Chaos Practice v0.0 [with explanations]

For our local christmas tournament next weekend, I decided to determine my Runner ID randomly. The result was: Chaos Theory. Well, fine then. What to do. Looking for a deck that suits my playstyle (rather aggressive, a little combo) and that is at least a little unconventional, this is, what I came up with. I've been playtesting it on OCTGN (with only mediocre success), however I felt that the losses were more due to misplays and inexperience with the deck, than due to the deck itself. Actually I felt that this is indeed very powerful, but just requires a more experiences pilot :) So I'll need to play more. Anyway, let's hop into the cards:

Events: Nothing too spectacular here, I suppose. No Sure Gambles (as I found out in playtesting that Sahasrara is extremely superior) or other kind of event-economy. One surprise Escher, which will not be played often, but if it gets played, it's usually devastating. And as a one-of the one card slot it takes is not as dramatic. Other than that draw power, recursal and as a must-have Indexing.

Hardware: Clone Chips are powerful as usual, Akamatsus are required due to many many programs. Surprise card, but as I found extremely useful: Logos. Seriously, that card is ballsy, especially against the current meta. Against J:PE you simply mitigate the net damage you receive (unless you flatline before :) ) and it helps you get your Deus Ex early, which allows for a little more aggression early on, which I feel is extremely important. Against NBN it punishes those Biotic Astros that bankrupt the runner. Get dat Keyhole and go berserk. Against Weyland it further punishes Hostile Takeover. More important: It allows you to keep up with Weyland Rush decks that otherwise, especially as a rather slow Shaper, will just outpace you.

Resource: Same Old Thing for LARLA security and Indexing recursal. Kati Jones because she is great.

Icebreakers: Cerberus "Lady" H1 owns. Period. Eli 1.0 is still omnipresent and suddenly not a problem anymore. The breaker is included twice to increase consistency. Additionally Inti is there for the stuff you don't want to use your precious tokens on. Non-advanced Ice Wall, Wraparound, cheap binary barriers (especially with support of Datasucker tokens). Mimic is cheap (in influence, install, and usage). For the big nasty Sentries there is a Sharpshooter or a Deus Ex. Yog.0 is even cheaper to use than Mimic. And since Lotus Field is a thing, I see many Enigmas and Quandaries returning. Lotus Field, if appearing, will usually be countered by a 4-strength Atman. Which conveniently also puts out other otherwise taxing ICE (Ichi 1.0, Viper, Data Raven, Eli 1.0 if there's no lady) and with just one Datasucker token it gets Grim and such.

Support Programs: Three SMC are a must. Then there are two Leprechauns. Damn, I need a lot of memory and considering that the deck contains five programs with 2 MU (3 SMC, 1 Keyhole, 1 MOpus) it pays off. Yes, order might be an issue. But hey, you are Shaper. If necessary, SMC that Leprechaun. MOpus and Parasite plus Datasucker are rather common as well. Nerve Agent gets the spot rather than Legwork. I can tutor it and it builds up. What's missing? Right, Sahasrara.

Jackson, what a card! I just wanted to try these instead and of Sure Gamble and how well they perform! They fulfill so many desires that I count them to the MVPs in this deck. Really. Let's begin by comparing to what they substituted: Sure Gamble. Alright, Sure Gamble is bursty. But hey, you play Opus. Two clicks yields the same (and as you didn't have to draw the Sure Gamble in order to play it) and is just as fast. And you play Kati. If she's loaded, that's an even greater Burst. This deck just doesn't need burst economy. So let's compare with drip economy, say Daily Casts. DC costs more to set up, but has a guaranteed return of five creds within four turns. Sahasrara costs one credit less to install, can be tutored and due to the many many programs this deck plays, it usually will used in at least 3 of 4 turns. This is so powerful. It decreases the usage cost of SMC, as you will pay 2 creds for tutoring but the install cost decrease massively. One of my favourites: At the end of my opponents turn I use the creds to install a Parasite via SMC or Clone Chip, after which Sahasrara refills instantly. Apart from the SMCs and Datasuckers the programs are rather expensive. Keyhole, MOpus, Lady, Yog... But also Leprechaun and Parasite are installed for free. These permanent recurring credits are extremely useful.

Other than the economic value, they also protect your Leprechauns from Power Shutdowns. A starting hand that includes at least one (two are bonkers!) Sahasrara is usually one to keep.

So what's more? Yeah, meat damage protection. Well, there is none. Up to now, Weyland wasn't a problem. My economy with MOpus, Kati and Sahasrara has no trouble keeping up with theirs. And as long as you don't run last click to hit the Snare! you'll be fine.

So, are there any suggestions you might have? Or questions? Or feedback? Go for it, I appreciate it :)