Aggro Ian V 3

Running with the Devil

Play the blue cards. For those unaware, the saying actually comes from Magic the gathering. Lets face it, you already knew that. But it does appear that for most competitive ANR players, the saying has held up over time. We regularly see Andy and Gabe at the top tables of major events. For this reason many player’s are keen to shy away from these runners and blue cards in general. Myself included.

As a compromise, I dove into the blue with a local favorite. Ian Sterling. Most builds of Ian try to take advantage of Ian’s ability by allowing the corp to score early, while they set up a rig/econ/combo. While the idea behind those builds seems solid, I never could get it to work out for me. Plus abandoning the early game, where the runner is strongest, didn’t make sense to me.

So I began working on a quicker, more agile, better looking Ian Sterling

The Game Plan

In this deck I use plan on using Ian’s ability 2 ways. 1). As a subtle nudge to the corp to let me take an early lead on agenda point’s for fear of turning on my sweet econ. Or 2). A way to catch up in a game where I can’t get agenda’s early. Using Criminal’s tools for early aggression, my hope is to catch the corp with their guard down and take an early lead. Then slow down the game and start building up a rig econ to constantly threaten any remote the corp wants to use. Finally, I will end the game with either a Legwork on a stored up agenda filled HQ or R&D lock them until the final points are found.

Let’s look at a card by card evaluation of the choices I’ve made. Then we will talk about some general tips for playing the deck. Finally we will look at a few specific matchup’s you are likely to see.

The Breakers

2 Cerberus “Rex” H2 – This is our code gate breaker for remote servers only. You can play it early and run on centrals with it, but you risk being locked out of a late game remote on a rare occasion. This in conjunction with passport makes up our code gate breaker suite. A pair is more than enough to see it when you need it, but not have them gum up your hand.

1 Passport – The other half of our code gate breaker duo. These two code gate breakers are more clunky than a single Gordian Blade, but with such limited influence these cover our bases in a way that is economical. You’ll notice we only pack on of these and our other breaker has limited uses. With that in mind you will often put this on the table as soon as you can if you fear any net damage.

1 Garrote – This is our Primary Sentry breaker. It’s a tad on the expensive side, but what it lacks in thrift, it makes up for in efficiency. The biggest draw back to this breaker is it’s MU requirement. Because of this memory hog I have kept the sneak door beta’s in the closet. Since it’s a singleton you have to play carefully. Losing this will mean you are only left with…

1 Femme Fatale – Femme is a bad breaker… the only time you are happy to be using her ability to break sentries is when things have gone horribly wrong. Even then it’s not so much happy as it is accepting that life is crappy sometimes. What Femme does do really well is bypass Tollbooth’s, Komainu’s, and Super advanced icewall’s reasonably. If you don’t feel comfortable running just 1 Garrote then this is an easy card slot to play the second, but some prefer the toolbox approach.

2 Corroder – This is hot tech! You guys probably will need to read what this card does, but after you do you will probably start putting this in your decks too. How good is Corroder? 40% of my influence is going towards having one on the table and keeping it there.

That’s our complete program suite. Breaker’s and nothing but the breakers. Our non-consoled rig is Garrote/Corroder/Passport. With our console we can include a Femme or Rex as needed. It’s not flashy, but it gets the job done. Many people like a Sneak Door Beta or Keyhole, but with our MU stretched to save influence we can afford neither. In a world full of net damage, all this singleton programs can be a big bummer so I always suggest making adjustments for your meta.

The Hardware

3 Desperado – When it comes to early aggression, simply nothing beats running for profit. Being able to check NEH’s naked assets with out losing tempo is great. Making runs cheaper against glacier decks is great. And it gives you 1 MU?! People playing any other console in Criminal feels… wrong.

2 R and D Interface – 40% of our influence is going towards R&D Multi-access. Some match ups benefit from this more than others, but it is rarely a dead card. As the game goes longer, R&D usually becomes heavily fortified. Even 1 of these makes getting into R&D actually worth it.

2 Silencer – Yes I know we aren’t running any stealth breakers. Yes I know it is not an aggressive card. Believe me when I say that I never thought I would see myself putting this in a deck with out any stealth breakers. The only reason this card is here is because of a card that isn’t even in this deck. Power Shutdown. Without this card both our Passport and Corroder are easily removed from our possession. As it turns out, having a couple recurring credits when a game goes long can make a big difference.

Events

3 Sure Gamble, 3 Easy Mark, 1 Dirty Laundry – 7 Economy events total. I prefer this combination, but you may prefer more laundry. I like Easy Mark’s over them because they don’t require me to run to give value, even though Dirty laundry is the better card. In world full of Scorched Earth sometimes you have to not run while you dig through your deck.

2 Emergency Shutdown – This is a simple flex spot that could be a number of other cards. Inside Job, FOA, what ever tickles your in faction fancy. I prefer ES since it can often beat up on decks that are doing ‘cool’ things and hurts BlueSun/ RP. This spot was account siphon, but people seem to play around that just because all my cards are blue… go figure.

3 Hostage – I love this card. Tutor’s are always good, but I mostly love the thematic of it. Taking a hostage so that you can get one of your connections is such a criminally thing to do. Being able to tutor a decoy in certain match ups is too good to ignore.

3 Special Order – Tutor’s are good I hear. When I see people play less then 3 of this card, it makes me sad. Being able to hand pick your breaker is worth paying 1 credit and a click more for it. In Andy I can see an argument for running 2, but even than I feel like Special Order is so strong that it’s worth the dead draw of number 2 or 3. In this deck you must play 3 since we usually run just 1-2 copies of a specific breaker we need.

3 Legwork – Some people prefer HQ interface. You need some sort of HQ multi access and so far Legwork has worked for me. If the corp has 1 Agenda in hand that will win both you the game, and you have 4 clicks to get it Legwork allows you more time to prepare for a run while maintaining a ~60% chance of getting said agenda. HQI requires you install it earlier in the game or costs you valuable prep time and credits on that key turn. I may post a blurb on comparing them in the future since I have just started looking at the hard math.

The Resources

3 Daily Casts – 1 click for 5 credits is useful. Waiting for the payoff is hard at times and you need to be careful when you use it that it won’t set you back too far when you need the econ to be making key runs. Don’t windmill slam it on the board each time you draw it. Play thoughtfully. Can I threaten a remote if I play this this turn? If not, will it matter?

3 Decoy – Tutorable SE protection is good, but beyond that it’s cheaper that Plascrete Carapace. Since Midseason’s Replacements isn’t seeing much play around here I like playing this cheaper alternative. I would switch 2 into carapace if Midseason’s is seeing more play in your neck of the woods.

2 Earthrise Hotel – This recent addition has been carrying it’s weight. I wouldn’t suggest running 3 since multiple are dead until the first loses it’s counters. Again be wary that often when you plop these down in the midgame you invite the corp to score in their remote. Keep in mind that if you dip down below 5 credits to play this you may end up clicking for credits to play your Sure Gambles, negating much of the action compression this card generates.

1 Kati Jones – Hostage for Kati is usually a 3 click cost for an econ engine you can rely on all game. N other words… Totally worth it. Because she doesn’t trash herself when you take the funds off her we don’t really need more than 1. Be careful and shake those tags though!

1 Professional Contacts – My final 2 influence allow you to play a slow Ian Juggernaut in a agile hard hitting criminal shell. Midgame ProCo lets you finish your rig/build your econ/ protect your board efficiently as possible. Often times your turn will be ProCo, ProCo, Install, Install in the midgame. If you were successful early in stealing a few agendas, you can often sit back and money/rig up as your opponent tries to figure out how they can still win. If you are behind early, you don’t need to install and use ProCo since your Econ is being handled by your ability and you can’t afford the tempo loss usually. Mister Lee in faction is good, but ProCo does so much more and insures that no click is truly wasted.

3 Security Testing – This card allows you to pressure naked remotes and archives and combines with Desperado to become a crazy econ engine. While it has it’s draw backs, this card and Desperado is what I normally mulligan to.

The Heap

If you made it this far with what looks like a hum drum criminal deck kudos to you! I have had a bunch of fun and success with this deck so I thought I would share it. It takes a bit of finesse in playing it and mitigating some of the fragility of your rig, but that is what being a super spy is all about. Some people have asked why Ian over of Gabe? They do similar things, but you can have 150% of the influence!? True. But Ian does one thing that Gabe doesn’t. That is, help you when you are behind. Gabe helps you early with added income and incentive to hit HQ, but you can end up locked out of HQ over the course of a game. Sometimes you need to NOT run. During those times Ian is still threatening to collect his credits and overwhelm the corp. I would say that I trigger Ian’s ability in less than 40% of my games. But it’s when I am not triggering his ability that I am usually winning ;)

Feel free to ask any questions or give any criticisms below!