Boy Scout Kate (A.K.A. Be Prepared)

--- OVERVIEW --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

This deck is designed with the slightly more cautious/conservative player in mind. It is easy to play, yet still quite competitive. It can handle anything that comes at you, plus it is very flexible, very forgiving, and hard for the corp to shut down. It is also designed to have very little "timing sensitive" combos/strategies, further making it easy to play.

The overall strategy is simple: build your rig and run.

For early game pressure, you have Self Modifying Code and Test Run + Scavenge to get out whatever breakers you need fast, and steal an agenda that the corp may have thought was "safe".

For late game pressure, you have R&D Interface and HQ Interface, allowing you to make single runs that let you access several cards. And those combined with the Woman in the Red Dress, makes for powerful end-game control (how to use the Woman in the Red Dress is detailed further down).

For economy, you have Magnum Opus to do the heavy lifting, with Modded and Sure Gamble to help it along. I usually try to mulligan if I don't have a Magnum Opus (and also don't have a Test Run or Self Modifying Code )in my opening hand, This deck counts on you starting with that economy ready from turn one.

To save creds, you should use Test Run + Scavenge to get your expensive breakers out (like Garrote or Femme Fatale). And speaking of saving creds, don't ever go broke unless you are doing so to steal an agenda, as you always want enough credits to run and steal an agenda that the corp thought was "safe" behind some ice. If you mess this up, you may find yourself behind the agenda point curve and it is hard to recover from that.

For ice breakers, you have a little something to handle anything. Against barriers, you have Corroder. For Code gates, you have Yog.0 to handle an opponent only running low strength code gates (Quandary, Enigma, etc.), and Gordian Blade to handle any high strength code gates (Tollbooths, RSVP, Chum, etc.). Against Sentries, you have several options. You have two permanent sentry breakers, Mimic and Garrote, to handle the low strength and high strength sentries respectively. You also have Sharpshooter to handle any sentries that are trying to destroy your programs, and you have Deus X to handle any that are trying to do you damage. Ideally, you want Garrote on the Dino (that is how I like it), but until that happens, you have these other choices to keep you protected. Lastly, you have Femme Fatales to handle anything big and annoying, like a Wotan or even a Tollbooth. And if your opponent is not using any big sentries (i.e. Archer), you can always just put the Femme Fatales on the Dino and let her be your sentry breaker, saving you the time and creds needed to install Garrote.

For safety, you have several tools at your disposal. You have Clone Chips, Test Runs, and Sharpshooter to handle anything trying to trash your programs. You have Deus X to handle any big Jinteki net damage that threatens to kill you (though, when facing Jinteki, be careful about using the R&D Interface and the HQ Interface, as you could pick up multiple cards that can do you damage, and it will kill you before you know it). You have Plascrete Carapace to handle any Weyland meat damage.

--- IMPORTANT NOTES --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

Woman in the Red Dress is not difficult to use, but you do have to understand how it works. It is important NOT to play Woman in the Red Dress until you have at least one HQ Interface and a full suite of ice breakers out. Once you have that, you put Woman in the Red Dress out. From there, the corp must reveal the top card of R&D at the beginning of your turn. If it is an Agenda, they are going to draw it to prevent you from stealing it with an R&D run (assuming you have enough credits to make an R&D run). But with that, you know it is in their hand and you can hopefully get it with an HQ run or two (with the aid of your HQ Interface). If it is a non-agenda and they draw it, well, then there is a new card on top of R&D you can run... hopefully an Agenda!

When it comes to ice breakers, don’t be too afraid to drop one of your big breakers, like Gordian Blade, Garrote, or Femme Fatales in the Heap. You can always get it later if you need it with a Clone Chip or a Test Run. Don’t hold on to a card you may never need. Get what you actually need at the moment, and come back for that other big breaker later, if you actually need them.

Also remember, that while Scavenge is in here to be used with Test Run, you can always use it to reposition your Garrote onto your Dino, if you, for some reason, had to put the Garrote out before the Dino was on the table. You can also use the Scavenge to trash and re-install a Femme Fatales to give her a new target (a very good way to surprise your opponent and steal an agenda when you have almost no creds).

--- CHANGES & ALTERATIONS --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

Gordian Blade an easily be switched out for Torch. It costs more (clearly), but it takes the same memory, and if you run into a lot of Tollbooths and RSVPs, it quickly pays for itself. But if you use the prescribed Test Run + Scavenge, you can get it out for the same price as the Gordian Blade. This is one of the most likely changes to this deck I might make.

The extra memory in this deck (Akamatsu Mem Chip) isn’t strictly needed. You can have a full suite out without them, as long as you have your Dino out. But they allow a bit more flexibility, letting you have both Code Gate breakers out, for instance, or letting you have your Femme Fatales out alongside your rig. A “Pro” would likely tell you to take the Mem Chips out, but I think they do well for someone who plays a bit more cautious and wants a more forgiving and flexible deck. If you do pull them, a bit more economy never hurts: I would add in a Daily Casts.

I also love the idea of having Morning Star in this deck. You have a “big” breaker and a “small” breaker for each type of ice except barriers. For code gates you have Yog.0 (the “small” breaker) and Gordian Blade (the “big” breaker). For sentries you have Mimic (the “small” breaker) and Garrote (the “big” breaker). Adding Morning Star in as the “big” breaker for barriers just seems right. Adding it in is tricky though, as it requires 4 influence. But you could add it in and pull 2 HQ Interfaces, but this makes Woman in the Red Dress far less powerful. This change might then cause me to replace the final HQ Interfaces with a Nerve Agent to keep the pressure on HQ. But all of these changes now effects your memory balance… it really is quite tricky, and for this reason, for simplicity’s sake, I kept Morning Star out.

Want even more protection? Put one single Net Shield in your deck. This will almost completely shut down any Core Jinteki deck trying to kill you by the death of a thousand cuts.

--- FINAL THOUGHTS --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

All too often, I see folks running as Gabe or Andy, but playing them too conservatively. And it doesn't (usually) work very well, nor is it very fun. And why? Because the Netrunner community, in a cult-like chant, repeats over and over again that an aggressive playing Criminal deck is the only way to win (as the runner). And I admit, I have been guilty of this crime myself.

But the truth is, a player who is naturally inclined to run a bit more conservatively and cautiously will likely play WORSE, not better, with some aggressive Criminal deck than with a deck like the one presented here, regardless of win statistics and tournament results. And chances are, if the deck plays more to their style, they will also enjoy it more.

So many decks are designed to play fast and aggressive, and no one (a generalization, I know) ever even discusses deck builds for players who like to be a bit more cautious and conservative. So I wanted to put this out here. A good, and dare I say competitive, deck, that allows for a bit more flexibility and conservative play.

In the end, you may argue that the overall game meta dictates that a fast resource denial deck is “better”, and you may be right. But for a more cautious and conservative player, this deck will help them win more, and more importantly, have more fun.