Criminal Control

I have never really played criminal because the uber aggresive play style-was they are most known for was not appealing to me. Thankfully, in the latest big box expansion, we were given a runner whose ability seemed a bit odd. Iain Stirling gets two credits at the start of his turn, provided the Corporation has more agenda points. At first glance, it seems like a terrible idea to allow the corp to race out ahead on Agenda points but we need to delve deeper.
One of the main problems with a control style deck is that it needs to be able to install the rig all the while trying to score points so as to not allow the corp to take the lead. What if we sacrificed the early game to be well positioned to own the mid to late game? That is what Iain allows us to accomplish. We can sit back and build our own rig; if the corp scores some Agendas, it helps us by turning on those free two clickless credits which ultimately speeds up our own game.
The key in the early game is to not waste any clicks making pointless runs for random access’. Once we are set up we can hit the central servers hard and lock down R&D before the corp can draw into their agendas. The deck that I have created is one that I like to think squeezes every last credit out of each click. It is built around a clickless economy engine. The main pieces are The supplier, Daily Casts, Professional Contacts, Aesops Pawn Shop, Cache, Bank Job.
Early game we want to get The Supplier and Professional Contacts installed in the first two turns if possible. We have three Hostage to make sure we get them if we don’t see it in our opening hand. Once we have ProCo installed, don’t be afraid to use it liberally and dump whatever resource or hardware onto the supplier for cheaper installs. The next two pieces we need are Logos and Aesops Pawnshop. Logos will give us our tutor for whatever we need and Pawnshop really turns up the clickless economy to the next level.
Daily casts coming off the supplier is a net eight credits for one click. Cache is a net Five credits for one click. If we have Autoscripter installed cache nets 5 credits for zero clicks. Bank job will net us 11 credits for two clicks (remember to leave one credit on it so you can Aesop’s it next turn.) The supplier also lowers the install cost by two for our key hardware, HQ interface & R&D interface.
By about turn 7 or 8, you should have about 20-30 credits and a fully assembled rig ready to that is ready to decimate the corp.

My name is Stirling

Iain Stirling: Retired Spook (Honor and Profit)

Event (17)

Hardware (8)

Resource (10)

Icebreaker (7)

Program (3)

  • 3x Cache (The Spaces Between)

10 influence spent (max 10)
45 cards (min 45)
Cards up to Up and Over

Deck built on NetrunnerDB.

You cannot host Cache on the supplier, hardware and resources only.

That said, I like the idea. The problem I have with keyhole ian decks is that they cannot lock R&D, but my guess is you won’t be able to either with just one RDI. As you cannot install cache from the supplier, autoscripter is a dead card in this deck

Plus, HQI and legwork seems a bit redundant

I don’t understand what you are saying about Cache, I am aware that you cannot host programs from the supplier. I use autoscripter to install Cache and gain a click. I take all the credits from Cache (3) and then Aesops it next turn gaining another 3 and netting 5 for zero clicks. Legwork and HQI allow me to make one run and see every card in HQ therefore not spending too many clicks on runs. Then I can start to lock out R&D.

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Never mind me, here I was thinking autoscripter was for installs during a run

Minor nitpick - you can’t take the final $2 from Casts and then pawn it when it’s empty, you have to pawn it while it still has $2 left. This means you only net $8, not $10.

You could play Crescentus instead of Emergency Shutdown, which lets you benefit from Autoscripter and/or pawn it if you don’t need it.

What’s your plan for the NEH matchup? First of all, you can’t R&D lock anybody with just one RDI, and secondly you especially can’t lock NEH because of Fast Track.

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I would nix procon for 2x li and go up to 3 supplier, and cut hostage. If you had a greater variety of connections, I could see hostage, but using hostage to save inf on Proco isn’t great, hostage is only good when you’re pulling like a special order. Just run more copies and save your time…li is comparable to Proco anyway, with less tempo hit.

Edit: I guess I missed Aesop’s. Hostage is probably fine then…I suppose.

I have to say that The Deck, aka Adromeda with RnDI and datsuckers, is control deck. You build good board quickly and abuse this advantage.
Gabe style of running naked as long as he can, using inside jobs emergency shutdowns etc, is different.

I have to respectfully disagree on Li vs ProCo, in my testing Proco blew Li out of the water and it wasn’t even close. Honestly though hostage can be a dead draw and I wouldn’t be opposed to dropping 1 sure gamble for 1 Kati Jones to have another Hostage target.

I take Aesop’s Daily cast the turn before the last counter comes off. I’m not sure how it would hold up against NEH because I don’t play against it very often. It performed really well against Blue Sun and Tennin Glacier decks that I have played. Please though test it verses NEH and let me know how it goes. One R+D interface can’t lock down R&D but if they draw through your lock that’s when you legwork HQ

It depends, if you want to rig build, procon is fine for that, but Li will help you find things in half the time. Do you want to be proactive or retroactive? Every time I’ve played procon in criminal, I spend half my time digging and less time running with power events, which is what criminal is about…IMO, even Iain is. Also its 1 off supplier and no influence, allowing for another RDI, true control seems like piles of multi access, so 2 RDI feels better.

Since theres enough connections for hostage to matter, maybe its worth it…I’d like to see the testing before I agree though.

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I agree and thanks for the comments, what I really would love to see is for the Stimhack community to take this deck and push it as far as it can go. Regarding Li vs ProCo I say test them both out and see what works best. I settled on ProCo as I found it worked better for the deck. If I was going to drop anything to add a second R+D Interface It would be Zu.13 for Peacock.

1 cr to get online is quite a bit nicer than 3cr and terrible efficiency, I’d keep it or go with passport and an AI over peacock :confused: At least with an AI you can be threatening early, which might make the corp hesitate to jam a remote.

I’m interested to see how the economy flows, I believe bank job to way below the radar these days on cards that are good. Even if security testing has caused people to cover up remotes, its a bigger payoff, defeating the ankle biter ice people tend to put over asset econ. I was going to mention the bonus 3 credits, but you’re on it :stuck_out_tongue: that trick is fantastic.

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Try it out, the economy is amazing. It really is and I think you are on to something regarding Passport. Thanks!

Now that I have a bit more time, let me explain my reasoning for the ProCo vs Mr Li debate. I did test the two out and found that there were instances where Mr Li was better than ProCo. For example, if one of the two cards that I drew was an extra copy of one of my unique cards, Mr Li was great because I could toss it on the bottom of the deck. However, and ultimately why I chose to include ProCo was because there will be times with Mr Li when I would draw two of my economy cards like a cache and Daily Casts. Now one of those cards is on the bottom of my deck doing nothing to help me. Pro Contacts plays very well with Autoscripter, I use the extra click that I gained to Pro Contacts effectively lowering the cost of the program by one and drawing a card all for one click! Try it out for yourselves and see what you think.

Edited for gramatical errors

Proco is better since you are playing stirling. The whole point of the ID is to allow the corp to score first to net out the the 2 cr per turn. To build a rig you need cr’s and cards - proco provides both.

To run, you (presumably) have the necessary credits and you need a card to let you take advantage of the game state. Li makes that more likely.

Commenting on bank job. There are a lot of decks where bankjob is perfect.
Neh and RP often have thin or no prot assets. So playing cards where you gain a benefit per run (data sucker, hemorage, savoir fair etc) bankjob allows repetive safe runs.

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I have to say, bank job is amazing. Its a really good economy option for the meta we have right now.

Any reason for not running Keyhole? I’ve found its my favorite card on Iain cause it allows me to mantain pressure. I can “store” the agendas on the archives and keep getting my 2 bucks a turn, which are very aweome!

I also like Siphon on Iain, with him its no a card to make money, but to delay the corp, the slower they get, the more turna you get your two bucks!

The only reason I’m not running keyhole is because I can’t fit it in with influence. Every slot of influence in this deck is already spoken for. Keyhole Iain is great though.

Trading Zu for Passport, along with R&D Interface, frees up 4 Influence - just enough for a Keyhole + Shard.

Really dig this deck and may take it for a whirl tomorrow. Only other thing I might change is cutting 1 Shutdown and 2 HQ Interface (since you have Legwork) for 3x Siphon and maybe consider 1 “in case of emergency” Crypsis, though I don’t think it’s needed.

If you’re attached to the Interfaces, could the Autoscripters be cut instead? Not sure how vital they are, being relatively expensive to install, for the limited programs you are installing. Plus, they seem clunky as they trash after a failed run.

Thanks Larro test it out with the changes you are proposing and let me know how it goes. I would suggest you keep in the autoscripter. It is an awesome card. :slight_smile: