Trickster Smoke

I publish this deck mostly as proud - and, judging from my question about playmats, possibly only - member of the Trickster Taka fan club. Note that this is purely based on the art, as I'm not completely decided on him as an actual card. But 2/10 ratings, former World champions including them in their decklists only to mention you can cut them without losing anything and people rather playing 40-card-Gnat than having him in the deck - this trend can not continue!

So, what is this deck? It's a pretty standard Smoke list I threw together in about five minutes, and changed two cards since. It has not placed high (or was even played) in anything, but it's so far reasonable successful on JNet (about 80% win rate) and in local meetups. If you look for a non-fancy Smoke deck with a cute animal, look no further! Also, playing this feels more real Netrunner (tm) to me than Stabby Maxx, GPI Net Tap or Gang Sign nonsense. Which is a strong statement for a deck that tries to invalidate ICE with the Stealth breaker suite and probably tells more about the Runner meta than about this deck.

That being said, and as I'm already publishing this, let's go over some card choices:

Crowdfunding takes my restricted slot, because it's just a broken good card. I see a lot of Smoke decks running Paragon instead, which is a reasonable choice. I think Crowdfunding is better. It works as well with run based economy, but it also gives you game against asset decks, provides much needed draw and has the same kind of soft HQ pressure I always liked about Temüjin Contract. The downside is is of course that I can not run Film Critic - which I have not really missed. Stealing Obokata is a pain, but everything else is fine. And the popularity of Mti as the go-to Jinteki glacier ID means you're seeing less Obos played than ever.

Clone Chip is essential in this deck, both for setup speed and for recurring Kyuban in case of need. Also, SDS Drones are a thing now, and being able to recur your breakers more than once can really help you.

Atman is a card I never installed once. It was a Dai V before, which I also never installed. It's there for sneaky Sadakas, but I have the feeling Laamb and Engolo pushed that card mostly out of the meta. If you are braver than me, you can cut this.

Feedback Filter is a card this deck can actually not really support, as you're never gonna be rich. It's still vital in the match-ups where you do need it, but you have to use it correctly. Think carefully which damage you can take, and which you pay through. In most cases it's just an expensive breaker expansion for multiple runs through Kakugos.

Khusyuk is my finisher of choice. It's pretty ... okay. Your magic number is mostly 1, but it's hard to get the full 6 cards with this deck. I've won games with this card, but it's swingy as hell. You should consider the possibility that it completely whiffs multiple times and not ditch your single Turning Wheel. Also, Wheel is just too good with Crowdfunding and repeated HQ runs.

Trickster Taka has the best art in the set, period. The recurring credits are also good, and playing it let's you get away with playing only two Mercurs and still be able to pressure early. It is, however, a bit tricky (bam bam) to find the correct time to play it. You need to play it at least turn before you want to use it, but you also should be reasonable sure that after you play it, you will be able to run often enough to clear the credits. Ending a turn with 3 creds on Taka is just the worst, as you can basically never afford to take the tag.