Take Six, Run R&D: A Nexus Kate Primer

StimHack.com
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Originally published at: Take Six, Run R&D: A Nexus Kate Primer - StimHack

Discuss the latest article here.

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I’m interested by some of the matchups he discusses; I didn’t Blue Sun with Boom! or any of those Gagarin decks were a thing. Can anyone enlighten me? I’d love to find a good Weyland deck other than Argus kill.

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BS Boom is deff a thing, but a lot of people are keeping their lists semi-secret atm, with World’s looming on the horizon. The Gagarin deck he’s talking about appears to be some kind of Tubs variant, based on the cards he mentioned, although I think that deck is bad right now with all the Temujin running around.

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Great article!

I started piloting Nexus Kate recently, largely prompted by CtM, the main differences in my build being:

  1. Relying more on breakers with Nexus as later efficient backup (paid influence for corroder/shrike/mimic, dropped to 1 copy of Nexus, but with Artist Colonies + Fan Sites, and an Akamatsu Mem Chip.) This is probably a mistake, but I haven’t become comfortable relying on Nexus early simply because of the install cost, which can be such a huge tempo hit. On the other hand, it lets you facecheck ice painlessly which can slow the corp down a lot, too.
  2. Sure Gamble over Modded. Especially with Kate giving a 1c discount, the only real targets I had were RDI, Opus, Nexus, and Shrike. Shrike is usually installed via SMC, Nexus is often installed via AC, and Opus is installed only once. I’m thinking of replacing this with Dirty Laundry or Underworld Contacts so it’s not bad post-Opus. I do like my relatively low reliance on resources versus the popular All-Seeing I (mostly Beth/AC), though, so we’ll see.
  3. No NACH (I do have FC though, so this would be a trivial change)
  4. 1 Temujin Contract. With AC + FS, I can fetch Temujin if I’m poor, have an explosive start if it’s in my opening hand, or just get an R&D discount for several turns. It of course shines against asset spam, and is completely nuts in general.

Changes I’ll make now: Drop Mimic (it feels bad playing this when I also have Shrike,) add NACH, drop my 1 Patron I was testing (Earthrise is just miles better), and either drop 1 CC & add Vamp or add Employee Strike. (I’m at 46 cards with 1 Freedom Through Equality.) Edit: And switch Sure Gamble -> Dirty Laundry.

I have little doubt your version is stronger (I don’t have much experience with the deck and I’m no pro) so I could just copy it, but I think learning my flaws by experience will be a more rewarding teacher. That being said, I’ll be keeping your version (and its reasoning) in mind as I tweak mine.

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As @Saan mentioned, Blue Sun Boom is a thing, but people are being relatively tight-lipped about it. The Gagarin deck I was referring to was the evolution of Hot Tubs, but yeah, it’s not very good right now. The article was written over a couple weeks, and the meta has shifted a bit in that time.

@EnderA, glad you liked the article! Those changes sound interesting, I may have to try out some of your ideas! One thing I would suggest against though, is playing 46 cards. I think some decks can get away with it for sure, but for a deck like Nexus that really can’t function without Magnum Opus, you don’t want to reduce your odds of getting it in your opening hand at all.

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Thanks for the time and effort put into this article @dogs . Nexus Kates gave me a fair amount of grief last SC season. While I’m not exactly looking forward to round 2, this article is a boon to the SH community.

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Wish I had seen this before the stream! I love it and it’s definitely making me rethink the list I’m running. Well done! I

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@dogs I completely agree in the long run, but an extra card lets me test one more card at the same time, expediting the evolution of the deck. E.g.: Now I know Patron is bad.

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I actually appreciate the breakdown of the corp meta. That’s almost more useful as a general reference than the guide on the deck (though it’s a useful guide anyway).

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I’ve been thinking for a while that I should try this out, since I haven’t played it or faced it yet. This is a great primer and a good reason to pick up the deck. Thanks!

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Thank you for the article! I love Nexus Kate and have been playing it almost exclusively for the last few months. I hadn’t considered Underworld Contacts but will try that as a replacement for the burst of Sure Gamble.

Have you considered Salsette Slums as a tech card against CTM and the IG49 net damage builds? I know that CTM feels like a blank ID after you get your Rabbit Holes down, but Salsette can blank the ID even before you get your link online. I find that I struggle against the recurring net damage of the prison style decks and being able to exile Museums and Bio Ethics while avoiding the Hostile Infrastructure damage might improve the matchup slightly.

Speaking of recurring damage, any thoughts about the Builder of Nations matchup? Since I don’t run Levy, the constant pressure of meat damage can be daunting. Is there any advice other than: get your bypass set up and make runs for 3 or 4 card digs into R&D?

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@lag0s Thanks, I’m glad you like the article! I hope you like the UWC swap. It definitely isn’t an auto-swap so it may not work for you, but I think it’s worth testing.

To answer your questions, I don’t think Salsette Slums is a very good include. At 1 influence it might be okay, but Employee Strike similarly blanks CTM before you get link down, and does more work against other Corps, and costs half the influence. Similarly against IG49, trashing things is a lot easier when IG isn’t boosting the cost of doing so. At any rate, I think that trying to control the asset spam of IG is mostly a lost cause. Your best strategy is to either turtle up with money and net damage protection, or to rush like mad and hope to score out as fast as you can.

I’ll admit I haven’t played against BoN yet, but I think that yeah, the best strategy is to just wait to get set up, and then run for multiple cards. Trying to compress multiple runs into a single turn is useful. And, Vamp can be big if they’re not on space ICE, as preventing them from rezzing means preventing them from triggering the ID ability. Incidentally, this is another matchup where Employee Strike will solve a lot of your problems! Also, in case you aren’t aware: BoN has been errataed, so it triggers after an encounter with advanced ICE ends, rather than at the beginning of the encounter. So, bypass won’t prevent it from firing.

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