Project CROW 5

Welcome to the fifth iteration of the Project CROW mini-campaign for beginners familiar with System Gateway and System Update 2021. It consists of a set of duel decks that are upgraded over three stages. We start at the first stage mainly with cards from System Gateway + System Update 2021, but introduce a few key cards from the Standard pool (see here for further information on the tournament formats Startup and Standard). At stage 2, we open up the card pool to the Startup format, but also add some more necessary Standard cards to teach some further elements. Stage 3 are the two decks Frog off, Keeling! and Calibrating...TUCANA! that @percomis and myself brought to the 2023 EMEA Continentals placing 16th and 30th respectively (out of a total of 145 players).

New cards

We arrive at the final stage. This is the actual deck that we played at EMEA Continentals 2023. Not much has changed from stage 2, but one of the changes is very important.

• -2 Pantograph +2 Hermes - This new console from The Automata Initiative replicates the effect of a previous Criminal identity: Leela Patel: Trained Pragmatist. What might seem innocuous at first glance is a beast of a card. The Corp installed and advanced something in their remote? Would be a shame if it got bounced back to HQ. The Corp only has a single piece of ice on a server. Let's steal something and open that server up completely. Some well-timed agenda steals can be devastating to Corp board states. Install this as soon as you find it and can afford it.
• -1 Paladin Poemu +1 Paricia - This change frees up three influence (the stage 2 list was floating 3 unused influence) for Hermes. Other than that it is mainly meant for other matchups and only incidentally helps trash a Spin Doctor or a Rashida Jaheem. Use this to trigger Environmental Testing and then feel free to trash it to activate your Simulchip.

Description

Hermes opens up even more lines of play. You do not only get to use Clot to deny the option of fast advancing cards, but you can use your multi access tools in Legwork and Deep Dive to also contest never advance attempts (installing an agenda to score next turn without advancing it). If you see the Corp on 5 points installing something in a remote, it might be time to fire off your multi access to fish for an agenda and bounce that card back into HQ. Rinse and repeat until you reach 7 points.

Be aware that controlling all options of the Corp can be difficult to sustain and they now have tools like Border Control in their deck, that can block Deep Dive attempts or at least make them very unprofitable. You are on a fast clock, especially with their Tucana triggering on every score and steal, so make every click and every credit count!

Overview lists

These links show you all the necessary cards to build all three stages of the lists and give dedicated in/out lists for each stage transition.

Corp Overview | Runner Overview

Decklists

Corp 1 | Runner 1

Corp 2 | Runner 2

Corp 3 | Runner 3