1st Place Spring Tournament TEG Colorado

Card draw simulator
Odds: 0% – 0% – 0% more
Repartition by Cost
Repartition by Strength
Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
None yet
Include in your page (help)

Searn 219

This was the runner I took to TEG for the Spring tournament kit casual tournament on July 18. It went undefeated against Fastro Biotics, Nisei Division (was similar to RP), Power Shutdown combo BABW, Untrashable RP, and Grail Ice Blue Sun.

The idea of the deck is simple. Iain Stirling's early game often struggles, but with the addition of Gang Sign it often allows him to build up while the corp tries to get agendas on the board. If the corp attempts to score early, deny it with an Inside Job. If you get an early score with this deck, you're in good shape, as Data Dealer will give you the tempo you need at any point to get into about any scoring remote. It's like having a Stimhack whenever you need it, which wins games. It wasn't until my game against BABW that I realized I was missing 2 influence. I face-planted into a Grim and he killed my only Corroder but I was still able to pull the game off without it between a few well timed Spikes and Femme Fatale. Turntable was the card that originally spawned this deck and is the best card in it. Usually Iain is too slow to come back from an early Nisei Mk II or Astrotrain score, but it allows Iain to deny those counters late game without much worrying. The Drive Bys take care of other nuisances like Ash and Sansan without any econ hit, which is a massive boon to him.

There were two games against this deck that the corp scored 5 points against Iain. The first being NEH. That was perhaps one of the closer games, but they never saw an Astroscript counter being used since I Turntabled it away. The grail Blue Sun deck was also extremely close. I had an extremely slow start and he always had no agendas in hand so he could score out without Gang Sign being a problem. Both the Nisei Division game and RP games, the corp got flooded which means I was able to keep them poor while building my rig. The power shutdown game ended much earlier as I had a few lucky accesses, but I was able to hold out running until he could no longer combo to kill me.

All in all, this deck is a lot of fun to play and I'd highly recommend it if you want to try a Criminal with some serious late game and still a pretty strong early. Just make sure to add in the second Corroder.

15 comments
19 Jul 2015 Dzerards

What is the benefit of Shiv over Faerie in this deck?

19 Jul 2015 StarryVeck

I guess no memory cost (provided you find an Access to Globalsec) so helps keep Data Folding on. Also, the home invasion/B&E breakers buff each other with multiple copies installed. Faerie might cause you to hit a ceiling limit for installed breakers, restricting your Crowbar/Spike strength.

19 Jul 2015 Dzerards

Aye, I suppose the Faeries are all about early aggression, whereas Iain and the B&E suite is all about the build up.

20 Jul 2015 HolyMackerel

How good is Access to Globalsec compared to Dyson Mem Chip or something similar? Since you run Hostage, might I suggest The Helpful AI? Link you can tutor for ^^

20 Jul 2015 Searn

@DzerardsThe issue with Faerie is that the MU cost would shut down data foldings unless I added in more MU which just doesn't feel plausible. The only thing faerie really beats over shiv are komainu and tsurugi. Femme breaks both just fine and hard counters komainu as is, so I didn't really feel the need for it in the deck.

20 Jul 2015 Searn

@pang4Access to Globalsec is the card that boots up my econ, so the 3 cost versus 1 cost does hurt quite a bit. That being said, if you're afraid of tags or Corporate Town then dyson would be a good switch. As for The Helpful AI, it's just not simply worth the influence. I built this deck with 10 influence originally and I thought I covered it, but there's so many better things to spend 2 influence on (such as a third R&D Interface or second corroder, or even a stimhack and something else). And it's still weak to tags and corporate town, so I just would not mess with helpful AI.

20 Jul 2015 Searn

@pang4Access to Globalsec is the card that boots up my econ, so the 3 cost versus 1 cost does hurt quite a bit. That being said, if you're afraid of tags or Corporate Town then dyson would be a good switch. As for The Helpful AI, it's just not simply worth the influence. I built this deck with 10 influence originally and I thought I covered it, but there's so many better things to spend 2 influence on (such as a second R&D Interface or second corroder, or even a stimhack and something else). And it's still weak to tags and corporate town, so I just would not mess with helpful AI.

20 Jul 2015 Chuftbot

I'm so happy to see people doing well with Iain! I've got a couple questions on this if you don't mind:

  • What do you mulligan for? I'd imagine Globalsec is pretty important. On that note, what does your early game setup look like?

  • Did you ever worry about repeated code gate breaks without a permanent decoder? I'd imagine you'd probably get annoyed with RP or anything that has a decent number of them.

  • How do you apply pressure early game?

20 Jul 2015 AsteriskCGY

@chuftbot My guess is between Gang Sign and Iain's ability means each score will still have a cost. Their first score risks their hand with Sign and HQI, and that free Iain money means quicker to lockout. Denial cards hurt corp setup without having to bring out breakers. I feel like that last 2 influence can becomes a Zu.1

20 Jul 2015 HolyMackerel

Zu seems like kind of a perfect fit for this deck, what with it being a Cloud Breaker and also the missing code gate breaker.

21 Jul 2015 Searn

@Chuftbot Access to Globalsec and any drip econ is an ideal opening hand... even mr. li and any drip econ card (even without globalsec) is usually enough to find globalsec within two turns. Inside Job + data folding / daily casts is also keep-able with the early game pressure. Hostage also works for drip econ as it tutors for underworld or mr li. Other good early game cards are gang-signs, hqI, account siphon, and drive-by. The early "pressure" is often just running to force the corp to rez ice. Gang signs also slow the corp down by applying pseudo-pressure by forcing them to find j-how or set up a new remote. As for repeated code gates, no, I don't worry. I almost never have to break more than 10 code gate ice in one game (each of those breaks breaking 2-3 subs). Realistically their ice won't protect 8 rex counters and two crowbars.

@pang4 Zu does seem like a great fit, but the two influence is pretty harsh as well. I wouldn't recommend only having one Corroder and one Zu, especially since Markus Op Batty just was released. Though, it would probably be a great addition if you aren't afraid of Batty, as it frees up a lot of card slots for other tech cards.

22 Jul 2015 jk3x5

How do you manage snares in corp's HQ?

22 Jul 2015 Searn

@jk33333 a lot of the time you can predict which deck will have snare and which won't in a tournament setting. Even if you fail to predict it, it only does 3 damage and a corp will rarely score an agenda in less than 3 clicks, meaning the tag won't be usable. If you can predict, just don't install hq.

6 Aug 2015 ANRguybrush

Played 12 agenda NEH against this and got obliterated. Managed to kill access from globalsec and destroy a femme and corroder with archer, but then he simply got it back. At some point I couldn't win because all the points had been exiled by data dealer or archer.

Don't know how this does against glacier, but I can imagine the drip econ is enough to overpower the corp. Actually a decent deck, gj.

12 Aug 2015 Vimes

It must have been a slightly different deck because this one has no recursion at all to get those programs back. Pretty much the only thing I worry about especially with how easy it is to trash programs now and especially with the next data pack. With Old Hollywood out would you think to use 2 Film Critic, or maybe even Drug Dealer or Fan Site? I think including those might force Iain into a criminal console though.