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[Android:Netrunner] The only time Bad Publicity isn't a thing to worry about.

FaranguFarangu I am a beardy manWith a beardy planRegistered User regular
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Martin sighed, and rubbed the cramps from his shoulders. Tonight was a long shift in the GRNDL IT department, monitoring the channels for activity. He had been doing this job for eight months, and was told he had a knack for it, that foreign intrusions were down to record levels. Truth be told, though, none of it was Martin’s doing. He was good, certainly. But as he leaned back in his chair and eyed the ceiling lazily, he wondered why there would be any foreign intrusions in the first place; GRNDL was a facility strictly focused on energy production, and there was nothing housed on-site that would warrant any undue attention.

He flinched for a second, thinking to himself, that’s not quite true. There was one file, housed deep in the substructure. He was told that it was integral to the facility’s operation, and that no-one had clearance to access it. It was there just to be there, to Martin’s eyes. Every once in a while, his thoughts would idly wander to the file and its contents. What could –

ALERT ALERT ALERT FRINGE SPIKE

Martin shot up at his desk. What the hell? He checked the readouts, half submerged in the Network already as a reflex. The machine wasn’t lying; an AI presence was poking a lot of small holes in the outer walls. At the rate it was going, the barrier would be breached in seconds. “Fuck fuck FUCK FUCK,” was all Martin had time to say before he leapt in completely. If he could get the Archer online, he’d be fine; there were other options, but nothing as low-key as GRNDL would attract the attention of something that could get around Archer. He just needed to get there.

His avatar got to the control panel, and with a flurry of motion, the program lurched to life. As it did, a low rumble behind the avatar got Martin’s attention. The file was opening in response to Archer activating, and Martin got glimpses of…something? Images of weapons, and a space station, and he saw an account…Oh, God, that ACCOUNT, there’s 15 zeroes on that thing-

Before he could think about what that meant, the barrier gave way. A large red mask flew through it, with several small pods in tow behind it. As the Archer began acquisition, the pods arced through the air to land on it. Suddenly the program began to weaken and flicker. Martin panicked, and tried to think of tricks for how to keep the Archer online. There’s gotta be something I can dooooOOOOOP

Suddenly, he was pulled from the Network, back to meatspace. The first thing he saw was a man in a three piece suit, a blur mask on his face. He was attaching himself to the interface.

“Sit back, kid. Watch.”

His eyes glued to the monitors, he saw what the stranger was doing. He saw, but he couldn’t explain it. For every bit siphoned out of the Archer, energy flowed from the stranger back into it. The pods began to wither, and eventually fall off. Before too long, the Archer found its target, and launched a brilliant blue bolt into the mask. It pierced the nose at the bridge, and the mask shattered into pieces.

The stranger left the Network soon after. As he returned, Martin was awash with questions, which he posed to the man. “How did you do that? How’d you get in here? Who are you?”

The man just sighed, and guided Martin to the monitor. “Look here, kid. This’ll answer your questions.” As he looked, the account appeared again, with its impossible balance. Just then, the number flickered, and came back slightly lower, although the slight difference was still several times his salary.

“I solve problems.”

Martin then felt an object pressing against the back of his head. Then he felt nothing anymore.


What is Netrunner?

Android: Netrunner is a living card game that came out in late 2012. In it, players will either take the role of a megacorporation, trying to advance their shadowy agendas of financial control and worldly power, or of a runner, an individual trying to steal the Corp’s agendas to either strike a blow for the people, make a profit, or because fuck it, why not?

The original version of this game, simply titled Netrunner, released in the mid 90's, and despite love from the fans, went into hibernation until Fantasy Flight picked it up and gave it a slight retooling.

How do you play?

The best way to learn that is to read the rules, but the extreme basics are as follows:

The whole game revolves around certain cards the Corp player has, called Agenda cards, with each Agenda being worth a certain number of Agenda Points and having a particular cost. The Corp is looking to play this card, and invest money in it equal to that cost. When they do that, they score the agenda, and get both the Agenda Points, and the usually-sweet benefit associated with it.
The Runner, on the other hand, doesn’t care about building stuff up. They just want to...liberate it. If a Runner accesses an Agenda, usually through one of their runs, they just outright steal it. They don’t need to pay the cost located on the card. They also don’t get the ability of it, just the points.

The first player to reach 7 Agenda Points wins the game. Each player also has a unique way they can LOSE the game:

For the Corp, business must go on, despite these intrusions. Spending all your resources to keep out one little script kiddy will make your Corp a laughing stock, and you will be dissolved. If the Corp ever has to draw a card, and they have none left to draw, the Corp has lost.
For the Runner, all of your software (and most of your hardware) is plugged into your head somehow. Electricity and internal organs (the brain, most notably) tend to not get along very well at all. If the Runner ever has to lose a card from his hand, and he has nothing left in his hand to lose, the Runner has FLATLINED, and loses.

The Corp protects their agendas with software called “Ice”, designed to keep out intruders or mess with their equipment. The Runner, naturally, can equip certain programs called “Icebreakers” to help them deal with the barriers in their way. Both players need money to get those programs up and running.

Go on...

There's a number of reasons why A:NR is worth your time and money:

Asymmetrical game play. The two factions in this game, while utilizing similar resources such as credits and “clicks” (actions), use them in radically different ways. The Corp is desperately trying to keep the Runner out of their systems long enough to bring their agendas to fruition, while not going broke in the process. The Runner is constantly attacking and probing the Corp's network, often toying with firewalls capable of destroying their hardware and melting holes in their brain. The key is that the Corp plays everything face down, with secrecy as their ally. @Rorus Raz describes it far better than I can:
Rorus Raz wrote: »
The runner won't know kind of ice there is until they are actually going after something and the corporation pays the money to activate it. Even then, the runner doesn't know WHAT the ice is guarding until he or she reaches it. A savvy corporation may have set up three nasty pieces of ice to guard nothing more than a neural bomb designed specifically to make the runner's head explode. On the other hand, the runner can call the corporation's bluff, and it turns out that the ice they have set up is far too expensive for the corporation to activate, and you run past every piece of ice without any resistance.

Excellent usage of theme. I could describe it, but an example works much better:

Let's say that you are representing the Weyland Consortium, and you want your deck to focus not on the protective software to keep your servers secure, but on assets and contacts tailor-made to destroy the Runner and his equipment if you get the slightest whiff of his whereabouts. Well, there's lots of ways you can do that. You can overload his power grid, hoping the surge will fry some of his consoles...

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Or perhaps you want to hire a team of professionals to hound him with bullets, making sure he can never rest easy...

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Or...you know what? You don't want to think about him today. You're just going to blow up his city block.

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Each of the 4 different Corp factions and 3 different Runner factions have loads of different tools and utilities like these. They really make you feel like you are a part of this world, this future.

Growing community. So you want other people to play this with? Well, aside from this lovely little program called OCTGN where you can play it online with all of us lovely folks here (ask @Tayrun for more information), there's a Regional program run by Fantasy Flight, where stores can apply to host a series of tournaments, and which often offer prizes to those that take part. Do well enough in them, and you can get to their World Championship event and get even more cool swag. Or you can just take part because HEART OF THE CARDS, that's fine too.

LCG, not CCG. What this means is that unlike Magic, in which every booster pack you buy contains random cards, all of Netrunner's “datapack” expansions contain the same cards, in equal numbers of copies. This makes deckbuilding less about the terribly boring “I just spent $TEXAS on this one card that'll make you lose”, and more about the interesting “I'm going to take these cards that everyone knows about and assumes to be terrible, and use them in a way that BLOWS MINDS”. Not only that, but if you aren't interested in doing competitions, then there's loads of variety in cards from just the Core set, and you don't even need any datapacks. (Although you'll see some of the cards in them and think OH GOD THAT'S COOL AND WOULD WORK REALLY WELL I COULD USE IT IN MY DECK and grab a few of them anyways.) And, recently announced is a plan to keep card bloat from becoming too much of a thing, although it'll be a while before it actually takes effect.

Be awesome. Play Netrunner.

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Posts

  • CarnarvonCarnarvon Registered User regular
    edited November 2014
    I was thinking of new archetypes for anarch, and realized that there's a lot of help being printed for Tag-Me (which kinda died when people started packing scorch again).

    My old deck, Tag Me Harder, had a 9-2 record on OCTGN before I retired it (I switch decks like a motherfucker). I've got around 25 games with various tag-me builds, but that one performed the best.

    Now I'm looking at something like:
    MaxX: Angry Runner

    Event (15)
    2x Account Siphon **** ****
    3x Day Job
    2x Déjà Vu
    3x Steelskin
    1x Stimhack
    3x Sure Gamble
    1x Vamp

    Hardware (5)
    3x Deep Red
    2x Clone Chip ** **

    Resource (14)
    3x Data Leak Reversal
    2x John Masanori
    3x Joshua B.
    3x Same Old Thing
    2x Stim Dealer
    1x Fall Guy *

    Icebreaker (9)
    1x Corroder
    3x Knight
    1x Mimic
    3x Overmind
    1x ZU.13 Key Master **

    Program (3)
    3x Parasite

    So, the deck works by making the corp put out so many fires that they're never able to get their plan up and running. Basically you use J&J to tag yourself and get a huge economy boost (six clicks a turn is nice) around turn three, and then outpace them for the next 5-12 turns. Siphon, Deja Vu, Siphon, SOT is your comeback mechanic if the corp runs away with the game. Vamp is your second win condition, as you can drain the corp and then run through unezzed ice without breakers.

    You might be wondering why I'd run so many resources in a tag based deck. That's because you WANT the corp to trash them. If they blow up DLR or SOT, you just got stole a click and two credits for an install. This is honestly the strongest part of the deck.

    I might end up changing the breaker suite, that's what I'm most iffy on. An Eater-Keyhole deck with Knight backup could be pretty brutal, as you'd be punishing all three centrals AND remotes. Maybe swap Fall Guy for Hades Shard.

    Carnarvon on
  • FaranguFarangu I am a beardy man With a beardy planRegistered User regular
    edited December 2014
    Big ol' breakdown of popular deck types by @Cerberus:

    Noiseshop – This archetype is a deck built with a lot of viruses to make the most of Noise’s ability, with some recursion (usually Déjà vu) and card draw (usually Wyldside). Most versions use Aesop's Pawnshop to pitch viruses for money. The rest of the influence is either on Sahasrara or Personal Workshop. The Sahasrara version aims to mill the Corp of a critical mass of cards for little to no cost and use Crypsis to get into servers with all the excess cash. The Personal Workshop version is somewhat different. Personal Workshop allows for multiple viruses to be hosted on it, and this gives Noise two great benefits. Firstly it allows for Parasites (and other viruses) to be played part way through a run, allowing for newly rezzed Ice to be killed. Secondly, it allows for an Archives run to be made, and when access is confirmed, it allows for multiple viruses to be installed which then trashes/mills new cards into Archives, which the Corporation player has not seen yet, and therefore doesn’t know if they need to be defended. Both Noiseshops attempt to disrupt the Corp's game plan, particularly if they are dependent upon certain combo cards like Trick of Light, Biotic Labor, SEA Source, etc

    The Andromeda Strain – This has been one of the dominant runner archetypes for a long time. It includes standard Criminal events which are very strong, and then uses its influence to import the Anarch fixed strength breaker suite (Yog.0, Mimic) as well as Corroder for its barrier breaker, it combines these with another Anarch card, Datasucker which can be used to lower the strength of Ice and therefore make the fixed strength breaker suite even better. The reason for this being so strong is that the fixed strength breakers are very efficient and therefore the deck is able to run often for very few credits. The remaining influence was originally used for Parasites, which also combine well with Datasucker, but has in later builds been used for R&D Interface to increase the amount of R&D pressure which is otherwise lacking, both are very strong choices.

    Aggro Gabe / Ser Gabe – The point of this deck is to be aggressive early, this causes the Corporation a lot of trouble if they have a bad start. Cards such as Sneakdoor Beta mean that all central servers are pressured, and cards such as Inside Job mean that the Corporation cannot play an agenda into a remote until they have at least two Ice and the credits to rez them. Credits are another area that this deck attacks with Account Siphon being a key card to keep the Corporation poor and therefore defenceless, this deck often includes recursion (such as Déjà vu or Same Old Thing) to keep playing these key cards. The Ser Gabe variant is a more recent take on this deck using the Anarch card Knight to allow early access to HQ which enables the use of powerful cards such as Account Siphon and Emergency Shutdown. This is a deck that applies a lot of pressure early but struggles if the game goes late as it often does not have the economy to maintain its aggression.

    Anatomy of Anarchy – This deck is largely based around one card which is Account Siphon, the idea is to hit with this early, and then take advantage of the corporations lack of defence. In order to hit with Account Siphon early the deck uses AI breakers such as Knight and Overmind to ensure that even unrezzed Ice can be broken. The deck then uses recursion (such as Déjà vu or Same Old Thing) to keep the corporation poor. Often the deck will not attack R&D until the corp has lost all of their credits to Account Siphon, so that they will have free access, preferably with a Medium installed so they see multiple cards.

    Katman – This deck is based around two things, firstly the AI breaker Atman, this is a breaker that can break any Ice but only if it is exactly the same strength as the Atman which comes into play at a variable strength, this combos with the card Datasucker which can reduce the strength of the Ice so it is the same as Atman. Secondly the deck is about efficiency, it uses cards such as Professional Contacts to ensure that whenever it draws cards it is also making credits, and Desperado, so that whenever it is making runs it is also makings credits. This means that regardless of what the deck is doing it is making credits.

    PPVP Kate – This deck uses the card Prepaid VoicePAD to fuel its economy, the recurring credits can be used to pay for events and so the deck is made up of a lot of events, specifically the economy. Cards such as Sure Gamble, Dirty Laundry and Lucky Find produce many more credits if 1-3 of their cost is paid for using recurring credits. However it is not just the economy cards that benefit, the deck also uses events for card draw (Quality Time) and multi-access (Legwork, Makers Eye) which are also cheaper. Because the deck can gain money so fast once it has the VoicePAD’s in play it can be an extremely fast and aggressive runner, because it also has the ability to search for the cards it needs using Test Run and Self-Modifying Code.

    Stimshop (Chaos Theory) - This deck uses the synergy between three cards: Personal Workshop, Self-Modifying Code, and Stimhack. Stimhack gives you money to spend to either bring things off a personal workshop (breakers or, more usually, R&D Interface) or to bring out a breaker via Self-Modifying Code. Usually these decks employ Magnum Opus and try and aggressively attack the Corp via multi-access events like Legwork or Maker's Eyes. Chaos Theory is usually used because of the thinner deck and the built-in memory allows for Opus+3 breakers.

    HB Fast Advance – Fast Advance is an archetype that often confuses new players, Fast Advance does not always mean that the deck is fast, instead it is the process of installing and scoring an agenda all in one turn, meaning that it is not in a remote to be stolen on the runners turn. The deck uses agendas that need to be advanced three times before they can be scored and then uses cards such as San San City Grid or Biotic Labor to reduce the amount of advancement tokens needed or to give them the extra click to make the third advancement. Often HB Fast Advance decks will use a lot of End the Run Ice to force the runner to find their breakers before the can gain access and then combine this with Ice that destroy Ice Breakers, meaning that the runner needs to be fully set up before they can safely run, the Corporation uses this time to score.

    Red Coats – Another name for this deck type is Glacier, the idea behind this deck type is that it is large taxing Ice with the economy to support it. The deck runs large agendas to reduce the amount in the deck and fit in all the cards it needs. The idea is to make runs too costly for the runner, meaning that they run out of money or cannot run very often. This is a very ‘back to basics’ Corporation deck, where the idea is to make credits in order to rez big Ice and then to score your agendas in a well protected remote server.

    Astro Biotics – This is a deck which is focused on the Fast Advance strategy (see HB Fast Advance above). It uses cards such as San San City Grid and Biotic Labor to score agendas in one turn. The reason for this deck being so powerful is because of the agenda Astroscript Pilot Program, as this has an ability when scored, that allows you to put an advancement counter on a card once. This can be used to Fast Advance another agenda, even another Astroscript Pilot Program. Scoring multiples of these agendas is known as getting on the ‘Astrotrain’ as each agenda allows the scoring of another.

    Psycho Beale – The idea behind this deck is to build up a lot of credits and/or make agendas difficult to steal, and then when the Runner steals an agenda use the card Midseason Replacements on them to give them a large number of tags, ideally 13. Alternatively, the deck encourages the Runner to give up and just accrue tags through various annoying cards (Data Raven/Shadow/Manhunt/City Surveillance in some builds). Then the deck uses these tags to its advantage, by using the card Psychographics to score an agenda the turn it is played such as Astroscript or, ideally, the agenda Project Beale which is worth more points for every two additional advancement tokens on it. 13 advancements are required to make Project Beale worth 7 points, and therefore it is necessary for the Runner to have 12+ tags. The deck can win in other ways, especially when the Runner is tagged as it can leverage cards such as Closed Accounts into opportunities to score.

    Supermodernism – This deck is primarily a rush deck, the idea is to put up cheap End the Run Ice and score agendas behind them early in the game while the Runner is still trying to get their breakers out. The deck also has a back up plan which comes in the form of a flat line victory using the card Scorched Earth, and using cards such as Snare and SEA Source to tag the runner. This is what makes the deck so effective as the Runner must be quick if they want to stop the Corporation scoring lots of agendas in the early game, however if they are reckless they could end up getting flatlined. When playing this deck it is best to think of it as an aggressive deck, you want to take risks to get agendas scored early as it is this pressure that often causes the runner to put themselves in a situation that allows you to flat line them.

    Accelerated Diagnostics Combo – This deck is very much a combo deck, and while there are other combo type decks in Netrunner, this is probably the one that had the most popularity and success for a short period of time. The combo is designed to flat line the Runner, by using a card called Accelerated Diagnostics, this looks at the top 3 cards of your deck and if they are Operations, then you can play them in any order. In order to get the cards that you need onto the top of the deck it uses Power Shutdown to place all cards in the deck into the Archives, then uses Jackson Howard to place the three cards into the deck, this allows the Accelerated Diagnostics to hit the correct cards. The cards in question are SEA Source and Scorched Earth. This combo can all be triggered from hand and hit with two Scorched Earths or if Jackson Howard is already in play, it can hit with all three Scorched Earths as long as a Scorched Earth or SEA Source is in hand.

    RP Tax – The idea of this deck is to tax the Runners economy in two ways, firstly, the majority of the Ice the deck runs has a large number of subroutines, this means that they are expensive to break as most Icebreakers must pay credits to break each subroutine, these subroutines also have a negative effect on the Runner if they are not broken, mostly causing damage and so they cannot just be ignored. The other way the deck taxes the Runners economy is by running a lot of Assets, therefore if the runner wants to get stop your economy or other Assets it costs them credits. This is further impacted by the fact that in order to run on these Assets you must have first initiated a run on a central server, this means that you are always losing click, and often credits as well to be able to make these runs.

    Cambridge PE – This is a deck focused on flatling the Runner, though it is also capable of winning through agenda points as well, that is not the main focus of the deck. The deck plays very differently to most other corporation decks because it plays what is known as a shell game, putting cards out in remote servers unprotected, some of these will be agendas and some of these will be traps. Cards such as Ronin and Cerebral Overwriter are played as one punishes the runner for running it and the other punishes them for not running it. Even the agendas contribute to killing the runner in many cases with House of Knives doing additional damage and Fetal AI really hurting the runner if stolen.

    Farangu on
  • CerberusCerberus Registered User regular
    @Farangu‌ I have done a ton of work already for the archetypes. I will get it across to you to add in. Don't do any unnecessary work.

  • tzeentchlingtzeentchling Doctor of Rocks OaklandRegistered User regular
    Aww, poor sysop. Didn't think that Vulcan Coverup was taking out their own dudes! And good call of the guy as a Corporate Troubleshooter. Suck it, Mimic with Datasuckers!

  • CerberusCerberus Registered User regular
    Took a Leela deck to a 20 person tournament yesterday. She is very fun to play, and can open up some great scoring opportunities with her ability.
    Went undefeated with her, and highly recommend her if you fancy playing Criminal but not Andy.

  • AnzekayAnzekay Registered User regular
    I've been trying to get a doppleganger Ken deck with Medium to work for a while now, but it just doesn't really have the card draw I need to get it all to work. I still haven't played Andy yet, because I'm staunchly trying to avoid her or NBN for the time being, but it sounds like Leela might be another crim to try as well!

  • CerberusCerberus Registered User regular
    I know folk don't like playing the popular / overpowered decks, however its worth noting that playing with them and against them is the way to beat them, and often become a better player.

    Just my opinion, and likely relevant to the more competitive players.

  • AnzekayAnzekay Registered User regular
    Well, I've played them like a little bit in casual play to see how they work from the corp's perspective, but I've never played them in a tournament or league night. I'm not sure I ever will, really.

    But there's a few plays who have been NBN FA/Andy basically since I started playing, so I have had loads of practice against them. I actually don't fear NEH much anymore with my PPVP Kate deck now, I've become so used to playing them.

  • EpimerEpimer Registered User regular
    I have an inkling that Medium in Leela could be very strong.

  • AnzekayAnzekay Registered User regular
    I kinda wonder what she'd be like with something that lets you force the corp to trash cards from HQ. Return stuff to HQ, then trash it, could be interesting.

    Probably a bit too influence intensive, though.

  • FaranguFarangu I am a beardy man With a beardy planRegistered User regular
    True fact: I have not had the time or opportunity to play since Spaces Between came out

  • DrascinDrascin Registered User regular
    So, I think me and my friends want to start increasing our card pool a little bit. We mostly like to play Shaper and Criminal on the Runner end, and Weyland and Jinteki on the Corp end (Jinteki is so strange, but they're hilarious). What are some card packs to check out for these factions?

    Steam ID: Right here.
  • ArcticLancerArcticLancer Best served chilled. Registered User regular
    Anzekay wrote: »
    I kinda wonder what she'd be like with something that lets you force the corp to trash cards from HQ. Return stuff to HQ, then trash it, could be interesting.

    Probably a bit too influence intensive, though.

    This is the deck I made, if you go back a page or two. Aggressive Leela with Hemorage to try doing exactly that.
    Sadly, I haven't gotten to play it yet. I also think it's going to be bad and needs much revision. :P

  • CerberusCerberus Registered User regular
    Utopia Shard is good for her but you can only play as a 1 of.

  • AnzekayAnzekay Registered User regular
    Listening to the latest Terminal 7 as well as all the writeups of Worlds is really making me want to try and get to nationals next year. I'm not sure I could justify a flight out to the US for just a netrunner tournament, but if I were to win nationals I may well end up making it work...

  • CarnarvonCarnarvon Registered User regular
    It's really annoying seeing all these spoilers and not having them in NRDB or OCTGN. I just want to test my Spoon Kit deck.

  • tzeentchlingtzeentchling Doctor of Rocks OaklandRegistered User regular
    Drascin wrote: »
    So, I think me and my friends want to start increasing our card pool a little bit. We mostly like to play Shaper and Criminal on the Runner end, and Weyland and Jinteki on the Corp end (Jinteki is so strange, but they're hilarious). What are some card packs to check out for these factions?

    Shaper really really wants Creation and Control. There are a lot of fundamental Shaper cards in that expansion. What Lies Ahead has Zu.13 (a cheap splashable code-gate breaker) and Plascrete Carapace, which if Weyland is a common opponent is a very good card. Cyber Exodus gets you Test Run, which is a key card, as well as Chaos Theory, Dinosaurus, and Personal Workshop.

    Honor and Profit has some good cards for Criminals, but nothing too necessary - though Legwork has become very important to a lot of decks. Humanity's Shadow has Andromeda, HQ Interface, and Kati Jones, as well as Quality Time for Shapers. Future Proof has Faerie (a common, useful Sentry breaker), Indexing (a great splash in Criminal and good in Shaper), Mr. Li (good card draw), R&D Interface (another Shaper card often seen in Criminal too), and some good corp cards too (Eli 1.0, Project Beale, Midseason Replacements, Ronin)

    Jinteki was boosted by Honor and Profit, but other good packs for them are What Lies Ahead (Braintrust, a 3/2 agenda), Double Time (Caprice Nisei), True Colors (Shock!, Tsurugi), Trace Amount (Fetal AI and Replicating Perfection) and Opening Moves (Celebrity Gift, Himitsu Bako). Double Time also has Quandary and NAPD Contract, while Opening Moves has Jackson Howard and Grim. Of those 5, I'd say Trace Amount is the most important, followed by Opening Moves, and then Double Time.

    Opening Moves also has Geothermal Fracking, for Weyland. Weyland might also want Second Thoughts, which has The Cleaners and Restructure, and What Lies Ahead (Project Atlas, a 3/2 agenda, and Caduceus). The upcoming Order and Chaos deluxe expansion will also have a lot of good Weyland cards.

    Aside from the Deluxe expansions, I'd say the best ones overall to pick up are Opening Moves, What Lies Ahead, Double Time, Future Proof, and Cyber Exodus. Follow those with Trace Amount, Humanity's Shadow, and Second Thoughts.

  • EpimerEpimer Registered User regular
    Already fed up of all the O&C spoilers. Stimhack and various Facebook groups are just filled with people postulating on cards I don't care about becuse I can't play with them yet.

  • CarnarvonCarnarvon Registered User regular
    So I made a wallpaper based off of Day Job's full art. The netrunner logo on the bottom left is a placeholder, as I can't find a decent anything to put there (to cover up her lack of legs).

    Any suggestions would be appreciated.

  • tzeentchlingtzeentchling Doctor of Rocks OaklandRegistered User regular
    Carnarvon wrote: »
    So I made a wallpaper based off of Day Job's full art. The netrunner logo on the bottom left is a placeholder, as I can't find a decent anything to put there (to cover up her lack of legs).

    Any suggestions would be appreciated.

    No idea, but it's cool that you found one with high enough resolution that I can read that MaxX's "real" name is Martina.

  • DrascinDrascin Registered User regular
    edited November 2014
    Well, in the end I ordered What Lies Ahead for a start, and am looking at Creation and Control.

    A couple questions that came up today when playing with the Core preconsctructeds: one, is the NBN deck just bad? It seems to be all about placing a million marks but it doesn't seem to have much of anything to actually do with them other than Closed Accounts. And second, the Anarch card Parasite, if it's installed on a piece of ice, does it get trashed when said piece of ice is trashed by its effect? We assumed so but I kinda wanted to make sure in case we were playing it wrong.

    Drascin on
    Steam ID: Right here.
  • PMAversPMAvers Registered User regular
    Yes to both questions.

    Core NBN without spending influence is really missing teeth. They get some in later packs, but for now you mostly just have the Nuclear Option of scorched Earth.

    persona4celestia.jpg
    COME FORTH, AMATERASU! - Switch Friend Code SW-5465-2458-5696 - Twitch
  • CarnarvonCarnarvon Registered User regular
    Drascin wrote: »
    Well, in the end I ordered What Lies Ahead for a start, and am looking at Creation and Control.

    A couple questions that came up today when playing with the Core preconsctructeds: one, is the NBN deck just bad? It seems to be all about placing a million marks but it doesn't seem to have much of anything to actually do with them other than Closed Accounts. And second, the Anarch card Parasite, if it's installed on a piece of ice, does it get trashed when said piece of ice is trashed by its effect? We assumed so but I kinda wanted to make sure in case we were playing it wrong.

    NBN gets Tollbooth, which is one of the best pieces of ice in Core (and the game). You also get Astroscript, some 2/1s, Sansan City Grid, and Psychographics; if used effectively, you can go from zero to sixty very quickly. Closed Accounts is your 'big' card, believe it or not. If you have a Tollbooth on an empty remote server, you can install Red Herring, install agenda, play CA, and there's almost no way for the runner to access (Account Siphon into Inside Job).

    NBN and Jinteki in Core get badmouthed because new players tend to be extremely cautious, and those two decks really suffer from being played cautiously. HB and Weyland get oodles of money and taxing ice, and Weyland especially benefits from double Scorch in the end game. Jinteki and NBN need to be aggressive to punish a slow runner.

  • HounHoun Registered User regular
    Carnarvon wrote: »
    Drascin wrote: »
    Well, in the end I ordered What Lies Ahead for a start, and am looking at Creation and Control.

    A couple questions that came up today when playing with the Core preconsctructeds: one, is the NBN deck just bad? It seems to be all about placing a million marks but it doesn't seem to have much of anything to actually do with them other than Closed Accounts. And second, the Anarch card Parasite, if it's installed on a piece of ice, does it get trashed when said piece of ice is trashed by its effect? We assumed so but I kinda wanted to make sure in case we were playing it wrong.

    NBN gets Tollbooth, which is one of the best pieces of ice in Core (and the game). You also get Astroscript, some 2/1s, Sansan City Grid, and Psychographics; if used effectively, you can go from zero to sixty very quickly. Closed Accounts is your 'big' card, believe it or not. If you have a Tollbooth on an empty remote server, you can install Red Herring, install agenda, play CA, and there's almost no way for the runner to access (Account Siphon into Inside Job).

    NBN and Jinteki in Core get badmouthed because new players tend to be extremely cautious, and those two decks really suffer from being played cautiously. HB and Weyland get oodles of money and taxing ice, and Weyland especially benefits from double Scorch in the end game. Jinteki and NBN need to be aggressive to punish a slow runner.

    Dunno if you were watching that core NBN I just played in the Game On thread, but like every time I've tried to play core NBN, it was just a giant game of Russian Roulette where I was forced by chance to let the runner run rampant with no way to stop or punish him, and my best "play" was letting him continue to run through Matrix Analyzer on his Medium R&D digs (5-6 deep) so I could put a token on PriSec and pray that he didn't find any other agendas while digging.

    Seriously. When a runner has nothing out but a 6 token Medium and is floating 5 tags, and you can't do anything about it? Not good times.

    Core NBN may have some goodies in it, but it's far too reliant on you being able to actually draw the few good things when you need them.

  • CarnarvonCarnarvon Registered User regular
    I don't follow the game on thread, but if you have no ice on R&D, and you don't have Psychograpics, or SanSan, or Closed Accounts, I think you just got screwed by draws. Hell, you could have installed Tollbooth on R&D, install PriReq, and then Psycho it out to completely change the course of the game (if you had the draws).

    R&D lock is very strong, which is why 99% of decks include Jackson Howard.

  • ArcticLancerArcticLancer Best served chilled. Registered User regular
    ... What? How do Psychographics or SanSan help during R&D lock?

    Core-box-straight NBN is not good. Your ETR ICE is limited to Tollbooth, Wall of Static, and Enigma, I believe? Only one of those is taxing, and Tollbooth can't be everywhere. There's really very little that can be done to stop the situation above, where even closed accounts is unlikely to actually stop the runner.

  • tzeentchlingtzeentchling Doctor of Rocks OaklandRegistered User regular
    It's true that core-set pure-NBN does have a hard time. There's a heavy emphasis on tagging, which just isn't super important, though Psychographics can help. Aside from Tollbooth (which is expensive and prone to getting Femme'd anyways against Criminal players), they play very porously, though without a lot of benefits from it, and hope that the runner doesn't steal all their agendas before you execute your Psycho plan. Adding in cards from other factions can definitely help though - notably Scorched Earth, but also HB ice in particular is useful.

    Speaking of NBN: Making News though, I'm trying out this deck today. NBN taxing/glacier! No idea if it will work (and I kind of want to get Sweeps Week in there too), but it's a start and potentially a move away from pure fast-advance.
    TaxNBN (49 cards)

    NBN: Making News

    Agenda (10)
    3 AstroScript Pilot Program
    1 Eden Fragment
    2 License Acquisition
    3 NAPD Contract
    1 Utopia Fragment

    Asset (5)
    2 Adonis Campaign ••••
    3 Jackson Howard

    Upgrade (5)
    3 Midway Station Grid
    2 Red Herrings

    Operation (9)
    1 Closed Accounts
    3 Hedge Fund
    2 Lag Time
    3 Restructure

    Barrier (6)
    2 Eli 1.0 ••
    1 Heimdall 1.0 ••
    3 TMI

    Code Gate (9)
    3 Datapike
    3 Pop-up Window
    1 RSVP
    2 Tollbooth

    Sentry (5)
    1 Architect ••
    1 Caduceus ••
    1 Ichi 2.0 •••
    2 Uroboros

    Might swap Eden for a PriRec, but unsure yet. I dislike Uroboros (why pay 6 for something they get through with Mimic, 2 credits, and a sucker token?) but there's not a lot of otherwise good no-influence sentry ice for a non-tag-specific deck. Thinking of dropping the RSVP, and maybe the Lag Times for put in Sweeps, but we'll see how much money this plays with.

  • CarnarvonCarnarvon Registered User regular
    ... What? How do Psychographics or SanSan help during R&D lock?

    Core-box-straight NBN is not good. Your ETR ICE is limited to Tollbooth, Wall of Static, and Enigma, I believe? Only one of those is taxing, and Tollbooth can't be everywhere. There's really very little that can be done to stop the situation above, where even closed accounts is unlikely to actually stop the runner.

    Enigma and Wall of Static still block a runner with no breakers, as was the situation above. You've got 8 ETR ice in NBN, which means you should outpace the number of Parasites the runner has access to. There is a statistically possible scenario when the runner draws into two Parasites and NBN draws into only two ETR ice, which is why Anarch is a bad matchup for them (among other reasons).

    Between Data Raven on centrals, Psychographics, SanSan and Astro, you can get away with a flimsy scoring remote. Hell, with Anarch's horrible economy, you can often times score behind nothing but a Red Herring.

  • ArcticLancerArcticLancer Best served chilled. Registered User regular
    Enigma full-on fails outright to Yog, so you don't even need to worry about trashing it. That leaves you with 5, 3 of which are broken for either 2 credits, or 1 credit an a data sucker token. Anarchs don't need economy when your ICE is generally trivial. <_<
    While the breaker situation is different (I'm guessing the "he had none" part comes from the thread? Above it sounded like there was more at work, but even still, you're banking on a draw that you can actually play, and the runner will know what's coming with better access to tutor their tools than you have), this still has no impact on other trick-based cards. Core-set bland NBN is not good. Mix it up with influence, and sure, you get some much more interesting games, but by itself it's got a lot of problems.

  • HounHoun Registered User regular
    Also, you have to draw some of that ETR Ice in the first place. >.>

  • BrodyBrody The Watch The First ShoreRegistered User regular
    I just got lucky with Medium draws early, and the game ended before he had more than 3-4 ICE on the board period.

    "I will write your name in the ruin of them. I will paint you across history in the color of their blood."

    The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson

    Steam: Korvalain
  • AnzekayAnzekay Registered User regular
    edited December 2014
    Sometimes very fast games just happen, especially if you have bad luck with Agenda flood or surprises from the other player.

    Which is why deck consistency is such a powerful thing in competitive play. You want to ensure that your decks will have a steady flow of all the different tools you need, even if you have a bit of bad luck. Sadly, consistency is not something the Core set basic decks really have. You can make some solid decks if you put them together yourself, but the faction + neutral ones are mostly very inconsistent.

    As an aside, the fastest game I've had was a turn 2 win as corp. I drew a hand with 3 agendas, mulligan'd into a hand of pure assets/operations. The runner promptly hit R&D twice, and grabbed two 5/3s from it. Too bad for him, my opening hand contained two Punitive counterstrikes.

    Anzekay on
  • KesterKester Registered User regular
    So I haven't played for a month or so, and haven't built a new deck in about three. Leela's ability looks fun, but I always feel a bit dirty playing criminal. Should I make a deck anyway? Looking forward to a few winter tournament kit nights soon :D

  • CarnarvonCarnarvon Registered User regular
    Kester wrote: »
    So I haven't played for a month or so, and haven't built a new deck in about three. Leela's ability looks fun, but I always feel a bit dirty playing criminal. Should I make a deck anyway? Looking forward to a few winter tournament kit nights soon :D

    She's one of a few runners who you really have to shape your game plan around her ability. I haven't played her personally, but the few people who have played her have sung her praises.

    Run Legworks and Indexing to maximize your chance to hit agendas when you need to, and Emergency Shutdown to facilitate getting rid of annoying ice. You can also return advanced agendas/traps to HQ, where you can score them safely.

  • tzeentchlingtzeentchling Doctor of Rocks OaklandRegistered User regular
    Anzekay wrote: »
    As an aside, the fastest game I've had was a turn 2 win as corp. I drew a hand with 3 agendas, mulligan'd into a hand of pure assets/operations. The runner promptly hit R&D twice, and grabbed two 5/3s from it. Too bad for him, my opening hand contained two Punitive counterstrikes.
    I've done that too! Take that, over-aggressive Criminal decks!

    I actually had a second-corp-turn win in a tournament just recently. His second turn, Gabe runs HQ and steals a Breaking News, but ends on 3 cards. I draw into a Midseasons, Credit/Midseasons/Scorched Earth. GG!

  • InquisitorInquisitor Registered User regular
    Anzekay wrote: »
    Sometimes very fast games just happen, especially if you have bad luck with Agenda flood or surprises from the other player.

    Which is why deck consistency is such a powerful thing in competitive play. You want to ensure that your decks will have a steady flow of all the different tools you need, even if you have a bit of bad luck. Sadly, consistency is not something the Core set basic decks really have. You can make some solid decks if you put them together yourself, but the faction + neutral ones are mostly very inconsistent.

    As an aside, the fastest game I've had was a turn 2 win as corp. I drew a hand with 3 agendas, mulligan'd into a hand of pure assets/operations. The runner promptly hit R&D twice, and grabbed two 5/3s from it. Too bad for him, my opening hand contained two Punitive counterstrikes.

    I've had turn two wins as the corp being GRNDL and just doing SEA+Scorch+Scorch after a first turn of money generation. And once as the runner the corp didn't ice R&D first turn and I got the first turn glory win of Indexing into Maker's Eye.

  • CarnarvonCarnarvon Registered User regular
    My fastest win was when I had no ice after two mulligans as core Weyland. Runner drops Maker's Eye and hits two Snares! as I fall over laughing.

  • tzeentchlingtzeentchling Doctor of Rocks OaklandRegistered User regular
    Played my NBN Tax deck tonight, won twice! Once against Ken Tenma, once against Nasir. Not exactly the best stress tests, but it's nice to know it can work. Highlights included playing the same Adonis campaign three times - once regularly, and twice with License Acquisitions. Red Herrings was excellent every time it showed up - especially against Nasir. It still felt low on money, though. Might have to find room for either Sweeps Weeks or PADs or something. If I had the influence Peak Efficiency would even be good.

  • BogartBogart Streetwise Hercules Registered User, Moderator mod
    Quinns has another Netrunner tournament on December 13th. Pretty sure I can't make this one, but tickets are going fast so if you fancy it best pick up a ticket soon.

    Tickets.

  • Dis'Dis' Registered User regular
    Bogart wrote: »
    Quinns has another Netrunner tournament on December 13th. Pretty sure I can't make this one, but tickets are going fast so if you fancy it best pick up a ticket soon.

    Tickets.

    :< if it was the weekend after I'd be back in London and totally up for that. Stupid living in the middle of nowhere.

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