Things are happening! I hope. I plead. I think?
Stay tuned…
Things are happening! I hope. I plead. I think?
Stay tuned…
Shutters
Mason Bellamy looked over the reports from the Mars expansion. Each was ordered precisely correctly. Inside, he mused at the efficiency of the Jeeves models.
Motioning for a junior sysop to take the load, Bellamy shut down his terminal and got ready to depart. His shuttle back to Earth was leaving in half an hour, and he was looking forward to going back to a full G.
The terminal flashed one last inquiry request. “Work Complete? Y/N”
The Final Riddle
The very last deck. The very last card. This blog has achieved a bunch. I started it on March 6th, and since then I’ve put up 150 posts. Some where RPG-related, some were guest posts, some were musings or event recaps, but in the end I personally made about 115 decks for the Red Sands cycle.
I love Netrunner, and I’ve loved Mars ever since I saw Reina’s character and read her back story.
I’m super pumped that the revised core will have Reina as the Anarch runner (though I’ll miss Noise fiercely as well).
This has been a very fun blog to work on, but it’s also been exhausting. I’m tired of being obligated to write something every week, and the bandwidth this has taken up has left me a little less interested in doing other writing. With the blog firmly behind me, I’m probably going to go back to some novel or RPG adventure writing.
Still, I feel accomplished.
Oh, and this last deck?
As we lose Quandary, we gain Conundrum. So before we rotate, I made a deck with all three puzzle code gates. It had to be in Seidr because we want to make the runner lose clicks, and it’s built on a FoodCoats shell with the Clearances for acceleration.
Basically, let’s recur our Blue and Green Level Clearances—or Ultraviolet if you’re feeling spicy—and just jam upgrades and agendas into a remote behind taxing ICE. Strongbox with Warroid is so annoying.
Enjoy! Good luck! Farewell! Auf wiedersehen, goodbye!
Riddle Me This Seidr (Conundrum)
Seidr Laboratories: Destiny Defined
Agenda (9)
3x Accelerated Beta Test
3x Global Food Initiative ●●●
3x Project Vitruvius
Upgrade (8)
2x Breaker Bay Grid
3x Strongbox
3x Warroid Tracker
Operation (14)
3x Blue Level Clearance
3x Green Level Clearance
3x Hedge Fund
3x IPO
2x Ultraviolet Clearance
Barrier (6)
3x Eli 1.0
1x Heimdall 1.0
2x Seidr Adaptive Barrier
Code Gate (9)
2x Conundrum
3x Enigma
3x Quandary
1x Turing
Sentry (2)
2x Ichi 1.0
Other (1)
1x Loki
3 influence spent (max 15, available 12)
21 agenda points (between 20 and 21)
49 cards (min 45)
Cards up to Terminal Directive
Deck built on https://netrunnerdb.com.
Profit Sharing
“The Matrix has absorbed the data of over 50 runners this last week alone,” the sysop reported proudly. “It’s functioning well beyond what we were expecting, and it’s interfacing with our software better than we could’ve dreamed.”
Caprice nodded, but her voice was full of skepticism. “Keep an eye on it. There’s been a lot of tech sharing recently, but that doesn’t mean we’re friends.”
Let the Saw Go
Once more my friends, once more with feeling, as it were.
A deck with Fetal, House of Knives, Obokata, and Philotic (and Caprice). Honestly, Fractal Threat in PU is just so nasty!
I mean, it’d be great in a hard-barrier Skorpios too, but this is just icing. Double down on the net damage/stack shaving.
People want to break through a Kakugo? That’ll be one card from hand, three from the stack please. Hit a Komainu with no Breaker? Five and Five. Hit a Komainu with a breaker? Still two off the top. It’s the Runner lose/lose in the best Jinteki way.
We’ve also got the full boat of Domes and Shocks for one last time, and the Preemptive Action to recur them.
Oh, right, but how do we win?
We force the runner into going after House of Knives, Fetal, and Obokata until their deck is gone. Then we score with impunity—if they aren’t dead already. My favourite kind of Jinteki.
Ripsaw PU (Fractal Threat Matrix)
Jinteki: Potential Unleashed
Agenda (10)
3x Fetal AI
3x House of Knives
3x Obokata Protocol
1x Philotic Entanglement
Asset (9)
3x Breached Dome
3x Jackson Howard ●●●
3x Shock!
Upgrade (5)
2x Caprice Nisei
3x Fractal Threat Matrix ●●●●● ●●●●
Operation (13)
3x Hedge Fund
2x Interns
3x IPO
2x Neural EMP
3x Preemptive Action
Barrier (4)
1x Chiyashi
3x Kakugo
Code Gate (4)
2x DNA Tracker
2x Lotus Field
Sentry (4)
3x Komainu
1x Neural Katana
12 influence spent (max 12, available 0)
20 agenda points (between 20 and 21)
49 cards (min 45)
Cards up to Terminal Directive
Deck built on https://netrunnerdb.com.
New Normal/Old Normal
Dor was happy to be back at work. With everything that’d gone on, the normalcy of tracking cargo payloads was relaxing. This latest one coming in from Luna was marked as high priority, and Dor just watched it pass through the thin Martian atmosphere from her perch high up.
Ignorance. Bliss.
Advanced to Win
A double that lets you install and triple-advance ICE? Something I can get behind. I mean, it’s only on a remote server, but it’s something to protect Anson at least.
So, I put it in the Red Planet Couriers deck. Full load of Biotic Labor as usual. Just so many operations when I was done with my shopping list—26 of them! We’ve got cash, more cash, fast tracks, more cash, recursion, and a few support cards.
Every piece of ICE is advanceable, plus we have Anson Rose to improve things. Biotic, Biotic, Fast Track, install Government Takeover, and then bang Red Planet Couriers to score 6 points. Y’know. Regular deal.
I like it. There’s suddenly enough advanceable Weyland ICE to do it.
Grindstone BON (Priority Construction)
Weyland Consortium: Builder of Nations
Agenda (5)
1x Government Takeover
2x Graft
2x The Cleaners
Asset (2)
2x Anson Rose
Operation (26)
3x Biotic Labor ●●●●● ●●●●● ●●
2x Commercialization
2x Fast Track
3x Hedge Fund
3x IPO
2x Mass Commercialization
3x Preemptive Action
3x Priority Construction
2x Red Planet Couriers
3x Restructure
Barrier (6)
2x Fire Wall
2x Hive
2x Ice Wall
Code Gate (2)
1x Hortum
1x Mausolus
Sentry (2)
2x Colossus
Multi (1)
1x Orion
12 influence spent (max 12, available 0)
18 agenda points (between 18 and 19)
44 cards (min 40)
Cards up to Terminal Directive
Deck built on https://netrunnerdb.com.
Rescue Op
The wind whistled past the hopper as Geist’s grip started to slip.
“Don’t you let me go you piece of crap! You let me go, and everything goes with me!” Harrison Barker screamed as one of the aerial Hellions snapped at his foot. Geist looped his leg around the hopper restraints and hoped it would hold.
With a heave of effort, Armand “Geist” Walker lunged forward with his other hand and hauled Barker into the vehicle.
They collapsed together, exhausted and keyed up. And a calm voice spoke back to them from the cab. “It’s going to get a little bit bumpier, friends. Best hold on.”
Geist shot Ken a feral grin.
Pop a Cam
This is one of my most favourite decks. I’ve wanted Geist to work for years, and Spy Cam Geist is definitely the strongest build I’ve seen. With the new breakers from Terminal Directive plus Mad Dash, the deck is really nasty. My latest build uses Gauntlet for multi access so we can ditch the Legwork and have some more reliable multi access.
This comes in handy when the corp draws through your Spy Cams. So you trash a Spy Cam and see something you don’t care about. They mandatory draw that card, and then they click to draw again. Now—unlike Bug where you have to pay—we just get to see that card. Plus it’s a 0-cost connection. So we put that on Off-Campus and we get a free draw.
I like it. I like it a lot.
By putting Gauntlet, though, I’m losing some more reliable link cards. That’s why I’ve got some more Sports Hoppers and I’m keeping a Maxwell James on hand. But, even if we do lose our link due to unfortunate circumstances, it’s not a huge loss with two Levys in the deck to recur the dead programs. Plus Gauntlet puts us up to 6 memory. We’ll be able to hang onto a pretty respectable rig even without link.
I love this deck. Finally! A card in the back half that I’m excited about!
A&A Geist (Corporate Defector)
Armand “Geist” Walker: Tech Lord
Event (4)
2x Levy AR Lab Access ●●●●● ●
2x Mad Dash
Hardware (9)
2x Sports Hopper
5x Spy Camera
2x The Gauntlet
Resource (21)
2x Aaron Marrón
2x Corporate Defector
1x Dean Lister
3x Fall Guy
1x Maxwell James
3x Off-Campus Apartment ●●●
3x Street Peddler ●●●
3x Tech Trader
3x Temüjin Contract ★★★
Icebreaker (12)
2x Abagnale
2x Crowbar
2x Demara
2x Lustig
2x Shiv
2x Spike
15 influence spent (max 15, available 0)
46 cards (min 45)
Cards up to Terminal Directive
Deck built on https://netrunnerdb.com.
Redundancy
Omar checked the temperature on the box one more time. It was up there, but within tolerances.
“Come and get me, you slag heads!”
Reaching
Dummy Box is pretty cool. My plan for it? Have a massive hand size. So we’re going Obelus tag-me and deep-dig. We can protect our Josh B with more Josh B. Protect our Jarogniew with an extra Dummy Box. Stuff like that.
They’re going to Hunter Seeker away our God of War? (Shhhh… I know they could just purge for one click more), drop a Black Orchestra into the bin!
I dunno. It’s an idea at least. It’s probably stronger if I had fewer events and more redundant resources and programs. Resources more likely. Maybe this is a deck that should have Wireless Net Pavilion? But then again, it probably just does the exact same thing as Dummy Box in the long run. Still. Probably a workable deck?
Seems like I’ve been having quite a few stinkers on the bank end of this pack.
Striker Omar (Dummy Box)
Omar Keung: Conspiracy Theorist
Event (14)
3x Déjà Vu
3x Mars for Martians
3x Peace in Our Time ●●●
2x Power to the People
3x Sure Gamble
Hardware (3)
3x Obelus
Resource (11)
3x Counter Surveillance
2x Dummy Box ●●●●
3x Jarogniew Mercs
3x Joshua B.
Icebreaker (9)
1x Black Orchestra
1x God of War
2x Mimic
1x MKUltra
2x Paperclip
2x Yog.0 ★★
Program (8)
3x Datasucker
2x Medium
3x Parasite ★★★
12 influence spent (max 12, available 0)
45 cards (min 45)
Cards up to Crimson Dust
Deck built on https://netrunnerdb.com.
Things’ll Turn Out
Craigsly passed the ration to Harriet, and smiled over the meagre light of their vid-PAD. “Well, it could be worse. NBN could’ve stopped regular programming while the grid was down.”
Harriet laughed. Craigsly hid his nervousness.
A Whole Lot of… You Know
I’m not a huge fan of currents, nor am I a huge fan of those cards that increase the cost of operations and events, like Donut.
Nevertheless, how to build this deck? Well, it could be CTM or NEH, as those don’t need events to function, but I decided to go with Spark for two reasons. One, I just did CTM. And two, Brownout sort of plays into a despotism build. Of course, we’re giving up on Predictive Algorithm, which is a much better current in a glacier-type Spark, but oh well. THEME!
So, we’ve got Launch Campaigns, Marilyn Campaigns, and PAD Campaigns. Lots of Advertisements. Plus Pop-up of course.
It’s definitely a glacier type of build and a bit of a No-Advance type of build. You can put Marilyns or Launches into your SanSan server. Trashing a Marilyn is no big deal, because they just keep coming back. Or you could be putting an NAPD in there.
This is not an optimized deck. Honestly, I’m not sure how to really stick Rolling Brownout. Maybe the agenda suite should be more no-advance with something like CST for more cash. Maybe I should have more reliable ways of landing tags than a SanSan/Breaking News combo.
But I’m honestly not very inspired by Rolling Brownout. The deck and card are… meh? Meh. We’ll go with meh.
Power Despotism Spark (Rolling Brownout)
Spark Agency: Worldswide Reach
Agenda (10)
1x AstroScript Pilot Program
3x Breaking News ★★★
3x Global Food Initiative ●●●
3x NAPD Contract ★★★
Asset (12)
3x Jackson Howard
3x Launch Campaign
3x Marilyn Campaign ●●●
3x PAD Campaign
Upgrade (5)
3x Product Placement
2x SanSan City Grid ★★
Operation (5)
3x Exchange of Information
2x Rolling Brownout
Barrier (3)
3x Vanilla
Code Gate (6)
1x Archangel
3x Pop-up Window
2x Tollbooth
Sentry (8)
1x Cobra
1x Data Raven
3x News Hound
3x Turnpike
14 influence spent (max 15, available 1)
20 agenda points (between 20 and 21)
49 cards (min 45)
Cards up to Terminal Directive
Deck built on https://netrunnerdb.com.
A Shaper’s Playground
Cyberspace was a puzzle for Kit, one that she knew the general shape of. Swapping a piece here and there shouldn’t have worked, but it was her puzzle. So, it did.
It was a skill she had discovered in herself, and she cultivated it.
Unsure
Seriously… I’m missing the big amazing bit for this card. Is it good? I feel like it should be, but I’m not sure. Like Inversificator, it can mess with the Corp’s carefully constructed servers, but if you don’t know what the ICE is, it’s just a guess. Inversificator is much stronger.
So… we could go expose, or we could go derez. I leaned harder into derez with Rubicon Switch. I mean, Kit doesn’t really run more than once a turn, so she can draw, run, Switch, and Opus on most turns. Then on the off turns she can just Opus a bunch.
Otherwise, it’s just a good Shaper Econ package that relies mostly on Opus, but it supplemented by Beth and Bloo Moose.
Not sure if Reshape is worth a deck, honestly.
Radd Switcher Kit (Reshape)
Rielle “Kit” Peddler: Transhuman
Event (16)
3x Diesel
3x Dirty Laundry
1x Emergency Shutdown ●●
2x Infiltration
2x Reshape
3x Sure Gamble
2x The Maker’s Eye
Hardware (6)
2x Dedicated Processor
2x Rubicon Switch ●●●●● ●
2x The Gauntlet ●●
Resource (12)
2x Beth Kilrain-Chang
2x Biometric Spoofing
2x Bloo Moose
3x Daily Casts
3x Same Old Thing
Icebreaker (6)
2x Inti
2x Inversificator
2x Na’Not’K
Program (5)
2x Magnum Opus
3x Self-modifying Code
10 influence spent (max 10, available 0)
45 cards (min 45)
Cards up to Terminal Directive
Deck built on https://netrunnerdb.com.