[SG+SU21] Spirit Breaker

This deck is only based on System Gateway and System Update 2021. I would suggest to play this after practicing a little bit with the Starter Deck.

A few notes on the deck:

• Overall this is a standard icebreaker deck with some tricks. The aim of the deck is to be able to enter any server spending as less as possible.

• Quetzal: Free Spirit will break one barrier subroutine per turn for free; if the Corp tries to score an early agenda behind one ice, it is worth checking it. We can easily break Palisade, Ice Wall, Ping (taking 1 tag) and Wraparound for free. We can even break Eli 1.0 spending 1. Brân 1.0 will cost us 2 to fully break it. We cannot pass Pharos without some additional help but at least we can facecheck it without taking a tag.

• Botulus and Femme Fatale are our main shortcuts to pass ices without spending much. I know that Femme Fatale can be expensive but it is usually worth it, plus we have ways to discount her. Try to spare Femme Fatale for those ices that could be otherwise really expensive to break. Out of my mind I would say:

  • Tollbooth: bypassed spending 1 and without losing 3 (big deal!)
  • Archer: bypassed spending 4, that is still very cheap compared to using any other killer
  • Pharos : bypassed spending 3, that is very cheap, especially in case it has 3 advancements on it
  • Funhouse: bypassed spending 1 and without taking a tag
    
    

• Retrieval Run gives you some flexibility and allows you to do some tricks:

  • you can trash one Femme Fatale from hand and then use Retrieval Run to install her for free (with a total cost of 3 instead of 9)
  • if in trouble, you can trash an installed Botulus or Femme Fatale by installing another program and then use Retrieval Run to reinstall them targeting a different ice; I know it is a long shot but we don't have Simulchip here :D
    
    

• Buzzsaw and Cleaver are the rest of your icebreakers suite (just remember that Femme Fatale is also a killer!); since our icebreaker are really efficient at breaking subroutines but quite bad at increasing their strength, we have Ice Carver and Leech to support them

• DZMZ Optimizer is basically your console: it gives you +1 and a 1 discount on the first installed program each turn. Since Carnivore is quite expensive, I usually install it in two situations:

  1. I need one more
  2. I am playing against a deck that uses operations either as support to score agendas (like Seamless Launch, Biotic Labor or Trick of Light) or to kill me (Neurospike or Punitive Counterstrike). In that case Carnivore allows us to run HQ and trash those cards. I could play Imp for the same purpose but I already have a lot of programs.
     
     

• Scrubber is here to help you with cards expensive to trash; if R&D is not well protected you can aggressively trash cards from the top of it (when possible, but you also have Carnivore for that) to run again and see a new card

• Finally, Jailbreak and The Maker's Eye are your multiaccess tools; I have preferred 2 The Maker's Eye over a single Conduit (for a total of 4 inf in both cases) because I don't have a tool to search for programs and in addition to that I am already running a lot of programs

Mulligan: Sure Gamble and Liberated Account are your strongest economy. In case of Liberated Account having a Career Fair too is obviously good. Even Career Fair + Earthrise Hotel can be acceptable.