Leela - Breakers & Credits (Worcester Dec GNK Winner)

Card draw simulator
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Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
The Endless Waltz (3rd Place @ The Wizard's Chest)
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Cerberus 4881

The idea behind this deck is really simple, have lots of money (19 cards) and lots of breakers (11 cards plus 3 tutors). This allows you to get remote pressure online really quickly. I have found that one of the best ways to use her ability is to attack a server you do not have any tricks for, then if you manage to score or the corp rushes out an agenda, you can bounce an Ice that allows you to play your Legwork, Siphon, R&DI. The hope is that this allows you to score again and this further destroys the corps board state.

In some games, Leela's ability gives you opportunities that would not have been there otherwise, sometimes this has a huge impact, others minimal. However in some games, her ability snowballs, if you score multiple agendas in one turn, just like old school Gabe did/does, a bad draw against Leela is punished heavily.

Breakers

Code Gates - Passport and Rex combo is great, since you can use Passport on the centrals and save Rex for the remotes, while Yog.0 would be good for the cheap runs, it is just not worth being powerless against Lotus Field. I'd consider running a 3rd Rex is deck space allowed, it is a great card.

Barriers - 2 Corroder, nothing exciting here. The deck does have some vulnerability to Power Shutdown. Something I definitely need to work on, happy to take recommendations.

Sentry - I always go overboard on Killers, 3 Faerie are essential to allow early game face checking, and dealing with expensive Archers etc. Mimic is perfect for dealing with Caduceus, Architect etc, and Femme is for annoying cards like Tollbooth. The Garrote is so there is some way of dealing with Grim, Archer, Ichi etc on a more permanent basis, without paying crazy amounts relying on the Femme.

Credits - This deck has lots of burst economy to ensure that it is fast and aggressive, however it is also able to deal with Glacier because Kati Jones can relieve the pressure on the burst econ. It is also able to deal with faster decks such as NEH because of the open remotes, where Desperado and Security Testing allow for 1 click for 3 credit runs.

I've taken this to 2 tournaments in recent weeks. Both of which have had an attendance in the low 20's. The first was four rounds of Swiss and the second five, it has gone undefeated in all the games, I'm not saying that it is the most amazing deck ever or is the new tier 1, just trying to show that it does work and well.

It has played against:

HB Glacier

TWIY Grail

RP Glacier

Blue Sun

Making News Tagstorm x2

NEH

Tennin FA x2

Ultimately, I think it is RP and Glacier builds that are the worst match ups, as they score less agendas therefore triggering her ability least. Also decks like RP will often score a Nisei as their first agenda which allows them to chain more agendas safely.

Lack of experience against Leela is likely also a contributing factor to her success, I think as more people get used to the impact of her ability, the better they will be able to play around it.

Things I think should be tested in the future:

Some card draw - either Mr Li or Earthrise Hotel

Day Job instead of Lucky Find to get 3 influence back

Logos instead of Desperado (I am more interested in this if I have spare influence for 2 Parasite, but still not fully convinced this is better)

Something for the 3rd Rex

Power Shutdown protection cards

8 comments
15 Dec 2014 GreatGreedyGuts

I'd really recommend swapping a Corroder for a Breach. It's an influence savings -- lord knows Clone Chips can be nice -- and it does pretty well in the Blue Sun matchup. But if you've been doing well without, I guess it might not be needed. It just does favorably vs Corroder against Curtain Wall and Hadrian's Wall, but also equally well against Eli (better on the other Bioroid Barriers, except Markus).

15 Dec 2014 Cerberus

I run 1x Breach and 1x Corroder in other Criminal builds, but with this deck I really wanted to focus on remote pressure and 2 Corroder is better for this.

Regarding Curtain Wall, I think my primary strategy would be to derez it over breaking it. Also if you've needed to install Breach already a BS player is going to OAI Curtain Wall on a remote to prevent the cheap break.

Why do you think Clone Chip would be good for this build? What other cards are worth testing?

16 Dec 2014 unitled

I'm running something relatively similar out of Leela, she's become my new favourite runner (I've been advocating for her pretty hard over on BGG!). I don't have as much money as you, that's something I'm tempted to change, but I am running 3 Logos. They are great, and let me fetch the one-offs whatever central pressure I need for the server I've just exposed. I also don't think I'd leave home without 3 Same Old Thing either.

I've added in Indexing and the amount of use that has got I'm tempted to switch out my Keyhole for a Medium.

A few people are starting to appreciate that her ability is actually pretty strong and needs to be played round; doing things like install/advance/advance 3/2 agendas to give themselves clicks to reinstall next turn, or to just rez ice on servers no matter the cost (I've been tempted a few times to put in rez cost-increasing cards like Xanadu...).

16 Dec 2014 Cerberus

@unitled Logos is definitely something I want to test more with her. It means Security Testing isn't worth running though. I agree SOT is something that needs adding again, as is card draw. But what to drop? Thoughts?

Interestingly I'm not sure the IAA plan is good against Leela as it encourages an attack, where a never advance play may not. Also a IAA'd agenda being bounced is a big set back for the Corp.

16 Dec 2014 unitled

Well, swapping ST for SoT might work (and it's easy on the acronyms). And if you have Logos, you could MAYBE go down to a single Plascrete and Interface as it's easier to hunt them both up when you need to. Though of course, you're then heavily dependent on drawing that Logos early, and as we all know the time you really need to get out one of your critical cards is the time they all hide in the bottom of your deck.

I'm not convinced by the I/A/A plan either, but if you can't rez the ice on your centrals and/or you're running ice light you can be put into a difficult position by Leela. If you score at the end of your turn, you're wide open to a counter attack. The runner gets to bounce ice, hunt up a card, and has 4 clicks to go to town. It's a bit damned if you do, damned if you don't!

19 Dec 2014 GreatGreedyGuts

I like Breach to force Curtain Walls onto remotes, letting deep digging bounce whatever they're trying to score behind it.

Clone Chip was recommended because Cerberus (heh) is the only way into a remote through Lotus Field short of Femme. It certainly might not be the most right choice. Parasite'd be another obvious choice, I suppose.

I think I/A/A is better with 4/2s, not 3/2s. Never advance is still tricky, but then can just bluff a 4/2 like NAPD... or not care and do it anyway. Not the biggest problem by any means, but something that disrupts the corp one way or another.

On the Logos side of things... I definitely think that you could go down to 1 Plascrete with it, at the very least. If you cut it, it'd free up a slot for at least the one SoT.

27 Dec 2014 bmeagle

So, how do you get around the problem of lack of memory for all of the programs?

27 Dec 2014 Cerberus

@bmeagle The deck has 5MU to play with, which is generally enough. Sneakdoor is not a card that is designed to be in play for long, just long enough to pick up an agenda or two, while you are building up your rig.

The rig itself is designed to be flexible, depending on your opponent. For example Mimic plus Faerie is often enough against NEH and PE decks, but Garotte is key against glacier with high strength sentry ice.