Cambridge NPE (DLR Steve)

Card draw simulator
Odds: 0% – 0% – 0% more
Repartition by Cost
Repartition by Strength
Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
Eclipse
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stephenball 998

Deck named by Dodgepong

"This is really oppressive" - CodeMarvelous

"All these choices suck, you're a jerk" - D1en

"Let's do it one more time, I'm a masochist" - Yeoda

"I played this card in the casual lobby, and felt so bad" - BillTheRubin

After Terminal Directive was released, I decided to give Steve Cambridge a shot in a full card environment, not just limiting myself to a TD card pool. After a few games with the deck, I came to a simple conclusion: Steve Cambridge is nuts. His ability is so strong, and so fun to play, I continued to build Steve Cambridge decks (although now for regular decks I'm back to Andy, adding in Rebirth, since becoming Steve mid game is clearly busted), and ended up here. While trying to sell Steve to every Netrunner friend I have, I was thinking of the runner archetypes that like recursion the most, and ended up with everybody's most beloved deck: Data Leak Reversal.

The approach is obvious: get the corporation poor, and keep them there, through recurring Siphon and Same Old Thing and Vamp. Get your DLR installed, and protect it with the standard kit of Fall Guy and Wireless Net Pavillion. If they try to trash anything, protect it with Fall Guy. If they get through your Fall Guys, run HQ and offer two Fall Guy for Steve's ability. The beauty of Steve is that any card in your deck that is really good, you technically can have 5 copies of each, making it exceptionally difficult to keep DLR combo pieces off the table, and difficult to tax it out of Siphon recursion.

There are plenty of other cards here to support your goals. Emergency Shutdown is a great card to stay on top of the economy battle, dropping taxing pieces of ICE that got rezzed before the corporation became broke. Employee Strike is just an all around great card, is available to counter Skorpios, ETF, Sol, and others. Normally it's a good card against CI, but here it's not something you want to play, it should be fairly easy to get them to 0 credits and keep them there. Fisk Investment Seminar is a great card to recycle with Steve after you've started Siphoning. It floods them when they are broke, and draws you into your next Siphons. Councilman obviously protects you from Crisium Grid and defensive upgrades, not to mention the standard Jackson Howards. However, it's gotten extra bonuses now with Estelle Moon being so prevalent.

As for the programs, the main star is clearly Faust, as the hefty splash. As we've learned since it was released, this is just the best way to break ICE, and it is great with Steve, as you can always get a card back each turn. Even late game, when your deck starts to dwindle, you can still just give junk cards to the corp to give you one, just to have extra cards to break. The other programs are really just there as a backup, in case something weird happens to your Faust, or you come across AI hate. Sneakdoor Beta is a good way to pressure an extra server, forcing ICE, getting around ELP, giving you easy Steve triggers, and sniffing out defensive upgrades on HQ. It pulls a lot of work here.

I know DLR decks aren't the most fun for everybody, but this is a really interesting one to play, and I think more people should give Steve Cambridge a chance. His ability is really powerful, but isn't the most simple to understand. It's not easily apparent, but in my opinion, he's certainly the best non-Andy criminal in the game, and this deck aims to prove that.

27 comments
30 May 2017 yeoda

sleeving it up

30 May 2017 Shmeguy

hey @stephenballdropping a like and favourite like you asked me to

30 May 2017 Oh_Em_Ve

"While trying to sell Steve to every Netrunner friend I have..."

Proceeds to try to make everyone hate Steve with a dlr deck...

30 May 2017 stephenball

@Oh_Em_Ve It's been proven to be scientifically impossible to hate Steve. He has been found to be so bland that people cannot feel emotions of any kind while looking at him.

30 May 2017 arccollie

Let's see if you can get me to like Steve, then. Time to piss some people off.

30 May 2017 Voron

Tried it a couple of times, and it feels less evil then I thought =D But Im wondering why the central breakers over the con-artists? Especially Abagale is better then passport imo?

30 May 2017 PureFlight

Great concept, great write-up. Gotta ride DLR in style until rotation in the fall.

Why Councilman over PolOp?

30 May 2017 stephenball

@Voron The initial build had Abagnale instead of Passport, that was a late change. Either are acceptable. I don't want to install any non Faust breakers if I don't have to, and this deck plays mainly on centrals, so the reduced install cost of Passport was the reason.

@PureFlight I did have a PolOp in the deck to begin, when I only had 2 Drug Dealer. It's a fair include for sure. I've preferred the Councilman because it can be dropped as a surprise and unless people pre rez, can stop an HQ upgrade problem before it begins. Either are good, try both out and see what works best for you!

31 May 2017 x3r0h0ur

alt text

31 May 2017 Thike

Love the build; was working on something similar myself, but hadn't gotten to refining it among the half-dozen other Steve builds I had going. He's such a neat/fun ID.

31 May 2017 SourSweet

how does it handle fast advance?

31 May 2017 SourSweet

9/10 games so far...awful deck

31 May 2017 stephenball

``@SourSweet` You've won 9/10? I think Fast advance isn't too crazy of a problem, but might be more draw dependant. A lot of decks that I've come across that are heavy on fast advance aren't great at defending their central servers well, and Steve eats decks that can't protect their centrals alive.

``@Thike` Steve is the best. I think he's one of the most interesting ID's they have ever released. I love the interactivity between him and the corp.

31 May 2017 Thike

@stephenball: 100% agree on Steve. It's a strong ability with opportunities for a ton of interaction between the players. It impacts decision-making for both sides and rewards getting in your opponent's head. I really hope he's a sign of future design trends.

1 Jun 2017 Mantriel

I played against it on Jinteki.net. I am sleeving this up now! :-)

2 Jun 2017 CaKnuckleguy

You are my kind of monster.

2 Jun 2017 Dydra

Oh boy .... moer than 2 years since I left the game and the deck has exactly 1 new card ... WoW .... just WoW ... this means I can return with my existing Card Pool and be competitive LMAO :D

2 Jun 2017 stephenball

@Dydra I did it for you.

3 Jun 2017 TKO

@Dydra assuming you left before june 2015. exactly 2 years ago. There are 9 cards you wouldn't have including Steve. The Underway came out July 2015.

3 Jun 2017 TKO

It will be $159.43 msrp pre-tax to build this deck.

3 Jun 2017 Treiclon

Needs more Nordrunner quotes in the description!

5 Jun 2017 d1en

All these choices suck, you're a jerk

11 Jun 2017 CrushU

Built this and took it to casual meetup today. Everyone now hates me.

A+, would Steve again.

The deck feels a lot like the DLR Val deck that Dan played to win Worlds 2015. You contest them over HQ/other centrals, knowing that it's a losing fight, but that them fighting you over it is enough to make them lose the real battle once you drop DLR-Pavilion-Fall Guy combo.

26 Jun 2017 kotx64

Excuse me but...if you are tagged with paparazzi ...to use DLR. How do you do at the end of the turn ? The corp will trash you ressource? thx for answers

26 Jun 2017 PureFlight

@kotx64 You definitely don't install Paparazzi until you're set up, which include 1+ Data Leak Reversals, 1+ Fall Guys, and a Wireless Net Pavilion. So the corp has to spend 4+ to trash each of your Fall Guys first.

This strategy is most effective if you've kept their credit pool low with Siphon. That way it will take them a few turns to get enough money to trash their resources. And every turn is 4 milled cards.

You can watch the 2015 World Championship match on YouTube if you want to see this kind of DLR build in action.

28 Jun 2017 kotx64

@PureFlight thanks for answers

29 Jun 2017 zmb

Bug Out Bag with the Fall Guys in this deck would give you a very efficient draw mechanic!