Spooky IG aka The American Dream

This is my version of the IG Choke list that theBigBoy and Calimsha have been quickly popularizing. I took it to 5th/6th at the Team Covenant Tulsa Regional. I had 2 unfortunate games in top cut (well, one unfortunate, and the other where I was just downright slaughtered) and was swiftly eliminated. First I'll go over some of my card choices and then I'll give a game breakdown.

At the core of this deck is the Mumbad City Hall. This tutors and installs/plays some crucial cards and I'm sure we're all aware by now. Basic line of play is to spam install off of this when the window opens (meaning you know they can't immediately respond), then proceed to Heritage every turn until you find the pieces for your choke (Bio-Ethics Association, Genetics Pavilion, and Hostile Infrastructure).

I went with ELP as my current because I feel like it compresses click in a way that is very difficult to deal with. I snagged 2 of these because Employee Strike can be a problem and you want to keep that off the board.

Hive is a great piece of ice. Slot it. Whizzard can't break it safely and if you have Hostile Infrastructure up, he takes damage trashing it.

2 Komainu was the right call. It does work similarly to Hive.

I think that's most of the cards I added that veer off from the norm. I went to 54 cards because with Heritage being spammed, you have a pretty good consistency. I used the slots for a 2nd caprice, a 2nd Genetics, and the 2 Neurals which are crucial to closing the game out under time.

Tricks I use:

Against Whizzard, never install a Crick on Archives. You don't have enough to tax all his D4V1Ds, so just don't bother. Making him spend 2 cards to break it on R&D/HQ is way better. Instead, install Komainu on Archives. All day, even in top cut, players installed D4, then ran Archives only to be greeted by a Komainu. They promptly jack out afterwards.

Don't declare when you click Mumbad City Hall. Search R&D, look at the top 3 cards. If you want them, play Heritage with the tutor. If not, grab a temple or museum. Keep in mind you shuffle AFTER you add the card to the top of R&D with Heritage.

Don't just spam assets. If you think there is a chance they can trash it, don't waste your Bio-ethics to ping for 1. Let them come trash your turtlebacks and even your Mumbas. When they can't keep up with you, install the City Hall and start jamming the museums.

How my day went:

This is where I confess that I only played 3 games in swiss. I had a Bye, then ID'd the last round. But the deck is still strong.

First game: Playing against a Noise (I forget the player's name, but kudos for him for keeping his spirits up during this slog. He said he loved the game and thanked me for playing quickly. Great guy and I wish I remembered his name). His mills were lackluster. I hit his Levy and Deja Vu towards the end and choked him out. He YOLO'd R&D at the end and I misplayed and forgot to rez Hostile. He trashed 2 Bio Ethics (which I reinstalled off the crick he was letting fire), and played a psi game off TFP for game. I won and killed him the next turn. Imp can only keep Noise in the game for so long. It's a very tough matchup, but utilize your windows without Imp. Might be worth spamming Neurals at him mid-game to ping Deja Vu.

Game 2: This was against Jeremy Bright at Table 1 (Was on the stream). He apocalypsed me very early, but I only lost a turtlebacks and some Mumbas, I think. Then I found the bio ethics and hostiles. I installed 1 hostile. He popped Hyperdriver and tried to Same Old Thing Apoc me, I rezzed Hostile and he just came and trashed it and drew. I saw the 2nd Hostile, and he did the same thing, only this time he didn't trash it. Seeing as he had nothing on the board and no credits, I jammed all 3 Bio-Ethics and quickly closed out the game.

Game 3: Bradley McPherson. Another Noise matchup. He kept me on the ropes early with a lot of Imps and some timely Archives runs. Eventually, however, I got the choke set up and neural EMP'd him down.

Top Cut:

This is where my deck started to flounder. I don't think it's the list (cue the 'IG Can't Win in Top Cut' haters).

Round 2 was against a Whizzard slotting Employee Strike. I drew all my important assets early and he checked every remote. I couldn't find Jackson to set up a suitable archives. By the time I finally had some trash in there, he played Employee Strike over my ELP. I had thrown the 2nd ELP away earlier since I had all my important assets in HQ. With no Jackson in sight, he quickly disassembled what small board I had managed to set up and won 7-0. I was digging hard for snare/Jackson/Econ, but none of it was to be found. The player played the matchup well, caught some breaks on my draws, and had the right tech.

Round 3: I played against Sam Suied (the eventual runner up). I got the board to where I wanted it pretty quickly. I found the hostiles and bio-ethics on time, but the Genetics Pavilion was late. I got one on the board right before he Levy'd. He was able to trash it, go down to 0 cards, then Levy anyway. I shuffled it back in and found both this time. I installed them and started to apply the choke. Eventually, he ran and trashed 1 with 3 cards in hand, firing I've Had Worse. He draws 3 new cards, and I rez the 2nd Pavilion. He credits up and passes. Time is called on my turn. I ping him for 3 (with 2 Neural EMP in hand) and unfortunately he top decked another IHW for draw 3 (since Genetics does not fire on the corp's turn) and he won on time.

Playing against this list:

I think people didn't run my HQ enough in the early game. Sure, and early snare can hurt, but it really sinks my econ if you can make me fire it and stay on top of my turtlebacks before Archives is a mess. I don't think anyone poked HQ aggressively all day except Round 3 when Noise had Lamprey, but it was so late in the game I had cleaned up HQ to be what I wanted it to be.

Kill Mumbad City Hall. Running archives and trashing all 3 museum is great. Until IG Jacksons them back in, and triple clicks MCH to install them all again.

Don't be scared to facecheck ice, specially with Mimic out. The worst that happens is a Komainu. This obviously should be ignored with Genetics Pavilion on the board.

Ping R&D as often as possible and as early as possible. Treat their end-game as an inevitability and try to score 7 points as fast as possible. If the game goes 30 minutes, there is an extremely high chance you die. Push the pace a little too fast and get out of the game ASAP.