It's not that hard, and she's pretty hardcore - Leela Patel

Because Earthrise is an awesome card and getting it for 2 less credits is really strong. You can see new cards, make a run, stick something on the supplier, click Kati, and still have a click left over all in a turn. It’s really strong work compression with interfaces , daily casts, etc.

Also, clickless, influence free card draw in Crim is really, really good. Anarch too.

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Supplier needs card draw to keep fueling the discounts, and Earthrise gives you that without spending influence or extra clicks (as opposed to, say, Mr. Li).

As for Leela, I think she won’t really come into her own until later in the next cycle. Drive By, Muertos Gang Member, and all the usual criminal derez shenanigans feels like it could be a deck. Maybe not a great deck.

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Fair enough :smile:

Last night I finally got my first game in with the DLR + Doppelganger list I posted above. It was vs Blue Sun on octgn, and I beat them down pretty hard. Using Emergency Shutdown on the same Oversighted Curtain Wall twice in one game is truly a thing of beauty. Basically between spamming Siphon’s and DLRs I was able to keep up enough pressure to keep them out of money right until the end of the game. They bounced back a bit with Hedge -> Restructure but then an RnD dive (2 Inyourfaces) got me the win.

Thing is, I won basically just through the effectiveness of the usual criminal shenanigans. I triggered Leela’s ability 5 times, but it was hard to tell how effective it was, and I DC’ed just after the game ended so didn’t have a chance to ask my opponent if it had been annoying (stupid laptop). Every Leela trigger was on a piece of Ice, usually the second one over HQ/RnD/Scoring remote (there was never more than two Ice per server). I never achieved the snowball effect I described in the post above though. I think if you can get 2 or more Leela triggers in quick succession (through multiple steals or a steal just after a score) the value of her ability will increase exponentially. As it was in this game it may have resulted in some work compression for the corp, as my opponent was always stretched to try and get cash, Ice up and deal with DLR; as I say hard to tell without asking.

I’m thinking that switching to Medium from RDI could be really strong, as compelling the corp to purge really ups that work compression. I’ve also thrown in Kati as my econ was pretty shaky late game. New list:

Leela Patel: Trained Pragmatist (All That Remains)

Event (16)
3x Account Siphon (Core Set)
3x Inside Job (Core Set)
3x Sure Gamble (Core Set)
3x Emergency Shutdown (Cyber Exodus)
3x Dirty Laundry (Creation and Control)
1x Net Celebrity (The Spaces Between) 1 inf

Hardware (6)
2x Plascrete Carapace (What Lies Ahead)
2x Doppelgänger (A Study in Static)
2x HQ Interface (Humanity’s Shadow)

Resource (13)
3x Data Leak Reversal (Future Proof) 3 inf
2x Mr. Li (Future Proof)
2x Same Old Thing (Creation and Control)
3x Fall Guy (Double Time)
1x Eden Shard (Upstalk) 1 inf
1x Hades Shard (First Contact) 1 inf
1x Utopia Shard (All That Remains) 1 inf

Icebreaker (8)
1x Corroder (Core Set) 2 inf
2x Faerie (Future Proof)
1x Alias (Honor and Profit)
1x Breach (Honor and Profit)
1x Passport (Honor and Profit)
2x Cerberus “Rex” H2 (All That Remains)

Program (4)
2x Medium (Core Set) 6 inf
2x Crescentus (A Study in Static)

15 influence spent (maximum 15)
47 cards (min 45)
Cards up to All That Remains

Any thoughts on the list? Or on Leela’s playstyle? I was basically playing her like any old criminal, maybe that’s the wrong way to go.

3 Likes

Sneakdoor Beta looks like a great card here, because coupled with EShut it forces the corp to defend all three centrals heavily. Using those two (and possibly Feint as well) to force R&D wide open for Medium runs could be pretty dominant.

The other way could be the reverse of that, where you build an advantage in the centrals to bounce agendas back into HQ for easy picking. So whether you pack Legworks and HQI depends on if you’re filling their hand with things you want to steal or not.

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I’ve been experimenting with Keyhole/Sneakdoor plus Siphon/Legwork/Shutdown to pressure all three centrals, and Parasite/Datasucker plus Kraken (!) to peel away the ice.

Logos tutors for the pressure you need when the Corp scores and Leela’s power weakens defences somewhere; Kraken removes (preferably expensive) rezzed ice after bouncing unrezzed ice on the same server.

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I just played in a 24 person tournament today with Leela and I was really impressed with her. The deck I used today is here: http://netrunnerdb.com/en/deck/view/157965

Couple of things to note: I went 4-0 with Leela*, playing against The foundry, RP (looked a lot like Dan’s build), Blue Sun with Hostile takeover and Archer, and Blue Sun with Janis. Other than the first person I played (who was definitely a less experienced/ newer player) all of my opponents were at least competent corp players. The RP player in particular struck me as very solid. I was able to beat them all very convincingly and Leela’s ability was very good and relevant every game.

The deck was a 5 in the morning brew so some of the slots definately need some refining. Before anything else I would cut the Mimic and the Alias for a Garrot and either the 3rd Desperado or the 3rd Legwork. Desperado is just as good as it’s always been, but was cut down to 2 because I really needed room of the ES suite and the large number of breakers. Also, 5 memory isn’t a must like it is in Andy.

The nice thing about the deck was that I felt like it had in built defense to FA strategies (you score that agenda, I’ll Siphon and Leg you to hell and back) so I could gear the deck a lot more towards the glacier match up with the full 3 of ES.

The money was great ( I completely out moneyed Blue sun in one match and stayed even other match).

With the one extra influence I have from cutting Mimic I’d like to try Utopia Shard if I can find the room. It’s like running a free Legwork when their ICE is down, but you can save those accesses for later. It can also randomly break up people’s kill combos. It’s a matter of finding room for it though, since I’m pretty sure you want the 3rd Legwork before you want the Shard.

I did lose a friendly vs NEH with this deck after the tournament, but by my opponent’s own admission, she was very lucky to get Astro-> Astro->Astro-> Breaking news. Leela’s power was clearly frustrating her ability to protect her servers and I was able to take 5-2 lead against her before a series of unlucky accesses gave way to the full fledged Astro train.

The breaker suite involving all the temporary breaker is awesome. I think any Leela deck should start with the following card: 3x Faeries, 3x Rex, 1x Passport, 2x Corroder, 1x whatever other Sentry breaker you think is going to best attack your meta. 2 Special orders was enough given how many breakers I was running. I ran 3 Mr. Li as well and I don’t regret it at all: He was one of the best cards in deck. With so many of your cards as breakers, that filtering goes a long way. This set up lets you get set up very fast and very cheaply

  • Went 1-3 Corp Side, was playing a goofy ‘score 7 points in one turn’ CI deck that got mauled on R&D three games in a row.
7 Likes

Man, that is just brilliant. I wish I could double-like your post just for that alone!

List looks very interesting, here’s some questions:

  • Did you find the Feint worth it over the third Inside Job? Would your evaluation change if you weren’t running SOT?
  • Was one Carapace enough, or were there moments you were digging for it and wishing you’d have packed a second?
  • If money was great, could it be worthwhile to consider a different console over Desperado, or was packing it a big part of why money was great?
  • (gameplay) Did you recur siphons a lot? Float tags a lot? Would Crash Space be possibly better over Carapace?

I haven’t played that deck, but I have tried similar ones with Leela and can answer a couple questions and offer suggestions.

First, Feint is great with emergency shutdown in this deck. You need an ice derezzed and you need it now, call Feint. Do it right before a legwork or something, or when the corp is about to score something and you want to open a window. A have had those two cards open the door for an account siphon and a legwork. As an added bonus, it hilariously sidesteps this deck’s worst enemy, Crisium Grid. You can Feint and trash Crisium, plus get a bonus access. I only put one in my version too, like more Feints to be honest. Many times it is just as useful if not more so than inside job.

I put Logos in there and liked it. I would try it out, as being able to lift a piece of ice and effectively use the window it creates is important. Logos makes that happen. Then, again you cannot argue with more money. I don’t know if it would be a good fit for this deck, for it messes with my other suggestions.

This leads to my third comment of taking out Kati and replacing her with security testing. Not only does it pair well with Dirty Laundry and Desperado, but it pays off immediately. Furthermore, it does something Leela loves. It pressures Archives and remotes. If the Corp doesn’t want you to play essentially an easy mark per turn, or turn your dirty laundries into one click Lucky Finds, they need to out some moderately taxing ice on archives and not have as many centrals or waste more ice on them. This helps you make HQ and R&D windows with Leela’s ability.

Finally, I am a proponent of swapping out mimic for garrote (especially if you go for the security testings) and using the influence to swap out Plascrete for Utopia shard. This is a meta call mostly, but Utopia is universally helpful as opposed to Plascrete which is a dead draw against some opponents. Your sea/scorch or punitive protection is first and foremost having money to prevent traces from landing and keeping the Corp poor. Worst case, if the Corp lands a sea source, fire off Utopia and hope you hit a scorch. It is less guaranteed of course, but it helps against other MOs. It has many other uses outside of this that are awesome. Did you pull back a nasty piece of ice the Corp might stick back down and rez? Fire off Utopia and hopefully it is gone for good. Did jinteki celebrity gift and show you a bunch of snares and traps? Dump some of those in the garbage. It is great.

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Um, no you can’t. You need to access an upgrade in order to trash it - that’s why when you’re siphoning a Hokusai’ed HQ, it has to stay.

1 Like

Feint reads “if the run is successful, you cannot access any cards”. Crisium Grid prevents the run from being successful, so you get to access/trash.

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…huh, that’s actually really neat! Didn’t think of it that way, but yeah, you’re right.

Yea. A cool counter to the Mushin Grid deck is to Feint (trash Crisium and get a bonus access), SOT Feint to trash OTG, then you have one click to check on what the corp Mushin’d. Feint is a cool card not just for against Weyland and is worth at least one or two slots.

2 Likes

Feint was worth it for me a couple of times when IJ would not have done it. It’s really good against Blue Sun and if you aren’t seeing a lot of that, you can probably change it to the 3rd IJ. I wouldn’t consider cutting the SOTs. The deck really wants to be able to play AS or Legwork right after they score an agenda, or alternatively, an IJ on a remote after you snag an agenda off the top or out of their hand and SOJ helps ensure you can do that.

I’m guessing that your question about Desperado has the sub text of “is Logos better”? The above statement might seem like a case for cutting Desperado in favor of Logos, but Desperado gives you a not insignificant boost to your econ, it’s never bad, and it’s cheaper. It’s also much better in games where you can’t leverage you ability so well. Good deck construction can make sure you have ways to take advantage of your ability as often as possible. You don’t need to play at best situational cards over good ones to make it work. Mr. Li also does a lot of work that Logos does.

One Carapace was fine. In fact I didn’t need it at all on the day. My money was good enough that I was only in danger of scorch once and it was very early in the game, so I put his chances on having all three pieces at quite low. It turns out he was playing Punitive anyway, and I was never actually in danger. I think I could just switch over to the Upotia Shard if I felt a little daring as per @RustyKettle 's post.

In terms of play, I floated tags against NEH and the Foundry. I temporarily floated tags against RP and he punished me for it with a one of Closed accounts. I was planning on removing them so I could get Kati going and I ended up removing them a few turns down line. Against Blue Sun I did not float tags. Crash space is not a very good counter to Scorch in this deck since for it to keep you Safe from the double scorch, it turns all your run events into doubles since you have to draw back up to 5.

@RustyKettle : I have considered Security Testing for this deck and it certain match ups it’s very good. But I have not considered it over Kati. A way to pressure Archives is good since it spreads their ICE thinner, but Kati is one of the best cards for the Glacier matchups, while Security testing can be worse than useless sometimes against those deck. I think I’d rather run a Sneakdoor in order to put the screws to their archives for a few turns and then overwrite it once it loses its punch. The problems with that for me right now are 1. finding space in general, and 2. memory is something of an issue when you have different breakers for different jobs (it’s much better to break with passport whenever you can to save the Rex, or to keep the fairy around for economical breaking rather than using it on a Caduceus)

I do think I will try the Utopia shard though over Plascrete. It also works very well with Legwork to look at their entire hand.

2 Likes

Why the Lucky Finds? That’s a lot of influence on something Criminals tend to be good at anyway. Do you think this could be replaced with Security Testing/Bank Job/other money assets?

Could be, but I wanted something that was always going to work. I think they work really well here. And what were you thinking of spending influence on instead?

Honestly, not sure. Maybe upgrade Passport to a Gordian Blade? The potential Utopia Shard? Potentially some Anarch hand-destruction when it comes out in O&C?

I wasn’t sure about Feint before, but I’m coming around. Finding something to cut to fit it in will be the hard thing.

RP seems to be the hardest Leela matchup, at least that I’ve come across. NEH is fast but porous, PE has enough agendas that her ability’ll trigger plenty, Blue Sun hates Breach/Shutdown stuff… ETF’s ice is all pretty taxing but can be mitigated (I’m going to guess it’ll be #2 trickiest though).

But ELP and plenty of ice that makes HQ runs cost 10 to pull off? Taxing ice seems to be the worst for Leela, by and large, and RP is just full of the stuff – and more than enough money to get it all rezzed ASAP. Not an impossible matchup – I’m sure practice will help – but the games where the opponent is likely to score fewer times before winning, can use ELP to slow down your face-checking fun, has ice with more subroutines than strength, and all that? Rough.

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After playing some games with this, first thing I did was go down to 2 Lucky Finds and up the Corroder count to 3. This lets me play a bit more recklessly, and the LFs didn’t feel all that necessary anyway.

Also, question: Why Legwork over HQI?

Because Leg Work is the better card. Unlike R&D which could always turn up points, HQ is sometimes is very clearly empty. Why pay a premium on the expensive HQI that you’re not going to use that much when you can get the same benefit from Legwork which sees more cards, costs less, and saves a click (don’t need to install it). It’s probably the best criminal event in the game (or at least a tie with Siphon). HQI is clunky.

Yes it can combo better better with stuff like sneakdoor, but the 4 cost downside can be very steep even then.

Edit: Also, Desperado makes all your run events way more efficient assuming they land. It’s like a public terminal that isn’t awful. Basically, legwork is just a lot more efficient at just about every stage of the game.

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