Root Cause - Virus Management

Root Cause: Virus Management

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. September can't come soon enough.

Note: This was written before Creation and Control was spoiled. - Darksbane

First of all, I want to say that I’m really sorry for not posting an article two weeks ago. My job and the university were requiring a lot of my time, and I simply didn’t have enough time to write something. I hope it won’t happen again.

Back to our subject: virus programs. While the Spin Cycle doesn’t come out, virus programs based decks are still our best competitive option. But as Opening Moves is bringing us a new option with the first caissa programs, it is also bringing Cyberdex Trial, a problem for those who will keep playing virus programs based decks rather than move to the new trend. There might be something that prevents our virus counters to get purged or punishes the Corp for purging our virus counters coming out too, but while we don’t know that, discussing the best way of playing virus programs is still worth it.

Our goal, as runners, is to find the perfect balance between too little and too many virus programs installed. If you play too little virus program cards, you’re handicapping yourself for being afraid of a purge that won’t happen, because it won’t be worth for the Corp even if you play one more virus program cards. If you play too many, the “purge virus counters” action will be more advantageous to the Corp then it would need to be to push the purge.

There are so many things to evaluate when deciding if you should play another virus program card or not that it is impossible for me to give you some sort of professional method of decision. No one can give you that. Learning how to play your virus program cards is something that you need to “learn by doing”, as they say. But, differently than most casual players believe, just playing the game doesn’t teach you anything. I know it sounds weird, but learning requires you to know how to learn.

First thing to learn: nothing is useless.

I often (ok, not that often) see players that assume that having their virus counters purged is always good for them, because the Corp player had to skip his or her entire turn. I can think three reasons for people to think like that: one, they misread the rulebook and think that purging only affects one virus program rather than all of them; two, their opponents never purged their virus counters, so they have no idea how a well-timed “purge virus counters” action can ruin your game; or three, they never had to purge the virus counters from a runner, either because they only played bad runners or they never realized how good it is to purge the virus counters when the runner exposes himself or herself too much. If you think like that, for whatever the reason it might be, let me be straight with you: you’re wrong! Yes, that simple.

Second thing to learn: training time is training for a reason.

The main difference between a tournament and your leisure time with friend is not that you don’t win a prize if you win, it is that you don’t lose anything if you lose. I know that our competitive instinct is to always win the game when we can, but is there a better place to learn the weaknesses of your deck (an your own weakenesses) than you training sessions?

Take this time to push your limits: play as many virus program card as you can to see how many you can play until the Corp player feels forced to purge your virus counters, and if he or she didn’t do it, ask your opponent the reason behind his or her decision not to purge. Do that with as many people as possible, and pay attention to their play style, try to understand the differences between different Corp players and different Corp strategies and how each of them deal with virus counters.

That is it?

By now, it seems that I’m writing an article to tell you that I can’t tell you anything, but what I’m trying to say is that I have so many things to tell you that writing it all is not an option. Even though, here are some things that you should try:

- Parasite builds its own virus counters very slowly, and the more virus counters it has, the best is for the Corp to purge your virus counters. Find ways to speed it up by using Datasucker, Ice Carver, Surge, and even Wyrm;

- Take a look at Darwin. The main reason why people are putting their bets in a Shaper Darwin based deck is that it can take purges thanks to The Personal Touch and/or The Helpful AI, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have its place in Anarch decks. See how many virus counter you can add to it until your opponent decides to purge them. You don’t need to necessarily build a Darwin based deck, just include one or two in your deck and see how your opponent react to them;

- Use Imp + Parasite (or any other combination of virus programs, but this seems to be the one that works the best) as a bluff to induce your opponent to purge your virus counters. Your opponent doesn’t know your hand, so you can (and should) use this to manipulate the Corp player;

- Your opponent will often make his or her moves based on the right timing to purge your virus counters, and Surge leads them to a miscalculation. Also, it is usually really hard to keep two copies of Parasite installed simultaneously or to play a copy of Imp if you have a built Parasite installed without having them purged. Surge can help you with that too;

- Try the out of faction virus programs. I know that Pheromones and Deep Though are not popular, and - as far as I’m aware - most high level players consider Chakana a low tier card, but I also don’t know if any of them actually tried using these cards. I’m not telling you that they are good, I kinda agree that they are not that great, but I never tried any of them. Pheromones have a great synergy with Vamp, and both Deep Though and Chakana are great targets for Surge. Give them a shot. I promise I’ll do it too and share the results.

The next cycle is coming!

So, this is my last article before the deluxe expansion comes out. It is a change for everybody, so I think it makes sense to change something in my articles too. I’m not sure what might happen, maybe I’ll make some Anarch based reviews of the future packs, maybe I’ll start to try to make some interview with high level players about the Anarch faction, maybe some “deck tech deconstruction”, I don’t know. Maybe I’ll do everything at the same time. My point is: take my next article as a starting of a new season.

I have been writing my articles aiming for the new players, to introduce some basic concepts about the game for those who want to move from the casual level (where you play “for fun”) to the hardcore level (where you play “for the challenge”). From the commentaries I receive from my readers, I feel like my job is done, and better players deserve better articles. I hope I can achieve the standard that I believe our community has achieved.

By now, let’s enjoy our final days of Genesis Cycle and get prepared for the Shaper and Haas-Bioroid avalanche that is coming. With three identities being released at the same time, it will be really hard to resist and stay loyal to the Anarch, but… you know what? This is just a card game, loyalty makes no sense. I hope you keep reading and enjoying my articles, no matter which faction you’ll play once Creation and Control comes out. Try what you need to try, play what you need to play, as long as you keep enjoying the game.

See you guys in two weeks, hopefully with more virus counters on your board and Creation and Control in your hands. I hope you get your copy sooner than I’ll get mine.

João “Hraklea” Almeida is a brazilian amateur card game player and an economy student who spend most of his time dreaming about a world with 3 days weekends. Or sleeping. And dreaming about a world with 3 days weekends.