Throwing Punches - 5th Place The Hague SC

So this is my alternative Leela deck. I know, most people's first reaction will be HASHTAGOHMYGODNODESPERADO, HERESY -- but hear me out.

So, card choices. I wanted to go in order of controversiality, but decided on going in order of cards on the list:

Hostage: Obviously to get Aaron Marrón out ASAP. But if you've already got an Aaron, you can Hostage for Beth or Kati.

R&D Interface: Pretty self-explanatory. I know a lot of people like going the Indexing route on Leela, I went for more consistent multi-access. Bouncing ice with Leela's ability and Emergency Shutdowns go a long way in ensuring your R&D accesses.

The Gauntlet: Steep install cost, but often people's first reaction to Criminals and Leela in particular is to double-ice HQ. This essentially gives you a Legwork for every run. Bonus points for Legworking with The Gauntlet to see their entire hand. Very often, this ends the game immediatly. It's scary. Also, the +2 MU helps for installing Sneakdoor Beta or Tapwrm/Faerie, but that doesn't happen that often.

Aaron Marrón: We all know how bonkers good this card is by now but I just wanted to highlight that getting him on the table should be at the top of your list of priorities. Aside from the obvious Broken News protection, this deck sometimes struggles with draw and Aaron is your ticket to drawland. Plus, instead of having to click twice after a Siphon to remove the tags, it gives you 2 free cards instead (provided it has counters).

Bank Job: If you're not playing Desperado, then Security Testing loses a lot of it's impact. As I sought for alternative sources of income, I settled on Bank Job. It's bursty econ, makes naked remotes a target, and you can often use it after a Siphon for a hefty credit swing. And let's face it, that's why we play Leela, because she can make games very swingy. It's not as good as the constant, steady econ of Sec Testing but choices had to be made.

Eden Shard: I played around with Hades Shard for a while, but I found Eden to be more effective in this build. Basically the reason to play it is protection against Power Shutdown decks like Railgun or CI7. If they Power Shutdown, pop it to make them draw two cards, they can't, you win. Why I like Eden in this deck is because it runs RDI's. If you whiff on an R&D run, you can pop it to see new cards on the second run.

GS Sherman M3: This was a meta call. To be honest, this should have been a Corroder. But at the last SC I went to, I got my ass handed to me by NEXT Silvers and I didn't want to have that happen again. Turns out I didn't face an ETF and this was sort of inefficient. It's not that bad, but again, meta call. Paperclip, I hear you say. That was in an earlier iteration, but I decided to drop it and an RDI to fit in Beth.

Mongoose: A lot of people play two Mongoose (Mongooses? Mongeese?) to protect against stacked sentries. I find people don't often do that anymore, Faeries help and are crazy efficient, plus you're playing Leela, you have Emergency Shutdowns, you have Sneakdoor, Vamedeva.. options. Which brings me to..

Vamedeva: Almost every time I install people have to read it. That said, I rarely install it, it's basically just there to counter Mother Goddess/Excalibur shenanigans. If you lose a breaker along the way, it may provide answers to gearcheck ice aswell.

Sneakdoor Beta: Not a lot to say. It's an oldschool card, it's not widely played anymore, you have enough MU from The Gauntlet to install it, and it wins games. 'Nuff said.

Tapwrm: The absolute hero of this deck. I cannot stress enough how fantastic this card is. 0 install cost. It either ends up earning you a respectable amount of credits, or it gives you four more clicks. And considering this deck doesn't run Desperado/SecTesting, this card is absolutely necessary.

The rest is all pretty straight-forward. Siphon, Shutdown, Legwork, Special Order, Temmy J,.. all good stuff blue cards.

In conclusion, common Leela decks tend to go for more bursty access and consistent economy, this one goes for burst economy and consistent access. You're not going to be rolling in cash but you generally have enough money to get the job done. I didn't encounter any asset spam or net damage decks, which I assume would present a bigger problem. It's a fun deck and it's pretty decent, it didn't drop a single game, and if you're looking to switch up your Leela deck then by all means give this a spin.