CT String Theory/Doubles/Oracle May (It works)

Decklists
402

I just got back from a tournament where I got 2nd out of 12 on strength of schedule playing the new CT deck I have been playing around with. One of my Runner wins was to Josh02 from the SSCI playing RP. It was close but ultimately comet gives you so much play against RP. The win was Power Nap for 6 (post levy) into a makers eye to bounce off R&D to use my last 2 clicks to run the remote and had just enough to score the NAPD.

It was insane.

Anyways, here’s what I played:

Mother May I? MK II (40 cards)

Chaos Theory: Wunderkind

Event (29)
3 Diesel
2 Dirty Laundry
3 Eureka!
2 Game Day
1 Indexing
2 Legwork
1 Levy AR Lab Access
3 Lucky Find
3 Power Nap
1 Stimhack
3 Sure Gamble
3 Test Run
2 The Maker’s Eye

Hardware (3)
2 Comet
1 R&D Interface

Resource (5)
2 Same Old Thing
2 Symmetrical Visage
1 Utopia Shard

Icebreaker (3)
1 Battering Ram
1 Garrote
1 Torch

The only thing I would change after today was changing the game days to quality times. The extra money for the power nap is great but I played 2 game day in a 4 round tournament in which I levy’d in every game. Drawing from quality time would have made my close loss a win, where I instead held a card till I could overdraw enough to discard it. No bueno.

Would this deck be better in Kate? I don’t think so. Is this the best deck that can be built with the cards in it? Probably not. Comet is amazing and I can see a lot of IDs using it including some Criminals (Ken can probably bring it in and do amazing things).

5 Likes
[Kate] Redefining Shaper Control Decks
[Kate] Redefining Shaper Control Decks
[Kate] Redefining Shaper Control Decks
403

I think it’s the absence of QT that was slowing it down for me as well.

Will start on post-BB viseage builds tomorrow. Still not convinced the c 2 credits a game from Kate are worth the larger deck size. But I am feeling the need to move back towards my speedier build (which looks more like the ones above) even with less NEH around.

404

I don’t understand trying to switch this deck to Kate… it seems completely ridiculous

1 Like
405

I agree. Kate doesn’t add much value with so few installs.

The point of Comet is to make sure you can always use it every turn so you essentially have a 5 click runner.

406

I tested the deck with Comet and Visage. The build does not work well. Comet is simply bad, it nets about 4-8 clicks during a game, which is not worth the trouble and deckslots. The console looks good on paper, but in reality we rarely have 2 events to play in one turn because of how useless Eurekas and Power Naps are in the beginning. So we use up all the Sure Gambles, Dirty Laundries and Lucky Finds ASAP, so that we don’t have to discard Power Naps. All this makes Comet useless. If you want a tier 1 deck, play PVP Kate or Chaos Theory with Magnum Opus instead. However, if you are fine with being screwed by Oracle May from time to time, stick with the original version and wait for more decent shaper Events.

407

Dude… I just don’t even know what to say about this response. I’m not a troll by nature, but your post isn’t substantive in any way. Telling people “What you’re doing is bad, go play PVP Kate or MO CT” is not the way to encourage a conversation. Tier 1 is looking pretty blurry from where I’m standing. Aside from RP and PPVP Kate we aren’t seeing any “tier 1” decks that win consistently.

Try talking about the parts during testing where you found what didn’t work, why it didn’t work and possible answers to fixing the problem.

Are the doubles not working? What are some options to include instead?
Comet isn’t pulling weight? Maybe we can adjust card slots or discuss different approaches to playing with this new console.

My first 3-4 games with Comet were mostly a bust because I didn’t understand how best to leverage comet. Once I got a feel for the flow of the deck and the best way to play it I have found success against all of the major deck archetypes that are out right now. It wasn’t a plug and play thing though- I had to learn how to play with the new cards.

Maybe with some more effort you will find success, or perhaps a more constructive way to participate in this conversation.

12 Likes
408

Is it time to add in Tinkering again? It’s cheap, synergizes with Comet, and easily decreases the cards in your hand to make Game Day better. You could have turns were you Tinker + Test Run Femme then Dirty Laundry into a remote to combat a 2 ice rush attempt (or break Excalibur). Scavenge (or Eureka the next turn) and use your Game Day to fill it back up again.

Best case scenario, I know, but I think Tinkering may unlock Comet/Game Day and works against rush attempts (as long as you get a Test Run or early breaker). Plus, it’s a surprise card against outgunned Corps that think they can score an agenda with a Nisei counter and Excalibur.

1 Like
409

Yeah, this deck doesn’t really install breakers except by using Test Run and CT is the best ID simply because she has a 5 lower card slots and none of the ID text on any Shaper ID would be relevant for a deck like this.

2 Likes
410

The extra memory is a good thing but cortex lock is a problem all the way down, since with comet you still have 1 extra memory.

40 cards is really the important part.

411

The extra MU is probably a disadvantage because of Cortex Lock, a lot of the decks I see use 4 at most (2 dogs or 1 battering ram, 1 torch, one femme). Still, it’s a small disadvantage for the benefit of -5 deck size.

412

I slotted in a Magnum Opus to my build with great success. You don’t need to bother tutoring for it with all the event economy, but if you put it down when you see it it makes great use of your leftover clicks. Also helps the deck survive economically if you get to the end of the deck after Levy or lose your Levy or stack for whatever reason.

1 Like
413

Hey, a deck where we need to gratuitously consume memory. Collective Consciousness to the rescue!

My serious suggestion is finding an influence for Datasucker. Even though the deck doesn’t run a ton, Archives is normally wide open and each token is worth $2 savings on pumping Femme. Nothing is worse in this deck than paying $4 with Femme for Architect or Caduceus repeatedly.

Another serious suggestion - if you play against a lot of asset spam then one Paricia is worth $4-10 credits depending how early you get it. Even though it can’t hit upgrades, you’ll still have plenty of targets in RP, HB, and NEH.

3 Likes
414

I’ve seen a friend use Comet in a 3x Account Siphon 2x Code Siphon, Magnum Opus CT build. He also plays Dirty Laundry, Diesel, Quality Time, and stuff like Test Run Scavenge.

It’s pretty sick. With all the draw he finds Comet turns almost every time.

415

I had my first game with Visage/Comet tonight, very good fun. Lost because I was careless about Scorch, but I was dominating, up 6-3 at that point. Comet feels sweet to me. Drew it first turn, and there were only about 3 turns when I didn’t fire it. First thing I noticed playing is how sweet it is with Diesel/Quality Time, as you’re pretty damn likely to hit a playable event off one of those.

I still find the deck is susceptible to kill strategies though. When you can make enough money Scorch is avoidable, and you can often get around Jinteki net damage shenanigans with clever play, but those matchups are both a real test of skill without any cards in the deck that particularly help out. I was thinking of trying to slot in 1 IHW - do we think that’s worth it at 1x? I couldn’t justify spending more than 2 influence on it but it can help with those situations when Blue Sun gets all their money going and you need to stay alive for long enough to win (or similar).

416

Both PE and Blue Sun are good indexing targets. Utopia Shard is especially good against scorched earth, and can save you randomly if you hit a government takeover.

I agree that these are the hardest matches. Just have to keep your tempo up and make high quality runs.

417

I’ve actually ended up cutting Indexing. Between Jackson, EBC, Atlas tokens and just straight up super-taxing RnD I’ve been finding it less and less useful in all my decks. Definitely does help against PE but not sure if that’s worth slotting it in. Why d’you think its good against BS?

418

IDK about the CT/double deck, but I actually think you’re right, comet and MO seem like natural friends. An ongoing problem with most of the jump-through-hoops-to-get-extra-runner-clicks cards is that extra clicks aren’t a win condition like they can be for corp. MO is an easy answer to using up extra clicks, and comet has a tendency to generate extra clicks, not always on the turns you need or can use them.

419

I’ve got to get back to this build.

Regarding Calimsha’s build, it doesn’t seem like Game Day and Stimhack are going to play very well together.

Way back when I was messing around with this deck pre-Comet I tried out a singleton Collective Consciousness and it was really great when it came up early (and didn’t get trashed by the Oracle). It does require that you don’t play the double MU breakers, though. Seems like it might go OK with the Calimsha’s breaker suite. You could scavenge CC away for a Lady or Femme at some point when CC became less than useful, or the breaker was required. Also would play well with Nicoley’s idea of a late-game Magnum (with Scavenges of course).

420

Yep, the runner doesn’t have a huge amount to do with extra clicks considering so much of runner play is reactive to what the corp is doing. There is little point engineering a deck to generate extra clicks unless there is some way to consistently leverage them for your benefit. I find even with Comet there are turns where you’ll want to take a back seat and just make money and wait for the Corp to make a move, especially once your rig is up and you’re not scrambling to Test Run and install your breakers, and in these turns Opus can easily generate you 4-6 credits even after playing 2 events with Comet.

421

The new build without Comet I have been tinkering with:

Visage Theory

Chaos Theory Wünderkind

15 influence spent (max 15) •••••••••••••••
40 cards (min 40)
Cards up to The Valley

Event (30)

3x Diesel
3x Eureka!
2x I’ve Had Worse ••••
2x Indexing
2x Legwork ••••
1x Levy AR Lab Access
3x Lucky Find ••••• •
3x Power Nap
2x Scavenge
3x Sure Gamble
3x Test Run
3x The Maker’s Eye

Hardware (2)

2x Astrolabe

Resource (4)

1x Same Old Thing
3x Symmetrical Visage

Icebreaker (3)

1x Battering Ram
1x Femme Fatale •
1x Torch

Program (1)

1x Magnum Opus

You can find the deck I used to play before here:

http://netrunnerdb.com/en/decklist/14510/ct-oracle-may

The general idea has always been to play Oracle May ASAP, mulligan for her if necessary, and then use her ability and call only events. Among these instant-effect cards there are doubles which fuel Power Nap - the best economy card in the deck.

What is strong about the old variant:

  1. It’s quick to setup, often surprises opponents with a Test Run into Femme Fatal.
  2. Lots of money due to Oracle May’s amazing click compression.
  3. Efficient breakers.
  4. Really fun to play.

Unfortunately, the deck has also several weaknesses:

  1. It’s inconsistent. If you do not get Oracle May or Hostage in your opening hand, you pretty much have to mulligan. Then, if these cards are still not there, you need to get lucky.
  2. Since your whole game relies on Oracle May, the events are less than impressive on their own. Sure, you can get a lucky Test Run → Scavenge combo, but without early Oracle May on the table there is no late game.
  3. The powerhorse (or rather powerwoman) of the deck hates your breakers. If you keep on drawing them via her ability, they get trashed because you always call events. This makes the deck even less consistent, because there are only 3 Test Runs to bring your breakers back on the table.
  4. The deck is weak to double Scorched Earth, mainly because Plascrete Carapace is not an event card.
  5. Big Sentries empty your bank in no time due to Femme’s high +1 strength cost.

Now, how to fix this? First of all, the deck must be consistent. In order to achieve that, we need to drop the card that makes it so fun to play - Oracle May. I decided to substitute her with Symmetrical Visage, a resource similar in function but weaker as far as raw power level is concerned. This achieved three goals:

  1. Increased consistency.
  2. Allowed to play more non-event cards.
  3. Freed up 4 influence.

Thanks to Symmetrical Visage the deck no longer struggles with discarding its own breakers and still provides the necessary click compression. What is more, the additional influence allows for the import of two I’ve Had Worse copies, which protect against damage and draw cards.

I also decided on including Magnum Opus, as it is a decent late game economy option and possible Test Run target. In order to be able to play this program two copies of the best Shaper console have to be slotted it - Astrolabe is present and still great against asset oriented decks.

Why no Comet? Simply put, I do not find the card that great even in a deck filled with events. This console actually increases randomness because most of the cards in this deck are parts of small combos or are viable only in certain situations, like Eureka, Scavenge, Test Run, Maker’s Eye, Indexing, and Power Nap… even Maker’s Eye falls into this category. Thus, when testing Comet I often found myself in a situation when I wasted the bonus click it generated, because playing events available at the moment made no sense. Sure, the console is awesome when it works. But IMO it does not warrant the high install cost.