Gabriel's Judgement

This is an extension of my previously published Gabe denial deck that I have been working on for a while now.

I won't repeat what I've already said, but I'd like to add some extra thoughts and experiences I've had with two more months of testing this deck. I love traditional Criminal builds because I think they're

Core principles of the deck still remain the same: aggressively pressure centrals in the early game, denying the Corp and keeping their economy down and setup for the Apocalypse. The deck has seen some significant changes that I feel have made it a lot more consistent.

Key Cards:

Apocalypse - One of the key cards behind this deck. Allows a complete reset of the board state and gives you a second (possibly third) early game, where Criminals are at their best. I run two copies because I really want to see one by the mid game, especially against asset heavy Corps (NEH, RP & HB Foodcoats), where their economy can really get out of control and a board reset is required ASAP.

Lamprey - Along with Account Siphon, you can really crank up the pressure on HQ and keep the Corp down. I really like holding one of these in my grip and drop it immediately the turn after the Apocalypse and start pressuring HQ.

Eater - I went back and forth between this and Faust & Utopia Shard as my last 3 points of influence, but eventually settled on Eater, simply because Gabe just wants to make a lot of successful runs to land powerful events like Account Siphon, trigger Security Testing and be able to trigger conditional events like Emergency Shutdown.

Drug Dealer - Gives Criminals the reliable clickless card draw they need, at the trade off for credits. With Criminals, this trade off is one that I'll happily take almost all the time.

John Masanori - A new addition to the deck, I've found in testing that this card does heaps of work. You usually make at least 1 successful run each turn and with John Masanori out, that means a clickless card draw per turn which quickly adds up along with the Drug Dealers, allowing you to reliably draw into your key pieces.

Passport & Breach - These mean you will be able to get the Apocalypse down without investing too much into breakers and also get some accesses while doing so. Inside Job is there to keep the Corp honest by double ICEing any agendas they want to score.

Femme Fatale - This previously was an Alias, but I found that I wasn't installing it much and instead just used Eater to deal with Sentries. Femme Fatale has a dual purpose - to act as a Killer if I really need one (i.e Swordsman) and to further pressure remote by forcing the Corp to triple ICE.

Everything else is pretty much standard Criminal tricks for keeping the Corp down. I dropped Legwork down to one from two copies because I found that I actually wanted to draw into it later rather than earlier after agendas have built up in HQ due to economy denial and remote pressure. Usually I get 3-4 agenda points from a single Legwork at a minimum.

Crisium Grid and Caprice Nisei hurt this deck. My approach with Crisium Grid has just been to go in and trash it before going for the Account Siphon, painful as it is to do so.

With Caprice Nisei, Sneakdoor Beta deals nicely with it on HQ, and in remotes, the aim would be try to get the Corp to 0 credits before contesting the remote; there's enough denial in the deck to do so I think. Or, if all else fails, you always have the Apocalypse play.

Sleeve it up and give it a shot; its been surprisingly consistent against a wide range of Corp archetypes. Apocalypse has really helped with its worst matchup which was slow, glacier Foodcoats style decks.