So I’ve been waiting for First Contact to come out to work on an idea using Kate and a bunch of Stealth to build a viable deck. The idea here is to have efficient stealth breakers and the recurring credits to fuel them. Ghost Runner adds a much-needed degree of flexibility with generic stealth credits so you can get out of the gate a bit faster. BOX-E is great on so many levels that I couldn’t help but include it. The MU alone is spectacular for an MO based build, but the addition of the extra hand size is just too good to be true.
I threw some tinkering in to also help boost early game speed. Infiltration and Levy are mostly countermeasures for PE decks which remain popular on OCTGN in my experience. Let me know what you think.
Just at first glance, BlacKat doesn’t seem like it provides enough of an edge over Corroder to justify eating your Stealth Credits like that, and ditching it saves you a buuunch of influence (BK itself and Dyson) which could go toward other, more useful things.
I think you need to draw too many cards to make Opus a good option, you won’t be able to click it a lot and assemble all the pieces you need in time. So I’d go for Kati Jones and daily casts (or aesop + armitage) instead of Opus and mem chips. Also -1 Box-E, +1 parasite seems a good swap, as parasite + clone chip is so good. Another lockpick could also work, so you can keep the general stealth creds for the other breakers.
I like Blackcat enough to take it over corroder, but if in need of influence, it would be the first thing to cut.
Opus is not the econ engine for this deck. I’ve only played a handful of games with my build, but it definitely has legs against glacier decks like no other. Recurring credits eat up glacier decks, especially in addition to how efficient fully configured stealth rigs are.
Having done it, I can say this, I wouldn’t dump black cat. With 2 stealths kat breaks eli for just 2, and that is normally recurring credits, which is essentially free. I wouldn’t give up blackat for corrdor honestly.
The econ engine I run is procontacts, daily casts and dirty laundry, that is a pretty standard rig building type econ package, see pure katman. I do find that sometimes I need more “real” credits, which makes me want to consider some aesop’s econ, but the slots are much too tight.
I don’t think I like Box-e as a console and influence grab, akamatsu should pretty much have you covered, or upgrade to cybersolutions memchips and throw in modded, which is a kick ass card.
Here’s the build I’m going to test, once I have some time left.
I didn’t include any special anti-Jinteki PE cards, the extra handsize from logos should be enough. Be careful what cards you play against them, if a card doesn’t really helps you, keep it as a hitpoint. 6 MU is enough for 3 breakers, 2 cloaks and 1 parasite (or deus, sharpshooter, …)
Blackkat takes at least three to break Eli. You must pump with two creds and get a bonus if you use a stealth. If you have sucker support then it breaks for a single stealth cred.
Yep, the cost to use the strength pump ability is still 2 credits. That’s also why it says "when you use at least 1 stealth credit.
In the deck I’ve been testing, I dropped BlacKat in favor of Corroder. I also went with 3 Replicators (and 2 Silencers in addition to the Lockpicks), to get my stealth credits on the board sooner.
I have been using replicators and really liking them. Here is the list I have been running (as far as I remember while at work). My concern is really card draw and not getting an SMC/breaker quickly.
Ok, here is some serious necromancy, but this is the first thread on this topic that the search for “kate stealth” brought up, so here we go.
This is the deck I’ve been playing against my group with, and so far, not a single one of their corp decks have stood a chance. I’ve been breaking 5 ICE servers every turn for minimal real credit loss. Maybe I’m just lucky, but I always seem to be able to draw all the pieces I need between the diesels, quality times, and SMC’s.
Event (9)
3 Diesel
3 Quality Time
3 Sure Gamble
Hardware (18)
2 Akamatsu Mem Chip
2 Astrolabe
3 Clone Chip
2 Cyberfeeder••
3 Lockpick
3 R&D Interface
3 Silencer•••••••••
Program (12)
2 Cerberus “Lady” H1
3 Cloak
1 Corroder••
2 Dagger
2 Refractor
2 Self-modifying Code
Resource (6)
3 Daily Casts
1 Film Critic
2 Kati Jones
45 cards
13/15 influence spent (not sure what to change for that last two. maybe cut stuff for another memory and a parasite so I can clone chip those?)
Cards up to Old Hollywood
With a single Akamatsu and an Astrolabe, you have enough memory to host two stealth breakers and corroder/lady, along with all three cloaks. Clone chips are for safety purposes and/or recurring Lady if needed. You never know when you’ll run into a Marcus Batty. Lady stands by as a fracter until I can find Corroder. Once the rig is assembled, and you have all the recurring credits out (it happens a lot for me) the cloaks and cyberfeeders work great with Corroder to minimize actual credit spending. When real credits are needed, Kati Jones keeps the coffers full. Have the Film Critic in there for RP/midseasons decks.
I actually just recently added the RDI’s in here. I’ve found in my games that I’ll establish a remote lock, and then the corp will place a lot of ice on a remote to try and make it safe so they can score, and are thus leaving the centrals relatively unprotected. This can give me a nice window to just drop a bunch of RDI’s and then start the assault on RnD.
I’d have thought that the 3rd SMC is better that the second dagger or refractor.
Clot or Legwork seems good for your last 2 pips of influence.
This strikes me as a ‘good deck, lousy astrobiotics matchup’ list. What have your experiences been? I also don’t think you can cope with traditional Butchershop, let alone those who are catching up on 24/7 News.
I feel like 3 lockpick 3 cloak is a bit crazy? Prob don’t need three lockpick. I’d cut one and find room for a third smc, and also room for clot to help with fastro. I also feellike the deck is pretty poor? Doesn’t look like a ton of money, and three RDIs cost a lot. I also feel like with clone chips there should be no need for things like two dagger and two refractor, but maybe I’m wrong on that count.
I played a hayley stealth deck that looked a lot like this but also used legwork, stimhack and clot to have early game v fastro. But Pro Con was the backbone of my econ, so if I were to build this deck, I’d probably either copy my hayley version, or I’d go the route of that of another player I know that actually used comet, and money + draw events, backed up by pro con and a cheap breaker suite. Not sure if I could find that list atm
Just for the sake of being obnoxious as well, if we’re running a deck with Cyberfeeders and Lockpicks why aren’t we running both Refractor and Study Guide. Study Guide once set up will be a much better card than Refractor.
On a similar note, I totally agree that Dagger (and other stealth parts) is worth splashing for in general.
If you’re going study guide, I always think the toolbox or now, multithreader. It might dilute the deck to put in study guide in a stealth deck like normal, but one focused on making more than one run a turn perhaps, so a whole server of code gates can’t keep you down. Stealth had always eluded me
The idea is that since you’re already on Lockpicks and Cyberfeeders you may as well abuse the recursive credits anyway. Because those cards exist, the inclusion of Study Guide is actually very low commitment.
Multithreader will unfortunately deserve a thread of it’s own as far as Kate decks go. Perhaps a Pawnshop-Cache variant in a world without NEH or other forms of FA.
Clot does seem like a good one to use my influence on. My friends don’t play a lot of nbn fast advance, and I’m the butcher shop player in our group, lol (and yes, I do have 24\7 in my butcher shop and it is pretty bonkers).
So far in my experience, recurring credits plus Kati Jones is all the econ you’re probably going to need. Then you hit the sure gambles and daily casts and you have plenty of money. Play your hardwares at a controlled pace to maximize Kate’s power, and you’ll hardly dent your credits from them.
As for study guide, go for it. The way I play, I tend to run enough to use up all my stealth credits on my stealth breakers.
I play so many copies of the stealth credit and breakers because I like the consistency of having the multiple copies. The astrolabe also really helps to find my pieces. I could go -1 of both stealth breakers, and go +1 smc, +1 clot. The memory requirements for having a smc for the clot pull plus my breakers plus my cloaks might need some more support? A plascrete or two might be good, as yah, I’m probably gunna die to butcher shop.
Not to completely railroad the whole thing but Stealth can be fast as long as it is only accommodating one set of breakers and not more.
I personally think that the inclusions for Dagger or Refractor will generally be more fruitful than including both. Getting gear checked for one is fine as long as a bridge breaker like Zu.13 exists alongside Refractor for example but anymore than that the need to have both Lockpick and Refractor in play could spell opportunity loss in the case of the gear check.
Not to railroad but a Stealth deck by design I have always admired is Zach Cavis’s Switchblade Sucker Andy from earlier this Spring. The fact that Faerie exists as a bridge breaker makes Switchblade into not only a fantastic include but also an in faction analog of Parasite. Best of all, the set up is surprisingly fast enough to compete with NEH FA some amount of the time.
I remember making a stealth deck with two Dyson and two silencer, and 3 lockpick. Boy I never stopped having fun. Or won really, but whatever, nasir stealth for the lose!