A Netrunner Reboot Project Update: Preconstructed

It’s been a while since I’ve posted here, but it’s time for a Netrunner Reboot Project Update!

Some background for those who are new

The Netrunner Reboot Project is an attempt to go back and rebalance the Android: Netrunner card pool using hindsight and an expert understanding of the game. Starting with the original core set, we have made (almost entirely numerical) adjustments to many cards in order to craft a game that has a huge variety of viable strategies, and excellent side and faction balance.

You can learn more about the project generally on our website.

A Project Update

The Reboot card-pool now contains all releases up to Data and Destiny.

We now have a visual spoiler/print-and-play for all changed cards! Great for curious browsing or for playing in person!

There is now an additional way to play with the Reboot cards, as a response to the most common piece of feedback I’ve received. Some players love the idea of the Reboot, and are excited for many of the changes, but either don’t have time to build decks, or feel intimidated by how open-ended it is. Indeed, this has always been true for Netrunner, and is why so many players have taken decks off Netrunnerdb or from their friends since the early days of the game.

I decided to embrace players’ need for these resources and embody it in a format: Reboot Preconstructed.

The Preconstructed Format

In Preconstructed, you will play with one of 22 ready-to-play decks. These are a mix of top-tier and tier-2 competitive decks, all good enough to win with consistently if played well. This format allows players to have all the fun of a competitive constructed match, without any of the deck-building work. The decks are incredibly diverse, and truly have something for everyone. Some decks are familiar favorites with just small adjustments, while others are brand new decks only made possible by the Reboot’s changes.

If the Reboot sounds interesting to you, give Preconstructed a try and let me know what you think. We’re currently running a league for this format in the GLC discord in the #red-circle channel, and I’ll be making an announcement of another once it finishes!

If you have questions, comments, or feedback, you can always message me on Stimhack Slack, or on Discord.

-TheBigBoy

Jumpstart: A Netrunner Reboot Project Update

About 3 months ago I announced The Netrunner Reboot Project (Read that background info here: https://runthenet.wordpress.com/2020/05/26/the-netrunner-reboot-project/). This post is an update as to where we currently stand, what’s coming up, and why you should give it a try! You’re going to want to stick around. The best stuff is at the end…

I’ll be discussing:

• Technical infrastructure
• Balance patches/Format update
• The ‘Jumpstart’ game-mode.

Technical Infrastructure

Since May, our online implementation of The Reboot Project has improved by leaps and bounds. Our card images have been upgraded from crude mock-ups to practically indistinguishable from the original cards. There’s still some work to be done here, but about 95% of the card pool looks amazing!

We have 3 sites that you can use to participate in the Reboot Project:

Reteki.fun – This is our clone site of jinteki.net, which you can use to play games with all our changes fully implemented. This site is also great for getting a quick visual overview of all the cards. Just click the “cards” tab and change the format to “Reboot”.  

Nrdb.reteki.fun – This is our clone site of netrunnerdb, which you can use to build decks, publish decks, and explore decks published by other players

Stimhack.slack.com (The Netrunner-Reboot-Project Private Channel) – This is where we organize games, collect feedback, and discuss changes. Unless you already have people you can readily arrange to play with (or even if you do), you’ll want to join this channel to find games. Just join the Stimhack Slack (how have you not already?), and private message me (Thebigboy) asking to join. I keep the channel private just so I can control potential spammers or harassers. Generally speaking, the channel is open to everyone!

Balance Patches/Format Update

We are currently playing games up through Order and Chaos (Meaning the legal sets are: Core 1, Genesis, Creation and Control, Spin, Honor and Profit, Lunar, Order and Chaos). There is still no ban list of any kind, and as far as we can tell, there are strong decks in every faction. We have made several balance patches, mostly making small tweaks to make even more cards viable.

You can view a spreadsheet summary of all the changed cards here:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1J2rLDnDd800BjgxKfQffMU2Mg6Fdmzlg5vHuIfGfILs/

The first big obstacle we faced was balancing Leela. It turns out when you fix Astro and nerf defensive agendas, her ability becomes frustratingly strong, both in the early and late game. We tried a lot of numerical nerfs to her, but none of them addressed the core problem, so we arrived at this change:

This nerf (letting the Corp choose the card returned) seems like a huge change, but we’ve found the ID to still be strong enough, and a solid option for slower criminal decks. Ice-light builds still find themselves slowed significantly by her ability, and the click-tax is relevant to every Corp deck. The fact that she is still performing well after this change should do a lot to show how strong she was before.

We act quickly to address balance concerns as they come up. You’ll see at the end of the above spreadsheet, there is a “Credits” tab, on which I congratulate everyone who proves one of our buffs to be a mistake.

The ‘Jumpstart’ Game-Mode

Finally, I’m excited to announce Jumpstart: An entirely deckbuilding and preparation-free way to play Netrunner. If you go to Reteki.fun and create a game with “Jumpstart” selected as the format, you’ll notice that it will not ask you for a deck. Instead, Jumpstart will build you a unique, never-before-seen deck using our algorithm. These decks are not random cards, nor are they pre-planned packages of cards or modified pre-constructed decks. They truly are uniquely generated by a guided semi-random process that gives you a fresh experience every time!

Your Corp decks will always have a somewhat balanced spread of ice types and sizes, with enough economy to rez them, and your runner decks will always have the breakers it needs, along with some multi-access, some tricks, and money to pay for it all. Decks will always be legal in some ways (deck size and agenda points), but will sometimes break the rules in others. You may get 4 copies of a card, spend a little too much influence, or even get the occasional out-of-faction agenda! That said, you will generally receive in-faction cards, with high influence cards being less likely to appear out-of-faction than low influence ones (although I have seen an NBN deck with a Government Takeover, which is exceedingly unlikely!). I don’t want to give away too many specifics, since half the fun is the thrill of drawing from a deck that you know is functional, without knowing exactly what you’re going to get.

The Reboot card pool is the perfect setting for this game-mode, because one of our primary aims is to vastly broaden the pool of playable cards. You may never put a Bishop or a Tenma Line in your deck on purpose, but you might find that when they fall into your hands, and you find the perfect use for them on the fly, it’s a great moment of shared joy for both players. The fact that we have pushed these weaker cards up to a respectable power level means that these moments happen in most Jumpstart games.

If you want to mess around and hop right into games with the Reboot card pool with no time-commitment to deckbuilding or learning the changes, Jumpstart should be a perfect fit for you.

What’s next?

Now that the game is in a solid place and we’ve launched Jumpstart, the next step is to start planning for the SanSan cycle. We’ll also be constantly working to improve Jumpstart based on feedback, while teaching the algorithm to build even more types of decks.

We need YOUR help to make this project the best it can be! Join the Slack channel, try some Jumpstart games with a friend, or head to nrdb.reteki.fun and look at some decks. If you haven’t given our Reboot a chance yet, you’re missing out.

-Thebigboy

The Netrunner Reboot Project

A lot of Netrunner players are torn about the status of the game’s card pool and how it should be handled:

“Should there be rotation and how should it work?”

“Should there be a Netrunner 2.0 reboot?”

“How should bans and restrictions be handled?”

“Which cards should be reprinted?”

…and many more. Everyone seems to have their own unique set of opinions on these topics, with their own reasons and motivations.

There is, however, one sentiment that I see held in common by many players: That many of the cards from the game’s early days are fun and have value, but could have been executed better given what we know now. They lament the fact that Criminal consoles always paled in comparison to Desperado (even though they think Desperado is fun), and that HB identities always looked silly compared to Engineering the Future (even though they like playing EtF). The game had a lot going right in its early days, but also had a lot of missed opportunities. Additionally, it had its share of broken mistakes: Did Parasite really have to only cost 2? Does Kate really need that Link? Why is Astro so much better than the other agendas? Why does Sansan cost so much to trash? … and so on.  

Along with a small group of fellow Stimhackers, I have set out to right these wrongs with the Netrunner Reboot Project. 

All of the information about the project is available in this spreadsheet:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1J2rLDnDd800BjgxKfQffMU2Mg6Fdmzlg5vHuIfGfILs/

Keep in mind that this project is definitely in work-in-progress status, and everything is subject to change pending testing. The above sheet is the comprehensive and exhaustive description of the project, while this article is more of a hype-piece. 

Rather than reiterating the information in that sheet, I’d like to use the rest of this post as a way to highlight a sampling of the sorts of changes we are making.  Hundreds of cards are changing, so this is really the tiniest of tastes, but it should give you some idea of the direction we are headed. I recommend reading the Project Description and FAQ section of the above spreadsheet for context.

(Fonts and formatting are a work in progress, but steadily improving…)

Astroscript Pilot Program

The Astro train is dead, but NBN is back to 6 3/2s and the Astro counter is still powerful. It can be used to score a 4/2 from 0 advancements, do tricks with Breaking News, get a Beale up to 3 points, or in desperate times, save you a click and a credit. We hope this will help NBN embrace a new role as a never-advance faction. 

Posted Bounty

Weyland spent the vast majority of Netrunner’s history as the forever-tier-2 faction. A big part of that was their lack of access to 3/2 agendas. Posted Bounty looks really silly sitting in a box next to most of the best agendas in the game (ABT, Astro, Breaking News, Nisei Mk 2, Hostile Takeover). This change should make Weyland a much more dynamic and scary faction.

Heimdall 1.0/Wall of Thorns/Hadrian’s Wall

Eli 1.0 aside, the taxing barrier was never really a thing in competitive Netrunner. Barriers have generally been used as cheap gear-checks and that’s about it. The main reason for this is that the larger barriers have been so over-costed. We think that these changes should make these big walls more playable in slower corp decks, giving them more options for taxing runners, and giving runners more to think about when designing their rigs.

Chaos Theory/NBN: The World is Yours/Exile

The concepts behind these IDs are cool, but the numbers were not pushed enough for them to be worth it over more straightforward economic IDs. By doubling-down on their abilities we think that they become compelling options for decks that can make use of their unique advantages.

There are so many more exciting changes, but in the interest of letting you keep a mind open for exploration, I’m going to let you discover your own favorites for yourself.

The most exciting thing about this project for me, is that one of our members has put in a ton of work to create a Jinteki.net mirror site where you can play with all of our changes fully integrated in both card images and implementation!

If you are interested in helping out, asking questions, giving feedback, or just messing around with the changes. All you have to do is send me a message (@TheBigBoy) on the Stimhack Slack channel (Stimhack.slack.com), and ask for an invite. I’ll invite you to our private channel where you will get access to all of our thoughts (full transparency!) as well as a link to the jnet mirror server. 

I’m having a blast so far and I hope you’ll join us.

-TheBigBoy

Downfall Card Ratings

I rated all the cards. I’ll comment on specific cards in a follow-up article based on demand. For now, I’ll indicate changes to my ratings over time in this article with ->.

Rough meanings (There was a lot of demand for this. All ratings are + or – 1. I only entertain questions about disagreements of 2 or more.)

10 – Totally game-warping card. Ubiquitous and immensely powerful.

9 – Very strong auto-include. Generally best-in-slot.

8 – Top-tier card. Doesn’t define your strategy, but still one of your core cards.

7 – Solid card. Very often correct to run.

6 – Good card, but limited application (or high potential card waiting for a deck).

5 – Mediocre card. Very limited application, but possible sleeper or playable in a fringe deck.

4 – Weak card, but not embarrassing. You can play it to good effect on occasion, but your deck would be better if you cut it. *cough* Maw OR Potentially mediocre card waiting for a narrow deck to emerge.

3 – This card is bad. Don’t run it.

2 – This card is bad, and then it’s also bad for another reason. Definitely don’t run it.

1 – Card does not have relevant text.

Haas-Bioroid

MirrorMorph: Endless Iteration: 6/10

Architect Deployment Test: 5/10

Calvin B4L3Y: 4/10

Nanoetching Matrix: 4/10

Hagen: 7/10

Fully Operational: 5/10

Red Level Clearance: 5/10

Cold Site Server: 3/10

Jinteki

Hyoubu Institute: Absolute Clarity: 2/10

Project Yagi-Uda: 6/10

Sting!: 5/10 -> 6/10

Public Health Portal: 3/10

Storgotic Resonator: 2/10

Saisentan: 5/10

Complete Image: 5/10

Letheia Nisei: 5/10

NBN

Remastered Edition: 6/10 -> 5/10

Daily Quest: 7/10 -> 9/10

Tiered Subscription: 2/10

Loot Box: 4/10

Congratulations!: 2/10

Game Over: 2/10

Focus Group: 3/10

Increased Drop Rates: 2/10

Weyland

Divested Trust: 3/10

SDS Drone Deployment: 6/10

Roughneck Repair Squad: 3/10

Sandstone: 4/10

Afshar: 6/10

Trebuchet: 5/10

Secure and Protect: 3/10

Reduced Service: 4/10

Neutral Corp

Vulnerability Audit:3/10

CSR Campaign: 3/10

Rime: 3/10

Anarch

Isolation: 2/10

Demolisher: 4/10

Utae: 2/10

Stargate: 5/10

Chisel: 3/10

Fencer Fueno: 4/10

Trickster Taka: 2/10 -> 3/10

Climactic Showdown: 2/10

The Nihilist: 3/10

Criminal

Az McCaffrey: Mechanical Prodigy: 4/10

Blueberry Diesel: 3/10

Always Have a Backup Plan: 3/10

Masterwork (v37): 3/10

Lucky Charm: 5/10

Flip Switch: 3/10

Bukhgalter: 9/10

“Baklan” Bochkin: 3/10

The Class Act: 7/10

Shaper

Lat: Ethical Freelancer: 6/10

Spec Work: 3/10

Khusyuk: 4/10

In the Groove: 3/10

Supercorridor: 4/10

Gauss: 5/10

Pelangi: 2/10

Rezeki: 5/10 -> 6/10 ->8/10 (The potential has been reached)

The Artist: 3/10

Neutral Runner

Direct Access: 3/10

Rejig: 4/10

Whistleblower: 2/10

The Classic Format: Netrunner’s Final Form

Update for 10/24/2022: My current recommendation is to play with no cards after Uprising, as I can no longer put time into maintaining this format. I would in fact recommend sticking to the FFG cardpool entirely, but this is really up to you.
I am currently dedicating all of my time to The Netrunner Reboot Project, which I believe is my full, uncompromising vision for the game come to life. I am leaving this post up for posterity, and because I do think if you own a set of the FFG game, and don’t want to do any extra work or thinking, Classic is the best way to play with it.

Update for 1/18/2020: All of Uprising is legal. Fast Break, Game Changer, Arella Salvatore, and Liza: Talking Thunder are Banned.

Update for 4/30/2019: All of Downfall is legal except for 2 bans: Bukhgalter and Complete Image. Explained below.

Happy New Year!

It’s been a while, but I’ve been working on this piece for quite some time. It’s the culmination of a great deal of thought and testing, and I really wanted to get it right. I specifically debated if I should address this one point before I begin, and I’ve decided that I must, if only briefly:

Back in August (I think), I applied for a position (not a lead) in development with Nisei, and was not accepted. I can not know why, but it does not much matter. I had to then make a decision about what to do. Should I keep all of my ideas to myself, lest I be seen as trying to compete with their efforts (which I respect), or should I publish them? I clearly have chosen the latter. The purpose of my efforts is NOT an attempt to divide. I merely wish to do as I always have: try to improve my readers’, Netrunner experiences as much as I can. I hope that if my ideas get some momentum, Nisei will give them some consideration, but this is not a pitch from me to them. This piece’s primary purpose is, as it is for all my pieces, to share with you my passion for Netrunner.

---

I am often known to complain about balance. I decided that now that FFG has abandoned the game, I’d try my hand at putting all my complaints into action and devise my own format. Here’s what I took as my starting point:

• The return of all Classic Netrunner cards from the original core set and first cycles – These cards were removed hastily and too many were not adequately replaced. They add so much to the game and must be included in its purest form.
• The aggressive removal of combo decks – These decks are fun puzzles to make and test, but quickly become tiresome to face. If you want to play combos then play Eternal.
• The removal of alternate win-conditions that only detract from the health of the game – Netrunner is a dynamic, intricate game, where multiple factors must be taken into account on every strategic decision. Cards that make the game more linear and reduce decisions add no value.
• A dialing back on Icebreaker and Economy power-creep – This is not supposed to be a ‘broken’ format. It is meant to be netruner in its most balanced state.
• The removal of Global Food Initiative – The card that has secretly (or not so secretly) been the biggest problem with Netrunner balance since it was printed.

I arrived at a format with very simple rules. The entire ANR cardpool is legal (including any cards printed by NISEI), except for a Ban-list of 51 cards. In a sense, this format is tuned Eternal.

For a Quick Look at the lists, you can follow these NRDB links. Banned IDs are listed in the name:

Corp: https://netrunnerdb.com/en/deck/view/1203545
Runner: https://netrunnerdb.com/en/deck/view/1203550

Here are my explanations for the bans:

Runner Side

Overpowered Economy Cards

Zer0

Bloo Moose

Temüjin Contract

Tapwrm

Mars for Martians

Liza Talking Thunder (not pictured)

These cards just make too much money (and in the case of Zer0, draw too many cards). They disrupt the ebb and flow of the game too much. Temujin makes 11-16 credits for 1 click (depending how it is used), Mars for Martians can burst you from 0 to untold fortunes, Bloo Moose and Tapwrm commonly make over 30 credits in a game, and Zer0 often makes 10+ credits and draws 10+ extra cards, even outside of synergies. These numbers are just too big and the game is better off without these cards.

Toxic Economy Engines

Aeneas Informant

Tech Trader

Au Revoir

Zamba

The Shadow Net

Power Tap

These cards haven’t dominated competitive play like the previous set (although some have made occasional strong showings), but none of us want to live in a world where they do. These engines are boring and frustrating to play against. Aeneas Informant, Tech Trader, Zamba, Au Revoir, and Power Tap all enable repetitive super-opus engines that quickly outpace anything the Corp can hope to do. Although it’s possible that these cards may not have been good enough in Classic to dominate competitive play, there’s no value in even having them even show up occasionally. The Shadow Net is both very powerful and painful to play against, leading to frustrating games that take far to long to complete.

Overpowered Hate Cards

Rumor Mill

Aaron Marrón

These two cards are widely understood to disable Corp win-conditions too easily and at far too low of a cost. It shouldn’t be a surprise to see them on this list.

Toxic Not-Runner Win-Conditions

Hyperdriver

Data Leak Reversal

Salvaged Vanadis Armory

Gang Sign

Blackmail

Noise

These cards allow for extremely non-interactive strategies. Netrunner is most fun when runners are attacking the Corp, either aggressively, or surgically. Combos that seek to trash all R&D or access cards without making runs don’t add anything to the game. I know some players remember a few of these cards fondly (I played Noise exclusively for my whole first year of Netrunner, and frequently after), but our memory is the only place they belong now.

Overpowered Icebreakers

Faust

Inversificator

Na’Not’K

Paperclip

Bukhgalter

These cards are so good at breaking ice that they outclass all competition. When available, alternatives are rarely considered, and ice suites are selected with almost solely these cards in mind. Additionally, Corps should feel like when they pay a lot of money for an ice, it shouldn’t be breakable efficiently by a boost-and-break breaker. There should be a trade-off between flexibility and power when it comes to breaking ice, and these cards are just too good at both at the same time.

Other

Watch the World Burn

Mad Dash

Şifr

Account Siphon

These cards don’t really fit into the above categories, but still merited removal. I’ll go through them 1 at a time.

Watch the World Burn was never play tested, and the community seems to have come to a consensus that it should not be legal in any serious format.

Mad Dash allows the runner to play a 6 vs. 7 game too efficiently. The other cards that allow them to do this are either far more expensive or require a lot more work, whereas Mad Dash is commonly worth an entire agenda steal for 0 credits and 0 clicks (since you would have run anyway). The alternatives to Mad Dash are strong enough that they could still see play, and anyone who makes them work will have at least had to put in some effort to do so.

Sifr is probably one of the most widely-hated cards in the game. It makes any ice-reliant strategy impossible to play. I would like Parasite to be legal and healthy and Sifr makes that goal impossible.

Account Siphon is the most controversial card on this list, but I am convinced that the format will be healthier and more diverse without it. Criminal looks to be a very strong faction given their new tools and the return of Desperado and Andromeda. I think there are a lot of things that make Account Siphon interesting, but they do not make up for the damage it does to the meta. Diversion of Funds allows Criminal to still have the ability to punish a lightly-iced HQ and stretch the Corp’s econ at key moments.

Corp Side

Non-Interactive Combo Cards

24/7 News Cycle

Accelerated Diagnostics

Shipment from Kaguya

Shipment from MirrorMorph

Fast Break (not pictured)

Game Changer (not pictured)

Arella Salvatore (not pictured)

Much like the alternative win-conditions that are banned on the Runner side, these cards allow the Corp to win the game without engaging in any of the gameplay that makes Netrunner fun and interesting. 7-Point combos have been over-banned here so that Biotic Labor can safely remain legal.

Overpowered Win-Conditions

AstroScript Pilot Program

Breaking News

Astro, even at limit 1 per deck, is essentially a 3/4 agenda that is worth 2 points for the runner, which is clearly too powerful to be legal. Breaking News is an interesting card in many ways, but having it be legal would require the gutting of the entire NBN faction for them to not be clearly the best option. I decided that removing Breaking News and allowing NBN to experiment with their other powerful cards was a more fun option.

Toxic Win-Conditions

Museum of History

Whampoa Reclamation

Midseason Replacements

IT Department

Bio-Ethics Association

Jinteki: Potential Unleashed

Scorpios Defense Systems

Complete Image

These cards are removed because they allow the Corp to play a totally 1-dimmensional game. Corps and Runners should have to adapt to each other, not project the game onto a single axis such as total-damage-dealt, total credits gained, number-of-fracters-in-deck, or number-of-copies-of-Moby-Dick-in-backpack.

Overpowered Economy Cards

Estelle Moon

Mumba Temple

Mumbad City Hall

Bryan Stinson

Clone Suffrage Movement

These cards are just far too efficient. Like the broken economy cards on the runner side, the game is better off when single cards do not produce as many credits as several other cards combined, with little to no extra work or risk.

Other

Hired Help (see: Watch the World Burn)

Surveyor

Mti Mwekundu

Global Food Initiative

Surveyor is the only banned ice in Classic. While there is a chance that Surveyor may not have been too powerful, Classic Corps have enough win-conditions that they don’t need this horrendously power-creeped ice to build a solid remote server.

Mti Mwekundu cannot be legal in a format with Caprice Nisei, but even aside from the interaction between these two cards, runners should be able to run on naked servers without having to fear a Cortex Lock or DNA Tracker. This ID discourages running too much AND is far too powerful to be legal.

Global Food Initiative’s removal is the insight that makes Classic such an exciting format. Boggs and the playtest team did an excellent job of pushing the power-level of 5/3 agendas in Netrunner’s final sets, and sadly GFI prevents so many of them from seeing play. Jamming 3 GFIs in your deck to only have 17 points devalues accesses in a way that makes running and aggression far less rewarding. Now decks will have to choose between having 10+ agendas or having some agendas worth 3 points, one of the most interesting decisions in Netrunner deckbuilding.

Next Steps

From what I can tell, every faction has powerful, viable decks in classic, and Runner-Corp balance is great. Many cards that used to be great fun, but either rotated or got boxed-out by an over-powered replacement, are back in spades. Deck-building is a great puzzle, a combination of looking to the past and synthesizing new tools and counters with old strategies.

If you are interested in trying out some Classic on jinteki.net, hit up the #classic channel on Stimhack Slack. Alternatively, bring it up with your local playgroup. It’s a blast both for those with pre-MWL pre-rotation nostalgia, and for those who never got a chance to play with older cards. Keep your eyes peeled in the next few days. I plan on starting a challenge board for a jinteki.net Classic league.

If you’re intimidated by the size of the cardpool, take a look at some tournament decks  from 2015 or earlier. You wont be able to copy them exactly, but they should be a solid start. Alternatively, just take your current decks and slowly modify them with older card that make them stronger. Once you get a feel for the format, the cardpool should feel less massive.

For some added hype, here’s a list of the card from each faction that I’m most excited to bring back:

Parasite

Desperado

Kate

Prepaid VoicePAD

HB: Engineering the Future

Caprice Nisei

Sweeps Week

Scorched Earth

Quandary

I hope you’ll join me,

-TheBigBoy

Why Tournaments aren’t Welcoming

I’ve never enjoyed tournaments.

If you only know me through my impact on competitive Netrunner, this might surprise you. There are things about competitive events that I enjoy (clearly, or else I would not attend), but overall I probably find the experience less enjoyable than maybe any other competitive player. I’ve been stewing for a very long time about why this is. Eventually my brainstorming got less personal as I started to notice commonalities in complaints that people had about tournament play. I was encouraged by some other players to write these thoughts down and put them up for discussion. It might be a little late, but I think there’s definitely something here worth thinking about.

This is not meant to be a rigorous argument. It’s more of a think-piece or analogy. I can’t really back up any of these claims (I’m not sure how one would), so I leave it up to you to make up your own mind.

 

The Parallel Paradigm

When very small children are learning to play with others, the first method of play they engage in is “parallel play”. Parallel play typically consists of 2 children playing separately, but in proximity to each other, sometimes with intermittent interest taken in what the other child is up to. Parallel play allows children to gradually ease into social interaction. They can learn norms by paying attention to others but are also not under any pressure to conform. As they mature, they engage in social and cooperative play, mediating their engagement with implicit norms, rules, and common goals. (For simplicity, I’ll refer broadly to all methods of socializing more sophisticated than parallel play as “social play”.) Parallel play never goes away, but it becomes less and less common with age.

But what about competitive play? It turns out that competition is an outgrowth of social play. Think about two people playing 1-on-1 basketball, an activity that would seem purely competitive. However, they both must cooperate to play together in the first place. Both agree to dribble the ball, stay in bounds, and not bring a Hockey stick. Only once the cooperative prerequisites are met, can the competition begin. Participants who fail to demonstrate that they can play by the rules quickly find themselves without playmates.

Additionally, there are other implicit rules to the game that you won’t find in the Rules of Basketball. You don’t cry when the other player scores. You don’t make fun of them when you win. You don’t lie and cover your tracks when caught cheating. Learning these rules is just as important as (if not more important than) learning the explicit rules. We tend to call following these rules “being a good sport”.

Implicit rules go quite deep. Consider the player who never dribbles and immediately shoots the ball (often poorly) the moment it is in his hands, regardless of where he is on the court. It is difficult to keep playmates this way, perhaps because of the implicit rule “take the game seriously and try to win”. Maybe we could even generalize a pattern across most implicit rules: “Be fun to play with”.

Children learn these rules through the tools of inclusion and exclusion. A child who is fun to play with will be invited to play. Whether she wins 90% of the time or 5% of the time, if her peers enjoy having her around, she will be invited. When children learn games they aren’t only building skills in that particular game. They are learning something far more important: How one should play so to be invited to play again reliably in the future.

Now imagine a poorly socialized child, Hugo. We won’t worry about how Hugo ended up the way he did, but he is not playing properly with others. He hogs the ball, yelling “look at me!” while showing off his technique (even more obnoxious if he wins). No one wants to play with him, so no one does. He is forced to sit on the sidelines and watch. With some luck he will one day get a second chance, and hopefully watching and being out of the spotlight will have helped him see how to play properly.

Imagine a “benevolent” adult happens to see this poor, excluded child pouting on the sidelines. Often the properly-playing children receive a lecture and are forced to include Hugo.

…Everyone has a right to be included, after all. Hugo isn’t hurting anyone. He’s just got a unique personality. He’s just different!

Hugo doesn’t learn his lesson this way. Enough poor reinforcement like this, and he may never learn. The other kids get a bad deal too. Many of them will decide that they’d just rather find something else to do.

Hugo does learn a few things here. He learns that he is entitled to play however he wants. He learns that he entitled to someone to play with. In many cases, he learns that the only things that matter are playing his way and winning. For Hugo, play does not properly develop into a compromise that is negotiated, but into an opportunity to be exploited.

So what happens to adults who act like Hugo? It’s hard for them to find engagement voluntarily, so they seek out environments where the other participant can’t afford to say no. They go somewhere where getting up and walking away is too costly for the other party, an environment where consent to all play-pairings is given universally and blindly.

They go to Tournaments.

However, this is not the end of a Hugo’s problems. Being poorly socialized, he isn’t prepared to engage with another person in social play, even when provided with a captive playmate. So, he retreats to the comfort zone of parallel play. He plays non-interactive combos, prison strategies, and solitaire decks. Anything to reduce the complexity and relevance of the other player’s actions.

Just like when Hugo failed to play properly as a child, his playmates don’t really have a great time. Win or lose, Hugo just isn’t that fun to play with. Many of them decide that maybe the fun of going to tournaments just isn’t worth the hassle of dealing with him. This time, the competitive tournament structure is serving the role of the “benevolent” adult, forcing everyone to be included.

Hugo should be able to play however he wants. Who are you to say how the game is ‘supposed’ to be played. He’s not hurting anyone…

Just as before, without the option of relegating Hugo to bench-warmer duty until he learns proper social play, the players start to leave. Keep in mind, Hugo may behave entirely inoffensively outside the game, but strategy-selection is a social behavior just like any other. Playing a deck that most people hate is not much different from acting rudely.

Over time the density of Hugos grows higher and higher, until the whole environment reeks of this immature approach to the game. You can’t really blame the Hugos. They are just responding to structural incentive. I call this the Parallel Paradigm.

If you want a thriving and welcoming organized play scene, you should immediately recognize the Parallel Paradigm as a threat. It’s a threat that I think should be addressed.

 

The Social Paradigm

Just as small children develop from parallel play to social play, we need to develop from The Parallel Paradigm to The Social Paradigm. This means promoting events that eliminate the features of organized play that attract and enable Hugos:

1. Get rid of forced pairing. Make it socially acceptable for people to decline to play against whoever/whatever they don’t feel like dealing with. If you don’t want to play against Clan Vengeance, Hunter Seeker, Museum of History, or Gang Sign, there should be no shame in saying so and seeking out an opponent who is amenable. If you’ve brought a deck that no one wants to play against, you’ll have to play something else. Have decks that have a proven track record of fun and engagement ready on-hand for anyone who needs one. Model proper play.

 

2. Remove the emphasis on winning. It’s ok to try to win. In fact it’s highly desirable (recall the child who takes too many silly basketball shots). But identifying the winningest player shouldn’t be the sole objective of the event. Actively promote those who are a pleasure to play with, whose decks and play lead to great stories and exciting interactions. Hold them up as equals to the player who went 10-0. Purely competitive events can still exist, but they should not be central focus of Organized Play.

 

3. As an individual attending an event, bond with others while you play. Don’t just go about your business, shake hands, fill out a match slip, and part ways. Talk about the experience you’re sharing. Replay an exciting match-up. Make memories.

 

Structures that promote the Parallel Paradigm are inherently toxic. Until we realize this and move towards a Social Paradigm, we’ll keep wondering why so many players seem to “lose interest” in competitive play. We’re all contributors to this. Are your decks fun to play against? Do you actively engage with your opponent’s unique style? Are you more interested in showing off and expressing yourself than in bonding over an experience? How much Hugo is in you? If you see tournaments as environments where playing a fun game is ultimately less important than winning, you might want to reconsider your approach.

This is something we used to be great at! It was at the core of our community and somewhere along the way it got lost. Let’s fix this.

Keep things fun,

-TheBigBoy

8/3/2018

NOTE: This article was written on the above date, and only edited for style afterwards. It is in no way a response to the events of Gencon 2018 (of which I have very limited knowledge). Please read it as a general critique, not one targeted at any particular player(s). The Hugo is not an external problem. The Hugo is in all of us.

For people who missed the point:

You could probably TLDR this article as:

1. People respond to incentive
2. Games encourage pro-social choices through the incentives of inclusion/exclusion
3. Tournaments remove this incentive and replace it with another (winning)
4. Our organized play is essentially only tournaments.
5. Therefore, anti-social choices are inevitable in our organized play.

I believe addressing #4 is where we should direct our work. I think a lot of people read the article and thought I was addressing #3, which I am not. I did a lot of explaining about why #3 is the case, but that doesn’t mean it’s where we should direct our effort. There are also some others who don’t think #5 is even a problem, which is an opinion they are certainly free to hold.

Additionally I speculate that we should look to #2 for guidance on creating our new OP structures that can exist alongside tournaments.

TheBigBoy Cube Draft: Reviving My Love of the Game

After playing in my 1^st World Championship and doing quite well, I was feeling very burnt out on Netrunner. I couldn’t really figure out why. I didn’t love the worlds meta, but it was fun enough that I still enjoyed most of my games. I eventually started to realize that rotation had removed a lot of what drew me to Netrunner in the first place and that I’ve always enjoyed. I understood that it was necessary, one glance at the decks people make in various community eternal formats can tell you why that is, but I still missed the classics:

• Clone Chip Parasite
• Desperado Security Testing
• Hitting your head against a Caprice only to get stopped by a Nisei Mk 2
• Happily stealing an agenda only to get 17 tags from Midseason replacements the next turn.
• Stacking Eli 1.0s
• Saving yourself from flood or trashed agendas with Jackson Howard
• Install take 2 with EtF

These interactions really made Netrunner what it was for me. I wanted to bring them back in a way that didn’t feel broken or frustrating, and I think I’ve done that with this format.

What you Need

2 Really Big stacks of cards (lists in the links below)

Corp: https://meteor.stimhack.com/decks/Qsmp5oBCTxc2kParN

Runner: https://meteor.stimhack.com/decks/msr3KynYHwngKTJry

(These lists are subject to change as more cards are released and as I play more and make changes. I’ll post updates whenever I change more than just a few cards. I highly recommend playing with them as they are before making changes yourself.)

Enough cards from the draft starter (listed below) for all the drafters.

2-3 copies of some select Identities (also listed in the next section).

The Rules

Every player gets a draft starter of:

3 Hedge Fund, 3 Jackson Howard, Unlimited Priority Requisition

3 Sure Gamble, 3 Armitage Codebusting, 1 Crypsis

At the end of the draft, players can include as many or as few cards from their draft starter as they like.

Draft Corp First, making 5 packs of 10 cards each. Everyone looks at a pack of cards and picks one card, passing the rest to the left in packs 1,3, and 5, and right in packs 2 and 4. Then repeat with runner in exactly the same way (except if you have 6 players then runner will be 5 packs of 9 cards, this is OK because having more players actually very slightly advantages runners for reasons I won’t really go into, but that you may realize as you play).

After you draft, build a legal deck (minimum deck-size 45) with unlimited influence. Then count the influence that your deck has from each faction. Agendas count as 1 influence per point they are worth (For example: Project Atlas is a 2 influence Weyland card for the purposes of this count). Then select an ID from the faction from which you have the most influence (in the case of a tie, you choose your faction from between the tied factions). Remember that the Jackson Howards from your draft starter count for NBN influence!

Your ID choices are:

HB: Engineering the Future/Cerebral Imaging

Jinteki: Personal Evolution/Palana Foods

Weyland: Argus Security/Gagarin Deep Space

NBN: Making News, Near-Earth Hub (If you think your group can handle a bit of added complexity, use SYNC instead of Making News. The 40 card minimum opens up some cool deckbuilding options for people who under-drafted agendas, but it might be a bit too much to think about for less experienced drafters.)

Shaper: Kate “Mac” McCaffery/Rielle “Kit” Peddler

Criminal: Andromeda/Gabriel Santiago

Anarch: Reina Roja/Maxx

Some drafting tips:

• As Corp, keep your agendas together as you draft and keep track of how many points you have drafted. Try to get to 20 if you can, but at least make sure the number you are missing is a multiple of 3. Getting to 16 points and cutting a good 2 pointer than you drafted for a Priority Requisition to get to 20 is just a bummer.
• As Corp, keep track of your ice a bit. After each pack check if you are on pace to have enough ice. You don’t necessarily need 16-17 (my best deck so far had 13), but it’s easy to get so caught up in taking money, win conditions, agendas, and fancy tricks that you forget to take that Enigma. It’s also a good idea to try and get a variety of ice types.
• As Corp, don’t be afraid to abandon your plan and adjust if it is early in the draft. If you take a Boom! early but then don’t see any good tagging cards for a while, try to re-orient yourself, and don’t force your deck to be something it’s not. Conversely, keep an eye out for powerful but situational cards that other players pass on. An 8^th pick Scorched Earth in pack 2 is probably a signal that you should consider changing your deck’s direction. If you can move in on a Tag or Net Damage deck when other players are avoiding those cards, then you can spend early picks on strong universal cards like Restructure and Eli 1.0, while getting your key Data Ravens or Fetal AIs with late picks.
• As Runner, make sure you can break most ice. You have a Crypsis, so you won’t get totally locked out of the game if you forget to draft a Fracter, but he’s obviously not an ideal plan A. That said, don’t tunnel-vision on having a solution to every possible ice. Assembling a full rig in this format is difficult and slow, so focus on having answers to common cheap ice before you worry about how you’re going to break an Assassin or Fairchild 3.0.
• As Runner, make sure you draft enough money to pay for your toys. You may have to take that Day Job over that Medium in pack 4 if you are low on economy picks. Power cards don’t do much if you can’t afford them.
• As Runner, an easy card type to overlook is card-draw and stack-searching. The Corps have a lot of strong and cheap early-game ice, and if you are only clicking to draw to get your answers you may find yourself rushed out of the game. The card draw options are often expensive (Quality time, Earthrise Hotel) or Risky (Inject, Street Peddler), so make sure the card-draw you take works well with the rest of your deck. If you thought Self-Modifying Code was great in constructed Netrunner, it’s probably even better here.

How the Cube was constructed

Here are the guidelines that I used to construct this cube. I didn’t follow these 100%, but they represent my general thoughts and direction that I took. This format is far stronger than FFG’s drafts or the Stimhack cube, but still substantially weaker than constructed Netrunner.

3 Copies of Staple Ice and Economy cards (PAD Campaign, Enigma, Sweeps Week, Dirty Laundry, Diesel, Liberated Account)

3 Copies of Classic power cards, especially Corp Win Condition cards (Caprice Nisei, Ash 2X3ZB9CY, Scorched Earth, Account Siphon, Parasite, Self-Modifying Code)

3 Copies of the game’s best agendas, apart from the defensive 5/3s and limit 1-per-deck agendas which are 1-ofs.

2 Copies of most reasonable Icebreakers

1 Copy of some fringe or Synergy-based Icebreakers

1 Copy of game-warping and non-classic power cards (Bloo moose, Faust, Obokata Protocol, Fairchild 3.0)

1 Copy of every reasonable Console

1 Copy of cards that are not overpowered, but create somewhat monotonous gameplay and so are annoying to encounter repeatedly (Magnum Opus, Employee Strike, MCA Austerity Policy).

0 Copies of cards that I hate (Mushin No Shin, Sacrificial Construct) and some hate cards that I thought would only detract from gameplay (Clot, Film Critic)

1 Copy of some memes (make sure your Brute Force Hack is a worlds promo!)

0 Cards from Terminal Directive because I haven’t bought it and don’t think it would change much for the better anyway.

The rest of the cube was filled out by numbers that just seemed right to me. Generally, more expensive cards are seen in fewer quantities since it is annoying to get passed a pack with no inexpensive options.

Achievements

If you want some added fun, make an achievements list for your playgroup. There are some interactions that are only possible in a format like this and it’s fun to see them happen. Some ideas:

• Get an extra Astro counter with Genetic Resequencing or Bifrost Array
• Get a 15 Minutes stolen twice in 1 game as Argus or PE
• Install Maw without immediately embarrassing yourself for daring to play with a 4/10 rated card

Final Thoughts

I’ve had an absolute blast playing this format. The draft and deckbuilding take about a combined 30-45 minutes, but get faster as you play more. The influence counting phase can be tricky your first time, but you get used to it quickly and may even find yourself keeping loose track while you draft to land the exact ID that you want! Feel free to drop me some feedback if you give this a shot, or ask me any questions about it if something was unclear. The best place to contact me is on the Stimhack Slack page @TheBigBoy.

Happy Drafting!

Teaching and Learning: Jinteki Deck

(This is a sequel to: This article)
At long last, the public’s cries have been answered. What follows is the long-awaited article and decklist for my 7th Teaching and Learning deck. While you are here, please check out Fighting_Walloon’s teaching league. This is an online league using only my Teaching and Learning decks. The league is very relaxed and welcoming to players of all skill levels (although if you are an expert you should use your best judgment before trying to hustle some newbies…). More information here:

https://forum.stimhack.com/t/the-second-bigboy-teaching-league-starts-june-3/8893

Without further ado, here is the article:

Decklist

Jinteki values balance, honor, and deception. They create uncertainty in the runner and cause them to second guess their plans. Jinteki does not only fight the economic war. They attack the runner’s hand: both their ability to draw cards quickly, and their inability to deal with losing certain cards. Against Jinteki, runners must carefully balance making money, installing their rig, and keeping their hand-size up. Failing to maintain this balance can have fatal consequences.

Playing This Deck:

In your opening hand you are looking for an economy card, hopefully 2, and some Ice. You do not want Snares in your opening hand if possible, since the runner will likely access them before you can easily afford the 4 credits. This deck plays very aggressively (although not as aggressively as GRNDL!). Spend the first turn or two establishing your economy with a couple operations. Try not to play Celebrity Gift until you have installed some ICE (particularly on a remote server since you would like that ice to be unknown), but don’t be afraid to use it if you don’t have another way to get money. Once you feel comfortable economically, go for a score. Komainu, Enigma, and Kakugo are all excellent ice to begin a scoring server with, but Eli and DNA tracker can also work in the right situation. Getting an agenda, or two, out early will make the runner feel much more pressured to spend resources running, opening more scoring windows for you later.

In the mid-game you want to leverage work-compression to score agendas. This means creating situations where the runner could get into your scoring remote, but is likely to either die or open a safe window for you to score another agenda immediately afterward. Kakugo, Hokusai Grid, Ben Musashi, House of Knives, and Fetal AI all aid you in this regard. Try to combine as many of these effects as possible to make your remote server truly dangerous. The runner will be furious when they decide not to run your potentially lethal Fetal AI score, and it turns out to be a Global Food Initiative. On the other hand, if you managed to score 4 early points, the runner may be forced into the opposite situation, having to run a heavily upgraded Fetal AI for fear of a 3-pointer, only to be met the next turn by a lethal Neural EMP!

Finally, if the game goes very late and the runner has built a full rig, you have a few ways to close out the game. If you have managed to get to 5 points, then your single Biotic Labor will either close out the game for you or force the runner to attack centrals recklessly, trying to find that last 3/2 before you do. If you have built a remote server of multiple Kakugos, then you can try to use Upgrades, Jackson Howards, and even Snares to try to force the runner through them as many times as possible. A runner who gets fooled too many times may find themselves out of cards entirely!

Tricks of the Trade:

Hokusai Grid + Ben Musashi + House of Knives + Action window 5.3: All 3 of these cards do Net damage to the runner when they least can afford it: right before accessing an Agenda. When the runner passes the final piece of ice on a server, ask them if they want to access. Only after they agree do you have to rez and use these cards (You do not have to ask on Jinteki.net. Just use the “action before access” button). At this point it is too late for the runner to jack out. Hopefully they are about to take more damage than they bargained for!

Komainu + Personal Evolution: Normally a Komainu would not be an adequate defense for an agenda, but Personal Evolution makes stealing an agenda with no cards in hand a lethal proposition. Most single-ice remote servers are either painless for runners to Facecheck, or cannot prevent an agenda from being stolen, but Komainu out of PE is both nasty to run into AND agenda-protecting at the same time. The fear of Komainu also empowers your other gear-check Ice. Many runners will dig for their Sentry breaker while you score agendas, only to groan when they see they allowed you to score 4 points behind only a simple Enigma.

Biotic Labor + Philotic Entanglement: This interaction is not common since both cards are 1-ofs, but it is so powerful that it is worth mentioning. A surprise Philotic Entanglement can nail a runner with 3, 4 or even 5 surprise net damage. At the right time this can lead to both a Jinteki victory, and a moment you and your friend will never forget!

Finally, I would like to point out that this is a net-damage-based deck that does NOT use a shell game, does NOT use advanced traps, and does NOT use Mushin No Shin. I really wish FFG would support this style of scoring-damage deck more. Kakugo and Ben Musashi were a great start, but there is still a lot of ground to make up. In my mind this is how Jinteki was always meant to be played. Hopefully after playing with it you see why!

Defining Fairness: My Vision for a Healthy Metagame

As everyone who reads my content should know, I am an unwavering proponent of Fair Netrunner. For those of you who have not yet figured out that Battle of Wits was satire, it should be clear that I only champion decks that I believe embrace just and true Netrunner as it ought to be played. I often scold people for playing with Personal Evolution shell game, Blackmail Spam, CI7, and other combos and gimmicks. It is my belief that the death of a game comes when players feel that to be competitive they must subvert one or more facet of the game’s core mechanics.

There has been much debate in the community lately around what makes a deck fair or unfair, overpowered or not, or if fairness and power even have anything to do with each other. I like to think of fair and Unfair decks as components of a meal. The fair decks are the meat and potatoes, the Unfair ones are the spices and seasoning. You need some unfair decks to keep things interesting and exciting, but with no fair component, a Meta just becomes an unpalatable mound of spice. Additionally, some spices are just too strong or aggressive for most people, and the presence of even one of these can ruin the whole dish.

For this reason, I think a good rule of a healthy, diverse meta is:

There should be numerous options for unfair strategies, but they should all be limited in their unfairness. There must always be multiple fair options for each side at the top tier of competitive play.

What makes a deck unfair?

The unfair decks are the ones that provoke these reactions from their opponents:

“How am I supposed to stop that?”

“I didn’t feel like anything I did mattered.”

“My decisions felt pretty random this game.”

“I didn’t feel like I had any control over how this game went.”

“I don’t think I could win after how the first few turns went.”

“Do you ever run?/Do you ever try to score out?”

“Do you even have any Ice/Icebreakers in that deck?”

“Don’t show that to a new player, they might get the wrong impression about the game.”

“That didn’t feel like Netrunner…”

I’ve tried to take the emotions behind these statements and concretize them into a few core tenets of the game. These are statements about how the game should be played so that it feels fair and pure. Remember that violating one of these is OK, just so long as a deck does not do so to an unacceptable extent, and that multiple competitive options exist that do not violate any.

Non-Interactivity is Unfair

The most impactful plays should involve decisions made by both players. You should feel like you care what your opponent does on their turn and they should care about what you do on yours.

High Impact Hidden Information is Unfair

Players should be able to use hidden information to create advantages, but a single piece of hidden information should be limited in its impact, especially if high impact instances can be created frequently.

 

High Variance, Especially Early in the Game, is Unfair

Players should be able to make meaningful decisions and leverage their skill before a random occurrence determines or strongly influences the outcome of the game. Opening hand strength should be of minimal importance.

Ignoring Large portions of card-types/game actions is Unfair

Players attempting to play a simple strategy should not feel like their deck contains an overwhelming number of useless cards. Players should feel like, although some cards are more effective against a given strategy than others, most of their deck will be relevant every game. Corp decks should, to some extent, attempt to protect servers and score agendas. Runner decks should attempt to make runs and steal agendas.

To illustrate these metrics, I will now go through several competitive archetypes that have been present in the game over the last 2 years, rating each of them. I accept that my ratings are purely executive and that you may disagree by 1 point here or there, but this should still give some semblance of objectivity to the question of whether a deck is unfair. I also know that I have not covered every competitive deck, but I leave it as an exercise for you to rate whatever you feel I’ve left out for yourself.

For each category above, I will give a rating of 1 to 4 for each deck:

1: Acceptable

2: Potentially Frustrating

3: Often Frustrating

4: Unhealthy

Totaling the 4 categories gives the deck’s overall rating:

7 or Lower: Fair (We need at least a few of these to be viable for each side)

8-10: Unfair (These are OK, if they are not obviously better than all fair options)

11 or Higher: Too spicy (These decks can exist, and are cool to see occasionally, but should never be commonplace at top tier play. When one makes the cut, we should feel excited by it as a rare occurrence, not roll our eyes saying “not again…”)

Remember that these final categorizations are still based on a spectrum. A deck coming in at a 7 may still feel unfair to many players, whereas a deck coming in even as high at 10 may seem fair to those with a high tolerance. These are just rough guidelines.

Corp Side

24/7 Boom SYNC

A 24/7 combo deck that tags and kills the runner without a trace (or even a run), while hiding behind extremely difficult to handle tag ice. Essentially never scores non-2/1 agendas.

Non-interactivity – 4

Impact of Hidden information – 2

High Variance, Especially Early in the Game- 1

Large portion of card-types/game actions ignored – 4

Verdict: Too Spicy

 

Power Shutdown Boom Combo

A Combo deck that uses Power Shutdown, Accelerated Diagnostics, and 24/7 to Boom the runner extremely quickly.

Non-interactivity – 4

Impact of Hidden information – 3

High Variance, Especially Early in the Game- 2

Large portion of card-types/game actions ignored – 4

Verdict: Too Spicy

 

CtM Tempo Tag

A rush/tempo deck that uses the pressure of must-trash assets alongside the Controlling the Message ID to keep the runner at bay while it rushes agendas and disrupts the runner’s board and credit pool with Breaking News.

Non-interactivity – 1

Impact of Hidden information – 1

High Variance, Especially Early in the Game – 4

Large portion of card-types/game actions ignored – 2

Verdict: Unfair

 

Mushin PE

Uses Mushin No Shin to create high-variance situations that are weighted to favor the Corp. Attempts to hold off central server pressure with the threat of a net-damage flatline.

Non-interactivity – 2

Impact of Hidden information – 4

High Variance, Especially Early in the Game – 2

Large portion of card-types/game actions ignored – 3

Verdict: Too Spicy

 

Russian NEH

An extremely fast Near-Earth Hub deck that uses Team Sponsorship to chain agenda-scores together, and a multitude of assets to stress the runner’s clicks and early-game economy.

Non-interactivity – 2

Impact of Hidden information – 1

High Variance, Especially Early in the Game – 3

Large portion of card-types/game actions ignored – 1

Verdict: Fair

 

CI 7-Point Shutdown

A Combo deck that uses Power Shutdown and Accelerated Diagnostics to score 7 points in a single turn.

Non-interactivity – 4

Impact of Hidden information – 3

High Variance, Especially Early in the Game – 2

Large portion of card-types/game actions ignored – 4

Verdict: Too Spicy

 

Astrobiotics (Historical, Post Clot, Pre MWL)

A rush deck that uses Biotic Labor and Sansan City Grid to safely Fast Advance an Astroscript Pilot Program, chaining into more Astroscrips for a quick and inexpensive 7 points, often without ever putting Ice on a remote server. Thought to be too fast and resilient.

Non-interactivity – 3

Impact of Hidden information – 2

High Variance, Especially Early in the Game – 3

Large portion of card-types/game actions ignored – 2

Verdict: Unfair (Pre-clot this deck certainly scores far higher)

 

Standard Palana Foods

This deck leverages the interaction of Caprice Nisei and Nisei Mk 2 to create a very secure remote server powered by the reliable economy provided by the Palana Foods identity and high impact operations.

Non-interactivity – 2

Impact of Hidden information – 1

High Variance, Especially Early in the Game – 1

Large portion of card-types/game actions ignored – 1

Verdict: Fair

 

Foodcoats

Uses Breaker Bay Grid + HB Campaigns to generate a huge amount of money to rez several mid-range ice and score out with Ash and/or Caprice.

Non-interactivity – 1

Impact of Hidden information – 1

High Variance, Especially Early in the Game – 2

Large portion of card-types/game actions ignored – 1

Verdict: Fair

 

HB Fast Advance

Uses never-advance tactics and burst economy to sneak out 1-2 agendas, then closes the game with Biotic Labor.

Non-interactivity – 1

Impact of Hidden information – 1

High Variance, Especially Early in the Game – 1

Large portion of card-types/game actions ignored – 1

Verdict: Fair

 

RP Glacier

Use the economy engine of Sundew to rez several pieces of taxing ice, eventually scoring out with the Caprice Nisei + Nisei Mk2 Combo that makes a remote server nearly impossible to access.

Non-interactivity – 1

Impact of Hidden information – 1

High Variance, Especially Early in the Game – 1

Large portion of card-types/game actions ignored – 1

Verdict: Fair

 

Blue sun Bootcamp Glacier

A Glacier deck that uses the economy engines of Oversight AI and Adonis Campaign to create an extremely taxing Ash server that the runner cannot afford to run more than once. Often audibles into a rush strategy against decks that it cannot tax in the late-game.

Non-interactivity – 1

Impact of Hidden information – 1

High Variance, Especially Early in the Game – 2

Large portion of card-types/game actions ignored – 1

Verdict: Fair

 

IG 54 (Historical, although MUCH weaker versions are still being attempted)

A prison deck that uses Mumbad City Hall to repeatedly search for assets and Heritage committee, allowing it to quickly assemble a lock of Bio-Ethics Associations and Hostile Infrastructures protected by the Industrial Genomics ability. Thought to be too powerful, unfun, and non-interactive.

Non-interactivity – 4

Impact of Hidden information – 2

High Variance, Especially Early in the Game – 2

Large portion of card-types/game actions ignored – 4

Verdict: Too Spicy

 

IG49

A combo kill deck that uses a combination of Psychic Field, Ronin, Bio-Ethics Association, and Chairman Hiro to flatline the runner. The Industrial Genomics ability forces the runner to spend clicks and cards building credits, rather than just checking every new server for kill pieces.

Non-interactivity – 1

Impact of Hidden information – 2

High Variance, Especially Early in the Game – 2

Large portion of card-types/game actions ignored – 3

Verdict: Unfair

Runner Side

Blackmail Spam Valencia

A control deck that uses Blackmail and Rumor Mill to lock the Corp’s remote while it sets up large Medium digs. Often played with Account Siphon as well to create another angle of attack.

Non-interactivity – 3

Impact of Hidden information – 2

High Variance, Especially Early in the Game – 1

Large portion of card-types/game actions ignored – 4

Verdict: Unfair

 

Dyper

A Kate deck that uses the Ddos, False Echo combo along with 3 Hyperdrivers to Keyhole the win in a single turn.

Non-interactivity – 4

Impact of Hidden information – 1

High Variance, Especially Early in the Game – 3

Large portion of card-types/game actions ignored – 4

Verdict: Too Spicy

 

Andysucker

A tempo-oriented Criminal deck that uses the Anarch Icebreaker suite to invalidate cheap ice, and economic pressure to keep larger ice from being rezzed.

Non-interactivity – 1

Impact of Hidden information – 1

High Variance, Especially Early in the Game – 1

Large portion of card-types/game actions ignored – 1

Verdict: Fair

 

AggroCrim

Aggressive criminal, played usually out of Gabe but possibly out of Andy or Ken, that Siphons aggressively and floats tags against all Corps with no punishment. Aims to keep the Corp in the early game until it can score 7 points, often with no solid plan for late-game.

Non-interactivity – 1

Impact of Hidden information – 2

High Variance, Especially Early in the Game – 2

Large portion of card-types/game actions ignored – 1

Verdict: Fair

 

SiphonWhiz/Hate Bear

Use Ddos and Faust to land early Account Siphons, crippling the Corp and pounding them with Medium digs before they can set up a board-state that can stop the momentum of Obellus-power Faust runs.

Non-interactivity – 1

Impact of Hidden information – 1

High Variance, Especially Early in the Game – 4

Large portion of card-types/game actions ignored – 3

Verdict: Unfair

 

Temujin/Reg-ass Whizzard

Uses Temujin Contract to build credits quickly and Anarch Icebreakers with Datasucker and Ice Carver to invalidate most problematic ice.

Non-interactivity – 1

Impact of Hidden information – 1

High Variance, Especially Early in the Game – 1

Large portion of card-types/game actions ignored – 1

Verdict: Fair

 

Dumblefork

Uses Whizzard and a critical mass of Ice destruction to continually rewind the Corp’s board-state. Powered by the Wyldside Adjusted Chronotype draw engine and Faust as essentially its only breaker.

Non-interactivity – 1

Impact of Hidden information – 1

High Variance, Especially Early in the Game – 3

Large portion of card-types/game actions ignored – 3

Verdict: Unfair

 

Stealth Shaper

Played out of Smoke or Kate, this deck aims to set up a stealth rig powered by recurring credits, allowing it to break into either the remote, R&D, or both, for close to 0 credits.

Non-interactivity – 2

Impact of Hidden information – 1

High Variance, Especially Early in the Game – 1

Large portion of card-types/game actions ignored – 1

Verdict: Fair

 

DLR Maxx

A tag-me deck that aims to break the Corp with Account Siphon recursion and close the game by installing a Data Leak Reversal set-up that the Corp cannot afford to trash.

Non-interactivity – 2

Impact of Hidden information – 1

High Variance, Especially Early in the Game – 3

Large portion of card-types/game actions ignored – 4

Verdict: Unfair

 

DLR Val (Historical)

Similar to DLR Maxx, but with no Wireless Net Pavilion errata in place yet, and with the additional remote pressure of Blackmail.

Non-interactivity – 3

Impact of Hidden information – 1

High Variance, Especially Early in the Game – 3

Large portion of card-types/game actions ignored – 4

Verdit: Too Spicy

 

Prepaid Kate (Historical)

The classic Shaper. Apply pressure to scoring servers with Self-Modifying Code, efficient specialty breakers, and burst economy. Punish Centrals with The Maker’s Eye, Legwork, or Indexing when the Corp is forced to overextend to score safely.  Thought to be too flexible and universal.

Non-interactivity – 1

Impact of Hidden information – 1

High Variance, Especially Early in the Game – 1

Large portion of card-types/game actions ignored – 1

Verdict: Fair

 

Wyldcakes Noise (Historical)

Install “Exodia” (Wyldside, Adjusted Chronotype, and Aesop’s Pawnshop) and use the disruptive viruses it supplies and pays for to force the Corp to protect their board-state rather than score. Eventually win with Noise’s ability if the Corp does not score out quickly enough.  Thought to be too difficult for the Corp to interact with.

Non-interactivity – 3

Impact of Hidden information – 1

High Variance, Especially Early in the Game – 2

Large portion of card-types/game actions ignored – 3

Verdict: Unfair

Hopes and Dreams

Now that I’ve provided a multitude of examples of fair and unfair decks, I can present my vision for a healthy Netrunner Metagame. Ideally a top 8 cut at a healthy tournament would have:

4 Fair decks (best if they are not all the same)

3 Unfair decks (better if they are all different from each other)

1 Very Spicy deck

Now let’s look at the worlds top 8 cut from 2016 and see how close we came (The tournament had a top 16, but lists are not readily available for all the decks that placed 9-16. Feel free to track them down yourself.)

Corp: 6 Unfair, 2 Spicy

Runner: 3 Fair, 5 Unfair

This is pretty far from what we would like to see. Now let’s look at 2015:

Corp: 6 Fair, 2 Unfair

Runner: 4 Fair, 2 Unfair, 2 Spicy

Even without the Most Wanted List to reign in power, and with Wireless Net Pavilion un-fixed, 2015 was a fairer Metagame than 2016 (It did still have a diversity problem, but this is easier to fix with the printing of new cards than a fairness problem). This shift happened for a few reasons. First, aside from Astroscript Pilot Program, all the cards on the original Most Wanted List were cards that enabled fair strategies! The second Most Wanted List certainly included more unfair cards like Faust and Wyldside, but the damage had already been done, since fair strategies often rely on their influence to import win-conditions, while unfair decks exist that can run on close to no influence. Second, so many powerful runner hate cards have been printed, nearly all targeting Corporation Win-conditions, that every fair deck in the game right now has at least one extremely problematic match-up. For more on this, check out Kenny Deakins’ Stimhack article on the subject:

Kenny’s Article

Conclusion

A lot of people have asked when I am going to write my next deck article and the truth is: I can’t. I have not been able to make a successful new fair deck on either side since Sleeper Hold (which is actually even better now than when I wrote about it). Until something fundamental changes about the current environment, you probably wont be hearing much from me on this platform…

I’m not here to propose that any action be taken, just to provide a foundation to have a discussion around. Can you build fair Corporation decks that can survive in the current environment? Do you agree with my assessment that the presence of fair decks is necessary to the health of the game? Do you just want me to just brew toxic nonsense and post it here? What, if anything, do you think should be done?

Thanks for reading.

-TheBigBoy

Sleeper Hold: Engineering Click-Compression

For this article I thought I would try to talk through my thought process behind building what I believe to be quite a good deck. I feel the idea behind this deck was particularly inspired, and a discussion of how I landed on my exact choices could be interesting.

Before I start, I should say that many of the ideas from this deck were inspired by my online games and discussions with a couple other players:

Mason Hans (Eldermason) for his use of ELP alongside a multitude of HB assets.

Sam Suied (SamRS) for several of the other synergies in the deck, particularly those surrounding Clone Suffrage Movement.

The first synergy that inspired this deck was that between a protected Advanced Assembly Lines and political assets (Like the in-faction Clone Suffrage Movement). Having ICE on your Assembly Lines means that you can install your Clones at the end of the runner’s turn, allowing you to guarantee a trigger on yours. This also compresses the runner by 1 click on their next turn because they will almost certainly want/need to deal with the CSM.

To further take advantage of this click compression, it makes sense to run Enhanced Login Protocol. This card is already a great tool against Criminals and Whizzard, especially now that they all have 3 Temujin Contract. Being able to sometimes recur the ELP with CSM is a nice bonus.

A lot of HB decks don’t typically run a lot of Operations, and I want to be able to always have an immediately useful target for my Clones, so Lateral Growth makes sense as an addition. With 3 Assembly Lines and 3 Laterals, Blue Level Clearance seems excellent, since if I have one the former cards I can even play it on turn 1 without having to discard, which is really nice. Lateral a Clone Suffrage Movement, Ice a central, play ELP is an amazing first turn. Often the CSM will go unchecked and recur the lateral to give me a great start to the game. Following up with a Blue Level into the Lateral on the next turn makes me salivate just thinking about it.

To maximize the ELP, it also makes sense to run some more assets, but since I already have 9 economy cards and the Engineering the Future identity, I can afford for them to be utility assets. Team Sponsorship has incredible synergy with must-trash and self-trashing assets like Assembly Lines and Clones, allowing me to double-down on their effects every time that I score. Since I have Blue Level Clearance and Lateral Growth, and since this is starting to look like a Fast-Advancing deck, Jeeves Model Bioroids seems like a good fit. 3 copies would probably be too many since it is unique it is less likely to get trashed when I have so many other high-priority assets and ELP, so I’ll go with 2. Now that I know I’m fast Advancing, 3 Biotic Labors are necessary. Shipment from Sansan also seems nice to have, but probably not 3 copies. I’d come back to that one.

Now for the ICE suite. Gearcheck ICE has great synergy with our click-taxing game-plan. Ideally the runner will not have much time to draw for their breakers since they will have to deal with high-threat cards under an ELP on a regular basis. I definitely want 3 Vanilla, since it’s the best barrier gear-check in the game (certainly for HB at least).  3 Architect also seems obvious with our volume of assets.

At this point I had a great realization. With so many people going to Yog.0, and with our emphasis on gear-checks, a couple Lotus Fields seems like a great choice. When I run the lotus I usually like to run another smaller Code Gate alongside it for the match-ups where Lotus isn’t worth the cost. I like Magnet a lot more than Enigma right now, since you can punish the Criminals who have Passport (3 credits) and Peacock (4 credits), and Parasite immunity is a nice bonus. We actually have 7 ICE with this property which is quite impressive. I’m not too worried about losing our Vanillas to the excess Parasites, since they cost nothing and can easily be reinstalled with Team Sponsorship if we want.

For the agendas, I’m going to default to a 9-agenda suite rather than an 11-agenda suite since I don’t want it to be too easy for the runner to steal something and turn off our ELP. Global Food Initiative is also great to jam behind a Lotus Field against the decks that struggle to break it early.

This was my deck so far:

At this point we need a smart way to spend our last 5 influence. It seems like a Sansan City Grid could be a nice Luxury. Reinstalling it with Sponsorship is brutal. I already mentioned Shipment from SanSan as a potentially useful card, so we’ll slot one of those for our final pip.

Now we need a little more ICE. Ichi 1.0 into Vanilla is one of my favorite taxing-on-a-budget servers, and ELP makes it even better, since if they click the Ichi they will have to eat the trace with no clicks remaining. 3 Ichis is probably too many though, so we’ll go with 2. I also want one more hard Sentry because of the recent prevalence of Mongoose. Rototurret isn’t great, but this sort of tempo deck is its natural home, so I’m willing to try a single copy. Architect into Rototurret could end in a blowout against a Mongoose deck if the runner decides to take a risk. With how many cards we will be drawing (both with clicks and with Blue Level Clearance), 13 ICE should be enough. We also will often not make a multi-ICE remote server, or even an ICE’d remote server at all, which certainly helps. Now I was at 48 cards with all needs accounted for, so I added a pet card of mine that has actually made a massive difference in many of my victories.

Domestic Sleepers lets us win from 6 points while only on 1 credit. It triggers Team Sponsorships, and we can even triple click it to go up to 5 points and get a click back from Jeeves (not actually a big deal, but it’s quite funny)! Here’s the final list (Efficiency Committee was my 4/2 for a while, but Sales Team has clearly been better in further testing so I’ve made the switch retroactively here.)

https://netrunnerdb.com/en/decklist/38094/thebigboy-s-sleeper-hold

Sleeper Hold

Haas-Bioroid: Engineering the Future

Agenda (10)

3x Accelerated Beta Test

1x Corporate Sales Team

1x Domestic Sleepers

2x Global Food Initiative  ●●

3x Project Vitruvius

Asset (13)

3x Advanced Assembly Lines

2x Clone Suffrage Movement

3x Jackson Howard  ●●●

2x Jeeves Model Bioroids

3x Team Sponsorship

Upgrade (1)

1x SanSan City Grid  ●●●◦

Operation (12)

3x Biotic Labor

3x Blue Level Clearance

2x Enhanced Login Protocol

3x Lateral Growth

1x Shipment from SanSan  ●

Barrier (3)

3x Vanilla

Code Gate (4)

2x Lotus Field  ●●

2x Magnet

Sentry (6)

3x Architect◦◦◦

2x Ichi 1.0

1x Rototurret

 

 

At this point I looked at my deck and thought…

“What a pile of shit.”

And then I realized…

The deck has 0 Hedge Funds.

This was going to be a disaster.

The deck looked like it should lose to every reasonable runner deck. Nevertheless, it looked like fun so I played some games on Jinteki.net just to see if I could squeak out some wins.

It stomped.

Most games were not even close.

Between unanswered Lotus Fields, oppressive ELP openings, and just straight-up Biotic Labor spam, the deck just kept winning. I kept jamming games with it, day in and day out, confident that eventually my losing streak would begin and I could move on to something else, but this never happened. As the caliber of my opponents increased the games certainly got much closer, and a few games slipped away from me, but I was still winning FAR more than I had been with any other Corp deck.

There is something here. It’s weird, it’s powerful, and I’m not really sure why…

I think the essentially click-less economy cards like Assembly Lines and Lateral Growth are actually much stronger than they look. Being able to make some credits without having to slow your pressure of drawing cards and creating threats is a really unique effect that has only recently snuck its way into the game.

Cards I am interested in trying at some point are: 1 copy of Subliminal messaging, 1 Fast Track, the 3^rd CSM, and possibly even the 3^rd ELP, but I need far more games to decide what I can afford to cut. I am confident that all of these options are worse than my precious Sleepers. The Rototurrent is obviously not incredible, but I’m hoping a strong HB ICE comes out in the next few packs so I can replace it. I really don’t want to go below 13 ICE, and don’t want a porous ice like the 3rd Ichi 1.0.

After a period of Corp play so depressing that I built a Mushin No Shin deck for my last article, I am finally having fun again!

I hope you enjoy this deck if you decide to try it. I’ve been told that it takes a few games to get used to, so stick with it if you’re not successful at first. Having 9 non-Hedge Fund burst economy cards certainly takes some getting used to. Drop a comment here or message me on the Stimhack forums or Slack chat if you have any questions about the deck!

-TheBigBoy