This is my Geist.

This is my Geist. There are many like it, but this one is mine.

My Geist is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life.

My Geist, without me, is useless. Without my Geist, I am useless. I must fire my Geist true. I must shoot straighter than my enemy who is trying to kill me. I must shoot him before he shoots me. I will...

Hi Netrunners, this is my Geist control deck I've been enjoying playing and wanted to share with those interested in playing Criminal in this non-Criminal meta.

I've really enjoyed working on this deck and hope to win some fresh alt arts with it in the near future. Not only is it NAPD MWL legal, it would have been possible to run before the last deluxe expansion. It does very well against all the current top corps without having major downsides against anti-meta decks.

Let me indulge myself in my choices.

Events:

Account Siphon - Still a strong card, even with an abundance of Crisium Grids floating around. This is not a Siphon spam deck by any means but for corps who are not prepared, it is a great way to mess with their maths (and give you a leg up financially).

Levy - Because if you don't go through your deck twice, you're doing something wrong.

The Maker's Eye - Originally, these were RDIs but this deck doesn't make much money and paying 4 initially is a hefty price. TME lets you make surgical runs where you know you will get in. Let's face it, no corp will install Crisiums on R&D against a criminal.

Hardware:

e3 - This card is amazing against bioroids without having to combine it with any other cards but with the B&E tools and Faust, it carves through ICE no matter how many subroutines.

Forger - Gets your cloud breakers online and Underworld Contacts going. This console has many purposes; whether to shake a tag after a siphon (for a card draw), avoid that SEA Source (for a card draw), or that stinging tail from a last click Snare! (for a card draw!). Three of these lets you see it early and keep using them throughout your game.

HQ Interface - It was either these or Legworks. I think for this particular setup, HQIs are the right choice. They can still be effective if they are picked up by Street Peddler, and it guarantees multi-access even with Crisium rezzed on HQ.

Programs:

Crowbar/Spike/Shiv - These are made for Geist. And so they should. Each break nets you a card, which in turn gives you food for Faust. I tend to get the breakers up to 5 or 6 strength because that is where they shine. The only difficulty are those Wormholes and Orions and Curtain Walls, but drawing and spending cards with Faust is just as good.

Faust - It goes so well with the other breakers. When a corp thinks you can't get into a server with just the cloud breakers on the board, drop Faust and waltz in. It's a beast and I wouldn't be surprised to see it on the revised MWL list next time around.

Fairie - Because Archer is still a thing and makes short work of Swordsman. I've never built a Criminal deck without it (I started playing at release of H&P).

Sneakdoor Beta - No one expects it from Geist and it goes hand in hand with the HQIs. If Caprice or Crisium is locking you out of HQ, walk around and enter through the back. I put this in when Apocalypse was still part of the mix and it stood the test of time.

Resources:

Bank Job - 1 of choice. Having any more and they are dead draws against a single remote glacier opponent. This can easily be exchanged for Inside Job.

Drug Dealer - Love this card. It keeps you flush with options and a pseudo flatline protection. I usually only install 1, but against damage decks I'm happy to put down the second.

Daily Casts - These sustain your installs while the dealer taxes you through. If you end your last turn with 0, you can nominate the dealer taking his money first before taking credits off of Casts.

Underworld Contacts - With Forger on the table, these are the antithesis to the dealer tax. With two of these out along with two dealers, it's your regular old Wyldside Pancakes.

Symmetrical Visage - Helps with the draw and to get off 0 at the start of your turn after dealer tax. Great to find early and lets you install those 1 cost goods on click 2.

SoT - For Siphon spam, TME spam or for Levy insurance if it gets caught in a peddler or sniped through damage.

Utopia Shard - Brilliant against combo decks, amazing in disrupting the corp's play, nice to just clear the hand before going for HQ access. It does a double job of ripping kill pieces out of HQ after their convenience shop shenanigans while getting you a draw.

Street Peddler - Peddler brings consistency to this deck. Before I included her, this deck was event heavy and felt clunky with Special Orders and Mass Installs. Nuts to that. You'll find something you'll like on it (with a 1 credit discount) and can be kept on the board for those big runs or when you're targeted for the kill. The best.

So, there are some notable exceptions that went through testing and didn't make the cut.

Scheherazade and Technical Writer are both excellent in their own right. There are so many program installs over the course of the game that they would net a ton of credits. But overall, it felt really slow and didn't feel necessary.

I felt in a few games Crescentus may have done some work. But then I managed to win without it. The purpose of this deck is not econ denial. Corps will do that on their own trying to keep you out of servers. Another one that fits well with Geist. Just not this Geist.

Central only breakers have a home here as well, as it keeps the game going after you filter through your deck twice and there are no more B&E breakers or food for Faust. I think if you haven't made an impact with two rounds of this deck, you weren't going to win anyway.

Apocalypse. As mentioned before, I played around with it at different stages. It does a great job of resetting the board but because of the resources required to keep the deck going, it isn't the best choice here.

Well there you go. This is my Geist. Hope you enjoy it. It's good fun!