I’ve been saying this for a while, so I’m glad to see someone else flying the banner.
And yes, Deja Vu for Utopia Shard is wonderful for HQ pressure! Especially if you can do it the same turn you fired it…
Hear, hear. It’s even more powerful out of Leela.
I believe @aandries was slightly on the fence on it at one point, until he saw its true power in action.
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Hear Hear. I still have a plascrete in my deck as further protection, but Utopia Shard is wonderful. I have been able to stop a Sea Source, Scorch, Scorch combo and even snipe a few agendas if I feel they are just building up in HQ.
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Pop Utopia, pop a legwork, run Archives. If there’s an agenda, you now have it. That was a game-winning combo at my SC last Saturday.
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I’ve been running Leela pretty much solidly in the league to reasonable success. But I’m finding I’m really struggling against NEH. Unless I get a Desperado + Security Testing start I find she just doesn’t have the economy to keep DBS and SanSan off the board early, get out the breakers and set up a reasonable mid-game. Clearly, given the results of much better players than me, I’m doing something wrong. Any advice on how to approach that match-up?
The list is @aandries list with the following differences:
-1 stimhack
-1 utopia shard
+1 lucky find (I tried the stimhack + utopia approach pre-seeing his decklist, but with the economy problems I prefered the LF)
-1 account siphon
-1 SOT
+1 legwork
+2 plascrete.
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I think against NEH, the easiest way to get a bit higher win rate out of your deck is probably to add Sneakdoor Beta, as they simply don’t pack the ICE to be able to keep you out at that point, and you might diversify your legworks into 2x legwork, 2x HQI–which has the added benefit of making inside job more potent against a corp that may or may not ever have to bother scoring out of a remote.
Don’t let them sneak anything past you, keep the remote aggression high, and keep up the HQ threat, that assures they will probably have to blow out their first agenda before they are ready–they aren’t going to let your ability stop an astro score, but they probably won’t score Breaking News early, and they will think twice about Beale.
If you’re playing 3x RDI, I have had good luck switching to 2x medium, but ultimately prefer how nimble and malleable my rig is, so I tend not to play the utility programs right now.
As for not having the economy, just start making some hard choices about what you can cut–honestly, your ability is a powerful persistent effect, you could practically play Leela Patel with nothing but breakers and economy, take a look at what cards aren’t pulling their weight, and see what happens when you switch them for more money.
Thanks. Yes, I tried medium as well, but switched back for exactly the same reason.
Its really strong, and getting the corp to clear viruses against Leela is brutal, especially after a strong dig–making them choose between clearing viruses and and getting to put all their ICE back down is just scrumptious.
Oh, also–against NEH–bank jobs!
Had a great night with Leela last night at our weekly meetup. She went 3-1. Should have been 4-0 but I got careless against a newb Blue Sun player (who is actually quite good, just still learning the ropes) and got myself scorched. I had even nailed a Government Takeover.
Highlight was having a good bit of luck vs. @mediohxcore and his dang 7-pt CI combo deck. His T1 he iced HQ and GLC’d and took credits I think. My turn I topdecked a 3 pter from RD, bounced HQ ice, and landed the Siphon. He had to dump a bunch of good cards on his turn. I got into what must have been a semi-flooded HQ a few turns later with Sneakdoor for the win.
I sort of wanted to play Leela because 7-pt Combo deck has a few enthusiasts at our shop. She sort of shuts that down (you can bounce one of the two agendas they are trying to score at the same time with the Shipment shennanigans)–Dan says there is an alternate path to victory against Leela but obviously it’s a rough matchup.
I used @aandries’s winning deck. I fretted a bit over sentries vs Weyland but never faceplanted into anything nasty. I would definitely add the Plascrete in, I think. I’m interested in maybe going -3 Dirty Laundry +2 Bank Job +1 Plascrete. Seems like Bank Jobs are super easy to pull off these days. Another thought is going -1 RDI +1 Clone Chip for that 4th Faerie.
I’m going to be piloting her and Mr. Kim up until the next store champs. Will decide who I like better. I got whomped last night by both Dan’s Reg-Ass MaxX and Eater MaxX–she is too fucking fast. So I might jump on that ship. We’ll see. I really want those Imps…
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Nice. She is just SOOOO good against so many archetypes. Truly letting loose, and not worrying about Scorch or Sentries, will set you free. Bank Job is a completely reasonable add. NEH is always a bad matchup, hence the 3 RDIs. Bank Job will help v. a number of archetypes, but completely be a dead card against a variety of others. Judgment call.
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Yep. Probably a mistake to lose the 3rd RDI. Need to hit one early.
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Nice work @steve_houston! Like Spags said, don’t be too afraid to go too fast. Death can be lurking behind every server vs. Weyland or Jinteki, but loose is fast and on the edge of out of control. You have to find that perfect balance of riding the edge of death, managing your risk and pressing as hard as you can. That decks one game loss in SC’s was due to me pumping the breaks vs. Blue Sun after hitting a 3 point agenda on click one and worrying about Punitive.
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That’s why Gemini is better
Ever try and drop one corroder for a Breach? (Not sure how Weyland is in your meta) but could free up influence and deal with curtain wall easier. Is this a route to take a look at or is it better keeping corroder?
I do not regret my breach, especially with space ice/grail/next
You are saving $5 to break the Curtain Wall on a central with Breach rather than Corroder. I think you stick with the Corroder.
Sure, you want to be hitting centrals more than remotes with Leela, but it’s a big tempo loss to have to install a Corroder after having installed a Breach. Leela also is not as rich as any of the other Crims (only she and Silhouette have non-$$$ abilities (we all know Andy’s ability is a $$$ ability I’m sure))
Leela needs to be more breaker dense because she wants to get in ASAP (more so than Gabe even) and does not have the start that Andromeda does. I’m happy to use the inf on 2 Corroders.
Leelas biggest issue, as I see it, is RP. She does a lot better than I initially thought she would against other things: NEH, PE, and even BS to some degree, but her RP matchup is even worse than Gabes, like, 10% or something. Is there anything that can be done outside of building stealth Leela to improve this?
Hope that the Maxx people crush all the RP and you don’t run into them. Or hope the RP player just isn’t good enough to take advantage of the inherently bad matchup. One of these usually falls into place.
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Magnum. RP is a picnic.
Kati helps a lot on the RP matchup, sneakdoor also helps, bit in the end you still have a hard time against the id. You really need to draw lots of econ and trash all their money assets as son as you see them. If they have money, you cant win.
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