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

Decklists
61

Hey hoo.

Its funny how often the same questions recur, to different minds. In this case, ESD vs crescentus.

I reached the same conclusion that crescentus, by itself, is inferior to ESD (especially w Sneakdoor). Primarily this is a nature of leverage, deck slots, and tempo.

Many of the must successful cards allow multiple uses. Security testing is probably good for 18 credits in the course of a game, on an event you were probably doing anyway - and on top of that, leverages with desperado, doppleganger, HQI, feint etc.

One issue with crescentus is that as a single shot program - its a one time use, and leverages with a very limited cross section of programs.

In times where the cost to break ice is high, the value of ESD/Crescentus increases. However, the meta seems to be moving completely the other way at the moment, with the introduction of the new disposable breakers (lady, david, grapple), the introduction of the hyper efficient stealth breakers, and the centrals only breakers.

Crescentus can be made more palatable by including autoscriptor/savoir fair/mass install.

However, in that instance, you are trading deck slots for tempo/resources. And while that can be done very very well (aka, what is shaper other than an excersize in having the best bullet for the problem?) the bottom line is that crescdentus doesnt’ have enough payoff, especially considering that the meta imo is also moving toward smaller ice. Just how much value does crescentus really have when you’re derezing an enigma?

62

I think Notoriety would have been more playable as worth 2 points. As printed, it’s basically an entire turn and likely a bunch of credits for 1 AP, unless you specifically build a deck around it that probably isn’t very successful anyway.

63

I don’t think the meta is moving towards smaller ice necessarily, at least not with clot on the horizon. I’m sure glacier will pick up by store championship season, but I still doubt that crescentus will be playable. If it didn’t take a memory, I’d be playing with it, but it’s not too hard to include Parasite if you do have spare memory as the runner, and that’s a far more valuable card in nearly every situation. Shutdown can also be used again with SoT, which is important. Right now my main concern with Leela is how she should attack R&D. We’re playing 2x indexing now, but I’ll report back after some more games.

64

This reminds me of insight I got from playing some Leela yesterday, which may or may not be relevant:

Going into the games with no preconceptions as to how I want to approach playing Leela, the style I found most natural was almost controllish, not unlike Iain. Hanging back, you can benefit greatly from the corp both delaying their first score (so as not to expose themselves due to your ability) and not doing so. I think she wants to run less than other Criminals, in order to keep certain key pieces unrezzed. Face-checking pointlessly decreases the value of her ability, as your list of target grows shorter and shorter.

In that vein, I definitely think Mr. Li over John Masanori, and I’m actually contemplating using something else over Dirty Laundry - Bank Job, maybe?

2 Likes
65

I think we agree on most of the substantive points. I think its telling that if you have a clone chip + cres << SOT {ESD}

66

Now that All That Remains is out, has anyone had a chance to sleeve up a Leela deck and test it out? If so, what was the deck and how did it go?

67

You might want to actually read through the thread before asking that :wink:

5 Likes
68

Do you have a 2x Indexing list you’ve been testing? Here is what I’ve been trying (the Krakens are almost certainly getting replaced with Shutdown):

Leela v3 - Indexing/LF

Leela Patel: Trained Pragmatist (All That Remains)

Event (21)
3x Account Siphon (Core Set)
3x Dirty Laundry (Creation and Control)
2x Indexing (Future Proof)[color=#32CD32] ••••• •[/color]
2x Kraken (Humanity’s Shadow)
2x Legwork (Honor and Profit)
2x Lucky Find (Double Time)[color=#708090] ••••[/color]
3x Special Order (Core Set)
1x Stimhack (Core Set)[color=#FF4500] •[/color]
3x Sure Gamble (Core Set)

Hardware (5)
3x Desperado (Core Set)
2x Plascrete Carapace (What Lies Ahead)

Resource (8)
3x Armitage Codebusting (Core Set)
2x Mr. Li (Future Proof)
3x Same Old Thing (Creation and Control)

Icebreaker (11)
3x Cerberus “Rex” H2 (All That Remains)
2x Corroder (Core Set)[color=#FF4500] ••••[/color]
1x Crypsis (Core Set)
3x Faerie (Future Proof)
1x Garrote (True Colors)
1x Passport (Honor and Profit)

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

Deck built on NetrunnerDB.

1 Like
69

It’s the list that I posted earlier with -1 Mimic, -1 Alias, -1 Plascrete, -1 Lucky Find, -2 RDI, +1 Legwork, +1 Desperado, +1 Garrote, +1 Utopia Shard, +2 Indexing.

unless he changed anything else since last night.

Source: we’re roommates.

70

Just played 5 games with it earlier, I’m sticking to this list for now, the indexing were good, and the deck is strong, and hard to play against. It could go in lots of directions though. Imp might be good in it, and another influence setup I’m looking at is 2x RDI, 2x Corroder, 2x Modded, 2x Quality Time, 1x Utopia Shard, because sometimes someone will double up Elis on R&D and the deck has trouble getting through for indexing. Atman could also be something to try. It’s exciting times though, being potentially very far away from an optimal build with a very strong ID. It’s been a while on the runner side.

1 Like
71

What is your feeling on Utopia Shard vs Plascrete now that you’ve played it a few times?

72

If I’m just running one card, it will be the shard, every time. Just as likely to see it, and it’s far more egalitarian, you can use it to good effect against any deck.I can only really see going back to Plascrete if the Dedicated Response Team decks become a real thing, but even then I think I’d rather use a copy of Paper Tripping, which you can use in house after a 3x Siphon turn or something similar.

73

DLR was actually one of the first things we thought of in the thread, scroll up for lists.

74

Notoriety + The Collective is very impressive in a parallel universe where The Collective won the Plugged-in Tour!

2 Likes
75

My two big wishlist cards are now Quality time and Security Testing. Archives being unpressured is a wasted opportunity and I think it could go a long way towards thinning early ice while gaining a decent credit lead.

76

I’ve been trying to run Leela with Supplier, Compromised Employee, Daily Casts, and Kati Jones. Using a lot of derezzes with Crescentus, Clone Chips, and Emergency Shutdowns is a cute idea for picking up credits (with CE) while denying corp econ, but it’s still way slower than I’d like. I’ll probably abandon this approach, but just thought I’d share my testing!

77

I have more in mind a notoriety approach.

Siphons to make Em double ice hq. Inside job to run r&d. All nighters to exploit.

78

Regarding EMS vs. Crescentus: doesn’t cres have the advantage of activating during a scoring run (in which I include a legwork, makers eye, post-indexing run, etc.)? Which in the case of leela specifically, gives it an edge?

80

Sure… but Shutdown has the advantage of enabling that scoring run in the first place.

If you had to choose, which of those two advantages would you rather be without?

1 Like
81

I actually found CI pretty manageable. Focused on R&D hits until I could clear HQ ice some, then siphoned them down a buuunch.

The RP game was hell, due to a turn-two ELP and a poor (in retrospect) keep from me.

Still, I feel pretty confident against CI overall and even against RP I think I could do better than I did. At the very least, unsure how to improve things against RP any, whereas I feel like CI’s lack of plentiful ice hurts 'em pretty hard.

One fun thing I’ve found with Leela – HQ multiaccess can be a crapshoot. I Legworked with two HQIs to see everything in HQ… but after scoring, I had to put Ice back in the mix and give them a chance to hide agendas better.

Still worth it, though, just another sign that for Leela, HQI is probably superior to Legwork.