Old-School Katman

mendax 1024

The 2x plascrete is a meta call - until Blue Sun I was using Net Celeb because it's more generally useful, and fantastic against RP. If you're playing in a meta with little meat damage, I'd definitely recommend taking the plassies out.

8 comments
17 Dec 2014 dtelad11

The meta seems to be slowing down so I can see how a Desperado-based Katman build could rise to prominence (compared to the currently popular PrePaid VoicePAD builds).

Did you have a chance to take this on a ride? Based on my previous experience with the deck, I suspect that 3x Scavenge might be a bit too much - it's good for Parasite recursion, but you don't have many sacrifice targets for it. You might want to consider adding a Sharpshooter, it's a great tutor target with Self-modifying Code. Another card which felt useful in my earlier builds was Modded; dropping these R&D Interfaces to 0-cost accelerates your precious R&D runs. If you're up to doing some testing, I would try to go -2x Scavenge, -1x Test Run, +2x Modded, +1x Sharpshooter.

17 Dec 2014 mendax

I've been playing Katman for over a year at this point, and in some sense this is just a minor edit to include new cards (Lady > Inti) and keep up with the meta (Plassy > Net Celeb). It has always been incredibly consistent, and I've had very good results with it - winning a couple of store championships, a few GnK events, and currently #3 in the stimhack league relying mainly on this.

WRT the suggestions, Scavenge is fantastic for both parasite recursion and also for moving femme about the place, should the original target disappear. It also works well with Test Run for a very cheap femme install. There's usually enough targets for it - empty ladies and smcs once I have what I need already come to mind, as well as Deus X vs corps that aren't really using net damage.

Until Blue Sun, I've been able to race Weyland on money. This kind of shows that I really don't need another econ card in the form of modded - a couple of extra parasites during the game serve me far better.

Finally, Sharpshooter. I've thought about putting this is for quite a while, but with the exception of archer it's hard to lose more than 1 program at once, so given the large amount of recursion I have available it's easier just to bring that program back should I need to and save the deck slot. Sharpshooter can sometimes just be a dead card, something that the extra recursion piece will never be.

17 Dec 2014 dtelad11

I wholeheartedly agree that Katman is as consistent as it was in GenCon 2013. I'm surprised that you manage to feed three Scavenges on a regular basis - somehow I always got stuck with one when I played a triple, but that could be up to playstyle differences. Thanks for sharing your list!

17 Dec 2014 saltytacopanda

Against typical Blue Suns ice, what do you usually set your Atman at?

17 Dec 2014 dtelad11

I'm not the OP - but usually first Atman is 4, second Atman is 2 (or vice versa).

18 Dec 2014 mendax

I've not played against Blue Sun enough to say for sure, because Blue Sun seems to have a wider range of ice to choose from than most others. However, 2 and 4 are definitely common.

19 Dec 2014 firesa

Looking to play this deck after playing ppvp for so long, any video resources to show how this deck plays out? Would be much grateful, thanks

19 Dec 2014 mendax

Not for me, personally - the only time I've been on video was with one of my rare Stirling outings. However, it's fundamentally very similar to the Katman that did well at Worlds 2013, so if you can find videos of that it should serve you well.