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.