Replicator is a good card, promise

Spaceman_Spiff 983

This is a Kate stealth deck that relies heavily on Replicator to power up our rig as quickly as possible. Basic idea of the deck is to install one 1-cost card every turn, pulling the next one into hand to install next turn. Card choice descriptions follow:

Replicator: I think that in 99% of decks this isn't a good card, but we are the 1%. This card is meant largely to augment your clicks so that each of your draws is worth more. Every turn you install a piece of hardware (most of the time for free with Kate) you are pulling out another one from R&D. There are a total of 14 1-cost hardware in this deck which you will almost always want multiples of. There are 19 total cards that Kate can install for free once per turn. The only hardware you won't generally want in multiples is Astrolabe, Replicator, and Plascrete - and it still helps to pull them out of the deck so they don't draw them later. I think that easily half of the strength of Replicator isn't in getting more copies of hardware, but in making your draw clicks much more efficient. It ensures that once you get into the midgame, every draw will be much more likely to get to the card you're looking for. No more drawing unneeded consoles when you're looking for a Plascrete.

Kati Jones - I chose this as economy because you shouldn't be needing too many real-life credits, and it works well for your tempo. Generally on your turn you might install something (search your deck for the other), click Kati, run, draw. Or whatever. Basically just solid economy for a deck that doesn't need very much.

Personal Touch - This card can make your stealth credits go much, much further. RP stacking Tsurugi's? Boost Switchblade to 2 str and get through for 2 stealth creds. Wormholes making you sad? Couple of Personal Touch makes each one cost 1 stealth and 1 real cred. Eli makes you sad? Boost BlacKat by 1 and get through for a single stealth credit.

BlacKat - I know a bunch of people run Corroder over BlacKat, but I think this is the right choice for this deck. You won't be running on tons of actual credits to fuel Corroder, and as I mentioned above Personal Touch can really help boost you past many common barriers.

Most of the other card choices are pretty self-evident. Ghost Runner helps fuel early runs before you're set up. Datasucker has synergies with stealth, but mostly went in because I had spare MU and one inf. Escher won't probably be used in most games, but it will single-handedly win you some games when the corp manages to stack ice in a way that can keep you out.

The deck can get set up surprisingly quickly, but as you might expect it's not going to be super happy to play against something like NEH. The big glaring weakness is a lack of HQ pressure. I personally try and play around this with cheap, repeated runs on HQ early before you set up your R&D Interfaces. It usually ensures that the corp has to devote at least some resources installing and rezzing ice there.

I would love some suggestions or feedback!

1 comments
22 Feb 2015 LSK

I went 5-0 at a store championships with a very similar list: netrunnerdb.com