"I live for the Applause , Applause , Applause!"

This deck is a project that I have been working on since Smoke was spoiled. I have not put this much work into a deck since Noise.

Special thanks to @seamus who listed to me gripe, helped my edit, and added the Indexing and Freedom combo to the deck. He was integral in the testing and adjustment of the deck. @Seamus also piloted this deck at a store championship this weekend and went undefeated.

At my SC (20 Players) It went 5-0 in swiss and lost one game in the cut to land me in second.

RESOURCES

Beth Kilrain-Chang Is a solid card that lets me set up faster and pressure more when the corp is ahead.

Daily Casts is good drip money that doesn't cost me a click.

Film Critic helps with TFP, deals with wild Punitive decks, and keeps New Angeles City Hall on the table so I don't get tagged.

Ghost Runner gives me more pressure power and flexibility early to start Net Mercur. It also helps for the big dig to close when they armor up R&D.

Hunting Grounds is good for what ails you. I cannot articulate how critical this card was to the performance of this deck. It blanks Data Ward and deals with Raven/Tollbooth/Komainu inexpensively.

Hopefully no one is surprised that Net Mercur is the core of this deck. The key it to make sure that you split your focus between draws and money. Early I focus on draws while maintaining necessary stealth, late I build money for the close.

New Angeles City Hall is a card that I didn't want to include but is a necessity when dealing with HHN and other tag sources. Remember you can use Net Mercur bucks for anything including preventing tags!

Patron was the original draw engine of the deck but with testing @seamus and I realized its effect is good as a one of but not as something you depend on. You can use it to pressure ice rezzes and it helps you Temüjin Contract archives without hitting Shocks.

Temüjin Contract is a fantastic card I have heard. It gets better when you don't pay real money to get into servers.

PROGRAMS

The original list ran Paperclip but I found Ele "Smoke" Scovak: Cynosure of the Net cannot bear many tempo hits. With the lower influence cost and lower install, Corroder slides into my fracter slot. Blackstone is too hungry for stealth credits to fit into my list.

Houdini and Refractor were in a grudge match the entire time I was testing. They are both strong here and both have good/bad matchups. Honestly, both are fine. Make the call based on your meta. At the SC, Houdini and Hunting Grounds did a tremendous amount of work.

Switchblade I found was better hands down to Dagger as multiple sub sentries are everywhere.

I have only 2x Cloak because with Mercur and GR I can keep my rig afloat without it. My console taught me to be lean and mean with stealth bucks and waste no runs.

Clot was slotted because people seem keen on cheating out agendas in yellow and purple these days. Important game point: you have to be willing to trash a cloak to Clone Chip Clot back into play. Deal with it and manage your stealth credits well from that point. Side note: no one is running CVS right now.

Self-modifying Code is a good green card.

EVENTS

So "Freedom Through Equality" is one of the closing pieces of this deck. It closes the game sooner against yellow and purple. It synergizes well with Indexing and won me all but two of my games. I hold it until I know it will fire.

Diesel gives you flames. I usually mulligan for this or Temüjin Contract in my opening hand. Preferably both.

Did you guys know that Mercur bucks can be used to fire off a Dirty Laundry when you are at zero credits. Its pretty rad and it makes people mad when you fire DL or Sure Gamble with imaginary money.

Indexing is the main closing condition of this deck. True to the stealth decks of the past, I remote camp and go for high impact runs on centrals. For me that means Temujin runs, keeping the corp honest in HQ and setting up for a 3 or 5 point Indexing/FTE turn. When you remote camp and clot lock, a lot of agendas end up being shuffled back into R&D. When the time is right you Index, FTE and then use R&D Interface to close the game.

HARDWARE

For console I decided against Mirror and went with Astrolabe. This decision was threefold: Mirror is a tempo hit, Mirror's ability did not come up enough, Astrolabe helps me set up faster. If you play stealth, you know that not being set up is why you lose. I will take the lighter memory for the lighter cost and the acceleration. Basically I wanted a console that I never questioned whether it was the right time to install.

Clone Chip accelerates your set up against non FA and maintains Clot lock against FA. It also gives you a way to deal with Marcus Batty and a program trash in general.

A single R&D Interface is all the tempo hits this deck can afford. Its good pressure and you will see it with so many sources of draw and a 40 card deck.

FINAL THOUGHTS

This deck aims to come out of the gate fast and maintain pressure while building a complete remote lock. Play methodically and make sure to balance pressure and board state. Don't risk losing New Angeles City Hall too early. Stay above 8 total credits between your pool and Mercur and you become nearly impossible to tag.

Several other players at the tourney were playing The Gauntlet which is strong. My loss that kept me from winning was because of it, however, it doesn't fit with the aggression game I am playing.