Reboot Mailbag

I put out the call on the Reboot Discord for article ideas, and what I mostly got were questions that I felt were not quite in-depth enough to merit an entire write-up by themselves. So instead, I’ve decided to combine several questions together in a Mailbag-Style column. If you’d like to submit a question, look out for the next time I post the question form in Discord.

Most underrated card in each card type?

I’ll interpret this question as “What’s a good card from each type that’s being underplayed right now?”

Resource – Aesop’s Pawnshop

Program – Atman

Hardware – Net-Ready Eyes

Event – Vamp

Runner Identity – Gabriel Santiago

Agenda – Profiteering

Ice – Neural Katana

Operation – Fast Track

Asset – Thistle

Upgrade – Crisium Grid

Corp Identity – Near Earth Hub

What is the point of the boosters?

A few things:

• Flesh out under-developed, but fun themes from the FFG days (HB Brain damage, NBN Bad Publicity, for example)
• Inspire people to experiment with new or forgotten cards
• Build excitement
• Promote the project

What is your favorite wacky trick in the game? Ex. Scoring gish gallop and triggering team sponsorship to score another agenda from hand.

This is an easy one. Installing 2 new remotes against Astrolabe and then playing Sweeps Week.

How do you define each faction’s strengths and weaknesses and how does the design philosophy look to work within them to find new design spaces

I’m going to stick to runner with this answer, since they are way more abstract than corps, as corps are pretty concrete in which specific mechanics each is allowed to use.

In terms of my 11 dimensions of running, here’s roughly what each faction can be expected to be good at (Of course there are small exceptions. For example, Anarch has Knight and D4v1d as remote busting cards, they’re just not as good at it as SMC or Inside Job)

Anarch Strengths – Disruption, Asset Contesting, Control, Early Econ Pressure, R&D locking

Criminal Strengths – Early Access Pressure, Economy Speed, Asset Contesting, HQ Sweeping, Remote Busting, Early Econ Pressure

Shaper Strengths – Rig Assembly, R&D locking, Inevitability, Control, Remote Busting

In terms of feel, Anarch is about board control, Criminal is about tempo, and Shaper is about consistency and safety

This means with anarch I looked for more disruption tools, but that emphasized central server running to disentangle their disruptive abilities from their control plan (Human Rights Riot, Smashing Spree, and The Horde)

With criminal I wanted to make a runner that focuses on access pressure rather than using it alongside econ pressure like every other criminal does (Dio Bagbiter)

With shaper I wanted to make a runner that still has strong rig assembly and inevitability, but uses unconventional means (Sonia Nahar)

Blue Sun is a list that was very popular 1.5 – 2 years ago, though it’s fallen off in popularity recently. It got a lot of stuff in E&E, are you trying to make it an ETF/RP competitor? Also, what is Rate Hike for?

Ideally, Blue Sun, and Weyland in general, is a force at the competitive level. I think it’s about as good as EtF/RP, but takes a lot more dedication to get good with. By giving them some new toys, it hopefully gets people excited to try it and put in the time it takes to master it. 

Rate Hike is a consistency tool for Midrange Weyland decks. 

How do you slow down/stop Shaper remote lock? Cram every non-agenda card in first to get them to run out of steam? How do you score out when the Runner is R&D locking out your agendas with Medium/R&DI?

I combined these 2 questions since their answers have a lot in common. Essentially, they’re asking how you can recover a game from a losing late game position as corp. The best answer, of course, is to not get into that losing position in the first place. That said, many games are won from losing positions, so I’ll give some input on what you can do to maximize your chances. Keep in mind, these will not seem like reliable or solid plans, because they’re not. They’re ways to take a game where you’re in big trouble and give yourself a small chance to win instead of just rolling over.

Concerning remote lock, if your deck is getting GENUINELY remote locked, then either it’s a failed rush situation and the game is pretty doomed, or the deck you built is unsound. Consider running more win condition cards (upgrades, FA tools, or kill cards) if that’s the case, or examining the ones you have and why they’re not working.

If you’re playing a deck without Caprice or FA options, and you’re in a situation where your remote can be run fairly efficiently but not sustainably every turn, then you have to evaluate if you can improve the remote quickly. If you have the money and ice to make it cost more, then you should do that. If you have money but not relevant ice (but there is good ice you COULD draw), you may need to draw cards (this is the part where you will still probably lose, but at least you have a shot at getting lucky). If improving the remote is not realistic given your hand and economic situation, it is critical that you play aggressively and install into the server to force runs as much as possible. Trying to build money to later make the remote better is probably too slow. 

If you’re under R&D lock, you have 2 main lines: reinforce R&D, or draw through. Generally, if you’re on game point and the runner is not, I would try to draw through. This makes them switch their attention to your hq and remote and gets it off of R&D (or it finds you the winning agenda if they keep tunnel visioning R&D. If you are not close to winning, then you should try to reinforce. DO NOT draw cards. Make money and put ice down until R&D is stable. If both you AND the runner are on game point, congratulations! You’re in one of the hardest-to-judge situations in the game! Whatever you choose, even if it was wrong, it was probably really close anyway…

Have You Heard the Good News About Reboot?

Almost 5 years ago, I started the Netrunner Reboot Project as an effort to preserve and cultivate the best aspects of FFG’s Android: Netrunner. In that time, the project has grown far beyond what I could have ever imagined. We have a dedicated Discord community, multiple concurrent leagues, and seasonal tournaments. Compared to my expectations (that the project would be a single-digit number of people playing a game every few weeks or so), the whole experiment has been a wild success.

I’m writing this post because I think that, if you aren’t playing or haven’t tried Reboot, you’re really missing out, and I realize that there is likely a pool of players out there who just have no idea what we’re up to, or even that this project exists! If someone returned to Netrunner today after a multi-year hiatus, they would find the subreddit abandoned by mods, with posts consisting in large part of people trying to sell their FFG cards, and with the sidebar directing you to NSG’s website and GLC (where discussion of Reboot lies somewhere between discouraged and banned). It would appear, to the uninformed, that if you want to play Netrunner beyond your roommate and a coffee table, NSG’s Netrunner is your only option. I’m here to tell you that this couldn’t be further from the truth.

So, here’s what Reboot has to offer:

What the project is

FFG’s Netrunner was a fantastic game, but one that suffered from 4 core issues:

1. The original sin of AstroScript Pilot Program
2. Declining quality of card balance in the 2^nd half of FFG’s tenure (think: Faust 24/7 News Cycle, the Mumbad cards that drove many people from the game, Flashpoint’s incredibly overpowered cards, etc.)
3. Way too much pack filler, much of which looked cool to the casual player but was disappointing to actually play with.
4. A few cards that were strong and fun, but just a little stronger than they needed to be (Desperado, Parasite, Caprice Nisei, Sansan City Grid, etc).

The goal of the Reboot project is to sustain the FFG game, but make it even better by fixing these 4 issues. We have done this by making small tweaks to many cards, much like how digital card games do balance patches to fix issues as they arise. Specifically, here is how we’ve addressed these 4 issues:

1. The Astro counter now cannot be used on an agenda installed that same turn, meaning that it cannot Fast Advance agendas, but can still be used to aid in the scoring of 4/2s, or to just save money and time on a normal score.
2. Our wholesale reclamation of FFG’s card-pool ends with Data and Destiny (we refer to the cards from the Core Set to D&D as the “Core Cardpool”). For the select few cards from the 2^nd half of the FFG era that we want to save, we release them in small batches through Booster Packs (more on these later).
3. A huge number of weaker cards received numerical buffs that make them much more playable than they originally were. For example, Exile draws 2 cards every time he triggers, Grifter costs 1 credit to install instead of 2, and Hadrian’s Wall costs only 7, down from 10.
4. Fun, but ubiquitous and game-warping cards have received small numerical nerfs that reduce their power but let them maintain their role. For example, Desperado no longer gives MU, Parasite costs 3, Clone Chip is 3 influence, NAPD Contract is only 3 credits to steal, and SanSan City Grid is only 4 credits to trash. These changes do not stop any of these cards from seeing play, but they reduce the gap between these cards and the rest of the pool in a way that reduces in-game variance and the difference between tier 1 and tier 2 decks.

What I’ve shared here barely scratches the surface of the balancing work we’ve done. The result is a thriving landscape of decks where the two sides are very well balanced, and every faction has several viable and competitive ways to play.

Our Infrastructure

We play games on a Jinteki.net clone (Reteki.fun), where all our changes are fully implemented. We also have a deck-builder (nrdb.reteki.fun), and a proxy generator (proxies.reteki.fun) for those who want to play in person. For those just looking to explore what we’ve done to the card pool, you can inspect the changes in the Master Spreadsheet.

Maybe most importantly, we have a Discord Server (https://discord.gg/c8SB7vVVy7) that has discussion of the game happening at all levels, from new player help to very advanced theory.  

Finally, there is a central website that goes into more detail about every aspect of the project than I have room for in a single post (about.reteki.fun).

Ways to Play

Reboot can be intimidating to get into, especially for multi-year lapsed players, or for those more familiar with NSG’s game. For anyone interested in giving Reboot a try, but who is unsure where to start, we recommend using one of our many Preconstructed decks. These are a great sampling of what’s possible with the Reboot Core card-pool and should give you a sense of if this version of the game is right for you.

For the more adventurous, we have the Jumpstart game mode. Jumpstart uses an algorithm to generate a mostly-random but functional deck for both players and lets you get right into the action, with every draw a holding a surprise. This is very much a Gimmick mode, but it can be a ton of fun.

Finally, we are fine tuning a cube-draft site (draft.reteki.fun) where you can draft live with your friends online. This feature is still being worked on and has some kinks to sort out, but it’s already a blast and is improving quickly.

Finding Games

There are enough Reboot players now that you can find a game pretty much whenever you need to. Generally, you do this by asking for a match in the Discord, but there are also more organized ways to get games. We have a Preconstructed deck league and a regular Constructed league where you can get a scheduled match every week. There are also seasonal tournaments every 3-4 months which are conventional single-day events with a champion crowned at the end.

Booster Packs and New Cards

Although Reboot is focused on maintaining Android: Netrunner’s core identity, we also recognize that the game was meant to evolve. Every 6 months or so, we release a small Booster Pack of 30 cards, some being Rebooted FFG cards from the sets after Data and Destiny, and rest being entirely new designs. These cards are not included in any of the Preconstructed decks we recommend using to learn the format, but they are legal for constructed play. Our goal for these cards is to both supplement underpowered strategies that were in the FFG game, and create some new ways to play that are unique and fresh, but still within the bounds of ‘normal’ Netrunner.

Wrapping Up

I hope you’ll give The Reboot Project a try. I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish, and our best days are still to come. See you around!

-TheBigBoy

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!