IG Kill Deck

Listening to Steven Wooley’s discussion on Industrial Genomics on the latest episode of Run Last Click inspired me to post the Industrial Genomics deck that I have been running for the past few weeks. In about twenty games on OCTGN it has lost only twice, one of which I attribute to really crappy draws; and the other to supreme piloting skill by my opponent.

This deck presents the runner a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” situation. Step one in this game plan is to fill archives, preferably with Shocks! and a Hokusai Grid installed on Archives. The preferred method of doing this is overdrawing with Jackson Howard. This does two things: drives up the trash cost of your other assets as well as hopefully putting one or two Shocks! in your archives. The other thing you are looking for is Punitive Counterstrike. One thing you’ll notice about all the agendas is that they require the runner spend money in order to steal (minus Utopia Fragment). This will make the trace much easier for you. If you have a credit advantage and believe you can pull it off, let them take a few agendas. The Shocks! plus the Hokusai Grid followed up by a Punitive Counterstrike is usually enough to flatline most runners. If they refuse to run archives then lay out some Ronin’s and Cerebral Overwriters and slowly advance them. Chariman Hiro and Ronin provide a nice one-two punch and can be supplemented with a Neural EMP to finish them off (assuming they made a run).

Another thing slightly unique about this deck is that it is capable of dealing all three sources of damage to the runner: net, meat, and brain. Many people I have played do not expect meat damage out of Jinteki and usually toss their Plascretes unless they get a peak of a Punitive counterstrike first. Something important to keep in mind when playing Ronin’s and Cerebral Overwriters is to remember what your opponent has seen first. If they trashed a Cerebral Overwriter already, you may be able to play that Ronin unprotected and double advance it without fear of them running. On the other hand, if they have only seen Ronins, you may be able to slowly advance a Cerebral Overwriter and something else capitalizing on the Runner’s fear of a double Ronin kill. I have had runner’s run on a Cerebral Overwriter with four advancement token on it before. Needless to say, the game ended soon after that.

One problem this deck has is if the runner sees too many of your cards and realizes what you plan is, they may just sit back and let you mill yourself; or even actively mill you such as is the case with Noise. Another problem is if all three of your copies of Jackson Howard are on the bottom of the deck then it can lead to a very rough game. In order to remedy these problems, I put in two copies of Executive Boot Camp and committed the cardinal sin of increasing the deck size from 49 to 54. But I think with a deck like this where you want to draw often and early, it just makes sense. It has not been uncommon to have 10 or less cards in R&D by the end of the game. Some of the toughest games I have had were against Whizzard running Imp. In this match-up, you need to play a little slower and ICE up your remotes. Don’t be afraid to purge either. In many cases, stalling can actually benefit you by filling up archives more and collecting money from your assets.

Give it a try and let me know what you guys think! I have had a blast playing this deck. - See more at: http://teamcovenant.com/relish84/2015/01/25/industrial-genomics-kill-deck/#sthash.uBoI09xs.dpuf