Curiosity Killed the Kate - 3rd place at Nordic Nationals

I played a variant of this at the UK Nationals where it proved it can easily stand toe to toe at what was then the strongest runner, Prepaid Kate. After Faust dropped my win rate against Noise dropped dramatically so I made some changes to arrive at this. Make no mistake, this is primarily a Kate-killer (hence the name) but it can hold its own against criminal and fares reasonably well against Noise.

Anti-Kate tech

Susanoo. We all know it's strong against Atman, but it's especially strong in Blue Sun where you can switch out the Susanoo once Atman goes in at 7 making it a sunk cost of 10 for them and just a click for you. This play is especially strong when combined with...

Taurus. Another ice, different strength, that Kate needs Atman for. Only really worth it to take out Plascrete, but it makes a nice tax if they need 5 MU.

Hive and Meru Mati. When you can force Kate to make multiple runs on HQ to shut down your Crisium/Off the Grid, these ice cause serious problems for Lady counters. You want them to install more Ladys as this creates a huge credit tax, opening up the potential for a punitive kill.

Snatch and Grab. A nice card to have against Proco Kates when they drop low in credits. Obviously also nice against early Kati and Aesops.

Anti-noise tech

Will o' the Wisp. Noise has no tutors and only a couple of all-purpose breakers. Sending a Faust to the bottom of the deck can potentially shut him out for a good number of turns. By the time he finds it again he will have a lot fewer cards to work with. Also great against Atman!

Hades Fragment. No surprises here, a 5/3 that makes it so Noise has to check Archives every turn if he wants his mills to have results. Which is great if you have a...

Crick. Yeah it costs only a D4V1D counter, but on the plus side... It costs a D4V1D counter! Oversight Curtain Walls is that much easier when counters have already been spent on things like Crick.

Cyberdex Virus Suite. Imp blocking your Government Takeover bait? Install this with it. When they go for it, confirm the successful run, rez CVS and blow them to hell.

Despite this, I've found the matchup against Noise to be something of a toss up. Finding early Punitives is so key, and feeding them 6 points when they aren't expecting it is how I've won most of my Noise games. Susanoo protecting a Jackson is probably the best way to achieve this, by forcing Noise into archives when it's favourable to you.

The deck went 4-2 in the Swiss, killing two prepaid Kates (living up to the name) scoring out against another PPK plus a Siphon/Keyhole MaxX. It lost to two Noises, both due to losing too many agendas early before finding my Punitives.

In double elim the deck beat one of the same Noises it lost to in the Swiss, thanks to drawing Punitives early and punishing the inevitable archives run. It had a timed draw against the runner-up of the tournament who was playing Cache/Aesops Kate. Money and Plascrete came in thick and fast, enough to deny the punitive kill. I baited him into a 5/3 behind a Taurus to kill Plascrete. I didn't have the money to follow up with a double punitive which cost me since there was about 10 minutes left on the clock at this point. Rushing out a Hades behind a Susanoo drew things up, but time was called and as the lower seed I was eliminated.

I was a little sad to go out on another tie, but I think I proved this deck can contend with the big runners, and it really is a Kate killer!