Red Dress Kit; 2nd place, Unique Gifts & Games Store Champio

daytodave 1224

I brought this and my Biotic Upgrades deck to my first store championship Saturday and took 2nd, losing in the finals to Replicating Perfection.

The two main moves in this deck are Stimhack --> Torch, either via SMC or Clone Chip, and Woman in the Red Dress --> Legwork/Utopia Shard.

I find I need Torch in about 60-70% of games that I win, which nicely matches up with how often the Stimhack pieces come out early. The remaining games I get by with Ciphers a scoring server, usually followed with a Legwork a few turns later.

Red Dress came out early enough to matter in 3 out of 6 games, and in those games she did work.

  • They draw an agenda: Hit HQ four times if it's cheap, otherwise Cypher the scoring remote and wait till HQ has 3-4 points to Legwork.
  • They draw a non-agenda: This is basically like having an R&D Interface out for the turn. Go see what the second card is.
  • They leave a non-agenda: This is the most common move for skilled players. It's pure economy; I just saved a click plus the cost of an R&D run. As importantly, I get to click up Kati another turn without risking that they'll draw an agenda.
  • They leave an agenda: The unrezzed remote is a Jackson; go kill it. If it's not a Jackson, that means either they're already agenda flooded or they think I don't have Tinkering/Stimhack in hand. Go get your points.
  • They reveal any piece of a Scorched combo: Click up Kati for like fifteen turns and save Utopia Shard. There was a lot of Weyland, but I managed to not get Scorched just by paying attention to when they draw the combo pieces and running accordingly.

Do all of these things justify her spot over R&D Interface? Probably not, but I think that in the current meta, switching her to the interface would also mean finding room for plascrete.

Utopia Shard was an all-star in every game that it came out.

I found the solution to Constellation ice was simply to run extremely aggressively. Corps are reluctant to rez the non-Astroid Belts unless they will have a big effect, so when I saw advanceable ice I would just run naked over and over until the corp was forced to tip their hand. With 3x Clone Chip and 3x ProCo, Sharpshooter, and Deus X, I was confident I could recover from a nasty facecheck faster than most corps could recover from the investment of rezzing.

Lady only came out in one game, but she won me that game, sniping a Red Dress agenda off the top of R&D through an Eli.

The surprising dud was Sharpshooter. It hardly came out all day, and I found it was rare that a corp could keep up a destroyer that was 1. In server where I actually had to get in, 2. Out of Mimic range, and 3. Not a code gate.

The 3x Diesels on top were a last minute include to try to get the rig out faster, they've since been taken out.

I was worried about Cerebral Static, but it turn out to not be much of a problem. It came out early one game, but I was able to steal a Future Perfect from a remote using 2x Tinkering, Mimic, and Datasucker. Enhanced Login Protocol turned out to be a much greater annoyance, and definitely cost me one, probably two games.

This deck went 3-1 in swiss and 0-2 in elim, both corps in the finals being RP.

Overall I was happy with how it turned out, and happier to win a Kit playmat and box, since I've been playing Kit since almost the beginning. I felt the games that I lost were mostly lost on skill, rather than the deck letting me down, and every game was a blast.

33 comments
10 Feb 2015 BreadRising

As a long-time Kit player, this is fantastic! It's great to see her built in such a unique way. I never considered how well Red Dress works with Kit, but considering she basically makes one big power run each turn, it makes sense that you'd want to know where to best spend that run.

I'll consider trying something similar. Congrats on the good performance!

10 Feb 2015 westonodom

You say that "the most common move for skilled players" is to leave non-agendas on R&D, but I find it to be the opposite. When I'm playing corp against a runner with Woman in the Red Dress out, seeing non-agendas on R&D is amazing. It basically means I never have to click to draw - I've always got my pieces. Then I just draw when I need agendas if necessary.

The next card is only slightly more likely to be an agenda that the top one was before it was revealed by Woman in the Red Dress, so I'm fine with getting a free draw and you spending money to access. How do you evaluate the cost of giving the corp free draws?

10 Feb 2015 xyceres

I'm just wondering if you've tested test run and/or scavenge in this list?

You're already running cycy and lady both of which have very good synergy with either test run and scavenge and the combination of the two can get a torch for roughly what your paying in this list (stimhack+clone chip has cost you 2c less and stimhack+SMC has cost you 1c less obviously you need to spend both clicks on one turn with TR+scav but it also lets you keep hand size).

It could also allow you to lean more heavily on temporary breakers (such a s a 2nd lady which could replace the snowball to make the fracter more credit efficient).

10 Feb 2015 PaxCecilia

@weezeface I think the better question is, how do you, as the corp, evaluate the Runner knowing most of the cards in HQ? I think @daytodave's bullet points explain exactly how he evaluates giving the corp a free draw.

Is there anything in particular you mulligan for? What's a good hand, what's a great hand, what's a bad hand?

10 Feb 2015 LSK

I've played against this deck 3 or 4 times and the Red Dress analysis is spot on. If you're Replicating Perfection you'll gladly draw some economy cards, and if you're Near Earth Hub you'll be happy to get a Biotic from it, but other than that, it's really scary to draw cards with Red Dress because it actually can fill your hand significantly faster than you want your hand to be filled.

10 Feb 2015 konradh

If you are planning on bringing Torch with SMC/Stimhack, why include 2 copies of it and why include 3 Cyber-Cypher?

10 Feb 2015 mmychal

48 cards?

10 Feb 2015 mmychal

Oh you said tht you have since cut the 3x Diesels. I guess that brings you back to 45.

10 Feb 2015 skydivingninja

I used to run a Kit deck with Woman in the Red Dress in the pre-H&P days. It didn't work as well, since I was using expensive HQ interfaces/Sneakdoor Beta to pressure HQ. I'm so so so happy you managed to find success with her. Have all my upvotes.

10 Feb 2015 daytodave

@weezeface I'm basing that on what I saw during swiss vs. elims; certainly not representative of every skilled player.

Don't worry about the likelyhood of the next card being an agenda. The important thing is that you've confirmed that one card isn't, and you get to check a second on the same turn. If the corp's deck is 20/49 then every random card is worth 0.4 agenda points, and you win by getting 17.5 random accesses. The non-agendas that WitRD clears for you count toward that 17.5. Thus, the draw acceleration Red Dress generates for the corp is matched by the R&D dig acceleration that she generates for you.

Furthermore, the money and time you save not running ice on top of R&D allow you to click ProCo a LOT more. Red Dress gives the corp at most 1 click of acceleration per turn, and costs them their secret information. Depending on the cost of R&D, she can easily generate 3-4 clicks worth of value for the runner.

10 Feb 2015 daytodave

@konradh

I don't want to be hosed out of that play if I draw the Torch too soon. Also, after SMC, the second most common way I get Torch out is Clone Chip/Stimhack, and plan C is to hardcast it.

I need the Cyphers to make sure the corp can't land an early Melange or score an important agenda while I'm setting up, and I need to force them to rez ice early. If I draw two CC's I can often save some money by just using them instead of Torch.

Finally, I'll SMC or Clone Chip for a Cipher if I suspect Will O' the Wisp.

10 Feb 2015 daytodave

@PaxCecilia

The most explosive start this deck can make is Sure Gamble, SMC, Stimhack, [Support], and a code gate breaker. Support can be anything you can install: Red Dress and Astrolabe are best, Kati/ProCo are also amazing, Clone Chip, SMC and Deus X are just fine. First turn is Sure Game, install, install and Stimhack for Torch, discarding the other code gate breaker. Obviously you don't do that against Jinteki =)

Against NEH or RP I will mulligan for Astrolabe (I learned Saturday that the deck needs 3 Astrolabe; RP is its worst matchup and the extra speed is simply irreplaceable.)

Other than that I just mulligan for economy. Either Kati or ProCo are fine. Stimhack is fine if I have either SMC, Clone Chip, or Torch in hand. Datasucker is pretty good on turn 1; it cuts my fear of sentries later to basically nil.

Things I definitely don't want to see in an opening hand are the non-code-gate breakers, because I don't need them yet; and Tinkering and Legwork, because I don't want to lose them to Stimhack.

10 Feb 2015 daytodave

@xyceres I ran Test Run + Scavenge in an earlier draft, and it was good, but a very different deck. At one point I had a D4V1D in there, which was hilarious with Test Run against Blue Sun.

This version uses SMC + Clone chip to get maximum benefit out of Stimhack. Getting 9 credits for 0 clicks (remember Stimhack makes a run) is just too absurdly good, plus Stimhack can be used later to get in, whereas the TR+Scavenge credits can only be used to install Torch. I also wouldn't want to go without Snowball or Inti because of all the Ice Wall and NEXT Silver that's out there now.

Another possibility is to go with Gordian Blade over Cy-Cy in a TR/Scavenge build. This way you can upgrade to Torch only when you need it, and only paying 5 credits.

10 Feb 2015 Horse85

Makes sense that RP would be your worst matchup, since they're gonna have the strongest central servers. Have you thought about 1x Spooned and some Same Old Things to keep those big servers in check? Could go down to 1x Legwork and 2x Stimhack since the Same Old Things would support those as well.

10 Feb 2015 daytodave

Same Old Thing is hard to say no to with Tinkering. Right now I think I'm going to try 1x Legwork for 1x Parasite and 1x WitRD for 1x Astrolabe. The Parasite is more attractive only because its recursion, Clone Chip, doesn't take any additional slots.

10 Feb 2015 Dydra

congratz from me on the built .... having issues with the damn RP tax though means this deck won't get through regionals and stuff ... unless something new pops up in the data packs

10 Feb 2015 daytodave

I've had a good share of wins against RP, including at least one against the fellow who won this tournament, the night before. I'm not sure how close that list was to the one he ran Saturday.

I think the answers to RP are: 3x Astrolabe, some form of ice destruction, and actually trashing the damn Sundews. During the final match I made a lot of play errors, especially around how many clicks I needed to play around Enhanced Login Protocol. I think a 1-of Net Celebrity may go in for a Daily Casts next time.

10 Feb 2015 LSK

I wasn't running Enhanced Login Protocol when you beat me on Friday; it's huge, especially when Kit wants to make one big run a turn.

10 Feb 2015 daytodave

For mad true, dawg. Net Celebrity no doubt.

13 Feb 2015 calimn

Doesn't Woman in the Red Dress work against you if the corp has one or more Daily Business Show out? They can pick the revealed card but then also the additional ones from DBS and keep the one they want. Leaves you in the dark as to what they have and gives the corp a really useful free draw.

13 Feb 2015 daytodave

That's true, and something I totally didn't think about. On the other hand, I'm already going to trash any DBS I see with extreme prejudice, so hopefully that will only ever be a problem once.

22 Feb 2015 rcub3

Great deck. Played 3 games with it today, and went 2-1. Only lost to HB EtF because I let my opponent money up freely with 2 Eves. By the time I tried to catch up with Katy/Stimhack, it just wasn't enough to beat Ash protecting the winning agenda. Otherwise, like all good Shaper decks, i had tons of flexibility with my runs.

The only thing i wasn't very excited about was the Mimic/Datasucker combo. How do you play them ? Do you only play them if you are playing both? What if you happen to get them later when it's harder to get sucker tokens? I prob could have played them better, but i was annoyed to hit an Archer with an empty datasucker. Just thought that maybe a single card solution like Femme or Knight or an AI would be a little more flexible? Maybe i just need to decide from early on if i'm cheating them out early or not.

24 Feb 2015 daytodave

Thanks for trying the deck!

The short answer is that you can't run unrezzed Weyland ice without Tinkering, a charged Datasucker + Mimic, or access to Sharpshooter via SMC/Clone Chip, if the ice is second position or deeper and the corp is in position to rez an Archer.

Happily, that's a lot of "Ifs" before you're in trouble. One thing that helps against Weyland is that you're often building up money before you run for Scorched protection anyway, so you have plenty of time to build your Archer suite. Yes, against Weyland, Datasucker tends to be my first or second SMC, and I find that they have to really build their servers expertly to trap Kit in an Archer, and that slows them down.

You've definitely found the weakest part of the deck, though. An early build had Fem over Mimic and found I just couldn't deal with the 6c hit to start breaking Architects, but that was before Stimhack-SMC was added. I'm currently testing a version that makes room for Fem and 3x Test Run, as well as switching out Lady for Atman, and so far it's saved me once against Nebula.

Eve is worth a Stimhack. It's not fun, and it's better if you can also SMC sucker or Mimic on that run, but if you can't afford the 5 creds to trash her, 1 BD is better than letting the corp rez ice and win traces later.

11 Mar 2015 agrajag

Played a bunch of friendly matches with this deck and it's performed great. My one question is how exactly you decide when to pop Utopia Shard. If I know they have SEA Source/Midseasons/Scorch pieces in hand, should I just pop it and hope I hit them with Utopia? Try to get into HQ and steal/trash other cards first to improve chances?

12 Mar 2015 Horse85

@agrajag, here's the thing about SEA Scorch: they're not gonna play SEA until they have enough Scorches to kill you. So once they play SEA, that's when you pop the Shard, hopefully get a Scorch, and then they go, "Oh fuck." Then maybe they trash a resource because you're tagged, but at least you're still alive. And then you remove your tag on your turn. In fact, they might just never play SEA in the first place while you have the Shard out, at least until they maybe find some way of recurring it the next turn.

And this is why I play Midseason Replacements instead.

12 Mar 2015 daytodave

@agrajag, @Horse85's analysis is correct, but leaves out one little thing.

When you suspect SEA/Midseason's -> Scorched you're focused on making a lot of money. If you're not out of tagging range, you're very close to it. That means that in order to land the tag, the corp will have to spend almost all of their money. In other words, SEA, or even Midseason's while you have a Utopia Shard out is a HUGE risk for the corp. I recently won a game by taking 19 tags off of a Midseason's that put the corp at 0c (I had 17) and then running hard over their unrezzed ice. Remember, the corp needs 6 credits to double Scorch you, which means if they go to 0 for the tag, they almost certainly have to choose between rezzing ice and trying for Scorch.

12 Mar 2015 PaxCecilia

Don't forget about Traffic Accident if you're doing the math on what they need after a Midseason Replacements.

12 Mar 2015 daytodave

+1 @PaxCecilia

15 Apr 2015 chiefyk

I copied your deck when I saw it, made loads of changes, then slowly moved cards around and ended up running almost card-for-card your build. I used it to win a Store Championship last month! Brilliant deck.

15 Apr 2015 daytodave

Thank you! I'd love to see what your changes were. I'm currently trying to fit in Same Old Thing for easier access to Legwork and Maker's Eye for something spicy to do when they clear an ice off R&D for you.

15 Apr 2015 chiefyk

I think I was playing the SoT's and R&Di, but found they only served to slow the deck down and even cause suboptimal runs (especially R&Di). It just works as is, I believe I went to 3x Astrolabe though, to guarantee that early game free draw.

Absolutely brilliant deck.

22 Apr 2015 Menome

Hi there, just recently started Netrunner and love the idea of this deck as it uses two of my thematically-favourite cards.

If I was to run this deck now, would you suggest any alterations? I noticed you said you got rid of the 3x Diesel, would you recommend keeping the deck size down by those three cards for a quicker deck-cycle or replace them with something else?

Thanks in advance for any help!

14 Sep 2015 daytodave

Hey @Menome! I'm glad you're interested in my deck.

The meta has shifted quite a bit since I won with this deck, so I would recommend re-thinking it from the ground up. That's not to say you shouldn't try it in its current 48-card form, because you should, to get a handle on how Red Dress works, what you like about it, and what you don't.

Some thoughts for your own eventual Red Dress Kit deck:

  • Resources have taken a hit since I played this. Snatch and Grab, Corporate Town, and the current popularity of Breaking News meat damage decks make Kati + ProCo a much less stable economy. I recommend trying a version with Magnum Opus instead. Choose either Dirty Laundry or Daily casts to sacrifice for the extra memory (and choose CyberSolutions or Akamatsu based on your play style.

  • Mimic + Datasucker isn't currently needed to break most corp decks, especially since you're Kit with Tinkering. I would cut Datasucker for an Atman, which gives you the ability to break whichever 4+ strength sentry they put on a central. Since you know every card the corp draws, you can prepare and hold back a Tinkering or Clone Chip in case they put two big sentries of different strengths in your way.

  • Now you've got another influence point! You can use it on Fem Fatale if your meta's full of Data Raven and so on, or convert Utopia Shard to the third Legwork, freeing up a card slot. If you decide to run Test Run/ Scavenge Fem is brilliant, turning your Test Runs into more Tinkerings. That also enables Lady as your main fracter, saving you money.

  • The strength of this deck is speed; servers go from 0 to undefendable in no time; and the weakness is that if your HQ pressure runs out Red Dress becomes a liability. Thus you ideally want to get to 3-4 points before you bring her out. The obvious choice here is The Maker's Eye.

Funny story, I typed all that out before re-reading your comment and seeing that you're new! Sorry if it's too much of a braindump. Start with this:

-1 Stimhack

-1 Datasucker

+1 Atman

+1 Corroder

Then remove Snowball, Lady, and 1x Red Dress. Now you've got a 45 card deck with a simpler fracter, better sentry handling, and that doesn't brain damage itself quite so much. Good luck!