Industrial Thumbscrews 2.0 [59 Cards / 10 Agendas]

The lab security personnel are carrying away another stretcher. The white sheet is quickly turning red where there had been a head before. How many had it already been this night?

White enters the frequency room. A man that he has never seen before is sitting on the mechanical chair, naked, shaved head, sensor beads on his skin. He is still breathing, but for how much longer? This time it has to work; but if not, the next test subjects are already being prepped in the air lock.

They would be able to continue like this for weeks.
But at some point, someone would be asking questions...

If you had the courage, where would you run?

I fell in love with Industrial Genomics since its release. Back then I couldn't fully appreciate how much of a monster it would turn out, initially thinking it would be the perfect ID to protect cards you didn't want trashed, such as the executives. I used to run Director Haas in this deck, making Archives a glacier nightmare so as I could operate on 4 clicks a turn. It was fun, but it was also clunky. Far too often I found myself trying to orchestrate scenarios that were putting my agendas at risks, often losing to the end game because I didn't get the set up right.

Time passes and this ID began gathering dust, but in the last 6 months or so I've spent some more time with it, and taken care in refining the deck to suit my play style. I wanted a deck that gave me instant control, throwing Runners into dangerous choices when running, and capitolising on any bad moves. As a friend once said; "I remember this deck, and from what I do remember I'll be perfectly fine...so long as I don't make any mistakes."

59 cards / 10 agendas

This has been the biggest change to this deck. The card pool increased, while the agenda count decreased. I was concerned that the deck would feel too bloated and I wouldn't be able to get the items I needed in time, but the increase to 59 cards has been the best thing to happen to this deck. You're not here to outpace the runner, you're here to stand a test of attrition. There are 9 traps that activate from R&D, 9 traps that activate from Archives, 12 traps that activate from HQ, and 14 traps that activate from a remote server. How well can your opponent read you? Is it enough to save them? I suppose they'll be perfectly fine...until they make a mistake.

Ronin / Scorched Earth / Philotic Entanglement

These tools are what nail the flatline. While the agenda count has been lowered this iteration still retains 3 copies of False Lead that can comfortably be scored out from a naked remote. False lead is very important to this deck, and the control it gives is game changing. The runner can no longer trust runs on their second click, for fear of their remaining turn being at forfeit to have the kill landed. What of the new News Teams? Can the runner afford to float tags knowing that Scorched Earth is about? They may opt to take it as a -1 agenda, but if they've done so with other News Teams and Shi.Kyūs then they're going to drag far behind, let alone give more fuel for Philotic Entanglement to flatline. Remember that Allele Repression can be primed to return your Scorched Earth to hand and be replayed the very same turn, meaning a single plascrete might not be enough.

I want to play a game...

Play calm and collectively, throughout. The runner must always feel that everything is calculated on your part. On many occasions I've been able to score a Vanity Project from a naked remote over 3 turns, no Mushin No Shin. That's when they feel compelled to run against you often, as suddenly you've jumped from 0 to 4 points, and any of the other remotes could be potential agendas. Even with a Levy I find many Runner decks burn through their cards faster than this deck, and Faust just speeds the process in your favour. Eventually the Runner will brave Archives to reset the trash cost, and that's exactly what you want them to do. With multiple Shocks!, Shi.Kyūs, and News Teams you can take advantage of the aftermath, and secure your victory.

So long as your hand isn't flooded with agendas, accept what you're given and watch the nightmare unfold. I will continue refining this deck further and further over time, but the amount of games I have won with this deck easily trumps the losses of previous iterations. It already has its own reputation in my local meta, and it remains the only deck that truly plays like a mind game.

"No rez, do you access?...."