Fair Logos Leela (4th at Eternal Games Regionals)

CritHitd20 7051

An uncreative rip from the winner of the Dogs of War Regionals. Changes were:

-1 Keyhole, Mimic, SoT, Special Order +1 Indexing, Employee Strike, Mongoose

The changes were my attempt to give the deck some needed early-game leverage against NEH Fastro and CI Shutdown, both of which I played and beat in some not-close games. Keyhole is cute but does nothing against real decks that can lock you out, and Indexing is so good right now. Also, with how infrequently you initiate runs after the first few turns, you really just want more Mongooses (Mongeese?) than a Mimic. Play 45 cards.

The designer of the deck knows this better than me, but you want to run early and snowball the power of Leela's ability, and later in the game rely on her power along with Logos to make some strong recovery snipes. Speaking of, I hate Logos because it's not Desperado, and I only got to fire it three times today, but both times it definitely won me the game, so this deck definitely deserves respect and deserves to evolve. In the future I might suggest reevaluating the economy package to be slightly less resource-reliant, or maybe having some redundancy with breakers, since this list has a hell of a time against Batty.

I was really sick for this whole tournament, so I don't remember the names of anyone but Josh01 (who I knew from past tourneys), but all of my games were a lot of fun and everyone was a gentleman, so thank you for the games if I played you.

Round 1: Jinteki Biotech: A Psychic Field early revealed he was on the kill plan, so Employee Strike turned off the Biotech until he scored and I got to fire Logos. Tutored for Indexing, I chained disgusting runs off of R&D stealing agendas 2+3, and then sniped the last one from HQ while trying to get him to waste credits on Snares that wouldn't flatline me even with the Biotic+NEmp.

Round 2: Palana Foods: After winning a psi game for TfP, I whiffed on an early Indexing while he turtled HQ crazy hard, but he was playing conservative, so I suspected a flood. Put Gift on top with Indexing, he showed me points, and I spammed Sneakdoor/Legwork to close the game out before he had a chance to even make a remote.

Round 3: Palana Foods: This was an interesting Palana running Valley Grid as anti-Faust tech. We saw no agendas for a long while, so I started getting creds while he built a ridiculous scoring server with 5 installed upgrades (Caprice, Batty, a Grid, and Self-Destruct). After some bad whiffs, he was up 6-0, but I got to fire a Logos for Indexing. Saw two Niseis and a TfP, and thus begun my favorite two turns in all of Netrunner. I stacked them as Nisei Nisei Interns Crick TfP, and ran and stole the two Niseis for my remaining money, bouncing the scoring upgrades in the hopes he'll go back to playing slow. He does, and also Interns a Crisium Grid on HQ. I load up on creds to my best ability, and he ices HQ. We are now at me with 9 creds and he with 10. R&D is an Assassin and a Yagura, HQ is two mystery ice, I suspect a Ichi and an Assassin. Click 1 take a cred, click 2 run HQ, he rezzes Ichi, I break for 5 with Mongoose and let him brain me. He rezzes Crisium and I trash with PolOp, taking his 2 and getting 4. Click 3 take 1 credit going to 5, click 4 I run R&D. Take 3 net from Assassin, break the program trace for 4, take 1 net from Yagura, break the arrange sub for 1 with Zu, and steal the TfP with 0 creds and 0 cards in hand. The power of Criminals man.

Round 4: NEH Fastro: He suspects Siphons and protects HQ, so I Indexing and steal an Astro, starting the chain of Leela doing dumb Leela things. We see nothing for a while, and when he finally draws a relevant number of new cards I hard-play Utopia Shard and hit another Astro. I break through a Little Engine after repping no breakers for a while for a Beale, and Logos for Indexing when he Biotic scores for game.

Round 5: ID. We were all exhausted due to no break for Swiss, so this was a relief, and we were all guaranteed Top 8 with four 7-1s and no 8-0s.

Elims Round 2: CI. I get the god hand of Makers + Double Siphon and draw into Employee Strike not far after. Steal 6 points real easy, and he's forced turtle until he can double Biotic to score a Efficiency, leaving him at 9 creds. I suspect a MG on Archives, run it, am right, Indexing, run R&D, he's forced to pop a Jackson to shuffle, and I hit anyways since R&D was still fairly agenda dense. This game was very lucky on my behalf, so I wouldn't say this list is a good matchup, but I was real happy with my changes to the deck for this game.

Conclusions: Indexing rll good, Leela rll good, Logos doesn't cost influence. Play all the alt-art cards and you win.

10 comments
17 Apr 2016 RedOnionKnight

I've been playing the original version of this deck for a week but I really like your changes. Going to steal them, Nice job!

18 Apr 2016 maestro

Congrats on the top 4 finish! I agree with you that the keyhole is not optimal and that the indexing is a better choice. The keyhole was primarily in the deck as anti-jank tech but indexing is better in the more competitive matchups at most regionals. I also think that the mimic should be a mongoose. I did not install mimic once in my 7 games at my regionals. For the economy package, I agree that it is a bit weak. I am just not sure what to do to change it. I experimented with armitage rather than career fair which was fine but not especially strong.

18 Apr 2016 CritHitd20

I don't know what to do with the econ either, which is strange since Criminal feels like it shouldn't be the poor faction, but corps are strong against traditional Crim econ cards like Sec Test. Armitage is an interesting idea; it allows for more burst plays and could work alongside a 3rd Earthrise to compensate for the lost clicks? I wasn't keen on Bank Job either since I only wanted the money in matchups where there were no open servers. I genuinely don't know, but I'm excited to play and modify this more; I took this list on a whim and loved it.

Thanks for designing the original deck! It's incredibly adaptable and is very well-positioned right now, was a blast to pilot. Watching the jaded Anarch-weary meta go slack-jaw at the bonkers Leela-Logos value was its own reward.

18 Apr 2016 Brendan

I've been testing lists extensively like this for a while, with some success (I can now play this with the alt-art ID, for instance!).

I've replaced 2 Sym Vis with two Armitage, which is frankly fine when you have an Earthrise in play. I'd encourage three Earthrise, particularly with only two Special Order.

I think the second Mongoose should be e3, because that covers a ton of ice in HB and Palana - your weakest matchups.

24 Apr 2016 michaeln

Relying on Career Fair to give you a discount is painful because it makes you very dependent on seeing cards in the right order, particularly early. It also becomes a dead card later. From my experience playing this (though I didn't necessarily do it terribly well), I'd prefer to play Easy Mark, which gives you as many credits. This is less click-efficient, but the money can be used for anything at any stage.

24 Apr 2016 CritHitd20

I have not had that experience with Career Fair. I aggressively draw with any Leela deck so as to craft a playable hand around what my opponent is playing, so I usually have a target for Career Fair. There are 10 decent options in the deck; 11 if you add a third Hotel (which I've done since this event). Easy Mark is straight-up too weak to include in a non-Faust non-Drug deck; if you want a "normal" econ card I'd suggest Dirty Laundry, which also gives you knowledge and plays well with Leela.

24 Apr 2016 XxSHIFTxX

how do you handle losing breakers early with no recursion?

24 Apr 2016 CritHitd20

Don't. :P In all seriousness, the only program-trashing you can't interact with is Marcus Batty and Aggressive Secretary, since Mongoose is great. Don't let the corp have the money to rez a killer with a suspected Batty and you'll never lose a breaker unless you misplay. If you anticipate net damage, such as from IG, install your breakers the turn you draw them.

One common mistake I could imagine happening with this deck is the runner running too much after early game. Running is not cost-effective for this deck; you are reactive rather than proactive, which can be counterintuitive to the usual Criminal mindset. Run only when you believe you will steal an agenda or when it would hurt you to not run (asset spam).

If you do lose a breaker, don't give up or even show that you're worried. Use Utopia and Inside Job to pressure the corp and don't run HQ/R&D until you can bounce ice and go for a Leela chain with Indexing/Legwork.

25 Apr 2016 XxSHIFTxX

ok thanks for the tips :)

24 May 2016 basic.channel

this deck is the business. 4-1 at my regionals.