Leela Cortez (2nd DC Regionals)

netdeckdane 206

Some people at the regional seemed surprised by this deck, so I thought I'd publish it. Been playing variants of the same shell for several months. It does very well against Jinteki and HB glacier decks. Against IG, it's fine as long as you have money and Keyhole early, or Archives Interface early. Same with moons, although you have added help from Film Critic and Gauntlet.

I had no idea how well it would perform against Sync Boom, but it went 3-1, so that's a pleasant surprise. Future versions will likely remove all 3 Aeneas Informants and replace them with extra copies of Aaron and Hernando.

5-2 on the day, not counting byes etc.

Unusual Card Choices:

What is a Hernando Cortez? He's the best. Makes nearly all Jinteki and HB ice cost 2-3 credits more to play. Cost me 2 credits and a click to install; costs the corp 9-15+ credits over the course of the game. Confuses the hell out of people. Sometimes corps put MCA Informant on it out of fear. Gives Aaron a human shield.

OMG why aren't you running Desperado instead of Gauntlet? Gauntlet wins me a lot of games. Corps usually have 2 ice on HQ against criminal players. I routinely get triple accesses on HQ. Makes it even more likely that I bounce the agenda they are slow-advancing over in their remote.

Fisk Investment Seminar is horrible why is this in your deck? Combos with Gauntlet, combos with Leela, combos with Account Siphon, combos with Tapwrm. Sometimes it combos with all of these cards on the same turn! Don't be dumb with it. If Sync Boom is obviously searching for combo pieces, don't help them.

A final note: This is not Whizzard. The most popular runner over the last few years has followed a game plan of: 1) get money (or Faust money) 2) multi access RND through repeated runs 3) burn down any ice in your way and repeat

There is no ice destruction or significant de-rezzing in the deck's current form. I might play around with Rubicon Switch. It used to have E Shutdowns. But you're not gonna win by slamming yourself into keyhole runs that are costing you 12 credits a run. If you're complaining about being "poor", that's probably what the problem is. You need to plot power turns where the corp goes from having double iced centrals and 15 credits to having no money, 8+ cards in their hand, and bounced ice. When you pull one off, it will likely last you half the game. Leela is a snowball runner that turns one moment of bad luck for the corp into a nightmare. It's your job to manufacture those bits of bad luck.

19 comments
13 Jun 2017 thebigunit3000

Wow, this deck stands out a lot from many other criminal decks I've seen! I'm intrigued by the lack of special order -- did you find it unnecessary with the draw provided by earthrise / Aaron / FIS?

13 Jun 2017 netdeckdane

@thebigunit3000 Because Criminal has such poor recursion, I was more worried about dealing with batty+cobra or hunter seeker. I'd rather just run extra copies of my breakers rather than use special order. The bypass ability of the new breakers lends itself a little better to this strategy anyway.

13 Jun 2017 byjarke

have you considered one Gang Sign at least? cheap and comboes with Leela and Fisk.

13 Jun 2017 netdeckdane

@byjarkeI don't know where I would put it. The deck runs HQ. Gauntlet usually is enough to tell me what their hand is for any given turn. I'd rather steal agendas from HQ while they are in the middle of trying to advance their own, rather than after they've scored. You're welcome to try gang sign in replacement of Aeneas. That might work better.

13 Jun 2017 thebigunit3000

That makes sense, I forgot about the bypass abilities. It's cool that the deck can reliably take advantage of them!

13 Jun 2017 netdeckdane

@thebigunit3000haha I dunno if I'd go that far -- I very rarely actually bypass anything with them. It's more because of the fear of batty and hunter seeker. I wish I had gotten the chance to see how it would have done against your moons variant on Saturday!

13 Jun 2017 Sanjay

YESSS! I was really hoping this list would get posted.

14 Jun 2017 rojazu

nice take on a criminal deck

14 Jun 2017 CodeMarvelous

This deck is Spicy. I love it.

15 Jun 2017 Myriad

Does this deck want to slot Rosetta? It could free up three influence and let you play a few other programs that you might normally avoid.

Not that I am sure what you would do with three influence...

15 Jun 2017 netdeckdane

@Myriad I'd rather just play two Keyholes than replace one with Rosetta, for the same reason I'm playing multiple copies of breakers.

16 Jun 2017 rojazu

took the deck for the spin, felt it really lacked money with those expensive breakers and a lack of career fair targets. my suggestions would be +3 daily casts -2 cortez -1 Armitage.

16 Jun 2017 evilgaz

A Kati Jones probably helps with the econ against the more more expensive matchups, probably worth a dabble for one of those slots.

If we're going for centrals a Passport (or other breakers) may be useful as a cheap alternative to one of the Abagnales (or others)?

I'll have a mess about and give it a go!

16 Jun 2017 netdeckdane

@rojazu Daily Cast is a net value of 5 credits. If you're removing Cortez, then you might as well play a different deck. My guess is that if you're undergoing expensive central runs, you are likely not running at the right moments. You could consider removing 3 Aeneas and adding Daily Cast if you want. In your situation, you might be better off adding Emergency Shutdown instead, because it sounds like your opponents are rezzing expensive ice on centrals and you're pushing through them.

16 Jun 2017 netdeckdane

@evilgazI have thought about Kati Jones instead of the one-of Armitage.

17 Jun 2017 Myriad

I wasn't really suggesting dropping 1x of Keyhole for a straight swap of 1x. It would probably be like... drop a few of your breakers and Keyhole to enable some other interesting lines of play.

21 Jun 2017 HyveMynd

Can I ask about Golden? Why use it but not Saker and Peregrine as well? Or why not use Lustig as your sentry breaker?

22 Jun 2017 netdeckdane

@HyveMynd You should always pick your breakers based off of what ice you expect to see in your meta. So maybe those breakers make more sense for your meta.

For me, It costs Lustig 5 credits to break Architect, which I know I'll see frequently, and that's just abysmal. It's already annoying enough as it is that Golden takes 4 to break it. I made similar choices for Abagnale vs. Peregrine etc. Saker is 6 to break Eli.

22 Jun 2017 HyveMynd

Ahh. Excellent point @netdeckdane. Thanks. I was thinking you'd want to increase the derez ability by adding Saker and Peregrine or have a way to slip under a sentry with Lustig. Thanks.