Eastern Bloc B****es Go Hard

Stealth Shaper has a unique playstyle. The old TWA builds prioritised an intense R&D lock that could dig deep cheaply, using R&D Interface, The Maker's Eye and Indexing. Sort of like what Git Gud Kit does.

This is something else. This build should be able to deal with any matchup. Net damage, meat damage, glacier, tagstorm. All the tech cards are in there.

I find that the old truths of running are particularly true here. A lot of leverage comes from being able to build a position that comfortably camps the scoring remote, until ready to attack R&D or HQ. The way stealth decks fundamentally disrupt a corp is in breaking ICE more cheaply than we reasonably should. That means forcing ICE do be rezzed for tempo control is a real thing. As a result, this feels a lot like a criminal deck sometimes, in that way (and you could easily slot 2 Account Siphons in here).

Indexing and Bhagat are amazing together. The control feels exceptional. Mirror supports those Indexing repeat runs. Hostage is a natural fit for all the high impact connections in here.

Bhagat might not let you see more cards, but it's one hell of an HQ threat. That said, I've considered dropping Bhagat and R&D Interface for two of The Turning Wheel and swapping the Mirrors for two of The Gauntlet. Another swap I've considered is Switchblade for the Dagger.

There's a lot of regular money cards in here because money still matters - for trashing, kill traces, Observe & Destroy style cards.

There are duplicate breakers because this deck has no recursion, and because being able to draw into breakers is easier in a 40 card deck. Dai V is the fall back, or a solid choice vs some ICE like Komainu, Tsurugi, Ashigaru, Spiderweb, Hive and Tour Guide, that would normally be very taxing vs stealth breakers.

All in all, this is my favourite new runner deck for a while. I feel like I'm playing old school Netrunner again. And that feels good.