10 influence spent (max 10)
45 cards (min 45)
Cards up to Order and Chaos
I don’t think it’s that good, but it was fun. I think Stealth in general is not that good right now. It’s too slow against Astrobiotics, one of the tier-1 corp decks (Butchershop) makes efficient breakers superfluous (they seem to manage to kill me even when I wipe their hand with Wanton), and HB and RP throw a lot of subroutines at you (and fuck Crick). I seem to smack Weyland around pretty trivially, though.
I’ve been very unhappy with Professional Contacts in Stealth Kit. It’s such a big tempo hit that I never end up playing it unless I see it in my opening hand. Also since I want it in my opening hand, I play with 3 copies which means two cards in my deck become dead when I play a copy.
I’ve been meaning to try out 2x Symmetric visage + 2 Kati Jones as a replacement economy. I think with Diesels + stealth recurring credits, that might be enough economy.
I think Refractor is the best reason to play Kit. Refractor is the best code gate breaker in the game and Kit lets you use it on barriers and sentries too. If there is a competitive Kit build, I would expect refractor (and stealth) to be part of it.
Yeah it hurts in the NEH matchup, but 5 MU is too little for me in longer matches, and I hate including dead cards. Especially since I already have 3 ProCos and 2 Katis… So one of each it is. Careful Clot play buys you some time against FA, but I agree it’s not ideal.
That single credit install is crazy. Just pulling out a single recurring stealth credit means even Tollbooth is broken for 4, less than torch or CyCy. Obviously Yogosaurus gets through cheaper, but that’s a ten cred set up and struggles with anything over str 5 without further support. Plus, you can still use it without stealth creds at strength 2.
Having seen it in action, I’m convinced at the moment that Refractor is the ‘right’ way to go in competitive Kit.
Multi-sub ice still gets expensive pretty quick, especially since your stealth pieces eat econ slots. I would not play Stealth if I expected Grail. That’s definitely a place you want Yog.
Grail ice doesn’t seem to be common at the moment, though? Maybe it’s just people up here not really running it.
And with even a single stealth cred the most that one is going to cost you is three? Kit negates the gear check aspect of Grail too if it’s on the outside of the server (as I’ve found out to my detriment, kit can tear through a Grail rush deck!).
i’ve been doing that woman in the red dress/nerve agent version on one of the recent winning agenda podcasts. i can’t make it great or anything, but it’s attractive due to not being full stealth (assembling a ton of stealth pieces is not the way i like to run), and no opus economy (camping and clicking for two forever, no. awful)
it’s fun. not sure where else to take her now…opus/workshop ct can sometimes successfully shift to kit. i think you see that more in europe
I was running a pretty successful Foundry Grail Rush for a while, but Eater killed it. The great thing about Grail is the extreme gear check it creates - the Runner can’t run safe unless they have a full rig. Eater absolutely wrecks it by totally negating this. And Clot didn’t help either.
While Yog is clearly more efficient against grail, I definitely don’t think grail is bad for stealth Kit. They cost at most three, less if you have some stealth online. Yog is also slower and more expensive to set up, which gives the corp time to force a rig (Merlin’s strength means Yog needs support just like refractor, and the install differential is noticeable).
Most of the grail I see is neh, where the setup speed of refractor is important. Against Twins kill combo, I agree that Yog is clearly better.
Also: grail is a situation where Utopia Shard shines.
I don’t really have much to add. I think Kit is a good ID. I agree with most of what people are saying here. I think there are multiple interesting ways to build around her, competitive and jank. =-)
I played against Grail in a tournament and it was brutal (I lost). You just run out of money and lady counters - definitely slot Inti if you expect it. But the real cure for Grail is Parasite and my build didn’t have it.
I’m really interested in what people think of the competitive side of London Kit. I posted This deck back in the “minimum jank” thread, but I haven’t heard about anyone else having as much success as myself. I’m biased, though.
If you’re worried about grail, it’s always possible to add
+1 clot
+1 parasite
+3 Clone Chips
which helps your match ups against normal NEH and RP as well. The clone chips also provide an option if you run out of Lady counters which lets you drop the non-lady barrier breakers.
The more I play both stealth and normal “hinkes” style kit, the more that I honestly just want to go with hinkes. The issue is that variant aside from vamp is basically stimshop and I ask myself the same old gabe question, “Is this list better in another ID”. I want to run kit and feel like I’m not just importing a shell that can work in another ID.
I’ve admittedly won a lot more games as that first deck I posted in the OP, but it has nothing to do with kit. It has to do with stimhack, mopus, and personal workshop being so quick in setting up. I can literally sit there and mopus click against butcher shop. I can contest HB with ash that doesn’t run caprice. I can out econ glacial with mopus. Only other decks that can do that is the new anarch shell and ppvp kate.
With RDI and the occasional makers eye, you can make timed runs inbetween making money later in the game. I think Kit has to play to the strengths of runners right now and that is pretty simple, a rich runner wins. We also have to play fast though. Stealth isn’t setting up early against astro. I’m slowly leaning towards a normal style kit the more and more I play her, but why not just play CT is what I ask myself?
Stealth Kit’s MU situation is a lot less flexible than other Shapers because of Cloak. I would do Spooned over Parasite in a Stealth build because I could have 4+Astrolabe of breakers and Cloak and not have to worry about fitting stuff in.
Parenthetically, my Stealth builds don’t even play Clone Chip. Cut it after getting a little too annoyed at trying to use it one time too many.
