Ready to play an Iain deck?

Early Game

In the first phase of the game, you want to build your economy engine while keeping them poor. Corporate "Grant" is your restricted card, and it pairs with PAD Tap for a good reason. Obviously you want to install at least one card a turn while it’s up. They scored to clear it? Play the next one and start dripping 2.

The second best card to play to trigger grant is Rezeki. There are two in the deck, since Paragon grants 1MU.

The third best cards to play to trigger grant are Earthrise Hotel and The Class Act. You probably won’t win the game unless you draw at least half your deck. So even if you do happen to install Kati Jones before these two, don’t go overboard with hitting her every turn.

There is never a bad time to Career Fair a Daily Casts.

How to Win

As far as making your runs, your first target is HQ. Whether landing Diversion of Funds, Legwork, or Embezzle, you are going to want to know how easy it is to get in. There is no better card for a facecheck than Bravado.

After making sue there are no surprises you can’t handle in HQ, eventually you lock up R&D and the remote with your drip and Kati bucks. The second Bravado really helps make sure you never run out of steam for the lock.

The deck’s namesake is Buffer Drive which is there to shore up some bad matchups. You have one copy of each breaker, so you will just lose to SDS Drone Deployment without one. It’s also massive resilience against attrition decks. Recursion is just good, programs and events.

Flex spots

• Political Operative: I happened to face a Reduced Service deck on the day, and I still used it on a Daily Quest instead.
• Caldera: I personally have a real weakness against the Jinteki: Personal Evolution Thousand Cuts style. And if the game plan is lock R&D, Kakugo and Snare! (hashtag prevent two) can be tough parts of that plan. Caldera helps tremendously. Frequently just dead though. I enjoyed testing Data Dealer as well with some success.
• Emergency Shutdown: I have a soft-spot for this card, but it should be something else. Boomerang would be the first thing I'd try.

Experiments left to conduct.

I think Stimhack is straight up better than the second Buffer Drive.

This deck should have a Boomerang since few of the cards you bottom with Class Act you truly never want to see. It’s a big help against rush. Maybe more than one, since you would want to see it early, but I'm not sticking with it long enough to figure out.

I think a Reflection / DreamNet version of this deck is interesting. I’d love to revisit after blue re-acquires its unique 1-link card after the Maxwell James debacle.

And finally, "isn’t this deck just better in 419?”