Honor and Profit - the Bad Deck Review!

So. Getting back into ANR as I teach my girlfriend (and she becomes better than me, hmm) I've come back around to pick up the Bad Deck Meta!

Here we go. Honor and Profit Review - the Fight the Meta Version

When reading this review of cards, please remember. This is for how you can break the meta! This is for things that make you think! This is for things that TOTALLY ... well usually... do not work in the competitive scene... but maybe they make you think


Rating out of 5.


Harmony Medtech


2/5 - This Identity will do good in the real world I think. Its low deck size and low influence may make it tough, but it could be a problem for runners. Not so crazy, not so interesting. It will do its job and I think we'll see it here and there.

Nisei Division


5/5 - Yes! No one used Psi (besides Caprice in recent days) and now ... now you will try to think of decks that take advantage of the psi. I hope that the next couple of data packs throw in a few more Psi cards, play around with it. The problem is that these Psi cards do a wide range of thing. One tags or brain damages. Several are Ice that (kinda?) stop the run. Caprice screws up the run. Some other do damage. You couldn't include them all, cause how would that work out for focus? But if a few more come out... The storyline in the HP insert talks about the Nisei Project - I can only hope that draws more Psi cards to the game...

Tennin Institute


1/5 Oh boy. More advancing traps. Yay. More fast advanced options. Yay.


House of Knives


3/5 - Well. Netdamage flatline decks will be more likely. Now instead of hoping the runner makes a mistake, or manipulating the table into mistakes, a quick toss of two of these scored and a few Neural's or even properly laid ICE...

Medical Breakthrough


2/5 - This will allow some sort of Fast Advance (maybe?) out of Jinteki. It will be far slower than the Astrotrain at least, but it could come in handy. I could actually see Runners running Data Dealer the other sack an Agenda card to slow down the Corp relying on this. That would be a meta change!!

Philotic Entanglement


3/5 - Same as with House of Knives, flatline by choice rather than mistake are more likely. Could be interesting. Thing is though, they score it and win, no matter that they had 6 points. Score will come first, check win condition, then fire - same as PE.

The Future Perfect


4/5 Woo! Works against stealing Psi Agenda... but its a 5/3! That's ... that's super hard to score in the deck of porous Jinteki ICE... will this start off a thought of a Jinteki Glacier deck? Might need more ICE for that, but still. With Tenma Line in this pack, and a couple of scary ICE that could be encountered, toss in 3 NAPDs and you have 15points already, few Braintrusts... Braintrusts you actually try to over advance? What? Braintrusts you actually want to use their Ability on? Whaaat? thats Challenging  the Meta.

Chairman Hiro


2/5 Eh. Eh eh. Eh. Director Haas rarely see's play because even with a 5 trash cost and an extra click she is too risky. The first thing a Corp learns is that you cannot completely keep the Runner out. They will eventually get in, and killing a click and 2 Agenda points is too good to resist. With Hiro, maybe it will be better - only rezzed when a kill is about to be made, and only played a turn or two before? I give it a 2 only because I so badly want to build a CEO Deck when NBN Weyland's top brass are revealed. To bad each is 5 inf, unless we get a 20 or 25 inf Identity (hah... hah... hah)

Mental Health Clinci


1/5 - An even better PAD+Sweeps week card. Yay.

Psychic Field


2/5 - Its Psi, so I'll give it that in being able to create a psi  deck with it, but other than that it will see a ton of play. The whole expose or access clause makes it stupidly good in any deck trying to kill the runner, and any deck using Netdamage to slow them down - One neural after the runner hits this and pop! So eh on the Challenge the Meta scale.




3/5 - I actually give this a 3 ONLY because it may bring Data Dealers and Frame Jobs might be worth running. And that's meta changing. Of course I've been running Data Dealers with Notoriety for a couple of weeks now and surprising the hell out of everyone with it!

Tenma Line


4/5 - Remember that Ice Trap Deck I posted long ago? This is what we were waiting for. this is the card that can make that deck go up a tier or so in level. Definitely not competitive, but at least not as combo jenky wish lucky as it was before!

Cerebral Cast


3/5 - I actually really like this card. Not only does it play with Psi, but the choice between a Brain and a Tag? If you run this the runner has to think - what kind of tag punishment is he running? He through this out here - if I take the brain am I going to regret it but if I take the tag... then does he have a scorch in the wings? is this some in house Jinteki Sea Source? Could make for some interesting new decks!



1/5 - Its an OK economy card but it doesn't do anything to play with things. Though at 1 inf you'll probably find it splashed into the Weyland Bad Pub don't care what you got for money deck.  Not redefining the Meta here.

Mushin No Shin


2/5 - Again, trap deck fodder, and mind game fodder, but hardly meta changing. Or breaking.

Inazuma


4/5 - If only because I think this card will make those whirlpool, Cellportal, trap of death ice cards work. Don't rez it till you're ready, Power Shutdown those Data Suckers or Code Gate Breakers, catch one of them out with a Grim or an Ichi and you can suddenly have a true whirlpool of death server run.



2/5 - It's the non Psi Ice counterpart to Psychic Field, so that's kinda nifty. Not really Challenge the Meta defining though.

Pup


1/5 - Cute. And pretty effective as an early taxer. Just slots right into existing Meta Ice Packages though

Shiro


2/5 I actually find this interesting. I kinda  wonder how it works with multi access though. Really, like curious here. It says Top Card, if the Corp pays and you are seeing 3... do you see the other 2? I think so. I do like the Arrange in any order thing, if nothing else to set yourself up for the future.

Susanoo-No-Mikoto


3/5 - I give it a 3 because with the Trap Ice Deck idea, this card can really shine. The 7 Strength Sentry doesn't hurt either, putting it as scary as an Archer in a lot of situations, especially if Archives has a couple Shi.Kyu or Shocks in it.

NeoTokyo Grid


2/5 - I like it in the sense it is a SanSan, Engineering the Future sort of hybrid region, but I don't think that it will be too 'Meta Challenging'.

Tori Hanzo


3/5 - She get's a three cause she isn't going to kill anyone, but I totally want to splash the Purple Jinteki HB deck over into Tennin Institute now and Brain Damage Kill!

Plan B


2/5 - It enables more Mind Games but other than that it isn't too exciting. I could see a couple deck Idea's that float around it, will have to try a few of them out to see if its worth playing to Challenge the Meta

Guard


0/5 - Boooarrring

Rainbow


0/5 - Again... Snore.

Diversified Portfolio


4/5 - I had this HB Sideways Deck back in the days just after Creation and Control. It had something like 10 Ice in it and it just installed sideways without bothering to defend. Confuse and delay and make the runner fear. Now with Shipments galore, things like Thomas Haas, and GRNDL Refinery that deck actually won me several games at League Night - Ill post it up in the future here.

Fast Track


0/5 - Yay. Tutor for Agenda's. I do want to stick one in my NEXT deck but completely not Challenge the Meta Worthy



Later - Runner Cards!

Whizzard - Antivirus

Continuing the thread of the last post, I am going to post decks meeting the Challenge requirements of my local league. The Anarch Challenge is no Virus. Which is a bit more difficult than one might think...

In thinking of this I started to auto include a lot of Anarch cards, only to realize how many viruses there are. I decided to use Whizzard because Reina is already good for many other reasons (and I still want to 'Challenge the Meta') and because obviously Noise is useless without viruses.

So that turns us into a sort of pseudo demo build. But we can't be using Imp, so what do we do?

Economic warfare.


Anarch No Virus

Whizzard: Master Gamer (What Lies Ahead)

Event (16)
1x Account Siphon (Core Set) ••••
3x Demolition Run (Core Set)
3x Dirty Laundry (Creation and Control)
3x Infiltration (Core Set)
3x Sure Gamble (Core Set)
3x Vamp (Trace Amount)

Hardware (5)
2x Dyson Mem Chip (Trace Amount)
3x Spinal Modem (What Lies Ahead)

Resource (10)
3x Daily Casts (Creation and Control)
2x Kati Jones (Humanity's Shadow)
2x Liberated Account (Trace Amount)
3x Same Old Thing (Creation and Control)

Icebreaker (11)
3x Corroder (Core Set)
3x Femme Fatale (Core Set) •••
2x Knight (Mala Tempora)
3x ZU.13 Key Master (What Lies Ahead) ••••• •

Program (3)
3x Keyhole (True Colors)

Deck built on NetrunnerDB.

We need a strong economy. All though Whizzard is an economy identity (getting free credits is an economy action) we are still Anarch, and have to pay for a lot of things. With not a lot of influence to throw around, we'll go for some efficient pump-able breakers - Yog may be amazing of course, but without Datasucker tokens... And sure we could Mod or Dinosaurus it, but why spend all that resources for just code gates?

So we pick 1 for 1 breakers, and have to have 3 of each. Now the meat of the deck

Account Siphon, Demo Run, Vamp, and Keyhole. Get in, and mess things up. Use Whizzard's ability if you can, otherwise just trash the crap out of things. Blow things the hell up. It's your main strategy. Get things out of play and R&D in order to slow down the corp. Back that up with Account Siphon and Vamp to keep them even lower. Don't give them scoring windows.

What else can be done?

More punishment. Event based running, if the influence can be found for it. Build him like Criminal and surprise the heck out of Corp players who aren't expecting Account Siphons, Inside Jobs, and the like.

Will this work? Probably not. Will it make you think? I hope so.

No Events Criminal

Now this is really crazy. No Events criminal? Why would you -ever- want to do that?

Means we're going to have to be going into unused Hardware!

To push the meta of course. The local League for Netrunner here in town is an Achievement based league. If you hit certain circumstances you get bonus points. Several of them are Hard Mode decks, decks in a faction not using its main component. So... No Event Criminal...

Of course, you have to remember: These decks are not meant to be competitive. Leaving out in-faction cards like Easy Mark, and Account Siphon is a quick way to loose as Criminal. I heard once that the best Criminals never play an Ice breaker; because their event's handle it for them.

Well after thinking about this, I had to go with Gabe. Andromeda simply needs that aggro early from events she is practically guaranteed to draw. Gabe's ability will still be useful without events, and Andy's is highly curtailed without getting a major advantage out of it early.


Criminal No Event

Gabriel Santiago: Consummate Professional (Core Set)

Hardware (16)
2x Clone Chip (Creation and Control) ••••
3x Desperado (Core Set)
2x Dyson Mem Chip (Trace Amount)
3x e3 Feedback Implants (Trace Amount)
2x HQ Interface (Humanity's Shadow)
2x Lemuria Codecracker (Core Set)
2x R&D Interface (Future Proof) ••••

Resource (4)
2x Daily Casts (Creation and Control)
2x Kati Jones (Humanity's Shadow)

Icebreaker (13)
3x Corroder (Core Set) ••••• •
2x Crypsis (Core Set)
3x Faerie (Future Proof)
2x Femme Fatale (Core Set)
3x Peacock (What Lies Ahead)

Program (12)
2x Copycat (Second Thoughts)
2x Crescentus (A Study in Static)
2x Gorman Drip v1 (Opening Moves)
2x Pheromones (Humanity's Shadow)
2x Sneakdoor Beta (Core Set)
2x Snitch (Cyber Exodus)

Deck built on NetrunnerDB.

So of course, we have no Special Order, and fitting in room for SMC we may not have the influence. So that means we have to go old school for breakers, to guarantee we see them. Desperado of course - why not? It's not restricted.  Now we have some of the interesting things.

HQ and RD Interface - why both? Because without events to put pressure for this deck, we have to find other ways to do it. Both Interfaces gives the advantage of being low in Inf, and able to put multiple points of pressure upon the Corp.

Codecracker and E3 - well, without the big money of AS or the easy money of Dirty Laundry, Sure Gamble, Easy Mark, ect - E3 could possibly save some money. In the end, probably not. It would probably be the first to go.

Then we'll throw in some utility with the programs. Gorman Drip and Pheromones can save money, Sneakdoor allows us to hit the third central adding pressure from all three. Snitch  is there because we don't have Inside Job or Infiltrate, and Cresentus is a poor man's Emergency Shutdown.

And I just want to see Copycat used.

What else can be done?

Well, economy is going to be an issue, and speed as well. Making room for SMC might be one of the better choices, just to lower the amount of breakers and get some tutoring in there. e3 can probably go because we're only running the most efficient breakers, meaning we can make room for another HD interface and probably a Snitch or something

Will this work? Doubt it. Will it make you think? I hope so!

NBN - Late Night Infomercial

Everyone knows the power of economics in Netrunner. And this may be a deck that is actually... competitive, if we can get the goal off the ground. Might need some tweaking for that.

So the 'Thing' That NBN is good at, is Traces. Weyland has Meat Damage and Advance-able Ice, Jinteki has Traps and Net Damage and Psi, Haas-Bioroid has Brain Damage and Click Gaining... Well NBN Has Tags and economics - And by Economics I mean Closed Accounts.

But I also mean Traces.

See, a Trace is only scary if the runner 1) Can't break it on an ICE and 2) Is actually afraid of it going off. Most people know that when you play NBN, there will be a point you get tagged, and just play around it. So they stop paying for most of the traces you usually see, preparing for the ineveitable Psycho Beale if that can be pulled off, or Closed Accounts for a scoring window.

But what if we adapted that to make it all scary, so that the Runner must always be broke? Opening up many many many more scoring windows as the Runner has to regain credits?

NBN - Late Night Infomercials

NBN: Making News (Core Set)

Agenda (9)
3x AstroScript Pilot Program (Core Set)
3x Character Assassination (Opening Moves)
3x Restructured Datapool (What Lies Ahead)

Asset (8)
1x Aggressive Secretary (Core Set) ••
2x City Surveillance (Mala Tempora)
2x Jackson Howard (Opening Moves)
3x Marked Accounts (Cyber Exodus)

Upgrade (4)
2x Bernice Mai (Humanity's Shadow)
2x Red Herrings (Core Set)

Operation (7)
3x Closed Accounts (Core Set)
3x Hedge Fund (Core Set)
1x Power Shutdown (Mala Tempora) ••

Barrier (6)
2x Bastion (Creation and Control)
2x Paper Wall (Mala Tempora)
2x Wall of Static (Core Set)

Code Gate (5)
2x Pop-up Window (Cyber Exodus)
2x Tollbooth (Core Set)
1x Viktor 2.0 (Creation and Control) •••

Sentry (10)
2x Archer (Core Set) ••••
1x Caduceus (What Lies Ahead) ••
2x Data Hound (Humanity's Shadow)
2x Flare (Future Proof)
1x Ichi 1.0 (Core Set) ••
2x Muckraker (Second Thoughts)

Deck built on NetrunnerDB.


The only way Trace's remain scary is if they actually have a purpose for that trace firing. As a lot of Trace is on ICE, those Traces become not so scary (or even noteworthy) if they can just be broken without firing. So there is a lot of Program destruction in this deck - we have to keep them out of the Breakers so they can't get through. Drop those Corroders/ Fracters first - because the Barriers are the decks main ETR ice, but dont forget things like Magnum Opus - the goal  of this deck is to regularly bankrupt the runner.

Which means throwing those Trace's becomes a very complicated game. You don't (most times) want to just blow the runner out of the water with credits and make it impossible for him to pay for it. Sure on Flare, that is a great idea. 2 cards out of hand and some hardware? Rockin. But on Muckracker? Unless you really need the run to end, you actually want him to be paying to beat the traces. It's more expensive. Muckracker is a perfect example of the idea of this deck. Pay the Tax (Buy this awesome thing on this late night infomercial for only 7 payments of 19.99!) or you don't get in.

So it becomes a game itself - how much do you spend on this Trace? You want to leave it in the realm for the runner to beat, but you need a reason for him to think he has to beat it. It's a Shell game - much like Jinteki traps, but on a different level - and a level many Runners probably won't be thinking about.

Psychographics is not in this deck, and neither is Midseasons. If you drop a butload of tags on the runner at once, they stop paying to prevent tags. Plus we're pushing the Meta, and we've already seen the Midseasons > Psycho > Beale combo.

So I've included cards that give negative effects for those trace's hitting beyond just tags. Some as simple and understanding as Caduceus, some as scary as Viktor 2.0. A single hosted conter on him makes him scary if the runner ever suddenly finds themselves without cards... 2 or 3 is even more scary.

And so the Making News Identity is used because the goal is to bankrupt the runner, and making them spend 2 more (plus basically canceling out the base 1 Link of some runners) just helps in that. . Just like Account Siphon recursion decks goal is to keep the corp continually without credits, so too is this deck. Closed Accounts is obviously a workhorse here, and the single tag you need for that would be where you want to drop enough they can't fight it cause you're going to hit them next turn.

When using Flare, Carapace is obviously a target, but don't forget about stuff that gives reaccuring credits. The goal is to bankrupt the runner with a thousand little taxes, until they are out of burst economy and are forced to click for credits. And of course, Tag Punishment in the form of killing Kati, Daily Casts, Armitage, ect is extremely important.

Where to go from here?

Archived Memories could be a serious powerhouse in this deck, and maybe moving inf around for a second Viktor 2.0 would be scary. A second Aggressive Secretary would be nice to increase the chances of seeing it. Bad Pup removal might be considered (Veterans Program?) simply because free money is bad.

Will it Work? Doubt it. Will it cause you to think? I hope so.

(though I honestly feel this, so far, has the best chance of actually being competitive)

Reina - Double Up!

Ill admit. I'm not to happy with this deck. Its ... stretching even the idea of stretching the Meta.... but at least it makes us think.


Starlight Crusade was one of those cards I think that a lot of people went ... eh? And Honestly, until Double Time is released in a couple months (which is supposed to be all Double Events) it's probably not worth building a deck around. But why does that stop us?

Remember. These decks are not meant to be competitive. They are here to make you think. To approach things from a view point that most find untenable and see if something interesting can be sparked.

So I took a look at all the Double's spoiled so far - This includes through Double Time, so you'd have to proxy this deck to even try it. But given that the doubles most expensive influence ended up being between Criminal and Anarch, I choose to go with Anarch.

This is a concept - The Starlight Deck - That will undoubtedly get better with time. But ... this might actually be working here? The only doubles I didn't use (That we know for certain the entire text on at least) were Frame Job and Eureka. Frame Job was too situational (plus I'm playing around with that in a different deck, heh) And there wasn't really anything worth using Eureka for in an Anarch deck - and not without spending influence on things like Motivation, which didn't seem worth it.


Double Up!

Reina Roja: Freedom Fighter (Mala Tempora)

Event (12)
2x Hostage (Opening Moves) ••••
3x Lawyer Up (True Colors) •••
3x Queen's Gambit (Double Time)
1x Running Interference (Mala Tempora) ••••
3x Singularity (Double Time)

Hardware (4)
2x Dyson Mem Chip (Trace Amount)
2x Spinal Modem (What Lies Ahead)

Resource (14)
2x Access to Globalsec (Core Set)
2x Aesop's Pawnshop (Core Set) ••••
3x Daily Casts (Creation and Control)
2x John Masanori (Opening Moves)
3x Starlight Crusade Funding (True Colors)
2x Underworld Contact (A Study in Static)

Icebreaker (9)
3x Corroder (Core Set)
3x Mimic (Core Set)
3x Yog.0 (Core Set)

Program (6)
2x Datasucker (Core Set)
2x Djinn (Core Set)
2x Rook (Opening Moves)

Deck built on NetrunnerDB.


So here we have a few things. Queens Gambit and Singularity actually mesh really well together. But normally that's an entire turn plus whatever you have to spend to get into the server, so it's probably not worth it most times. But if Starlight is out...

Aesop's becomes important to have suddenly, because we want to be able to get rid of Starlight when we're done with it. Hostage is then useful, for finding Aesop.

And now we're running two resources that are important to the deck concept. So Tag Me is right out, meaning that Lawyer Up could become potentially useful.

We'll throw in the traditional Anarch breaker suite and add in a Rook to play off of Reina's base ability. Running Interference combines with that and can make that all important get me in there now run possible.

Since we are already running Aesops, Daily Casts becomes a decent economy card with selling it to Aesop (not amazing, but better than Liberated Accounts, especially cause we are already click starved)

Without a lot of Viruses or Caissa, Spinal Modem becomes the better console. Well now we're a little worried about Link Strength - and if we include some boost there (and Dyson is good  for the memory we'll need) then hey. Why not include Underworld Contacts. Since we're already Resource Heavy...

And finally John M. He's in because he provides card draw when we are loosing a click, meaning we still get something out of all 4 clicks, effectively.

What else can we do?

Medium is probably a good idea to put in here - being able to get RD lock would help a lot for a victory condition. Ive found without some sort of HQ or RD multi access you are in a lot of trouble. But thats if you want to actually make this ... competitive.

And once more Double Events come out this might actually become viable.

No idea if this is worth it. Will it work? Doubt it. Can it make you think? Maybe.

Custom Biotics - Always Growing, Always Going

Custom Biotics. Such an interesting identity that I don't think I've ever seen anyone even talk about playing it. The 22 influence is its strong point at a drawback of no Jinteki cards but... huh?


Once again. Remember. These decks are not necessarily competitive. They probably wont work. They probably will get slaughtered. But make us think... that they can do.


Like the Professor from the last article, you have to make use of that 22 influence (or in the professors case more than 15 inf worth of programs that are useful) to make it worthwhile. What would you need that much influence for without touching Jinteki that it would make not running Engineering the Future the best solution?

This is an identity that, like the Professor, will get better with a larger cardpool. Will it ever outdo Engineering the Future? Probably not. And we're talking about the here, the now, not 3 cycles down the road with a crap load more cards.

So while thinking about the next deck to write about, I was looking at Custom Biotics and going ... what the hell would I use that influence and lack of an ability for? I was reminded about another deck that I saw - Apreche (His Youtube channel here) had a video of a game up on his channel that was his HB Slow Advance. Slow advance? What kind of crazyness is that? Suddenly I was struck with a thought and so....

Custom Biotics - Always Growing, Always Going

Custom Biotics: Engineered for Success (Creation and Control)

Agenda (10)
2x Accelerated Beta Test (Core Set)
2x Mandatory Upgrades (What Lies Ahead)
3x Project Ares (Opening Moves)
3x Project Vitruvius (Cyber Exodus)

Asset (7)
3x Adonis Campaign (Core Set)
2x Aggressive Secretary (Core Set)
2x Cerebral Overwriter (Creation and Control)

Upgrade (3)
3x Simone Diego (Humanity's Shadow) ••••• •

Operation (9)
3x Hedge Fund (Core Set)
3x Shipment from Kaguya (Core Set) •••
3x Shipment from SanSan (Second Thoughts) •••

Barrier (9)
2x Bastion (Creation and Control)
2x Eli 1.0 (Future Proof)
1x Heimdall 1.0 (Core Set)
2x Ice Wall (Core Set) ••
2x Wall of Static (Core Set)

Code Gate (6)
2x Enigma (Core Set)
2x NEXT Bronze (Opening Moves)
2x Pop-up Window (Cyber Exodus) ••

Sentry (5)
1x Fenris (True Colors)
1x Ichi 1.0 (Core Set)
3x Matrix Analyzer (Core Set) ••••• •

Deck built on NetrunnerDB.


Building from a similar position as the Weyland - Building a Better ICE deck I posted before, we will use Simon Diego to her greatest effect - Free advancements! Then taking a page from Apreche we'll make that useful - Overadvanced Project Ares thanks to Simon and Matrix Analyzer, Overadvanced Vitruvius.  What might be a harmless Two Advanced Agenda, after running through a Matrix Analyzer is suddenly 3 programs or three brain damage. How to make this worthwhile though for the influence?

Shipments. Kaguya and SanSan shipments. Matrix Analyzer and Diego already eat up a lot of the influence. Throw in 3 each of the Shipment cards from Weyland and NBN that will allow even more Advancement tokens to be placed means we're pushing upwards. Toss in a Popup Window to help fund this and we got ourselves 22 influence (well with  that Ice Wall... shhhhh)

The secret for this deck is a pair of big 'ol balls. Advance. Always be advancing. Never stop advancing.  Don't get cold feet. Keep advancing. When he see's you adding more advance tokens while he's running the server, the hope is that he gets cold feet that its now a 4 advanced Cerebral Overwriter

Economy might be the biggest issue, but one of the best parts of this is that, thanks to Simone, and both Shipments, that's 9 cards that can allow you to advance for free. Adonis is a strong economy card already, so all you'll need is money to fund the rezing of ice, which between Adonis and Hedge Fund might be enough. Maybe.

What else can we do?

Well economy is an issue. Maybe swapping into some Eve to go with the Adonis, or a Melange for the burstyness.  Or more Drip Econ, so you can spend more time clicking for advancement without having to spend time getting the credits. Eve Campaign or PAD campaign could round out the econ nicely. The ICE package probably needs work - I just drew on my experiences in building NEXT for some random ice. Draw what you can and will from that. Maybe even saying screw Custom Biotics and run this out of Engineering the Future for the free money and the ability to run Junebug to compliment the Slow Advance idea.

Thinking about it, Rex might actually work well here. If you have it up in a server, they might run it instead of your agenda you're pushing for over advancement. If not, then you have money coming in soon, possibly right when you need it. Its a card that's easy for the runner to forget about if other, more pressing things come up.

Will it work? Doubtful. Does it make you think? I hope so.

The Professor - A Toolbox to Sell

Oh dear. He's finally lost it. The Professor. How are we ever going to really justify this as a deck list that is worth it?

Well remember. These decks may not be competitive. They may not be good. Hell they may even be terribad. But hopefully they make us think.

Everyone has looked at the Professor as a Jack of All Trades deck - the idea is that with the abundance of cards to search your deck (Tutor) for whatever program you need in house for Shaper, the Professor can stack his deck with one off's to fix the problems he comes up against.

The problem becomes that of those cards, those that are actually useful more than once or twice in a blue moon don't make up enough influence to justify using The Professor - if its less than 15 inf, why not just stick it in Kate or Kit or G-mod or hell even Exile?

What if we look at it a little differently?

A Toolbox to Sell 

(Or otherwise known as: OMG THE PRGMS; Sell 'em)

The Professor: Keeper of Knowledge (Creation and Control)

Event (9)
2x Diesel (Core Set)
3x Freelance Coding Contract (Creation and Control)
1x Levy AR Lab Access (Creation and Control)
3x Test Run (Cyber Exodus)

Hardware (5)
3x Clone Chip (Creation and Control)
2x Dinosaurus (Cyber Exodus)

Resource (1)
1x Same Old Thing (Creation and Control)

Icebreaker (5)
1x Atman (Creation and Control)
1x Corroder (Core Set) ••
1x Knight (Mala Tempora) ••
1x Ninja (Core Set) ••
1x Torch (Mala Tempora)

Program (25)
1x Chakana (Creation and Control)
1x Copycat (Second Thoughts) •
1x Crescentus (A Study in Static) •
1x Deep Thought (Future Proof)
1x Disrupter (A Study in Static) •
1x Djinn (Core Set) ••
1x Expert Schedule Analyzer (Mala Tempora) ••
1x Gorman Drip v1 (Opening Moves) •
1x Keyhole (True Colors) •••
3x Magnum Opus (Core Set)
1x Medium (Core Set) •••
1x Nerve Agent (Cyber Exodus) ••
1x Parasite (Core Set) ••
1x Paricia (Creation and Control)
1x Pawn (Opening Moves) •
1x Pheromones (Humanity's Shadow) ••
1x Sahasrara (Creation and Control)
1x Scheherazade (Second Thoughts) •
3x Self-modifying Code (Creation and Control)
1x Sneakdoor Beta (Core Set) •••
1x Snitch (Cyber Exodus) ••

Deck built on NetrunnerDB.

For those of you counting, that's 33 Influence. Well, we're certainly making use of his card ability now.

So here we just stuck every single non breaker program in the Professor. What does it do? Don't care. Don't care at all. Sure it might be useful once in a blue moon, and you'll be happy you have it then, but really? What is it good for? 99% of the time nothing but throwing to Freelance Coding Contract to get giant bursts of money. Who cares what it does, just toss it. Then with the most effective breakers in the set, money wise (Garrote could be included but Memory wise its probably better to keep it with Ninja unless you want to find room for some Mem Chips) you'll be able to break into any server quickly, efficiently, and often.

A burst of 10 creds when you use it would be pretty good way to suddenly break into a server where the Corp thought you were going to be stuck clicking for Magnum Opus credits a turn before being able to break it. One click for 10 creds, as long as it's not a trap you're running into ...

Forget about the toolbox... Sell it! To make money for breaking things!

And while you're tossing cards that you don't need, if the Corp pulls out something strange or weird, you will have the card you need in their somewhere. And this is Shaper. you have the ability to go get it, out of the Heap or out of the Stack, there is a way.

Hmm. I didn't include Deus X. Or Net Shield. Maybe those could be fit in there...

What else can we do with it?

Well this was thrown together by literally just clicking 1 of everything i could that wasn't an ICE Breaker on Netrunnerdb.com. More card draw, maybe another economic engine of some sort (Professional Contacts comes to light as a good idea, Quality Time as well). Possibly might want to consider some funky town cards like Escher or other interesting but little seen Shaper cards for throwing out another surprise.

In all fairness though, this deck violates one of the cardinal rules of deckbuilding. Focus. So...

Will it work? Who knows. Will it make you think? I hope so.

Weyland - Building a Better ICE

Weyland has this amazing ability on their ICE. Much of their ICE can be advanced.  Unfortunately this usually is not effective money wise, even with Commercialization, and certainly isn't effective click wise. Sure Ice Walls are usually good for it, and other times Hadrians just gets stupid when advanced.

Then there comes ice that can only be advanced when rezed. And the worst part one of these is 'Do Net Damage' - how is that ever going to be useful? That is one things that generally only are useful when they catch the runner by surprise.

But what if we use it as a Tax? Woodcutter with 6 sub routines on it is one expensive thing to break! But dear god how is that ever going to be useful. Plus the turn we rez that ICE its just going to be stupidly sitting there doing nothing. Not to mention costing 6 credits more than its rez cost to even be worthwhile...

Well, there is some help for that... and so we have Building a Better ICE idea...

Weyland - Building a Better ICE

Weyland Consortium: Because We Built It (A Study in Static)

Agenda (8)
2x Government Contracts (A Study in Static)
3x Priority Requisition (Core Set)
3x Project Atlas (What Lies Ahead)

Upgrade (8)
3x Amazon Industrial Zone (Trace Amount)
2x Ash 2X3ZB9CY (What Lies Ahead) ••••
3x Simone Diego (Humanity's Shadow)

Operation (14)
3x Beanstalk Royalties (Core Set)
3x Commercialization (Cyber Exodus)
3x Hedge Fund (Core Set)
3x Oversight AI (A Study in Static)
2x Restructure (Second Thoughts)

Barrier (6)
2x Hadrian's Wall (Core Set)
3x Ice Wall (Core Set)
1x Tyrant (A Study in Static)

Code Gate (4)
2x Enigma (Core Set)
2x Tollbooth (Core Set) ••••

Sentry (9)
1x Archer (Core Set)
3x Matrix Analyzer (Core Set) ••••• •
2x Shadow (Core Set)
1x Swarm (Opening Moves)
2x Woodcutter (Cyber Exodus)

Deck built on NetrunnerDB.



Key cards in here are Amazon Industrial Zone and Oversight AI, followed by Simone and your base identity. Amazon, Oversight AI, and to a lesser extent Priority Requisition is going to be how you get ICE rezed out of the run. Simone and your base identity means you can in a single turn put 3 advancement tokens up onto any of your advance-able ICE ... for free. And once you get Commercialization onto one of those ICE...

Matrix Analyzer and Ash are going to be the last pieces of this puzzle. Matrix analyzer is going to fulfill two roles. First to advance your ICE out of turn of course. Second to increase those agenda's into scoring position. And that is where ASH comes in. Because the operational economy + Commercialization is so very strong in Weyland (even outside of Building a Better World) the money should be there to rez Ash and drop enough on the economy to keep them out of your Agenda - and on top of that, Matrix Analyzer allows you to make the second run on that server even more expensive.

The key thing to remember in this deck. Woodcutter will never flat-line a runner. Tyrant will never really keep them out, once they start a run. Swarm will never eat any programs, no runner will ever pay the credit cost on it once you have it rezzed. But my god the tax on getting through those ICE will be incredible. When it costs 12, 15, 20 credits to break your server, they are not going to get to run every turn. And then a surprised Ash... that will let you score.

At least. Thats the hope.

What more can be done?

We're running a pretty risky Agenda mix here - the Priority Reqs - really worth it? To rez a Tyrant? Maybe. But 3point swings to the runner are brutal. Is it worth the price? Possibly - this deck can have the big taxing ice that would be needed to keep them out. Maybe mixing up the agenda package would help out.

Is Operational Econ the way to go? Maybe swapping in for some PAD or Melange type econ would help out more, and freeing up those spots for other things - like Red Herrings (after all, if you just spent 10+credits to break into my server, and now you need another 5 to steal? Hmmm)

Will it work? Doubtful. Does it make you think of something new? I hope so.

Challenging the Meta - Sweeps Week?

True Colors spoilers hit the web last night, and already there is talk - Is the Andromeda Meta doomed?

So, this card is - against Andromeda - a possible turn 1 +8 credit boost for the Corp. Assuming they draw it. Assuming they splashed it. Assuming they are against Andromeda. What does that really mean for Andromeda?

Well whatever ICE on the table is going to get rezzed. You can guarantee that. A double ICE'd HQ is a possibility too, making Account Siphon early a tough sell, and Inside Job not nearly as brutal.

And then of course, if the Runner does have the ability to get in for that Account Siphon, that is much more likely to be useful now, with the Corp probably going to have trouble spending all 13 credits he's sitting at (or 14, maybe even 15! if he was ... um... crazy) meaning an Account Siphon, while still a possible 15 credit swing, may not be as brutal to the corp either - having credits to spare early on.

Of course how often is that going to really be seen? There are already multitude of posts on BGG about the averages of seeing this card and what not and I'm not going to bother going in on those. If you want the math you can go look at it. I'm talking about the Meta, what this Blog has been designed for to challenge, to make us think, to hopefully see decks that are not AndroAggro and HB or NBN Fast Advance dominating the tournament scenes.

And of course, Lukas has been reported to say they are always very interested in the Meta, and consciously design cards around it, to force it go change, grow, and adapt. Is this the start of that?

It's tough to tell. Playtesting, practice, and tournament results are the only real way to see how the Meta is being adjusted. There is a possibility however...

From Chaos to Nothing

Chaos Theory's greatest strength is her small deck size. Able to more consistently get to what she needs when she needs it, she is kin to Andromeda in that matter. What if we took this to the extreme?

Again. I remind you, these decks are not necessarily competitive. Will they work? Possibly. Will they win? Who knows. Will they make you think? I hope so.

Shapers in general have a lot of good tools. One of their Consoles is called the Toolbox and for good measure - with Tutors galore and recursion in the form of Cone Chips and Scavenge, this faction relies on being able to find the right tool for the job in their bag of tricks. 

What if we take both of these to extremes?

Note - this deck list spawns partially from discussion on BGG about using Escher and the Strength for a full run breakers.

From Chaos to Nothing

Chaos Theory: Wünderkind (Cyber Exodus)

Event (11)
3x Diesel (Core Set)
3x Escher (Creation and Control)
2x Sure Gamble (Core Set)
3x Test Run (Cyber Exodus)

Hardware (18)
3x Capstone (True Colors)
3x Clone Chip (Creation and Control)
3x Dinosaurus (Cyber Exodus)
3x R&D Interface (Future Proof)
3x Rabbit Hole (Core Set)
3x Replicator (Humanity's Shadow)

Resource (2)
2x Aesop's Pawnshop (Core Set)

Icebreaker (3)
1x Gordian Blade (Core Set) (Edit: Fixed from Snowball!)
1x Inti (Creation and Control)
1x Pipeline (Core Set)

Program (6)
3x Magnum Opus (Core Set)
3x Self-modifying Code (Creation and Control)

Deck built on NetrunnerDB.


The idea here is that between Replicator and Rabbit Hole you'll be able to thin your deck rapidly of cards, increasing your chance to be able to draw what you want. Add in Capstone to the mix (newly released in True Colors this month) and you have a card draw engine to support blowing through the rest of those cards. Replicator+Capstone means you'll be able to at least draw one card after both are on the table every time you install a piece of hardware. Time it right and you can dump your hand for an entire new one, drawing into whatever you are looking for - probably your economy and your tutors. Sure that's a lot of clicks, but what is reducing your deck to be able to get your key elements out (Escher, RD Interface, and hardware to feed to Aesop's)

Economy wise, there is a trick here... Escher is The Key to this deck. Run. Run often. Force them to rez ice. And once they have several ice rezzed and you can see several of their types, you can Self Modifying Code your way into whatever strength for a run gaining breaker you need  to secure RD. Between Capstone and Replicator/Rabbit Hole shenanigans you should be able to draw into Escher quickly. And once their servers are arranged in neat, static orders of all Barriers or all Code Gates, those 'Gain strength for the entire run' breakers suddenly are a lot more efficient...

And Magnum Opus and Aesop's round out the Economic engine - after all, what good are 3 Replicators going to do you in play, or 3 Rabbit holes, or 3 Capstones (Edit: Oops! Its unique!)? Money money money is what they are good for, and you will, because of Escher, have a significantly better breaking run then the Corp might quite believe possible.

The trick will be knowing when to install so you have Aesop's fodder later in the game, and toss for card draw. Hard thing to teach, but that is about awareness of the state of the game and the deck itself. Hopefully you will be able to thin this deck out quick and fast, making that less of an issue.

What else could it use?

Levy AR Access is probably not a bad idea in this deck. Same Ol Thing to recur those Eschers too. Its big weakness is Program destruction too, but the Clone Chips should help out with that. Money might be an issue, so swapping into Daily Casts+Aesops might not be a bad thing.

Plus I didn't spend any Influence. Expose might be really useful to, less chance of running into Neural Katana's or Brain Damage ICE while face checking.

Will it  work? Who knows. Does it make you think? I certainly hope so.

Jinteki - The Ice Labyrinth

Jinteki. Oh Jinteki. How we feel about you is always an interesting exchange. The shell game of traps and bluffs and death by a thousand cuts... how will we ever really know you?

So there have been a couple of Jinteki builds that have been popular of late, though maybe not the most competitive. There is Bad Publicity's Jamesteki build - a true 1000 cuts. With little to no ice and the rest being traps and 1 point agenda's, or the typical trap shell game of kills and Project Junebugs.

Now again - these decks that I am posting are not necessarily going to be competitive. Remember that. Don't make comments of 'Well such and such will destroy this' Of course it will. These are deck lists designed to make you think. Challenges to use cards that otherwise aren't popular.


So. What does Jinteki have that doesn't get used? Trap Ice. Sure people will throw a Chum in there, or a Datamine, but how many Cell Portal or Whirlpools do you really see? And how many decks do you really see that make use of it? Add to that your opponent will have to go through ice to get to you, means you are certain they are going to encounter your combos.

Whats the  main problem? well of course paying for all this. Jinteki economy has gotten much better of late, so that is less of a problem, and there are cards like Braintrust (who really over advances that?) and Akitaro Watanabe keep that low.

And the second problem? Positional ice. it only works if it keeps the right order. If you can't get that order right, you just wont get anything done. well Sunset helps with that. Levy University might also help - but possibly give up too much surprises? Who knows.

So.


Onto the deck list

Jinteki Ice Labrynth

Jinteki: Replicating Perfection (Trace Amount)

Agenda (11)
3x Braintrust (What Lies Ahead)
3x Fetal AI (Trace Amount)
3x Nisei MK II (Core Set)
2x Unorthodox Predictions (Mala Tempora)

Asset (4)
2x Levy University (Creation and Control)
2x Sundew (Mala Tempora)

Upgrade (3)
2x Akitaro Watanabe (Core Set)
1x Off the Grid (Second Thoughts) •••

Operation (9)
2x Celebrity Gift (Opening Moves)
2x Hedge Fund (Core Set)
2x Restructure (Second Thoughts)
3x Sunset (Cyber Exodus)

Barrier (5)
2x Himitsu-Bako (Opening Moves)
1x Paper Wall (Mala Tempora)
2x Wall of Thorns (Core Set)

Code Gate (11)
3x Cell Portal (Core Set)
2x Chum (Core Set)
2x Enigma (Core Set)
1x Sensei (Trace Amount)
2x Tollbooth (Core Set) ••••
1x Viktor 2.0 (Creation and Control) •••

Sentry (4)
1x Grim (Opening Moves)
1x Ichi 1.0 (Core Set) ••
2x Neural Katana (Core Set)

ICE (2)
2x Whirlpool (Humanity's Shadow)

Deck built on NetrunnerDB.


So what is the goal here? Replicating Perfection will help in securing you time to build this ice trap. You'll want two remote servers - One you are slowly setting up into your trap. Cell portal first. Trap style ice, like Chum into Katana  and Whirlpool on the outside. Then you can rez an Akitaro with a couple of Brain trust counters to keep them in an infinite loop till they run out of credits to break the Katana and die. Levy isn't that bad in setting this up, just search for the ice and hold it for a turn or two shuffling your hand.

Off the Grid is a nice little trick - rez it /after/ they've run on your central to get back at them. Score in the other Remote you've set up while waiting for your Cellportal Whirlpool trick to come off.  And cards like Wall of Thorns and Toolbooth are there as stoppers, to ice your centrals and just be a pain in the butt.

And if they see your setup with expose? What are they going to do? Unless they are running Escher theyll have to run it. You just make sure when you put your agenda in that server you are ready to pay the costs to make the infinite loop happen. Whirlpool > Katana > Cell Portal with Akitaro rezed and a triple over advanced Braintrust....

Ahaha... Okay that's a one in a million game that will never happen. But even if you only have the credits to rez Cell Portal a couple of times, if they don't have the creds to pay for breaking Katana every time


Does it Work? Doubt it. Does it make you think of something a little differently? I certainly hope so.

ANR - Crazy Decks!

Break the Meta! (hack the planet!)

Okay. So that's a bit of a silly start to what I hope will become an interesting platform for discussing what can be done with Android Netrunner deckbuilding!

If you do not know what Android: Netrunner is, check out the Fantasy Flight Games page for this awesome Living Card Game (LCG) Here! Watch the Video tutorial and go get started in playing this amazing game.


But describing the game is not what my purpose with this Blog is going to be. Rather, as I stated above, I want to break the Meta. Challenge people to think about deck construction in a new, different way.

Will these decks work? Probably not. Most of these decks will probably fall flat on their face and be not very competitive.

So whats the point you ask?

To make you think. To make you look at cards you might normally disregard and toss to the side as useless or extremely situational. To shake things up in a way that might provide you with tricks to make your more competitive decks have an edge over the rest of the players out there. To prepare for when more cards come out that could make these decks ...work.

To start this journey of expanding our ideas on how to make cards work for us, lets start by getting a description of the current Meta.

First. What do I mean by Metagame? 

As the Urban Dictionary link above expands on, Metagame (Commonly referred to as 'Meta') is the "The Highest level of Strategy"

So for Android: Netrunner, this is what is considered the understanding of deck construction of the most popular and strategically sound, consistent, and strong deck types.

Lets take a look at some of those.

First off, we have the Corporation. Meta for the Corporation as of this posting (Jan 2014) falls into a few major types, with a couple of subtypes in there.

Corp Rush

This could be Fast Advance, Never Advance, or just Always Advance (far less common). The most common Fast Advance decks use tricks like Biotic Labor, San San City Grid, Trick of Light, or Autoscript Counters - or a combination of the above. The Goal of these decks is often to be able to trick out an agenda in one turn. Relying on 3/2s and 3/1s as their agenda composition, they will use the listed cards above (and others) to get the ability to install and score an agenda directly from their hand, without giving the Runner time to steal it out of a remote where it is most vulnerable. 

Never advance decks use similar methods, but rely on a large amount of assets as well, causing the runner to be unsure if its worth running on the card that was just installed - is it worth paying to get through all that ice just to see a PAD Campaign?  This is a mini shell game - a bluff to be able to have a full turn to advance and score. 

And finally Always advance is similar to Never Advance, in that everything that goes into a remote server gets Installed, Advanced Advanced. Many of these will be traps, relying on the same bluff against the runner as Never Advance. 

Rush is the main Corp Strategy because you are aiming to put pressure on the Runner, forcing them to make tricky, or even better, bad decisions in their runs. When you are sitting at 4 or 5 points and could conceivably win with one more Agenda, the Runner becomes a little more desperate and may make mistakes, or may have no choice but to run your server for that card sitting there, draining them of credits, taking damage, or any number of unfortunate events. 

The Rush deck type will probably always remain a very strong contender - giving your opponent less turns to win is a lot of pressure upon the Runner and in tournament situations can lead to a lot of mistakes being made.

Tag and Bag

Some corps don't want to deal with Agendas and scoring. They'd rather blow up the building that the Runner is hiding in, and just remove the threat in the first place. Tag and Bag decks are always going to be strong, because even at 4 influence, Scorched Earth is just a strong card for killing the runner. Tag and Bag relies most often on finding a way to Tag the runner - through Snares, SEA Source, Midseason Replacements, Data Raven, or other, and then dropping Scorched Earths on them to kill them. Two at a minimum, with recursion tricks like Archived Memories, or Project Atlas counters to search or other methods to be able to deal with cards like Plastecrete that will protect the runner. 

The second method is Net damage. Most favored by Jinteki of course, these decks rely on traps and surprise to catch the Runner in a mistake to finish them off - such as a double advanced Junebug into a couple Neural EMPs. With Net Damage being mostly death by 1000 cuts, its harder to pull off and relies more on the Runner making mistakes.

Runner Decks

The Runner Decks have a variety of different types, but by far the most common at the moment is the Andromeda Aggro deck - A deck designed to be consistent, fast, and effective. Andromeda's base ability allowing the runner to see upwards of 18 cards (baring duplicates) in a draw and a mulligan means the Runner is most likely going to see what they want. Stuff this deck full of fast running event cards that punish the Corp, reward the Runner, and  help deal with threats of Ice without having breakers on the table  gives this deck type a lot of power. No matter what your opinion of Andy's overpoweredness or not, the current  Meta is dominated by variations of her fast running deck.

Okay! Thanks for taking this overview tour with me. Next up, we'll start breaking this meta!