Iain's Back!

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TheRyanBurke 2003

I've always had a soft spot for Iain. The challenge of deckbuilding with his influence constraint. Intentionally sacrificing the early game for a strong mid and late game. I love working against additional obstacles and seeing what I can do.

Two cards just came out that work wonders with Iain. Film Critic and Drug Dealer.

Film Critic is regular good anyway... At one influence, it is a perfect fit for Iain who wants to deny agendas but not really score them yet. This lets Iain be a little more aggressive in the early game without worrying about shutting off his own ability. Film Critic also pairs perfectly with another Iain standby: The Source. Now we leverage the pressure of The Source without paying the extra cost to steal OR sacrifice our own card in the process. Beautiful.

Drug Dealer is quickly becoming one of my favorite cards in the cycle. It pairs nicely with Iain's typical drip economy. When Iain's ability is on, you can have two Dealers in play and be earning 2 free cards a round instead of 2c. Each pair of Dealer && (Data Folding || Underworld Contact) is a mini pancake. I feel pretty good about ending turns with a hand size that replenishes back to four with my Dealers. Pro tip: spend all your money building your rig in early game so that your Dealers fire first for -0c, then earn money with Folding/Contact/Iain.

Forger is the most economical way to turn on Underworld Contact, so I've moved to that. There's also nice synergy with the B&E breakers, which then synergize with Data Folding. These breakers don't cost money to use either, so those funds go straight into asset denial and stockpiling for Midseason defense. Forger helps defend against the single tag burns like SEA Source and Posted Bounty.

This deck is definitely in the camp of focused, few, high-value runs. We only get so many runs with the B&E suite and backed by Faust for emergencies. R&D is not a huge target here. We're looking to threaten entry into scoring remotes with Inside Job, Faust, and B&E's, which all get in with very few credits on the board. Ideally, the fear of this allows agendas to pile up in HQ. Gang Sign, HQ Interface, and Sneakdoor all help punish this stagnation.

I'm still putting the deck through the wringer, but I'm happy with the core concept. Feedback always welcome!

4 comments
13 Aug 2015 Crashdown

With Faust and Sneakdoor installed, you fall one MU short for Data Folding, even with a Forger.

p.s. no Calling in Favors?

13 Aug 2015 Chuftbot

I've been looking at Data Dealer as a silver dollar pancake as well. Card is amazing.

That being said, I just don't see Faust in Iain being a thing.You would horribly, desperately want a Levy to stay active in the long game, which is when Iain is normally strongest. If you're using Faust as a supplementary breaker you would need something more reliable than the B&E suite. And as @Crashdown mentioned, you'd likely eventually turn off Data Folding.

I think there's some good ideas here, but I don't really see it working without some more reliable breakers.

13 Aug 2015 FarCryFromHuman

I've seen a couple Iain decks over the last couple days sporting New Angeles City Hall alongside Film Critic and The Source. NACH seems like a very good idea to me.

14 Aug 2015 TheRyanBurke

@Crashdown intent here was Sneakdoor as a surprise card, make some HQ runs, then probably gets shut off with an ICE or 2 on archives. At which point a B&E install can erase it and re-enable Data Folding.

@Chuftbot agree Faust is not a main breaker here, only meant to fill gaps with the lovely card draw of Drug Dealer fueling it. I'm still toying with the breaker set and started B&E due to the synergy of link and drip econ.

Thanks for the feedback, all! I'll update with some additional findings in a few days.