SY is fine. I can't play right now because I'm at work, else I'd show you my deck. I'm rank 13 and when I play my SY deck, I can tell it shocks the crap out of people because it's nothing like what they're expecting. Off the top of my head.
2 Addicts
2 Street Urchins
2 Fisstech traffickers
2 Renegade Mages
2 Arena Ghouls
2 Hounds
Adriano
Pugo
Doadrick
Tinboy
Horst
Ewald
Phillipa
Imke
The one that blocks damage against the unit on the left. (this card is amazing...steal a defender from NG or NR with Phillipa and you're practically invincible on that row)
The dwarf that gives you resiliance for 5.
The gnome that gives you 6 coins after 3 turns.
The one neutral that poisons/order poisons)
Some other cards I'm likely forgetting. This deck is amazingly fun. I freaking put down an addict turn 1 and people visibly hover over it and spend 10 seconds reading what the flip it is. Same with Doadrick. Same with the gnome card that gives you 6 coins.
Tons of players have no idea what these cards are, because they hover over them in every single game I play.
No, I strongly disagree about interacting with the SY purse. That will literally destroy them. You can already remove/impact the units that use their purse. Destroying their purse would destroy their faction. If they have no units to pay fees, then the purse is already pointless.
I honestly think SY is how NG should have been. Dirty, but fair. If people start to understand my strategy, they play around it. Most of the time, they don't, so they don't understand using 4 damage on my addict was a stupid decision, as that's not a primary unit of mine. Or using that removal on Doadrick is what I wanted them to do, because the effect is "meh" at best, but it scares the crap out of them the moment I start drawing each turn.
People don't know how to play against this deck because a lot of the units are completely not-used. Tinboy is BONKERS against ST. They play all their little elves on a row thinking they got it in the bag, not realizing this card exists. Then boom, they're down anywhere from 14-24 in one turn, depending on if you can pay tribute. Same with Monsters. If I'm second to last, they always, ALWAYS hover over this card wondering what the flip just happened. I'd actually be fine with nerfing this by increasing the tribute to 9. It is that powerful.
So, no, you obviously have not spent enough time with SY, at least not with units that don't see play. I plan on focusing on a crime deck next using unpopular cards.
Try rank 5 and below before saying how good this deck is.