A:NR rule-book suggests that beginner runners should start with Kate. Although Shapers seem as the most powerful out of the core box as the game progresses - because of Kate's ability and general economy - Criminals are a pain in the ass with all their tricks and surprises. After a lot of deck-building, I experimented with all 3 IDs within the core set and Gabe became my favorite once I splashed a Gordian Blade in his deck. Noise is also good in a chaotic way, but kind of weak in the core set. I made this deck in order to help beginners with Criminal strategy; run often and use all tricks in your disposal.

Hardware + Icebreakers

• 2x Corroder (Barriers)
• 1x Gordian Blade (Code gates) - I'd go for two, but takes too much infl.
• 1x Femme Fatale (Sentries, Tollbooths and such)
• 2x Ninja (Sentries)
• 2x Crypsis (AI)

Find breakers, either by digging or using Special Order. Crypsis is not a very good card for late game, install if you draw it early otherwise go for the good rig: Corroder - Gordian Blade - Ninja. Femme Fatale can replace Ninja mid-late game once the big ICE is rezzed like Tollbooth, Archer, Hadrian's Wall, Wall of Thorns, Heimdall 1.0 etc.

Full rig needs 5. Desperado or Akamatsu Mem Chip will provide with 1 extra necessary to install a Sneakdoor Beta. They really think they protected HQ with a 3 deep fort? Install and mash the card 3 times in the same turn and laugh your ass off stealing all the agendas that piled in their hand, scared of your Inside Job.

A console is very important for the runner and it's a shame the core set only has 1 of each. I included Desperado only, since Grimoire is useless to Criminals and The Toolbox is VERY expensive.

Economy

• 3x Sure Gamble - burst 12
• 2x Account Siphon - at least 8 profit each. 10 stolen, 2 from Gabe's ability, -4 removing the tags. It can go up to 13 with Desperado running and tag denial or removing the tags via Crash Space.
• 2x Bank Job - Corp thinks is too smart to leave its PAD Campaign unprotected?
• 3x Armitage Codebusting- Mandatory card for Criminals
• 3x Cyberfeeder - Recurring economy for Runs.
• 2x Stimhack - 9 & brain damage...best use late game when they think they have a scoring window.

Opponents

• [HB]: Run first click; Bioroid ICE subs can be broken by spending clicks and anything nasty like Ichi can be avoided. Be smart not to fall prey to Aggressive Secretaries, if the advanced card in the remote looks easy to access, call their bluff and don't run it. Looks like a scoring window? Stimhack!.
• [Jinteki]: You can always economically outrun them. Always keep them poor so they can't fire Snares or Junebugs. They have enough to fire snares? Land an Account Siphon and roam free. Use Infiltration for dangerous remote servers. Bank Job works great against them. You can even go Tag-Denial since they don't have ways to punish tags aside a scored Private Security Force. Never run with less than 3 cards (Snare!) and never end a turn with an empty hand or Neural EMP goes pew-pew.
• [NBN]: Remove tags immediately for they might carry Scorched Earth and other nasty stuff such as Closed Accounts / Psychographics. ICE is not dangerous and economy is weak. Face-check everything and try to lock their R&D.
• [Weyland]: Remove tags immediately. SE can ruin your game. Not easy to keep them poor so improve your table until they build their remote fort and use Inside Job. Forged Activation Orders is nice early game to get rid of "investment" ICE like Archer, Hadrian's Wall etc...