So about a month ago now, I entered my second Android: Netrunner tournament. I wrote about the first one here – the 2013 Regional. This one was again at Patriot Games, but a smaller tournament that they hold on a regular basis. There were 8 of us in total and I ended up playing 3 matches (6 games).
Now the savvy amongst you will be able to tell from that number that I didn’t make the top 4. Well you’d be right. In fact I had a pretty bad day when it comes to the game of Netrunner. Let’s have a look at the decks I was using.
Runner
Noise (Core)
Event (12)
Inside Job (Core)*** x1
Surge (HS) x2
Sure Gamble (Core) x3
Stimhack (Core) x1
Déjà Vu (Core) x2
Demolition Run (Core) x3
Hardware (4)
Grimoire (Core) x1
Cyberfeeder (Core) x3
Program (23)
Sahasrara (C & C)** x2
Darwin (FP) x1
Crypsis (Core) x2
Corroder (Core) x2
Datasucker (Core) x2
Parasite (Core) x3
Djinn (Core) x2
Mimic (Core) x2
Yog.0 (Core) x2
Medium (Core) x2
Imp (WLA) x3
Resource
Personal Workshop (CE)*** x2
Liberated Account (TA) x3
Armitage Codebusting (Core) x3
Ice Carver (Core) x1
Kati Jones (HS) x1
Total Cards: 49
Out of Faction Influence: 15
So I wanted to try this “Noise-shop” deck I’d heard so much about, but apart from playing out cards on my own, I hadn’t had chance to test it. So what I didn’t want was to have to rely on Personal Workshop. I thought if I can get it out, great, but if not, I wanted plenty of other options. Which is where Sahasrara came in – allowing me some credits to get my programs out. If I could host Sahasrara on Djinn, all the better.
I put Surge in there hoping to pair it with Darwin and make a run or two with it before the Corp chose to purge the virus counters. And then just one copy of Inside Job for a surprise run here and there.
Well this deck didn’t win any games on the day. It wasn’t a complete write-off by any means because I stole a few agendas, but I either found myself bogged down my too much Ice or just simply didn’t have the tools.
I think if you’re going to go with personal Workshop, particularly outside of faction, you need to go all in, not half way like I did. I think I only got the card out once and to little affect.
So what changes have I made since? During the tournament I found myself drawing cards a lot, just searching for stuff. So I’ve since added Mr. Li and am really enjoying its ability to draw two, keeping one and placing the other card to the bottom of your deck. I took Personal Workshop out and took with Sahasrara, preferring its more immediate ability.
It was nice to test Darwin, but ultimately it has lost out to the ever reliable Crypsis.
My Anarch deck continues to evolve and what I learned in this tournament has greatly improved it.
Corporation
NBN: Making News (Core)
Agenda (11)
Executive Retreat (TA) x1
Project Beale (FP) x3
Private Security Force (Core) x3
Breaking News (Core) x1
Astroscript Pilot Program (Core) x2
Gila Hands Arcology (C & C) x1
Asset (7)
Levy University (C & C) x1
Ghost Branch (Core) x2
PAD Campaign (Core) x3
Melange Mining Corps (Core) x1
ICE (18)
Bastion (C& C) x2
Pop-Up Window (CE) x3
Matrix Analyser (Core) x2
Wall of Static (Core) x3
Draco (WLA) x1
Uroboros (ASIS) x2
Ice Wall (Core)* x1
Tollbooth (Core) x1
Operation (7)
Biotic Labor (Core)*** x2
Trick of Light (TA)*** x2
Hedge Fund (Core) x3
Upgrade (3)
SanSan City Grid (Core) x1
Red Herrings (Core) x2
Total Cards: 46
Total Agenda Points: 20
Out of Faction Influence: 15
I like to call this deck “They Said it Couldn’t be Done”, because when I asked a fellow Netrunner player some advice on building an NBN fast advance deck, he told me it couldn’t be done with just one core set and without Future Proof. In the end, Project Beale from the Future Proof data pack did get added once I’d bought the pack, but I’m still only using one core set – and here I am fast advancing.
But was I successful? Well the one game I won on the day was with this deck and in the other games I was fast advancing just fine with the help of Biotic Labor or Trick of Light – moving advancement tokens from a splashed Ice Wall (which I searched for using Levy University’s ability).
In the game I won, I used SanSan to score an agenda (having already scored one out of hand earlier), then lure my opponent into a Ghost Branch (he elected not to trash the SanSan) and then scored another agenda for the win – so there is an argument to be had that if I had two core sets and hence 2 SanSans, this deck would be better.
But I enjoyed this deck. I was running Making News despite not using the credits for traces namely because the other Identity doesn’t give me enough influence to make up for that lack of SanSan.
I struggled for economy, especially against an opponent who Account Siphoned me three times, so if I can improve this I’ll make some changes. Perhaps the ICE suite could be improved as well.
I’ll definitely be going back to this deck, probably when I get my hands on Opening Moves, but for now I’m looking at Jinteki.
Despite a bad performance results-wise, I enjoyed the tournament learned a lot. For me, the game just keeps on getting better – even if I don’t!
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