Building a deck, thoughts and process - Runner Side

Building a deck from scratch. Tough job. Some (read many (read this number is higher than it needs to be)) people think this is overwhelming, but it does not need to be. I am going to walk you through my deck building method and hopefully shed some light on this arcane art.

Some disclaimers. I fancy myself a reasonably strong player, but I play off beat ideas and pick cards that aren't the best just to play with them. This deck will probably work fine, but there can be choices that can be clearly improved. I also do not have super notable tournament results, but my main decks for each side both fair well while being reasonably unique in what they bring to the table. That said, let's get into it.

Step 1: Wait... hold on.

A foreword. Influence is the tricky part of the beast in this game. There are 3 ways to handle how you incorporate influence into your deck.

1: Recommended - Get a basic idea, shape the deck to a reasonable point, then influence in to shape the deck into a fuller idea than you had before.

2: What i do, but less recommended - Spend your influence before you begin the process. This is hard and tends to require edits after a few games, but doing this helps you look at other cards you might normally skip. A good exercise but usually not great if you want to tear your opponent in half next game.

3: Spend only on critical pieces to the deck - Make the rough draft version of your deck, play games, see what influence can do to speed things up or make it more efficient. Not a bad way, but not my style personally. Probably the best way to go for a newer player since it would be the easiest.

Step 1: Corp or runner?

Runner in this article. I want to revise my Reina Roja deck. I like some parts, but not others.

Step 2: Think a rough idea and the ID/Faction best suited for the task.

The old Reina deck in this article had some basic ideas. Underground Contacts, AI breakers, Hard at work. I wanted proof of concept to prove that Hard at Work was not super awful. Confirmed! It has troubles, but it has uses! But the deck isn't in a spot I like now.

So using my previous knowledge from a lot of decks, we are changing the concept.

Underground Contacts, Knights, Aggressive play, Don't use Account Siphon.

I like Contacts economy, Knight is a baller card, aggressive play is how I prefer to run, and I hate Siphon. Don't even care how good it is. I do not have fun with that card. Hey, I did say I disliked good cards for bad reasons. ?

So... that goal... let's find the ID to pick. Reina, Andy, and Kate suit the best for the job. My main deck is Kate already... let's avoid that. So... Andy or Reina? The Reina deck in testing just didnt have the punch, and I had to burn a lot of influence to get the draw engine to feel good. So Reina is out. I love Inside Job. Let's go for Andy.

Step 3: Decide your influence (if you like the shape the deck around the influence like i do.)

If you want to do this, think about your goals, whether your faction needs it, or if you are looking for certain things. You can skip this until later, but I know what I am looking for.

Do I need to spend influence on economy? I plan on using Hostage, and Underground Contacts... having a Hostage-able link source would be awesome. That means 1 copy of Helpful AI. 2 Influence down. Underground, Kati Jones, and events sounds pretty good, but I want a little more punch since I will be lacking Siphon. Liberated accounts might work. Let's call that 8 influence down now. That should cover economy.

Card draw? Mr. Li and Hostage has this covered. If I go event crazy, I might want a copy of Levy AR Lab Access, but I will table that for now.

Icebreakers? Knights obviously! Thats 6 more used (14 total). Corroder is strong but I only have 1 copy left. Do I want to have 1 off for a breaker, or settle for lesser breakers and build around that instead? Lesser breakers sounds fine. Crypsis can make up the difference where Aurora would fail. Plus Knights on patrol. Peacock is fine. Faerie/Ninja/Femme is a great Sentry suite with Crypsis too, That's fine. But that makes 2 main breakers plus Ninjas does 2 for a routine breaks... I guess I am using E3 Feedback then... works for me. No influence on breakers outside Knights.

Other Programs? Hmmm I don't think I need many programs, as there will be so much in events and resources that I just won't have the deck space. If I HAD to outsource a program though, probably Datasucker? Nah, boring card. I'll pass just because the card isn't for me. We don't need it. But a way to get the Knights back might be a good idea... Pawn, Deja Vu, and Clone Chip are the 3 top ideas there. Clone Chip can be a good Turn 1 drop. Let's try that maybe.

Resources? Events? Outsourced... not much I would like. Things I would use have a analog in Criminal, so we can probably skip this also.

So.... A Helpful AI, 3 Knights, Liberated Accounts, and Clone Chips. Everything is 2 influence in this list. So I can have 7 of these. Helpful AI and 3 knights is 4 of the 7... so 3 left... But Clone and Liberated lose their punch if you only have 1 of them. Clone Chips are better overall value to the speed of the deck. Let's take 2. 3 influence left... Thinking of new ideas, I could do a Self Modifying Code, or Medium/Nerve Agent, or R&D interface. I have HQ interface if I want to dig the hand, so Nerve Agent is a pass. Or that Levy AR Lab access is still a choice... I will be running Same Old Thing anyway, so I can ensure the Levy AR use... Makes PrePaid VoicePAD a nice option now too. Lets do that. ACTUALLY I just remembered. I love Notoriety. And I have 3 slots to fill? Done.

Influence spent: The Helpful AI x1, Knight x3, Clone Chip x2, Notoriety x3.

Step 4: Go through each section of the deck.

Using an online deckbuilder or just grab all your cards and go nuts. Add in anything you might even THINK about using, then add the highest amount you would run given the chance. I use CardGameDB's builder, and go in category order, Events to Resources.

Here are the lists of all the things I even thought about in each section. The deck is a GIANT pile of fluff.

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Total Cards: (84)
Event (28)
Dirty Laundry (Creation and Control #52) x3
Easy Mark (Core #19) x3
Emergency Shutdown (Cyber Exodus #43) x2
Hostage (Opening Moves #4) x3
Inside Job (Core #21) x3
Kraken (Humanity's Shadow #90) x3
Running Interference (Mala Tempora #44) x2
Special Order (Core #22) x3
Sure Gamble (Core #50) x3
Notoriety (Trace Amount #26) x3 â– 

Hardware (10)
Clone Chip (Creation and Control #38) x2 â– â– 
Doppelganger (A Study in Static #64) x2
E3 Feedback Implants (Trace Amount #24) x2
Lemuria Codecracker (Core #23) x1
Prepaid VoicePAD (Second Thoughts #29) x3

Program (19)
Knight (Mala Tempora #43) x3 â– â– 
Aurora (Core #25) x2
Copycat (Second Thoughts #25) x1
Crypsis (Core #51) x2
Expert Schedule Analyzer (Mala Tempora #45) x1
Faerie (Future Proof #104) x2
Ninja (Core #27) x1
Gorman Drip v1 (Opening Moves #5) x3
Peacock (What Lies Ahead #6) x2
Sneakdoor Beta (Core #28) x1
Snitch (Cyber Exodus #45) x1

Resource (27)
The Helpful AI (What Lies Ahead #8) x1 â– â– 
Access to Globalsec (Core #52) x3
Compromised Employee (Trace Amount #25) x3
Daily Casts (Creation and Control #53) x3
Decoy (Core #32) x2
Grifter (Mala Tempora #46) x3
Kati Jones (Humanity's Shadow #91) x2
Mr. Li (Future Proof #105) x3
Raymond Flint (Mala Tempora #49) x1
Same Old Thing (Creation and Control #54) x3
Underworld Contact (A Study in Static #69) x3

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See? Huge, needless, ridiculous! But easy to trim. Just because you think it could be cool doesn't not even make it a hard choice to keep in it.

Step 5: Cut the fluff. Section by section.

But not the way you did it to make this silly list. Cut by types of cards. Icebreakers, then economy, then the high power play tricks, then the small fluffy tricks.

Icebreakers: Might be overkill. Let's go to 2 Aurora, 1 Peacock, 1 Ninja, 2 Faerie, 1 Crypsis, 3 Knights. The logic is that Knights can break the code gates as good as Peacock can, but the barriers are going to be the early defense more often, and sentries do things to you. This should cover us well enough.

Economy: I would say this deck needs a little more punch since the breakers will be a little weaker. My Kate deck gets by on 10 economy cards, so about 15 should be fine. Let's make a list of all the economy cards I grabbed so I can see them easily.

Sure Gamble 3
Easy Mark 3
Dirty Laundry 3
Prepaid VoicePAD 3
Gorman Drip v1 3
Underworld Contacts 3
Kati Jones 2
Grifter 3
Daily Casts 3
Compromised Employee 3

I picked 29. That's so overkill. Let's pick for biggest bang for the proverbial buck.

Underground Contacts 3
Kati Jones 2
Compromised Employee 3

These 3 have the highest yield on credits, I will keep them. Sure Gamble is never bad, and Dirty Laundry gives us runs on turn 1. Sounds good.

Sure Gamble 3, Dirty Laundry 3, Kati Jones 2, Underground Contacts 3, Compromised Employee 3. 14 cards. Kinda want 15... Let's cut a Sure Gamble and add 2 Daily Casts. I can live with that. Cut the rest for now, BUT remember what you thought about here. If you decide you need more, take from this list first, since it interested you in the first place. Adding 2-of's of multiple choices gives you the chance to feel out which one tends to be more desired or useful, so don't feel bad if you split decisions like that.

Important Tricks: I'll just look down the list here, and see what I could NOT live without. But maybe cut back if I can. I can drop 1 Running Interference, 2 Krakens, 1 Emergency Shutdown, Lemuria Codecracker, Sneakdoor Beta (I barely run HQ as is), Copycat, and that is all the jumps out at me. They are gone.

At this point, I am down to 61 cards. Anything from this point that you cut... just keep to the side, and switch things as needed if you think you made a bad choice. Anything that is still around now is probably strong, so don't be afraid of your judgments. Just cut some trick cards, and see how it rolls out.

After the final round of cuts, this is where I ended up at.

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Total Cards: (45)
Event (14)
Hostage (Opening Moves #4) x3
Inside Job (Core #21) x2
Running Interference (Mala Tempora #44) x1
Special Order (Core #22) x3
Sure Gamble (Core #50) x3
Notoriety (Trace Amount #26) x2 â– 

Hardware (4)
Clone Chip (Creation and Control #38) x2 â– â– 
Doppelganger (A Study in Static #64) x1
E3 Feedback Implants (Trace Amount #24) x1

Program (10)
Knight (Mala Tempora #43) x3 â– â– 
Aurora (Core #25) x2
Crypsis (Core #51) x1
Expert Schedule Analyzer (Mala Tempora #45) x1
Faerie (Future Proof #104) x1
Ninja (Core #27) x1
Peacock (What Lies Ahead #6) x1

Resource (17)
The Helpful AI (What Lies Ahead #8) x1 â– â– 
Access to Globalsec (Core #52) x3
Compromised Employee (Trace Amount #25) x2
Daily Casts (Creation and Control #53) x3
Decoy (Core #32) x1
Kati Jones (Humanity's Shadow #91) x2
Mr. Li (Future Proof #105) x2
Underworld Contact (A Study in Static #69) x3

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I had to cut a lot to keep the ideas in place, and the final cut was an Inside job to get it to 45. You can make it a little high to try things out before you cut all the way down (or just have a fatter deck if you like) or just make a choice and see if it works out okay.

Step 6: Play test.

And it is play TEST. As in think about the games. What could be better? Did this card pull its weight? Are you regretting a decision more often than not? Bad matchups that need deck building to help even it out? Don't let any games go by without thought.

Go try it out. If you have any questions, about the process, or how it can apply to corps, your own deck, or whatever you like, leave a comment! Thank you.