Nexus Kate v2.0

ElderMason 1237

2nd Place at the HAC ANRPC.

I took this and Foodcoats to 2nd in Swiss and 2nd overall. Two of my fellow KC runners finished 1st and 3rd in Swiss with the same list. I made a couple of changes from the worlds list and now I'm confident: This deck is the real deal.

Changes from Worlds: -1 Bookmark, -1 Sacrificial Construct, -1 Imp. +1 Stimhack, +1 Utopia Shard, +1 Mimic.

Edit: Also should be -1 Lady +1 CyCy

23 comments
7 Dec 2015 CodeMarvelous

YASSSSSSSS! that's what I am talking about

7 Dec 2015 ItJustGotRielle

Still rocking that trade in though? How did it survive the cut going into 2.0?

7 Dec 2015 CodeMarvelous

This deck has the ANRBlackhats seal of approval lol.

7 Dec 2015 yokaze

KC Masterpiece. Good on everything.

7 Dec 2015 ElderMason

I just noticed this list is wrong. It should be -1 Cerberus +1 Cyber-Cypher. Will make an OP edit.

@ItJustGotRielle Trade-In is still necessary. It acts as Nexus number 3 and Plascrete number 2 for the Haarp matchup. Mimic had to go in for Architect and Faust is still awkwardly hanging out waiting for the FA match-up. I think he might get switched out for something else but I'm not sure what.

7 Dec 2015 SSniper050

Would D4v1d be worth an include? Dropping the Faust and HQ Interface? Saw the deck ons trea and went to work try to replicate it, so far my only loses have been stupid flatline misplays, otherwise it's walked all over the corp, truly is quite real, thanks KC crew!

7 Dec 2015 ElderMason

@SSniper050 I think HQI is 100% necessary. There were games where I could tell that people were pushing agendas out quicker than they were comfortable doing. I slapped down the HQI and cleaned it out. I might try: -1 Faust, -1 US, -1 Stim and throwing in D4V1D, 2nd Plascrete and put the 2nd Lady back in (or a scavenge).

7 Dec 2015 SSniper050

@ElderMason When I was watching on stream, I thought the last two influence was legwork, so that's what I had in my list, but HQI does feel stronger with this decks power to RnD lock at little to no cost. I've had alot of success with the stimhack, esp vs Blue Sun, but the D4 may cover that gap and with HQI and an extra plascrete, that should cover the flatline/HQ Multi access from Utopia. I'll test out the changes you recommended.

7 Dec 2015 AnarchProblems

Trade-In is a solid utility card for this deck. The primary function in the deck is becoming a Security Nexus if you don't find one of the two early. However, if not needed for that, it becomes a Plascrete Carapace against matchups that need it and it turns Plascrete Carapace into HQ Interface or R&D Interface in matchups that don't need it.

8 Dec 2015 xyceres

While I agree Trade-in is solid util for this deck has anyone else tested Tyson Observatory. The fact you don't need to lose an installed hardware and it's reusable if nessacary (could find both rabbit hole and nexus and/or your one off hardware) seems to be a little nicer even if it's a little slower (2 clicks for trade in vs 3 for Tyson for 1 hardware)

8 Dec 2015 Saan

@xyceres I think Tyson is not that great in this deck simply because there are really only 2 cards you need to find in most matchups: Security Nexus, and Rabbit Hole. There are other good pieces of hardware in the deck, sure, but none that you actually want to tutor for (especially when that tutor costs 3 total clicks and the full install price). Once you have found those, Tyson just sits around being useless. With 3 Diesel, 2 Quality Time, and 3 Earthrise Hotel, finding Rabbit Hole shouldn't be hard, since there's 3 of them, so that usually just leaves Security Nexus as a target. At that point, the extra three clicks and a credit that it takes Tyson to find the one card it's usually useful for seems like kind of a poor trade over Trade In. If you're against a deck that's trying to kill you, Plascrete becomes another good target, but I don't think one additional target against a single archetype is enough of a benefit to warrant it's inclusion over Trade In. Trade In has the downside of requiring another hardware to be sacrificed, but since you get some of the cost refunded, I don't think it hurts as much as Tyson's slowness.

10 Dec 2015 TheTick

I put together a list similar to this and played it last night. Apparently, I haven't wrapped my head around it yet as I was abysmal. I felt like I was floundering the entire game against my opponent playing a SYNC fast advance deck. The idea of the deck is great though so I think I'm going to soldier on and see if I can figure out how it ticks. Someone in another comment mentioned a stream that featured either this deck or one similar. Is there a link to that? Seeing it in action might help get things to dawn for me. :)

10 Dec 2015 TheTick

I found the Team Covenant video for the Top 8 of HAC ANRPC so I'll check that out.

12 Dec 2015 pj123

Great deck, I think the standard Kate is no longer adequate for current glaciers, and this looks like a great improvement.

Have you considered playing GS Sherman instead of Lady? The influence could be taken from Faust, which can be replaced by Sharpshooter. Also why no Underworld Contact?

12 Dec 2015 WaltDixie

I'm getting really depressed from all the Shaper Nexus decks running around. There is really no possible counter. Trash? Lab dog allows to trash 1 hardware but on the runner's turn - he will probably have rabbit hole installed by then. Shattered Remains? But it's a Shaper deck, after getting hit with shattered against 1 corp they will remember just to go with rnd interface and forget about most remotes. Plus it will probably get you at most 2 rabbit holes ... again.

Power shutdown of course doesnt work for the same reason. A combo of all the above (which would result in trashing those rabbit holes, 1 nexus, 1 rnd interface) is unworkable. Then if you dont survive long enough, they will just need a levy to have it all come back again...

Not trashing? Since it's bypass, any non routine effect like Tollbooth doesn't fire. Meaning that you need at least 2 ice to protect a sensitive server, and most likely one of those ice will have a mild effect that the runner can easily deal with.

Just paying with creds? Maybe but ive not found a way to setup such that this is in the advantage of the corp.

The only conclusion is to ignore the card, let it bypass and allow each server's first ice to be broken fast and be exposed, after which finding the right breaker and/or something like cutlery event is only bound to happen. Meaning that slow advance weyland or any type of glacier can't handle this single(!) card, and will likely lose discounting for bad drawing hands. And will thus only reinforce fast advance decks, 1pointer agenda kill decks, which were already a bit too frequent in my point of view.

12 Dec 2015 ItJustGotRielle

Thanks to this deck I now slot Net Police. Come get me, nerdbears

13 Dec 2015 Krams

@WaltDixie If your corp deck can't handle that single card, there's an easy tech for Security Nexus: Surveillance Sweep! As long as that current is out the Nexus doesn't work at all, unless the runner is absurdly rich or has waaay more than 5. Yes, I know, the 3 inf is overpriced and that really hurts. But it's not like the Nexus is a cheap splash, either...
Other than that: just try stacking more and smaller ICE. It helps against Nexus and a lot of other overplayed runner strategies in the current meta.

14 Dec 2015 Groober

@waltdixie this deck is way, way worse vs fastro than standard Kate. Opus eats clicks and set up takes long. I think you probably need to play at a higher tempo as Corp. Or just win psi games.

17 Dec 2015 RedNomad

Having played around with this a bit, the HB Glacier matchup feels really sluggish. Setting up your combo takes quite long and 14-3 credits at best, and then you need a decent amount of cash to disincentivise the corp from boosting the trace. As you state the deck is meant to deal with glacier, could you elaborate on how you make that work?

31 Dec 2015 tzeentchling

Predicting this becomes the popular way forward for Kate decks under NAPD Most Wanted. Clone chips are nice but not absolutely needed, Lady can become Snowball or something else. Honestly, dropping Utopia and HQI gives you the influence hit of 2 clone chips and the Lady.

1 Jan 2016 podoboyz99

Or you could, just, like, take the infuance hit and drop the Stimhack and Faust.

4 Jan 2016 jwilks

How do you care against fastro? I'm having a lot difficulty in that match-up with this build.

16 Jun 2023 adamusa

This is one of my favorite decks. This deck has many very interesting things mapquest directions that you can explore.