Endless Waltz v9 (3rd place at Worlds 2015)

Many congrats to you Dave. The games I got to watch on the stream were brilliant, really great play. I was cheering for you, especially knowing you were the only Criminal in the top 16.

I have been playing some version of this Endless Waltz Leela since you threw out the early iterations, and I was curious to know what you had changed going into Worlds. Thanks for the post, and representing blue!

Congrats!I've never expected Criminals would in the top 16 this year but since it's you then I think it's fairly reasonable.Really happy to know Leela got 3rd in the Worlds,she deserves it.

2 questions though:

1.How do you feel about the Gang Sign + HQI + FIS engine?I played with this type of Leela for a while,and feel like it's fairly ok but don't know whether it is worth the slot.To slow down Corp a little bit,knowing what they have in their hands and FIS right after they start to IAA is quite good,sometimes I even try to slot 1 Hades Shard to deal with JH.But I just don't know whether this type of build really worth it.

2.How do you deal with Foodcoat/Bootcamp Glacier?Their match ups are so hard and so devastating,no open servers mean that Desperado + Security Testing + Bank Job engine is hardly usable,a lot of time I find myself solely relying on Kati Jones,even that it's not enough (and somehow slow) against those Breaker Bay + Eve and OAI + Curtain Wall.They can recover from Siphon easily,and your breaker suits against their ices (especially Foodcoat) is just horrible.Against an experienced Foodcoat/Bootcamp Glacier player I just feel the match up is terrible.Since there are lots of Foodcoat this Worlds,I'm curious about how you deal with them.

Again,congrats to you Dave,you brought 1 of my favorite girl (besides MaxX) to the Top 3,thank you for those fantastic games,and bring back my renewed faith in Criminals.

1 legwork and no SoT is surprising for a anti-yellow deck. I guess you just run HQ a bunch.

This is a real classic Criminal deck here (I think the newest card is Utopia Shard!). I took it for a spin over lunch on Jinteki, I still love how this plays. While the Dead/Foodcoats matchup is indeed a bit tougher it's a testament to your piloting skill you took this to 3rd Place. Well done!

With Bank Jobs and Security Testing giving run based econ, have you maybe considered Jak Sinclair? It gives you even more game against a corp who leaves naked servers, though of course does nothing to help you against those glaciers. A card on the horizon I think is a no brainer is Political Operative. That is going to make an absolute mockery of defensive upgrades like Ash and Caprice, and will shore up a pretty tough criminal matchup.

How would you recommend to deal with Batty/Keegan trashing your 1-ofs programs behind a destroyer?

Back in the day I felt pretty comfortable facechecking with Faerie but lately I found myself faceplanting against Ichi 1.0/Batty so many times already that I had to give up on runners without recursion.

@mcpba I'd love to fit in a second Legwork but deck slots are tight. I also value access a lot and therefore run Sneak door over Legwork. I find people won't score early against Leela but defend HQ until they can score safely, sneak door often hits those agendas well.

@unitled Cheers dude! I'd not tested with D&D much as I got it 3 days before I flew out so I'd not considered much of the new cards. May do so now, but may just move onto something else.

@Thymaius not many decks run batty and destroyers. This deck has a weakness to that combo but I'm never too worried by it, Criminal have enough tricks to help them out. My only real suggestion is to never discard your second breaker if you suspect Batty or Power Shutdown, even if it means losing useful cards. Hopefully it remains a rare match up.

TELL ME WUFEI, HOW MANY MORE PEOPLE MUST WE KILL?

Hearty congratulations. A year ago I never thought that a person running Blue would be the underdog going into worlds, but you've kept the crim life alive.

Congrats! It was a joy playing you (7th round). Almost got past this beast with my FA NEH, but you just had to go and trash that PAD!

what do you think about -2 Plascrete, -1 RDI, -1 Testing, +2 Film Critic, +2 NACH? I know the deck is tech against FA/Butchershop but I think this change will provide better coverage for even Supermodernism, Butchershop or Glacier RP. NACH also allows you to shake those tags easily without spending any clicks when your Siphon or John Massanori fires off, or when you are going to deal with a tons of tagstorm NBN (Haarp, SYNC, Spark variance) in the current meta.

@iceqs definitely don't drop the R&DI they are crucial to the deck. I've had Peacock over Zu in previous versions and I'd rather go back to that. You'd still need to free up deck slots but that's the way I'd go.

I'm still using Peacock in my Leela build. Personally, I think that Peacock works very well in the current metagame. It is slightly more expensive than Zu, but not more than a few credits per game, and influence is tight.

@Cerberus monster of a opponent, yet the kindest person you'll ever meet. Thank you for such a great time again this year and I look forward to sharing a drink with you next year!

Congrats on your tournament results. It's great to see a criminal deck do so well when in an environment it's not perfectly suited for. What struck me most about it is how conventional most of the choices were: no flashy combos or gimmicks. Just raw talent and Leela's special brand of awesome.

What would have replaced the Bank Jobs and other remote tech if you were gearing it more towards a glacier environment? Are there any new cards coming up that you think will find their way into this deck, like The Turning Wheel?

@rumirumirumirumi in previous versions I've run Symmetrical Visage which I really like, Daily Casts are also viable alongside Kati Jones.

The Turning Wheel is a card I'm expecting to be a big boon to Criminal, but I've not tested it yet and it's a long way off. 5th pack right?

@Cerberus

Hey dude. Awesome job keeping the criminal colours alive at worlds. I am a big fun of your Endless Waltz deck series and was actually playing with them until i managed to made my own version of Leela. (i am the guy who made the turntableela+gang sign deck). Was actually trying to find your decklist the moment Worlds finished. Thanks for publishing.

got two questions:

a)As you already said this deck has a hard match ups with decks that do not leave open remotes. Saying that what happenns when you play vs one of these decks? Aggressive draw for Kati while hitting whatever server you can with current installed breakers and events hoping for a bounce+steal burst?

b)Do you see Leela managing in the current meta full of noise/maxx/valencia and DLR combo decks that usually avoid running?

@Letsaros cheers dude :-)

In answer to your questions, against more glacier builds you want to mulligan for Kati, if you don't get that you want Desperado and or Sneak door as one of the ways you can beat glacier is scoring early and hitting early Siphon or Legwork. Leela snowballs and you can sometimes close out the game before they lock all their servers down.

How Leela will do in the current meta is an interesting question. I don't think that it will be as much to do with other runners and more about Corp. Worlds really put HB glacier back on the map, and that's bad for Leela.

I'm not a believer in trying to force a deck to be good. I played Leela at Worlds because she wrecks yellow, if she's not good in the current meta don't play her.

I'm curious about how & when you install and use the Utopia Shard?

@CerberusCongrats! I have played this deck recently because I love Leela. And I have tried different kind of deck. This one is the best one I have used. This deck can give the corp a lot of pressure at the beginning of the game and the economy is also very good.

But I have come up several questions when I was using this deck:

1) How do you deal with the tollbooth. I spend too much money to go through it I think. (When against the Blue Sun, the Femme cannot work well. It cost much money if the corp put the tollbooth in the R&D.)

2) Account Siphon and Bank Job can earn many credits in the begin of the game. With the Desperado and John Masanori, Leela cound be dominant in the game. If unluckily I cannot get any agenda during this period and use many money, I have to use the Kati. Before this, I need to clear my tags (Maybe), I will cost money and time so that I may lose the dominant position. Then it is hard to win the game? How could I do will that?

Anyway, thanks for publishing!

@Ber I use Utopia Shard when I'm playing against kill decks, or otherwise I use it when I think HQ is empty to stop any combo later or get some free accesses later. Works well just before a Legwork. I'm not sure I'd bother with it if I revised the deck again, 2 plascrete is enough.

@LubDub I deal with Tollbooth by using Femme Fatale or by using Emergency Shutdown. Pressuring a different server or finding another way in such as Sneak door are often the way. Basically Criminal tricks, it's all you've got as D4v1d is for Anarchs and Shapers only.

Regarding a bad early game and needing to transition into late game. I've definitely cleared tags before so I can install Kati as she's necessary against slower decks. My main way of winning the late game is R&D lock, get one or two R&DI down and use Leela's bounce and criminal tricks to get into R&D on a regular basis.

Glad you've been enjoying the deck.

I'm excited to see how you will change the deck in respect to the Most Wanted List beeing a fan of criminal myself and quite enjoying this deck!

This is what I'm currently testing... netrunnerdb.com

Early days though :)

Well done sir! What do you think of Keyholex2 instead of R&D Interfacex3, and dropping the Sneakdoor Betax2 for Express Deliveryx3? Thats what I am running now!

Love playing this. Feels so right. In this build/the new one, why Legwork over HQI? Tested it out, Sneakdoor is super nice with HQI. Thoughts?

The cost of HQI always puts me off. I know it's great with Sneakdoor but the combo so rarely comes off. I have tested it and just don't think it is as good. 2 Legwork and 2 Sneakdoor I'm pretty happy with.

I had a store champ yesterday and finished up in third (yay! All the Leela swag!), interested in what you're running now we're in Kala Ghoda and MWL-land.

I ran a breaker suite of 2 Corroder, 2 Faerie, 1 Femme, 1 Zu.13 (I know, no back up decoder!) and... 2 Mongooses. I have 2 'suckers supporting all that. The Mongooses held up surprisingly well (and, of course, that art is gorgeous). I mean... it's not a Mimic, but I would rather have a Mongoose and a Desperado than a Mimic and a Doppelganger?

My deck over here.

What about draw in the new version vs. having John Masanori in this one? In your experience has The Baby been enough?

Instead of John M I'm on either 2 baby or 2 drug dealer, both seem good. I've run a version with no draw for ages and it's fine, baby made it better.

Up here we were playing a lot of SYNC and I found Masanori had become a bit of a liability. If things are going well, I'm enjoying Earthrise, clickless draw is pretty clutch!