[Kate] Redefining Shaper Control Decks

Deck Archetypes
2527

I agree this is a remote lock deck but yesterday I met only decks that made little use of remotes.

For instance I was facing an asset spam Gagarin deck with only the face-up agendas, which were fast-advanced with the Mumbad Construction Co. Trashing the latter was useless because of museum-city hall-temple madness plus some Hostile infrastructure on top. After 10 assets hit the table I managed to land an indexing through an hive but saw nothing. Then the corp got scared and placed an Hadrian wall in front of the server. I went for a blind maker’s eye after a few turns spent to accumulate credits but saw nothing again. There might have been something in HQ but there was another Hadrian’s wall in front and I had no HQ multi access. In this way the agendas were safe and without clot corp fast advanced to victory.

I am not saying I played optimally but, beside my possible mistakes, I felt like something was missing in my breakers suite. If you have any idea or comment regarding possible strategies in these matches (or against BS off-the grid for example) please do share them :wink:

2528

Studog got 4th at GenCon yesterday with Nexus Kate. It’s still good!

2 Likes
2529

Can’t wait for a decklist!

2530

I’m guessing nexus, modded, rabbithole, tech writer, sports hopper and power tap?

2531

Power Tap is usually too far down the rabbit hole (PUNS!), but I wouldn’t be surprised to see any of the other stuff you listed at all.

2532

Power Tap would be hilarious against CTM but influence is probably too tight.

2533

In a CtM heavy meta, Power Tap might be worthwhile. Nothing like forcing the corp to pay you for trashing their assets!

2534

CtM’s ability is a May.

(I play Sunny Power Tap. … CtM declined to pay me 3 to trash their assets.)

1 Like
2535

My Nexus Kate list from Gencon, for those interested: Turquoise Kate (4th place at Gencon) · NetrunnerDB

Power Tap as CtM tech is cute, but I have no idea how you’d find influence for it. I suspect that adding it ends up really hurting other match-ups, where it’s basically just an UWC with a higher opportunity cost.

7 Likes
2536

Gratz @dogs, great finish. This is the runner I was hoping to see in the top 8.

2 Likes
2537

Thanks, I’m glad you like it!

1 Like
2538

Wondering if playing Beth means cutting Vamp for Legwork.

2539

Hmm. Probably not a bad call. I kind of love having the 1of Vamp because blow-out plays with it are really fun, but Beth does nonbo with it, and lets you keep ahead better which makes Vamp less important. I’ll have to test.

2 Likes
2540

might i recommend not letting your opponents rez ice, that seems to be a fairly strong control strat

6 Likes
2541

You’re a monster for playing that deck, and I just want you to know it =P

2542

I ran a stealth PrePaid Kate deck yesterday for a local GNK and got 2nd place out of 14 players. The runner deck went 3-0 versus ETF x2 and SYNC.

I didn’t have a lot of time to test the deck, but I’ve been playing variations of stealth Shaper for the better part of a year. I also wanted to try out Deuces Wild and Mirror. I made a risky call and dropped my Clot and all Clone Chips to fit in a full PPVP economy package, because I just wanted to make a ton of money.

MWL 1.1 was in effect, legal up to 23 Seconds. Here’s the list:

Stealth PrePaid Kate

Kate “Mac” McCaffrey: Digital Tinker (Core Set)

Event (22)

Hardware (8)

Resource (6)

Icebreaker (3)

Program (6)

12 influence spent (max 15-3☆=12, available 0)
45 cards (min 45)
Cards up to 23 Seconds

Deck built on NetrunnerDB.

Some thoughts…

Freedom Through Equality was seriously a MVP. Combos great with Maker’s Eye, Indexing, and/or Turning Wheel.

Deuces Wild was pretty good. It wasn’t stellar, but it was definitely solid, and I used every option multiple times except tag removal. I ended up going tag me versus SYNC, because I was able to outscore him by just doing massive runs on R&D and HQ. I think the tag removal option might be more helpful against CTM, and against any kill deck I definitely would’ve found it helpful. The deck doesn’t really use many resources, though, so I found myself not caring if he trashed my stuff.

On one memorable turn, I saw a Closed Accounts coming up on my R&D dig, so I used a Sure Gamble last click to bait him into playing it. On my next turn, I clicked for a credit, used 2 PPVPs and 2 clicks for Lucky Find, and breezed my way through HQ to steal an agenda.

I’m not sold on Mirror. I could see it being more useful in other matchups, but I think I only used its ability once. The extra memory is nice, but not really necessary. I might consider swapping out for Astrolabe, as the extra drawing would help me find my breakers. The biggest weakness of the deck is setup speed if you don’t draw into your breakers. There are a ton of draw options (Diesel, Deuces, QT), but the lack of Clone Chip means I can’t reuse SMCs. I also have zero program recursion, which made me feel nervous but was never a problem.

You could probably drop 1x Lucky Find and something else (1x Lockpick?) for 2x Clone Chip. But influence is pretty tight, so there isn’t much room for other tech cards.

1 Like
2543

When I’ve been playing, between Cloak and Ghost Runner I don’t think I’ve missed Lockpicks at all. You would probably like a Symmetrical Visage, and another Same Old Thing would probably be nice so you can double-up on those Indexings.

Edit: Also, if you want at least 1 Clone Chip, then I’d drop one Deuces and put in one Clone Chip. Just in case of mid-run trashing (Keegan, Batty).

Also, I’d be afraid of going Tag-Me against Sync just because of Quantum Predictive Model. I’d end up getting Exchanged to death. :cry:

1 Like
2544

Are you people all sold on a Corroder or Lady? Any thoughts about Paperclip? I’d include it in Kate builds that are based on opus economy.

2545

Yeah, Paperclip is certainly a consideration in a lot of decks now that it’s out this week. I was thinking I might try it out over the 2x Lady in the PPStealth deck just to see how it goes. I’d have to go down to 1 Clone Chip, which is probably fine if I’m cutting Lady anyhow, since that’s the most popular recursion target next to SMCs while setting up. Dropping a CC might hurt the setup time, though, but I’ll have to see by how much. Another possible target is another copy of Deuces, but that also hurts setup time and money.

2546

Ye, I also cut one CC (not many other options I guess) and used its slot for an extra quality time to shorten setup time

1 Like