Mac the Knife v2

Personally i think theirs a bigger issue with stealth and that's speed as to get the rig moving you need not only the breakers but also the stealth cards and with cloaks that leads to MU as well all this takes time to setup but give you an amazingly efficient rig.

Am not saying this is right but i would think the best way to speed this up is with an AI breaker maybe overmind as its cheaper to run with and you can scavenge it in to your breakers when its done with. Crypsis is also an option but that's more expensive. also Knight could work as a breaker and suedo parasite as they will probably trash the ice at somepoint.

Your rig looks fine i don't feel BlacKat is worth the hassle. Have you thought about running Box-E as your console for 1influence it gives good MU and plus to hand size is nice. dino is also a good option a feel St 2 dagger can mean you won't need to buff as much and brings Archer in range with 1 stealth cred.

@david_annable Looks good. Experimenting with this myself. I really don't like cloak simply because it is a MU hog. You are forced to run mem chips which slows you down and takes away deck space. Focus on one stealth breaker and use the appropriate hardware. It's simpler and cleaner. I use Refractor with Lockpicks in Kit.

In this case, you chose Refractor and Dagger. Refractor is useful without Stealth (Quandary, Enigma). Dagger is not. Which is why I find it quite cumbersome. Surprise nasty Sentries get stopped by Deus X or Sharpshooter. Most sentries are weak to Parasite (Tsurugi, Komainu, Rototurret). Ask yourself: Which sentries are you looking to break with Dagger? Do you really want to get out Dagger and a Cloak and a Mem Chip just to get past a Guard? You have 5 influence left. There are so many simpler ways.

@krystman I think Lockpick/Refractor in Kit is pretty great and have a deck that works with those too. In Kate, though, I think the speed issue ends up being a bit of a wash. You install Cloaks for free and they can be used with whatever breaker you have out - stealth or not. You may need to meter how quickly you install them vs how much MU you're floating, but with a bit of finesse, I find it works with a fair bit of alacrity.

I prefer not to rely too heavily on Sharpshooter/Deus X for the long game. I also find I still see quite a bit of Caduceus, Data Raven and Guard along with the odd Draco and Shadow. Also, when playing against Jinteki, it's important to keep a Deus recursion handy and not waste them on things like Pup.

I find, in practice, that Deus/Sharpshooter are great compliments for Dagger and the other breakers. Zipping past a Heimdall, Archer, or Janus for next to nothing is very nice. But relying on them as primary breakers is not my style.

@david_annable I understand the concept. Still, with 5 influence left you could replace the Cloaks with Cyberfeeders and the Daggers with Mimics. That would get you through Caduceus, Guard, Draco or Shadow even cheaper and faster. You could replace some of the Mem Chips with some more mufti-access. You'd lose synergy with Refractor but the cases where you need stealth for Refractor are probably already covered with Ghost Runners alone.

Again, what high-strength sentries are you expecting to be breaking with Dagger?

I've been trying out something similar. Do you get use out of Diesel? With ProCo on the table it becomes a bit redundant maybe? With the three and four cost hardware, I've found Modded helps out quite bit.

I'm messing about with a couple of Account Siphons, but so far they're not really doing it for me. I've not been brave enough to try Black Kat yet, but the time is coming "just to see".