Cacheing in with Kate

[benjaminwald05]

I’ve been thinking about where to go with my pre-paid Kate deck, and how it might get a better matchup against NEH. Against NEH, there are just so many cards that cost influence that I want, like medium and imp, and if you draw badly your econ just never gets started. Then I realized, why should noise get all the fun with Cache? We can run Aesop’s instead of PPVP as our economy enabler, and replace the lucky find’s with Cache’s, saving 3 influence. With Kate’s discount and Aesop’s, we get 6 credits for 1 click- equivalent to a sure gamble with 2 PPVP’s out. Once we’re running Aesop’s we want daily casts as well, so this can replace dirty laundry, netting us 6 credits for 1 click as well, although over 3 turns instead of 2.

The nice thing about Aesop’s over PPVP is that you only need to see 1, whereas you really want at least 2 PPVP’s, which don’t always show up. Also, you don’t need the Aesop’s right away- we can install the cache and get the money, then pawn it in a future turn, same for daily casts. A final advantage is that lots of our duplicate cards turn into easy marks if we need the money. Akamatsu memchips, extra SMC’s, spare datasuckers, Inti against non-NBN matchups, used up imps, even clone chips in a pinch can all turn into easy marks if you need the money.

With that in mind, here’s what I came up with. This list is pretty untuned, I’ve only been playing it for about a week, but early results show promise:

Here’s my list:
Identity: Shapers: Kate "Mac" McCaffrey

Cards: 45 / 45
Influence: 15 / 15

Event (13)
2x Diesel
3x Indexing
2x Scavenge
1x Stimhack ●
3x Sure Gamble
2x Test Run

Hardware (5)
2x Akamatsu Mem Chip
3x Clone Chip

Program (18)
3x Atman
3x Cache ●●●
3x Datasucker ●●●
1x Deus X
1x Imp ●●●
1x Inti
1x Medium ●●●
1x Parasite ●●
3x Self-Modifying Code
1x Sharpshooter

Resource (9)
3x Aesops Pawnshop
3x Daily Casts
3x Professional Contacts

I decided to go with a datasucker/Atman set up for my breakers, since I can spare the influence for datasuckers. This also helps make medium good, by allowing you cheap multiple accesses once you get set up.

I’ve been playing around with this deck, and I really like the way the economy works. The medium and imp have been great, and I usually have plenty of credits. Its been a lot of fun to play, and I think it has potential. I’m not sure about the professional contacts- I’ve been going back and forth between that and just running a third diesel and a pair of quality times. I’d love to fit some legworks in, but I’m not sure what to cut- I could try losing the stimhack and either the medium or the imp for 2 of them, but I’m not sure. Also, I’m torn about the indexing’s- they seem like the right call with atman, but maybe maker’s eye would be better.

The economy package is what I really like about this deck- I’m not sure what the right shell to play it in is. It lets us play all of the shaper tricks we know and love, with a bit more influence to fit in some toys, and hopefully do a bit better against NEH. I’d love some help tuning the deck, and advice is always welcome.

[tvaduva]

I really like the idea. I think the economy package is solid. It may need a bit more, so if you find that you don't have enough, I'd suggest Armitage since you can go from low to high quickly and works with Aesop's.

The one glaring weakness I see is no HQ pressure. To remedy that I suggest taking out Medium, since this is Shaper and R&D pressure comes influence free and add 2 Legworks (I also went down to 2x Datasucker, which seems to be common enough in other decklists that it's not a problem).

I really like Imp, but I think a Sneakdoor might be better for a surprise assault on HQ after NEH goes broke to score a Astro, to make sure there isn't another in HQ. But maybe Imp is the right call here.

I'd also suggest a Femme instead of the Stimhack.

[Chris_Pedersen]

I quite like what I call "Cache-in-Kate" (Cache in Kate).

Grimoire boosts the income per cache by 1, and so does scherezade.

Shaper has sufficient RD pressure via indexing that you don't need medium. I would suggest dropping one data sucker as well.

[benjaminwald05]

The thought behind the 3 datasuckers was to save my tutors as much as possible in order to draw one naturally, but I suspect you're right and 2 would be sufficient. I don't find myself needing it that early anyway. The stimhack is basically an economy card- it lets me use an SMC for a 4 power atman for free, which is pretty good.

As for the medium, maybe it would be better to swap it out. The question then is 2 legworks, or 1 nerve agent. The nerve agent saves 2 influence, and is tutorable, so I want to try it out. In fact, if I cut the stimhack and a datasucker, I can have 3 cache's, medium, nerve agent, imp, and parasite. Or, you could swap out the medium for a keyhole. This doesn't lock R&D, but it helps out a ton versus jinteki PE, and it lets you trash fast advance cards or fast tracks. Either way, a pretty sweet set of anarch tools, I should think, and I like that you don't need to hope to draw a legwork when you need one, you can just tutor up a nerve agent. Of course, this might stretch the tutors a bit. Will report back if I get a chance to test more.

[tvaduva]

I agree, Nerve Agent is very tempting in Shaper because it's tutorable. I'd suggest trying to get in one more Test Run.