Android: Netrunner - My Journey in a Dystopian Future - Part 4: Corporate Sell-Out

In the previous post we looked at some of the main points I’ve picked up playing as the Runner. Now we’re going to see how things look from the other side of the table.

Playing as the Corporation is an entirely different beast. For both sides, economy is incredibly important, but while a Runner must learn to work with what he has – basically being near poverty the whole time – the Corp player should be rolling in it. You are the big, bad business after all.
But why is the Corporation having lots of cash so desirable when it doesn’t actually cost anything to install cards?
Well, the fact is it might not cost you to install the cards, but it does cost credits to rez those cards.
Take this example. Your opponent declares that he’s making a run on one of your remote servers. You take a look at the outer most piece of Ice – an Ichi 1.0 you installed earlier.

To rez this, you’re going to need 5 credits. If you don’t have enough, the Runner just skips happily on and continues the run. You were unable to rez the Ice and so the Runner didn’t have to break its subroutines to progress. 
If you find yourself low on funds as the Corporation, the Runner will have a field day with you – running on remote and central servers, accessing cards, taking cards out of your hand and you won’t be able to do anything about it. 
Thankfully, there are cards available to you to keep those credits rolling in and 3 of them are neutral. We’ll be looking at deckbuilding in a later post, but a neutral card is one that can be added to any Corporation deck without limitation beyond a cap on 3 copies. 
  

Hedge Fund

Granted, I haven't seen all the cards currently available for Android: Netrunner, (there are monthly released Data Packs which we'll get to in later articles), but so far, this card is an auto-include in a Corporation deck for me. And all three copies at that.

Spend 1 click (action) and 5 credits to play this card and you'll gain 9 credits.
It's become a card so integral to the games that I've played that I'd be tempted to mulligan (redraw) my opening hand if I didn't see Hedge Fund.

 

PAD Campaign

PAD Campaign, with a rez cost of 2, will give you 1 credit at the beginning of each turn. This doesn’t sound like a big deal, but over a number of terms those credits can mean all the difference. Rezzing PAD campaign will also force the Runner to decide whether to let it stand or make a run on it and trash it. 

The problem is it will cost him 4 credits to trash, not to mention costing a click making the run when he could be looking for Agendas elsewhere. 
With its high trash cost and 3 copies in my deck, I will often install PAD Campaign unprotected.



 Melange Mining Corp.

At a rez cost of 1, Melange Mining Corp will cost you a while turn, but you’ll get 7 credits from it. With that ability and such a low trash cost, a Runner will probably look to get it out of there, which is why you shouldn’t rez this until you’re planning to use it and, if you’d like to keep it, you best put some Ice in front to put the Runner off.

  

Tempted to pick up Android: Netrunner? Then be sure to join me for Part 5 where we’ll be rifling through the core set to see just what you’re getting for your money.
Until then……