Industry Secrets (Store Championship Undefeated)

I'm finally getting the chance to sit down and type up the description of this baby, so here goes:

• "First off, why Industrial Genomics?"

A close friend of mine has played PE as his competitive deck since we started the game around a year ago, so I'm very familiar with Jinteki's workings as a faction. He eventually came to the realization that PE as an identity was good, but the same archetype could be run with other IDs. The PE identity ability is only really going to make or break a game if the runner hit a Fetal AI; otherwise, it's just an annoyance that they will plan for. IG makes a much larger impact throughout the game - ignore the card's current text and replace the ability with "Snares and Shocks in R&D/HQ and Ronins out on the field are extremely costly to trash." That's the direction we're running with.

You're playing this like you would normally play PE, for the most part. Score a House of Knives as soon as you're able, (don't be afraid to install it in the open - most runners are too scared of Snares to run an early open remote, and even if they get it, it's only one point.) Get a Komainu/Enigma/both on Archives as soon as possible. In the perfect game, you want a Komainu on each central server.

From there, toss out some Ronins and advance them slowly. Power Shutdown as you're able, especially when you can snipe something important. (Discarding 0 and killing a Faerie, anyone?) During runs is when you're aiming for kills - Hokusai Grid should safely be able to sit in important servers without much trouble, and you want to keep House of Knives counters for when they'll really hurt. Dump your Shocks into Archives as soon as you're physically able, of course.

• "But what about economy?"

Yes, the deck is very light on economy. I didn't find it to be a huge issue; not rezzing much ICE made my credit supply pretty consistently at a decent level. Celebrity Gifting a Snare to scare off the runner is always fun, but be sure to not -ever- show a Scorched, or even Neurals in most cases.

Specific card breakdown:

• Braintrust is a debatable agenda, and you can swap it out for two Future Perfects. I liked having more 3 costers for when I need to work on scoring, (meaning, the runner is playing extremely defensively,) and can bluff one out in the open. It's preference between those two options.

• Fetal AI is a kill card, but you can throw it out if it's on top of a Hokusai or behind a Komainu, (or both!) I scored a couple at the tournament because it was so dangerous to run into it.

• Hostile Infrastructure. I like it because a) it has a high trash cost of its own, and b) it makes trashing a Ronin/Snare/anything else even more costly than it already is. It also helps a LOT against Eater/Keyhole decks.

• Ronin. If you have Archives full of facedown cards, you can just let this sit MENACINGLY out in the open and advance them at your leisure. I had two games where I got double-Ronin kills. They're non-optional.

• Snare! and Shock! are no brainers. Put Shocks in Archives as soon as you're able. Generally, you want to keep Snares in your hand, but if the runner is being aggressive with hitting your remotes, you could throw one out, (again, especially onto a Hokusai if possible.) The downside to installing it rather than keeping it in your hand is that it eliminates the need to trash it, so they'll just ignore the high cost you've been working for and let it sit there.

• Hokusai Grid is the MVP of this deck. At a base trash cost of 4 that will only get higher, it's a guaranteed extra net damage with each run. That means hitting a Snare in HQ will deal 4 on top of any HoK counters, plus tag them. You can put it in a remote along with a Snare or Fetal for a nice little ambush as well.

• Celebrity Gift, Hedge Fun, and Jackson Howard are all no brainers and don't need an explanation. :P

• Power Shutdown is HUGE in this deck. I mean, seriously huge. It synergizes so well with your identity it's nuts. You can snipe something like a Faerie, Cloak/Lockpick/etc., console, or anything else that might be important to the runner, while simultaneously adding facedown cards to your Archives in the process. (Well, not for Faerie, but you get the point.) 3 of these is mandatory.

• Scorched Earth. Probably just as equally as important as Power Shutdown as far as influence spending goes, I got two flatlines in a row with a SE on runners that forgot about Snare/Account Siphon tags. If you're going for a kill with this alongside Neural EMP, USE THE NEURALS FIRST. To give an example, let's say a runner has 5 cards in hand. If you Scorched and hit an I've Had Worse, then they're back up to 4 cards, and Neural EMP won't kill them. If you don't hit the IHW with the Scorched, the Neural will hit it without flatlining them. Hitting your EMP(s) first to get them down to 3 cards before using Scorched will mean a flatline if you don't hit the IHW with the EMPs.

• Enigma. Just one, and you could sub in another ETR ICE if you wanted. I usually throw it on Archives. Nothing too fancy.

• Shiro. A debatable card - I had success with it on OCTGN, then never once used it at the tournament. It can be nice to try and make the runner hit Snares and the like, but once your ambushes are out of R&D, it becomes counterproductive. You could take this out as well for another Neural EMP or Hostile Infrastructure if you like, (I did for another EMP after the tournament.)

• Eli 1.0. I should stress that the point of this deck is NOT to stop them from getting into your servers, but to let them in and punish them for doing so. Eli allows the runner to get in at the cost of 2 clicks if they're willing to spend it, and spending those two clicks to get in only to hit a Snare can win you the game.

• Komainu. Bread and butter of net damage decks, nothing to see here.

• Swordsman. Specifically for hating on Eater, really.

Possible Tinkering!

• Sundew, Shell Corp, and Medical Research Fundraiser are all possible economy cards. I just didn't feel like Sundew was worth the deck space when I tried it initially, since runners tended to trash it regardless of cost, or if nothing else, just spend the click to prevent the credit gain. PAD Campaigns and Mental Health Clinics would also be decent options.

• Shi.Kyu is where I've gotten into a lot of discussions with people. While a lot of folks consider it a staple for IG, I personally didn't find it entirely necessary to get a flatline, but it's still a great option and is a perfectly good addition to the deck.

• Mushin No-Shin. You could use it in the same since that Cambridge tends to, if you'd like, but that'd ideally be for if you're running Future Perfects as well. I'm just not a huge fan of the card, but again, it's another one of those that isn't bad and could be added if you personally like it.

• Architect. Architect gets an honorable mention as it's one of my favorite ICE in the game right now. Putting one of these babies in front of a remote can be devastating - for example, let's say you installed a House of Knives in a new remote with Architect in front of it. The runner goes at the server and can't break it. You now can install a Shock/Snare/whatever over the HoK, trashing it before the runner can access it. You'd have to drop a Power Shutdown, but running one could definitely have some benefit. The downside to this is that it's another sentry, which you're already (comparatively) heavy on compared to the other subtypes of ICE.

• Pup/Inazuma. Cheap ICE that give you some little pokes of net damage. Wouldn't be my first pick, but hey, if you want 'em, go for it.