Alright, so here’s my report for the regionals in Canberra, Australia on 20 June 2015.
I took IG and Whizzard to the competition, but obviously I’ll just focus on IG here. The list is as follows:
Identity
Industrial Genomics: Growing Solutions (The Source)
Agenda (9)
1x Hades Fragment (Up and Over)
3x NAPD Contract (Double Time)
2x Fetal AI (Trace Amount)
3x The Future Perfect (Honor and Profit)
Asset (20)
2x Blacklist (Breaker Bay) • •
3x Melange Mining Corp. (Core Set)
2x Sundew (Mala Tempora)
3x Shock! (True Colors)
2x Snare! (Core Set)
3x Jackson Howard (Opening Moves) • • •
3x PAD Campaign (Core Set)
2x Hostile Infrastructure (All That Remains)
ICE (15)
2x Crick (Breaker Bay)
2x Ashigaru (Up and Over)
3x Tsurugi (True Colors)
3x Komainu (Honor and Profit)
2x Cortex Lock (The Valley)
1x Tollbooth (Core Set) ••
1x Lotus Field (Upstalk)
1x Lockdown (Chrome City)
Operation (4)
3x Hedge Fund (Core Set)
1x Reclamation Order (Double Time) ••
Upgrade (6)
2x Ash 2X3ZB9CY (What Lies Ahead) •• ••
2x Hokusai Grid (Humanity’s Shadow)
2x Caprice Nisei (Double Time)
Total Cards: 54
Total Influence: 13
The first thing you’ll probably notice is the use of only 13 influence. This list is based off @Cory_Hockman’s list and I’ve been playing for the past few weeks with the removal of 2 ELP for 2 Cerebral Static. I found the card to be solid, but obviously high variance. Going into my last while of testing, I decided to swap out the 2 Cerebral Static and 1 Hostile Infrastructure for a Tollbooth, a Lotus Field and a Lockdown. I wanted a bit more of an ability to keep a Runner out of a particular server, as well as a means of at least forcing the runner to have a solid Code Gate breaker or Yog NRE, instead of just having another piece of ICE parasited to death. Lockdown was an interesting inclusion and has a weird effect on runners.
Game 1 vs Whizzard L4J
My first game was against Whizzard, the L4J list put together by @spags piloted by the eventual runner up. Take it for granted that this deck plays a very grindy match typically, so the ones where the game goes short are the odd ones out. We had a solid back and forth throughout the game with several agendas scored and stolen. He managed two future perfects (one out of hand, one off the top of R&D) while I managed two NAPD contracts.
During the early game, he trashed my installed Jackson because I had nothing worth shuffling in and figured I could shuffle it back in with another Jackson. In my next turn, I proceeded to draw into both other Jacksons, and on his next turn he proceeded to run HQ and hit both Jacksons. So that was fun. Fortunately, it took a while for me to flood out too hard, and by that time he was running very low on cards and was having a hard time dealing with my nickle-and-dime net damage. The game came down to his having four cards in hand and none in the stack, choosing whether to run on R&D or HQ (which had three agendas in it). He chose R&D, correctly afraid of hitting one of the two snares in HQ, and having a slim chance of hitting the Hades Shard. He whiffed and I triple advanced my TFP for the win.
Game 2 vs Reina Siphon
My second game was against a Reina deck, and instantly I was expecting headlock. Well it was, but not the way I’d normally expect. I was Account Siphoned 5 times and Vamped once in this game. Not really a surprise that I lost to eater keyhole through all that, but I still managed to score out 5 points. This seemed to be the biggest weakness the deck had, since it tends to run porous, taxing ICE, and if the runner can get through with Eater, then they don’t care about spending funds to siphon you.
Game 3 vs CT Siphon
Once again the siphons were strong, especially on the back of a turn 1 Opus. I managed to stabilise however, as my opponent seemed to be confused about what my deck was doing, and I had a Melange behind an Ash, Caprice and two ICE letting me money up while he took single accesses on R&D. Again I scored out 5 points, and he stole five points. I was very close to having the win, as I had a TFP in hand, a safe server to put it in and the money to protect and score it, so I was two turns from winning. He correctly read, and went for a Legwork. I played this same player last week in this same matchup, and his Legwork at that time made him hit two snares and Flatline. I had two snares in hand. He accessed Hedge Fund, Snare and… TFP. I lost the Psi Game, giving him the win. Absolutely awesome game.
Game 4 vs Scavenge Kit
I managed to keep this Kit fairly off balance all game, with play of the game being him running into archives through my Crick with no breakers and letting me re-install the face-down Blacklist that was in there. After seeing that the coast was clear, he went for Retrieval Run to get his Torch. I rezzed the Blacklist. Don’t think I’ve ever seen someone so crestfallen playing this game before. I was solidly in control of this game, even with him getting relatively frequent single accesses on R&D, and won without losing an agenda.
Game 5 vs Silhouette
I got matched up against my testing partner. We both knew the ins and outs of the others style, and while I knew he had tweaked his Silhouette deck the night before, I was well aware of what his “Hate Out RP” build was attempting to do: Quest Completed and Notoriety. Yes I know, it sounds like jank (and it is), but it’s actually quite solid against RP. Caprice Ash doesn’t mean shit when they don’t have to run that server. This game was utterly brutal with huge swings back and forth. It came down to him with no cards left in his deck on 6 points, me on 5, and he had the ability to get into my remote once with his credits, or go for a Quest Completed. I had put down a Jackson in the remote in the hope that he would spend out for QC… He went for Archives, bounced onto R&D using Doppleganger, then hit up HQ taking a net damage from my Hokusai Grid. With five cards left in grip, I had a 20% chance of hitting the card I needed to hit to win.
I didn’t. He played notoriety for his seventh point and the game. I’m not proud to say that I was more than a little salty about it.
So I ended the day on a pitiful 8 prestige, splitting the first four rounds of swiss and getting swept by my testing partner. IG won 2/5 games with only one of the losses not being a very hard fought game.
Things that I learned:
- Hostile Infrastructure is just too much of a luxury. Half the time I don’t want to spend a click to put it down, and when I do I’m never rezzing it because I need the credits elsewhere, or the runner isn’t able to trash my assets anyway.
- A few more pieces of ETR were very nice to have, able to make me secure the servers that I needed to. Tollbooth is expensive but worth it and Lotus Field pulled its weight.
- Lockdown has a very weird effect on Runners and will often pull a tax from them. But at the end of the day I’m not sure it’s worth it over another piece of taxing or ETR ICE. Follow up net damage hitting IHW is wonderful but relatively rare. Still Lockdown is a fantastic piece of ICE and if I had the space I’d run one (and may still)
- Eater is a pain because of its interaction with Archives. They turn everything face-up, but don’t hit the shocks. I’m thinking a singleton Swordsman would be a solid inclusion, just as AI tech and to help protect archives.
- Runners who know what they’re doing against IG can make your life a pain, especially if they have the econ. It’s absolutely worth it to build a scoring server that you put a Melange in. Melange will win you games with this deck.
- Sundew is awkward. In order for it to be good, it really needs to be protected. This can mean keeping archives protected, but if you can’t do that then you have to protect Sundew with ICE/other stuff. Sometimes this is necessary, but if you need that ICE/protection elsewhere it can be rough getting Sundew online. Typically I was far more happy to see a Melange.
- The Whizzard matchup is solid. My other testing has been outside of a tournament setting, but you often “blank” his ID by forcing him to actually spend those credits, rather than just getting to trash things for free, which can really slow his game down.
- I’d like a little more non-asset based econ to recover if the assets get trashed. I’m thinking 2 of Celebrity Gift, though I’m concerned about our HQ usually being porous, if taxing.
- The last two influence will be going on a Crisium Grid. Potentially even two Crisium Grid by removing the Tollbooth (which I’d likely replace with another Lotus Field). Though I think one is correct. This will give us a bit more game against Siphon and Vamp heavy decks.
I love IG and I think it’s in a strong place at the moment. I definitely have a lot to learn as a player, but the deck is always a strong fighter, even in the most adverse of circumstances. If you put in the reps to know the deck, you don’t really have to worry about going to time. I didn’t go to time in a single round all day. Nearly everyone I played against said that they thought IG is a great ID and I agree.