The Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique

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None. Self-made deck here.
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The Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique 1.1
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falseidol 436

My Leela Patel decks have been pretty rapidly iterating for a while, and I went 4-0 with her at a Winter GNK, despite mediocre results on my corp side. That deck, was pretty different, and possibly had a handicap of Leela only being a few weeks old at the time. Now, people have started to understand how to play against her ability, and you get fewer power turns slamming centrals.

Walking through some of the card choices and general strategy:

Doppelganger might be the first weird choice, and honestly you can pretty much 1:1 replace it with Desperado if you're so inclined, there is no denying that desperado does work. However, in testing, RP has been my most difficult matchup, and the main benefit of Doppelganger is that you can take 6 and run twice every single turn, scoop up Security Testing money, or follow-up on an agenda steal by running somewhere that might previously have been too dangerous to run.

Dirty Laundry over Sure Gamble: you could go either way, but, with Magnum Opus, the only time you would ever want to draw Sure Gamble is with a John Masanori free draw, that at the cost of 1 net credit, the fact that dirty laundry folds so much more cleanly into the rest of the deck that it was the more sensible card choice. It also totally earns its keep if ELP shows up to the table, although still having to pay a click for your doppelganger run is sheer baloney.

Magnum Opus: I have just not found any other cards to be sufficient in keeping your credits high enough to threaten remotes. Without the rapidity that Andromeda gets the pieces to her econ engine, its both safer and quicker to depend on old reliable than try to juggle as many moving pieces as Andy can.

What to watch out for with:

If you would use her ability just to tax the corp by uninstalling an ICE, consider bouncing an asset or upgrade if you can instead, it can be a nuisance if you think they might use the ICE to defend a server you would rather leave bare. Also, all things being equal, I usually bounce interior ICE since you never know if you just blanked an Inazuma, or more likely, are shuffling juicier inside job targets to the front of servers. However, using her ability to tax 2-3 credits is nothing to shake a stick at, it can still add up to a meaningful swing in your favor, especially with 1-pointers.

Obviously, the deck is quite light on program redundancy, I just haven't been crippled enough by program trashing to feel the need to double down here, in other metas, I'm sure it would be the right call. Conversely, since there is quite a bit programmed redundancy in the rest of the deck, you will want to play your programs quickly if you're worried about losing them to net damage.

Excaliber is the real deal, if my programs weren't already an indication of this, I'm thinking about squeezing in a crypsis or something, because there have been a couple other high value, low cost trap/mythics getting some action recently, and I have nothing but my sweet sweet face to use against them.

Considerations:

Same Old Thing or Bank Job (or use those 2x card slots for whatever suits your fancy, those are just the two cards I dance back and forth with): I have had both be equally clutch and equally worthless, the opportunity value of including either/or is there, its probably a playstyle or meta choice that favors one over the other.

Are the Faeries enough? Honestly, I wish I had a stronger option for sentries, but realistically, the only things that mimic doesn't stop is an ichi 1.0 and grim, you could cut a faerie for an Alias if you were so inclined, I just haven't felt like that been the make-or-break point in any of my matches so far.

Desperado or Doppelganger: as I said above, I don't think there is necessarily a right choice, but I like the small boost I get from Doppelganger against one of your harder match-ups, the ability to pivot after an agenda score, and its ability to scoop up successful runs from undefended servers.

Sneakdoor Beta: I go back and forth between Sneakdoor and a third John Masanori, I find that with Magnum Opus you rarely will have the MU to play it, but its a nice piece to have in your backdoor, whether you're dropping it for a hail mary, or happen to get it early enough to be useful, I think the opportunity value of a sneakdoor merits a 1-of include, it just won't be a central point in your gameplan.

4 comments
31 Dec 2014 Shishu

I really like this build. The ice suite feels a lot like my Andy deck in how compact it is. But it's pretty weak to Power Shutdown, especially since I don't have a second Corroder. You might want to consider taking out 1 Magnum Opus and 1 R&D Interface for 2 Clone Chips. I'm also think you might want at least 1 Femme Fatale for tricky stuff like Excalibur and Mother Goddess.

I'm also wondering if you might not want at least 1 more Decoder? Considering Cerberus "Rex" H2 is only for remotes, I wonder if Peacock might actually be a better solution? Especially if you're not going to put in recursion.

Also, as a sidenote, I don't think your Doppelgänger would actually cost a click from Enhanced Login Protocol if the first run uses a run ability (i.e., you Inside Job R&D, and doppelgänge on a remote).

Also also, if you're feeling like you ARE slamming centrals a lot, a one-off for Notoriety couldn't hurt (perhaps cut Mimic if you go with Femme Fatale?)

31 Dec 2014 falseidol

@Shishu I think those are all good points. The deck has been a work in progress based on games I've played, so while you're certainly not WRONG that the deck is weak to power shutdown, I've lost more programs from faceplanting a grim than I have PS, and so I'm already experimenting with other breakers beside mimic, I'm not positive that I need clone chips yet (that being said, I have felt constrained by the order I have to use my breakers, which clone chip would certainly alleviate, and short of anything else, would be +2 faeries).

RDI has been a difficult balancing act, playing two has often left me underwhelmed, while I would agree that three is oftentimes more than enough. Maybe the answer is switch to maker's eye so I can use/not use SoT at my discretion. Still, Maker's can just as easily whiff and the constant presence of RDI might make up for its excess.

Excalibur has been a major thorn in my side against RP, but in other decks its no more than a nuisance. I'm not sure what the best response to trap/mythic cards is for me (or criminals in general), it might just be that they are going to be a problem, and hope that playing an underrepresented runner means not to many people are teching against me.

I do think peacock is the right call, I hate shelling out so much cash to it, but it has the versatility the deck needs, and the potential to give me back a card slot if I don't double up on decoders.

I don't know if I need a notoriety, I feel like I would rather up my multi-access because that's present the whole game. However, I have thought about making room for a quest complete, because it is both useful for tricking into a remote, and keeping the ICE over that remote unrezzed. Not sure if I could justify more than 1 QC without going deep into the centrals-only game, but it might be a valuable trick to have up my sleeve.

2 Jan 2015 Cerberus

@falseidol firstly nice build, couple of questions for you:

Do you find Magnum Opus fast enough against NEH Astro Biotics?

You said in your write up, consider not triggering her ability in some situations. Her ability doesn't have a 'may' in the wording so it sounds to me like you have to trigger it if you can.

How much testing have you done against glacier builds? I ask this as this looks like the build that would cause your breaker suite the most issues with Tollbooths and other remote code gates and high strength sentry ice.

2 Jan 2015 falseidol

@Cerberus Thanks!

On to your questions: MO can be slow against quick decks like astrobiotics, and that is where your ability is very reliable for making them play the game at your speed. That being said, the build I'm working on right now does have the support of a more traditional criminal economy.

You are correct, and I was being glib, her ability is not a 'may' ability, and it does have to trigger. What I meant was that giving them back an ICE can be a double-edged sword, if they are an ICE-lite deck that now gets to move that ICE anywhere to their heart's content, it's not always in your favor to bounce ICE if you have the option of hitting something else.

You can definitely have trouble against glacier builds with this icebreaker suite, however, I've yet to find one that was truly optimal. My first iteration was stealth breakers, which was good, but the speed it gave up felt too punishing. Taking a breaker with more longevity over rex SOUNDS good, but it can be equally punishing as you're taxing yourself against an already taxing deck. Right now I made room for a gordian blade, but there still is good answer for sentries after you're out of faeries. I might explore datasucker/mimic if I move away from magnum opus, but at the moment, I worry about that kind of rig because a) it's practically Andy, and I don't think Leela is just a ghetto Andy, and b) makes you more reliant on making runs that you might otherwise prefer to sit back and farm, keeping the threat of facedown ICE against scoring.