[Kate] Redefining Shaper Control Decks

C H A M E L E O N B O Y !

(Yeah, I’m pretty hyped by the LLDS / Chameleon / Autoscripter / Haley / London Library deck)

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Hayley Comet combo: Stimhack/Test Run, the test run triggers to let you install with Hayley’s ability from your grip, which you do with Stimhack credits. Proceed to pillage remote with two surprise programs from nowhere. (Never, ever, ever shake a baby…or try to rush against a Shaper)

Question is, can you use Stimhack money to pay for the Test Run?

Doesn’t work. Each event has to resolve fully before going to the next one.

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So just reverse the order and it’s fine.

I think the first time I go Day Job into Stimhack/TME/Legwork I’m going to shed a tear of joy.

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Haley and/or comet are the first shaper cards that make me actually excited about playing shaper instead of just knowing I can win with them.

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If you do play the Test Run first, can you choose which ability triggers first? Meaning, can you Test Run, the choose to trigger the Cometed Stimhack, and then with the Stimhack money choose to trigger Hayley’s ID? Or naw?

I’m not an expert, but comet requires the event to fully resolve before playing the next event. I don’t think you can regardless of the order you play them.

You test run. Test run resolves, an SMC is installed. Then you have a choice, to use Comet to play another event, or Hayley to install another program. If you choose Comet, you use comet to play stimhack. Stimhack happens, you make a run. You use credits from stimhack to activate SMC. Then, after you install via SMC, I have no idea if there is another window to use Hayley yet. You may have to wait until Stimhack is finished to use the Hayley trigged that is queued up behind the stimhack, or you may get a chance to trigger Hayley during the stimhack, or you may have to trigger Hayley immediately after the Test Run install if you want to use her at all.

The waters of Hayley and the Comet also get very muddy when it comes to Modded.

I think it is safe to say that there will be some way to use these cards with Hayley to great effect, but the timing may be very lax, or extremely sensitive, and I personally don’t know for sure.

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Plus, she’s one of Almighty Zeilinger’s fave pieces he created.

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Hayley’s text reads “the first time you install a program,” and the SMC’d program during Stimhack is technically the second program, so I don’t think you’d get to use Hayley at all then. Probably have to wait for the Stimhack to resolve. Or, naturally, trigger Hayley before the Stimhack.

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Or, as I understood hhooo, smc was already installed a turn prior before you used test run. With that scenario you could test run, stimhack, smc install, install from grip all in one click and with stimhack funds for both installs.

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Huh? Then what program did Test Run install? And still, the Test Ran program is the first program installed that turn, so that’s the install that would trigger Hayley.

Anything installed from an SMC’s paid ability would come after that, and is irrelevant.

(Edit, adding on)
What I think we’re seeing is that Hayley and Stimhack are amazing on their own, without any help from Comet. If SMC is installed on a prior turn, Stimhack can pay for both the SMC’d program and a program from the grip. Same can go with hardware from Personal Workshop, but that’s a bit silly.

This may be an excellent solution to Hayley’s econ problem: give her the full “college experience” with 3 Stimhacks. With just SMCs and her ability, Hayley can leverage Stimhack money more fluidly than CT with her personal workshops.

I’m not even sure if Comet is right for her. Astrolabe’s cheap install cost is better for Hayley, and she needs cards more than she needs to play multiple events.

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Here’s the Kate deck I played in the SSCI. It went 9-2 throughout the event. I like an RDI over an Indexing in glacier match ups. Clot is insanely good and should be included unless the meta is 10% NEH or less. Utopia could be cut for a third Day Job, second Stimhack, or Datasucker depending on your preference. I like having one Plascrete because SE decks are still prevalent enough. One Lady is enough, I never found myself lacking counters.

PPVP Kate w/ Clot SSCI 3rd place

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

Event (22)
2x Day Job (Order and Chaos) ••
3x Diesel (Core Set)
3x Dirty Laundry (Creation and Control)
1x Legwork (Honor and Profit) ••
1x Levy AR Lab Access (Creation and Control)
2x Lucky Find (Double Time) ••••
2x Quality Time (Humanity’s Shadow)
1x Scavenge (Creation and Control)
1x Stimhack (Core Set)
3x Sure Gamble (Core Set)
3x The Maker’s Eye (Core Set)

Hardware (10)
2x Astrolabe (Up and Over)
3x Clone Chip (Creation and Control)
1x Plascrete Carapace (What Lies Ahead)
3x Prepaid VoicePAD (Second Thoughts)
1x R&D Interface (Future Proof)

Resource (3)
2x Same Old Thing (Creation and Control)
1x Utopia Shard (All That Remains)

Icebreaker (6)
1x Atman (Creation and Control)
1x Cerberus “Lady” H1 (All That Remains)
2x Cyber-Cypher (Creation and Control)
1x Mimic (Core Set)
1x Sharpshooter (True Colors)

Program (4)
1x Clot (The Valley) ••
1x Parasite (Core Set) ••
2x Self-modifying Code (Creation and Control)
15 influence spent (max 15)
45 cards (min 45)
Cards up to The Valley

Decklist published on NetrunnerDB.

(Real men play 45 cards)

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The variance still plays a role, regardless of whether you see your whole deck since there is still measurable effect on the probability that you see card X at click T. More so, a 46th card adds more variance than a 61st. E.g. the probability that you’re holding a PPVP in your opening hand decreases by about half a percent. If we were to chart average credit pools between 45 and 46 card decks we would probably see the 46 card deck lagging behind slightly. Now, it’s possible that the deck is fairly insensitive to such a difference, but there is also the possibility that such a lag can have a butterfly effect due to how scoring windows work.

@bblum

Your feature game was just quite atypical and should not be used as evidence. I modelled your accesses very precisely using an agnostic model that I just recently developed (viewing accesses from the perspective of the runner without the “eye of God” spectator advantage). You “found” 5 agendas when my modelling predicts 7.15, so you were actually quite unlucky in that game.

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Really like this list, Joe. My only concern with it is that it seems like you’re putting a of expectation on your two SMC by only running one Lady. My favorite part about the 2 dog/2 cycy version is that you can expect to naturally draw a couple of breakers, which lessened the need for the 3rd SMC. Adding Clot and cutting a dog makes me feel like the plas could become a 3rd SMC.

And congratulations, great showing.

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Don’t you think the amount of variance in how many agendas a given number of accesses will see is much higher than the variance that a 46th card adds to your opening hand? I’d rather take a tiny chance on bad starting hand than subject myself to the whims of the corp’s R&D by playing fewer multiaccess cards, which you’d expect to be “just enough” on an average or better game but fall short on an unlucky game. I play the 4th R&D multiaccess card and the 2nd SOT because they’re insurance that even when RNJesus frowns on me, I can still win.

I do appreciate the mathematical approach. But it’s fallacious (and rather ironic) to dismiss an unlucky game as an invalid example because it was “atypical”, when mitigating variance is precisely what we’re arguing about. In this example, my 46th card decreased my variance.

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Comet has anti-synergies with Hayley. To maximize Comet you want events in your hand, to maximize Hayley you want installable cards in hand. If you don’t have an insane hand limit, you will not be able to fire them both off very often.

If you want more click-compression with Hayley. run a resource variant with all-nighters instead of comet. This will convert her ability to actual clicks.

As I see it, stealth is the most logical choice for her, since it has lots of small cheap pieces you need to assemble. A protege build might also work, with one-shot breakers.

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Does the Test Run resolve after SMC is installed, or at the same time?

installation of SMC completes during the test run. So Hayleys ability will fire before comets.

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You can play a ton of resources and a ton of events with a smattering of breakers/SMC and make use of her ability just fine. QT -> trigger comet to play “resource Modded” -> resource installed triggers Hayley to let you drop another resource. Draw 5 and drop two resources for a total cost of one click and the printed cost of the resources is really strong.

You can also go the Game Day/Beach Party or Public Sympathy route. Game Day being a double is offset by Comet and Hayley, and the fact that it can draw 4-9 cards for one cred.

It’s going to take a while to hash out the best decks for her.

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