Root Cause - Creation and Control

Root Cause is a series of bi-weekly Android: Netrunner articles about deck building, strategy and tactical decision, for new and mid-level Anarch players. It was named in honor of Samantha Groves, the character from the CBS' Person of Interest show. Season 3 and Spin Cycle: Opening Moves coming at the same month = mindblow.

Creation and Control is finally out! While we have lots of reasons to be upset about not getting an Anarch deluxe expansion last week too, it doesn't mean that Creation & Control is useless for us. It brought a lot of option for all runners, as there are new neutral cards and we can splash in some Shaper cards, thanks to the influence point system introduced in the game by Fantasy Flight Games.

On the other hand, we also have some new things to worry about. We still have one month safe from Cyberdex Trial, but Corp players will definitely take this unstable stage of the metagame to bring you down by surprising you with the new toys they got.

Of course, you won't have enough time to try everything, and even if you had, some things are simply not worth the time you'd spend on them. Today, I'm going to show you which cards I think you should care about (or worry about), so maybe I can help you to save your time.

As always, I can be wrong, you might disagree with some of my opinions, so remember: if there’s doubt, test it. If you don’t how your new deck will work against fast advance, build one and play against it. “But I don't like playing fast advance, my Corp deck is a Tag n’ Bag!” Sorry, dude - no pain, no gain.

Time is money.

First, the obvious: Sahasrara (Creation and Control). If you're following the debates around Creation and Control, you know what I'm talking about it. If you're not following them, here it is: Sahasraha costs 2 less influence than Personal Workshop, and it is two times faster than Personal Workshop (sounds broken, right?). This card is perfect for us. One of these and one Cyberfeeder is all you need to play one virus per turn (except for Crypsis) without spending any extra credit. No more programs to play? Aesop’s Pawnshop stills there for you.

The second card that unleashed my hype was Daily Casts (Creation and Control). I remember when Kati Jones was released, and I had a terrible time trying to test it in my deck, because I already lose a click per turn with Wyldside. Not anymore. This runner version of PAD Campaign comes as a savior for all Wyld/Shop players. There’s also Dirty Laundry (Creation and Control), which gives you credits in the same click you ran.

At last, we got Freelance Coding Contract (Creation and Control). If you were one of those guys advocating Public Sympathy in Wyldside based decks, I present you my alternative. I often have more programs than I need in my hand and, despite of what people are saying, you don’t need to trash 5 cards to make this worth it. Discarding 2 program cards already makes this better than Easy Mark, unless you're counting useless cards in your hand as “life points” (which is important in some matchups).

This is how I believe the new Anarch economy will looks like:
- Two or three copies of Armitage Codebusting, Daily Casts, Sahasraha and Sure Gamble;
- One or two copies of Aesop's Pawnshop, Stimhack and Liberated Account;
- And up to two copies of Dirty Laundry and Freelance Coding Contract.

It would sum around 16 cards (you might want to check my old articles about economy).

Real men don't need icebreakers.

Not only our economy got some new buffs, but we got some new tricks too. Do you like Parasite? Follow me: 3 copies of Parasite and 3 copies of Déjà Vu gives you potentially 9 copies of Parasite; 3 copies of Same Old Thing (Creation and Control) gives you potentially 3 extra copies of Déjà Vu, so we now have 15 copies of Parasite; 3 copies of Clone Chip (Creation and Control) raises it to 18 copies of Parasite; and if that doesn’t make you happy, 3 copies of Test Run leads you to a 21 copies of Parasite deck. Not enough? Play Kraken. Creation and Control possibly made the dream to play an icebreaker-less deck a reality. Amen.

Clone Chip also allows you to install your programs during a run, which is really strong. The main weapon a Corp has against you is the surprise effect, and now you install programs “on the fly”, completely ignoring the surprise effect. If your trash is empty, Self-Modifying Code (Creation and Control) is the man. And don't forget: both of them can use the credits you gain from Stimhack and Pheromones (and soon, from Frame Job).

Before moving to the Corp cards, there’s another runner card that I want to talk about. I’m not sure if I should consider it an economy card or not, so… Scavenge (Creation and Control). This allows you to trade your empty Imp for a Parasite, that’s perfect! It also allows you to refresh you Imp or even change where Parasite is hosted, in case of an emergency. Scavenge is a very versatile card that works both as an economy card and as a dirty trick to catch the Corp player when he/she is not expecting such a move from you.

Facing the CEO.

Be ready to face the new brain damage Haas-Bioroid archetype. We still don't have enough evidence that it can be competitive, but you'll see people trying it. Before, you could facecheck things because an Aggressive Secretary can't do anything against a runner without programs; but now, be very careful about Cerebral Overwriter (Creation and Control). And if this new ambush doesn't make you less reckless about Stimhack, maybe their new agenda does. Sentinel Defense Program (Creation and Control) is a nasty agenda to be scored against Anarch runners.

Their fast advance archetype also got new tricks, like Director Haas' Pet Project (Creation and Control) - a new agenda that can reinstall the SanSan City Grid you trashed -; Haas Arcology AI (Creation and Control) – an asset that can replicate Biotic Labor forever -; and Efficiency Committee (Creation and Control) – an agenda that gives the Corp player an extra click to Trick of Light.

They also got some new “bioroid” cards. Not only pieces of ice – including the new 2.0 generation – but cards like Awakening Center (Creation and Control) and Bioroid Efficiency Research (Creation and Control). If you thought Janus 1.0 was rare and expensive, time to change your mind. If you see anyone playing Haas-Bioroid: Stronger Together, get ready. If influence is a problem, maybe some copies of Deus X might be worth the spot, but in a perfect world I would use 1 or 2 copies of Faerie. At least, you should make yourself richer than the usual to run against Haas-Bioroid now. Better safe than sorry.

What's next?

The bigger the card pool, the harder to decide your archetype. A few months earlier, Wyld/Shop was basically the only viable build. Now, with so many new cards, there are a lot of things to try. First, you can boost your Noise/shop deck with Sahasraha and Self-Modifying Code; second, you can give a new chance to your unsuccessful Retrieval Run deck, using Freelance Coding Contract to transform your Morning Star into credits and then install it for free; third, you can focus on your credit denial Whizzard deck, using Same Old Thing to play Account Siphon and Vamp more often; or forth, take a break from Anarch and play around with our new Shaper stuff (and we have some new options as Corp players too, but I won't talk about them now).

I'll probably stay with the Wyld/Shop a little more, because I like this “Shaper way” of playing Anarch. I might try some ideas with Exile, but I'm not really thinking about changing factions. And while I think that using Same Old Thing to play Account Siphon is a very dangerous combo, I’m waiting for Reina Roja to try my Vamp/Joshua B. deck again. Until there, I'll keep training my spanish (or hopefully the community will call her “Red Queen”).

Whatever the road you take, don’t forget to share the results!

João “Hraklea” Almeida is a brazilian amateur card game player and an economy student who's having the worst semester ever. Currently having lots of fun with his new boardgame, Letters from Whitechapel. Good job, Fantasy Flight Games!