece in this version of the deck.

Vamp wins games. It's the best answer to caprice in the game (for now) and saves you tons of money against Food Coats. Rather than having to worry about breaking heavily taxing ice over a remote, just vamp them down to zero and go take that GFI.

In an environment of constrained influence, Armitage has had to take the place of my stimhacks. I'm not thrilled by this, but unless FA completely goes away post-MWL and I can lose the clot, one Stimhack has to suffice for now.

Chicago is brimming with scorch decks. I need 3 plascretes to survive, and often need my first by turn 2 or 3. If your local meta isn't so full of violent sociopaths like William Brown here in Chicago, feel free to play one or two fewer plascretes.

I've gone up to 3 dyson and a toolbox because I like my underworld contacts to turn on as soon as possible. The extra link also completely defangs assassins, Ash, and even Gutenberg.

Cyber cypher has been my newest addition, and it's earned its space so far. Given how expensive it can be to set up a working study guide, Cyber cypher allows you to break into a remote early without using your atman.

From my own testing, cards to consider slotting are feedback filter, extra copies of Same Old Thing, or a third copy of Earthrise Hotel. I frequently adapt my deck by a card or two before every game night kit.

I appreciate all the comments and questions I get about this deck. Thanks to everybody who has tested this and explored the design space around it for me.

10 comments
2 Jan 2016 Ulkrond

Ha! ha ha ha HA HA HA!

2 Jan 2016 Vanadium

Wow, this looks very different from the original.

Have you considered Security Nexus? Pricey, but modded in it's reasonable, and that bypass is pretty dang sweet...

2 Jan 2016 Saan

@Myth But for the bypass you need Rabbit Holes, and at that point, you might as well just change the deck into the already existing Nexus Kate build.

2 Jan 2016 podoboyz99

Why the 1 Toolbox 3 Dyson spread? Toolbox haa a higher power level and the two creds really help out a lot when playing inefficient breakers such as battering ram. So I think you probobly want to cut at least one Dyson for another Toolbox. Also, I personally don't like the Supplier in this sort of deck. You already are super slow, and the post MWL meta is not going to be any slower. However, Earthrise is definatly a good change, because they are easier to chain than the QT's. Overall, I think it is a good new version of the deck, and it's easy to try out and for people to make thornier own edits based on playstyle. I have and will always love this archetype.

3 Jan 2016 Daine

@Myth I really hate security Nexus. It's just one more moving piece that can screw you up if it doesn't click. For almost the same cost I can get a toolbox and without any influence costs.

@podoboyz99 for a long time I ran 2 dyson and 1 toolbox. I took out some fluff and realized that I liked the consistency of a third dyson. Toolbox is awesome when I find it and can afford it, but it doesn't hit the table every game. There would be no harm in trading a dyson for another toolbox if it suits your style.

But I think you're wrong about the post MWL meta being faster. NBN took the brunt of the shift, weakening the decks that could win on accident or by well-dressed chimps trained to play netrunner. Food Coats is slow enough for this deck to handle very well, and the NBN decks that remain will be largely missing the things that caused my decks the biggest headaches--Eli and Architect.

I think the old version had more variance with its draw package. Sometimes that was great, but sometimes I'd get screwed and almost lose to someone bad. I'll still sometimes lose to a double-defended remote early if I can't find enough tutors or breakers, but it's rare. And the supplier fixes the matching game you'd have to play between modded and RDI and career fair and your resources. If you have a supplier down you can very easily draw and host 2 cards each turn, making setup extremely efficient, even if you're frantically looking for a missing piece that isn't coming up.

3 Jan 2016 podoboyz99

I agree that the draw engine is an upgrade, you could have run Earthrise in the last variant but it was too taxing on your Carrer Fairs. When I said faster I mean jam Astro behind Quandry and pray faster, not fast advance. I feel the stimhacks helped with against this sort of so called strategy. I feel like this archetype has a lot of flex slots to play with, so I will just change it to my needs.

3 Jan 2016 michaeln

I read your version 1 write up and comments, and was interested that you reckoned that NACH was soon to be a part of it (perhaps with the Film Critic). Did you get a chance to try this out?

4 Jan 2016 Daine

@michaeln NACH and Film Critic both made appearances as meta calls and worked very well. Immediately after D&D dropped the Data Raven -> QPM deck became annoying and tag protection really helped. This deck is mostly a reflection of my current meta right now. It'll adapt as the meta does too, but unless I see the heavy tag NBNs or RP come back in force, neither NACH nor Film Critic are critical.

5 Jan 2016 djc6535

I'm really surprised to see Study guide in here, as I am struggling to see how it can do work for you unless you've found your one Toolbox or your one Stimhack...

5 Jan 2016 Daine

@djc6535 Study Guide is maybe my favorite breaker. Especially since I have a Cyber Cypher to handle the first remote, I can afford to wait a bit before investing in Study Guide. The slightly higher upfront investment pays for itself rather quickly by ensuring that code gates aren't taxing. You're right that it's best if I have a toolbox down or can pump it with stimhack, but it's a cheap, solid answer to the ever-present quandary as well, and it scales nicely over a long game. And Congress likes long games.