Rezzing and Running

I've always been competitive. With everything, anything that gave me a chance to win, I was always a part of it. Winning. I would do anything to win at games, I would study them for months on end, fill notebooks with endless amounts of worthless information that was only useful in one circumstance: to win that particular game. So, when netrunner first came out, of course I would be interested. Here was a card game that wasn't too expensive to play, and had a competitive edge. Hell yeah! But, there was a problem…

I was terrible at the game. I mean, horrible. And I didn’t understand why. This was supposed to be a simple card game, and it was like trying to kiss the back of my kneecaps. Impossible! Great. Here was another game I had to study. And study. And study. But slowly I started to get better at Netrunner. And slowly I started to learn the nuances. Of the corp. And then I played the runner for the first time. And I lost. Over and over again. And then I slowly started learning the small tricks of the runner, the little things that let you know what the corp is doing. But what makes netrunner so much fun is that you have to learn that for ALL seven runners/corps. It doesn't make the game any easier, either.

So why am I writing all this? In an effort to help both myself and those first starting out, as well as veteran players, I am going to be posting and analyzing the decks I create after playtesting them extensively in an effort to show players a method of deckbuilding that will allow them to win games easier, and to increase their win/loss percentage. Today, we will examine a common HB build that I have put together, it’s strengths, it’s weaknesses, and what I did to lose the game. First, let’s give the list:


Identity:
Haas-Bioroid: Engineering the Future (Core)

Total Cards: 49

Agenda (10)
Accelerated Beta Test (Core) x3
Project Vitruvius (Cyber Exodus) x3
Mandatory Upgrades (What Lies Ahead) x3
Private Security Force (Core) x1

Asset (6)
Adonis Campaign (Core) x3
Melange Mining Corp (Core) x3

ICE (22)
Enigma (Core) x3
Wall of Static (Core) x3
Sherlock 1.0 (Trace Amount) x2
Viktor 1.0 (Core) x2
Heimdall 1.0 (Core) x3
Chimera (Cyber Exodus) x3
Ichi 1.0 (Core) x3
Tollbooth (Core) x3

Operation (11)
Archived Memories (Core) x2
Hedge Fund (Core) x3
Precognition (Core) x3
Biotic Labor (Core) x3

Upgrade (0)

Total: 49
Total Influence: 15

So, what is good about the deck (at least in theory)? Well, for starters, it’s fairly simple to play: Try to hold your agenda’s in hand until you run into biotic labor. Yes, with there being ten agendas, there will be one drawn on average of once every 4.998 cards or something like that, but that’s what the 22 ice was for, right? Right?! And I could use precognition to look for ice to ATB into!!!! Ah man this is sweet! What if noise trashes one of my agendas? ARCHIVED MEMORIES, THAT’S WHAT. All of this seemed pretty amazing, but there was some (a lot) of issues.

First off, E3 feedback implants. Stupid, I’m so stupid. Who cares about all of that amazing ice now? Sad face. Archived memories is slow and leads attention to your hand? Sadder face. Most of the ice I had was easy to get through but expensive to rez? Sideways face. Precognition is too slow to reliably work every game? Dammit! I hate this game!

How can we fix that, though? Well, I think there is a few ways we can make this deck just a little bit faster and a little bit stronger. It has potential, and that potential is not in HB at all. Actually, it comes from their yellow-er friends over at NBN. They have a breaking news update that 2 SanSan would be great over on the HB floor. 3 Viper would be just a little better than Enigma, as it doesn’t auto lose to Yog. I think we should also call our friend Ash to into SanSan to help protect those agendas. And I do like money, and I like it to trickle in… Instead of having to pay tons for Tollbooth that just gets ignored anyway, why not include 3 popup windows? Actually, you know what else we could include? Uroburos is a fantastic piece of ice that could really help our cause, of winning, of course. But we are going to need money… hmm…. Green level clearance will help us by drawing us the agenda/biotic labor/San San we need, as well as giving us 2 creds. I think so. I don’t think that this deck is fast advance. This deck COULD be fast advance with the right draw, but I think HB is a lot more reactive than a lot of other deck archetypes. Having the right ice for the right problem is vital to the success of the corp player. So what does our new deck list look like?

Identity:
Haas-Bioroid: Engineering the Future (Core)

Total Cards: 49

Agenda (10)
Mandatory Upgrades (What Lies Ahead) x3
Project Vitruvius (Cyber Exodus) x3
Accelerated Beta Test (Core) x3
Private Security Force (Core) x1

Asset (6)
Melange Mining Corp (Core) x3
Adonis Campaign (Core) x3

ICE (21)
Viper (Cyber Exodus) x3
Wall of Static (Core) x3
Uroboros (A Study in Static) x3
Chimera (Cyber Exodus) x3
Heimdall 1.0 (Core) x3
Ichi 1.0 (Core) x3
Pop-up Window (Cyber Exodus) x3

Operation (8)
Hedge Fund (Core) x3
Green Level Clearance (A Study in Static) x2
Biotic Labor (Core) x3

Upgrade (4)
SanSan City Grid (Core) x2
Ash 2X3ZB9CY (What Lies Ahead) x2


Total: 49 cards
Total influence: 15

Some thoughts before I test? I may want to see those Pop up windows be Ice walls, but we will see… I am going to test the both of them, and I will have a tournament report for you all soon on how this deck did. I think it will have much more success, because the link is just not there for the runner, and to play onto that will be at least of slight benefit to me as the corporation.

Please, join me next time as I post more terrible decks with hope for improvement!

On a side note, feel free to tell me anything I should add/correct/ pull my head out of you know where, and I would be more than willing to listen. Thank you all for reading, and may you all keep rezzing and running!