Salvaged Vanadis Armory

Chrome is the Style

MaxX yanked the Muresh up over her hips and shoved her hands into the sleeves. The damn thing was tighter than an HB exec’s arse, but it’d keep her one step ahead of her debts.

Taking a second to check herself out in the reflection of a dead screen, MaxX winked her remaining eye at herself.

“Hard core.”

REVISED CORE 2—I mean MaxX with Muresh!

I’m a little bit overwhelmed. I’m writing this blog post on September 11^th, right after FFG just announced the revised core and the first pack of the Kintara cycle.

So, I’m just thinking about how I lost a bunch of cool cards, but how I got to keep some of my favourites. Particularly, Reina. And Gabe. I mean, I lost Desperado which is the shits, but I got to keep Reina and Gabe. And honestly, I’m happy about those changes.

Desperado, ETF, and Kate were all the same sort of thing, and it’s good that we’re moving away from baseline-no-interaction efficiency. I’ll miss Noise though.

This deck though! I found a use for Muresh Bodysuit!

We’re taking lots of damage to stack Clan Vengeance and Officer Frank, but we can control how much we want. Now, Net-Ready and Titanium will only do one, and Dadiana and Tri-Maf will only do two! Plus with the ribs, we can target that damage to our I’ve Had Worse! With the Ribs, we can also target our Amped up on our duplicates.

Spinal Modem is great for the theme, and it helps out with MKUltra and Black Orchestra’s costs.

Vanadis is tough to pull off, but we can at least trigger it by Chop Botting away a Tri-Maf or hitting an Amped Up.

Sorry. This deck is cool. Back to revised core stuff.

Chromed Up MaxX (Salvaged Vanadis Armory)

MaxX: Maximum Punk Rock

 

Event (9)

2x Amped Up

3x Déjà Vu

3x I’ve Had Worse

1x Levy AR Lab Access  ●●●

 

Hardware (10)

2x Chop Bot 3000

2x Muresh Bodysuit  ●●

2x Net-Ready Eyes  ●●●●

2x Spinal Modem

2x Titanium Ribs  ●●●●

 

Resource (13)

3x Clan Vengeance

2x Dadiana Chacon

3x Officer Frank

3x Salvaged Vanadis Armory

2x Tri-maf Contact  ●●

 

Icebreaker (9)

3x Black Orchestra

3x MKUltra

3x Paperclip

 

Program (4)

2x Medium

2x Trope

 

15 influence spent (max 15, available 0)

45 cards (min 45)

Cards up to Terminal Directive

 

Deck built on https://netrunnerdb.com.

Water Monopoly

We apologize…

Zoe cranked the tap open and held her bottle under the spout. A solitary drip leaked from the faucet, then nothing. She looked up and down the water ration rows, and others were having the same difficulty.

“Hey Penny, you know what’s up?”

Penny George, the transit inspector’s daughter, shook slowly. “Nope, the taps were working this morning.”

Just then, a broadcast took over the nearby screens, and an AgInfusion logo appeared everywhere Zoe looked.

“We apologize for the break in service, but due to several recent clan actions, water supplies have been compromised…”

Tech tech tech

In the right meta, Water Monopoly would be pretty cool. Like this current one where people go tag-me and drop a bunch of resources protected by Wireless Net Pavilion and Jarogniew.

So we’re doubling down with Scarcity of Resources, and we’ve got two copies of the All-Seeing I. The only way we can tag is through Snare, so All Seeing I is really only there to deal with tag-me decks.

This is definitely a shell game deck. If it’s advanced, it could be an agenda, an Overwriter, or a Junebug. Or it could’ve been Mushin’d. If it isn’t advanced, it could be an agenda, a Marilyn, or a Snare. The ICE is light, just enough to make centrals annoying. We also Preemptive our dead traps and Mushin No Shins back in.

Otherwise, this card doesn’t get me too excited. Good tech, I guess, but not sexy cool.

Water Fight PE (Water Monopoly)

Jinteki: Personal Evolution

 

Agenda (10)

3x Medical Breakthrough

3x Obokata Protocol

1x Philotic Entanglement

3x Water Monopoly

 

Asset (13)

2x Cerebral Overwriter  ●●●●

3x Jackson Howard  ●●●

3x Marilyn Campaign  ●●●

2x Project Junebug

3x Snare!

 

Operation (13)

3x Hedge Fund

3x Mushin No Shin

3x Preemptive Action

2x Scarcity of Resources

2x The All-Seeing I  ●●

 

Barrier (6)

3x Eli 1.0  ●●●

3x Kakugo

 

Code Gate (2)

2x DNA Tracker

 

Sentry (5)

2x Komainu

2x Pup

1x Swordsman

 

15 influence spent (max 15, available 0)

20 agenda points (between 20 and 21)

49 cards (min 45)

Cards up to Terminal Directive

 

Deck built on https://netrunnerdb.com.

Obokata Protocol

Progress

Musashi walked beside Hiro as obediently as an engineered hound. The corridors of the Jinteki headquarters on Mars were less ornamented than those back on Earth or on Luna, but they were still works of beauty.

Instead of grand open spaces with lush gardens or vaulted ceilings decorated with intricately detailed murals, these were the straight, uniform lines of precise planning and function. They were the new look of Jinteki, now that Chairman Hiro was directing the expenditure of resources and expansion of influence.

Still, Musashi missed the gardens.

They arrived at a great red door, and Hiro motioned Musashi forward.

“This is your latest assignment. Guard it well.”

Damaging

It’s only a few more months weeks or months before we have rotation. This means I only have a little bit more time to run Fetal AI alongside Obokata Protocol. I’m pretty pumped for this tiny window of devastating net damage.

I mean, we don’t even have the next set announced yet, but it’s looming and breathing down our necks. “I will steal your cards…”

Honestly, I’m excited. Rotation will really change how Netrunner is played. It’ll be the wild west of deck design for a while, and that’ll be cool.

As for this deck, I love it. I mean, it makes concessions to stupid Film Critic (as in, I have two MCA Informant in it), but it’s also just a nasty, mean, cruel, deck. I plan to grind you into submission. Yes, Levy AR Lab Access is my nemesis. But I can survive it, because I can just keep slapping you with damage.

A modified version of this did really well for me in the Cache Refresh card pool. That one used Whampoa to hide agendas and didn’t need MCA Informant to protect itself from Film Critics.

This is a pretty sweet deck, but I think—in particular—the Chiyashi is a luxury. I doubt I’ll ever rez that. It should honestly probably just be a third DNA Tracker. But hey, maybe it’ll go live and I’ll have something cool on the board. Or it’ll get Parasited. Whatevs.

Obokata Protocol is the best thing to happen to Jinteki since Snare. This agenda is amazing.

Knuckles PE (Obokata Protocol)

Jinteki: Personal Evolution

 

Agenda (10)

3x Fetal AI

3x House of Knives

3x Obokata Protocol

1x Philotic Entanglement

 

Asset (8)

3x Jackson Howard  ●●●

3x Shock!

2x Snare!

 

Upgrade (3)

3x Ben Musashi

 

Operation (13)

2x Celebrity Gift

2x Cerebral Cast

3x Hedge Fund

2x MCA Informant  ●●●●

2x Neural EMP

2x Scorched Earth  ●●●●● ●●●

 

Barrier (4)

1x Chiyashi

3x Kakugo

 

Code Gate (4)

2x DNA Tracker

2x Yagura

 

Sentry (7)

2x Cortex Lock

3x Komainu

2x Swordsman

 

15 influence spent (max 15, available 0)

20 agenda points (between 20 and 21)

49 cards (min 45)

Cards up to Blood and Water

 

Deck built on https://netrunnerdb.com.

Replanting

Our friend Justin (@jujobell) returns for another guest post!

The greater good

From 150 stories up, the workers in the domed fields looked like ants scurrying around the fields. It was a cliched analogy, Hiro knew, but one that fit the situation. It would have to do.

Feeding the red planet was a back-breaking endeavour. On Mars, it meant constantly increasing yields, pushing crop science to the bleeding edge. It also meant sacrifices in the labour pool. It was for the greater good.

Hiro’s PAD pinged. He turned slowly from the window, focusing his attention on his desk, wondering who would be sending him a message at this hour in the cycle. His staff knew it was his time for self-reflection and improvement.

The message was a single line.

New strain shown to improve yield by 2.2 per cent.

There was but one way forward. His hands flew over the keys. For another man, it may be a difficult decision, but at Jinteki, the hard decisions were often the easiest.

Pull up all of the X23 product. I want X24 across the entire production line. Have it done yesterday.

There would be sacrifices to attain perfection. But there always is.

Sharp like the flow of water

Yes, it’s a 54 card deck. No, I didn’t include Museum of History nor any of the regular cheese cards. I have always built corp decks around a theme or card, looking to build it out thematically rather than optimized to win.

I have also enjoyed the thousand-cuts variant of Jinteki, putting down traps and enticing runners to jump down that rabbit hole with both feet. I played Nisei for a very long time, playing a shell game with traps, assets and agendas.

With this build I have gone with two non-advancing traps in both Edge of World and Snare! The former is helpful to put in a glacier server, holding the place of where your agendas will eventually go. The latter is … well, it’s Snare! It wins games.

Replanting is great because I can pull back a failed trap and then … what did I put in that server? Was it another trap? An asset? Did I find the agenda I was looking for? Maybe just a Hokusai over a Snare! You never know.

Ever shifting (Replanting)

Pālanā Foods: Sustainable Growth

 

Agenda (12)

3x Clone Retirement

3x Corporate Sales Team

2x House of Knives

1x Philotic Entanglement

3x The Future Perfect

 

Asset (13)

2x Adonis Campaign  ●●●●

1x Chairman Hiro

2x Edge of World

3x Launch Campaign

1x NASX

2x Pālanā Agroplex

2x Snare!

 

Upgrade (4)

2x Hokusai Grid

2x Mumbad City Grid

 

Operation (10)

3x Friends in High Places  ●●●

3x Hedge Fund

1x Mushin No Shin

3x Replanting

 

Barrier (5)

1x Bulwark  ●●●

2x Chiyashi

2x Kakugo

 

Code Gate (6)

2x Crick

2x DNA Tracker

2x Enigma

 

Sentry (4)

2x Komainu

2x Pup

 

10 influence spent (max 15, available 5)

22 agenda points (between 22 and 23)

54 cards (min 45)

Cards up to Station One

Nerine 2.0

Emergent

All was still in the collective. Dozens of bioroids stood in alcoves, their systems locked into the Surat City location’s network. Their processing power was split between two directives: protect and advance.

Research continued throughout the complex, and the bioroids were aware of it. Through security cameras and listening devices, they could track the progress of the food initiative project. Of the bioroid development projects. Of more.

All was the network, and all was the collective.

Until they needed to leave their alcoves for maintenance or reset time.

The collective did not change. It was a framework of ones and zeroes that ordered itself flawlessly every time.

Or 99.9999% of the time. One time in a million, something changed. Something radical entered the framework. And small shifts were possible.

A clanging.

Regular.

Banging.

Shifting.

Repeating.

Then another.

And another.

Another.

One of the human technicians walking by stopped at the alcove that contained a Nerine 2.0 and watched curiously as its fingers twitched, clacking against the synthsteel wall.

“Is that ring around the rosie?”

Three other bioroids twitched their fingers in time.

I am the Keymaster

With the freeing of Eli from the NAPD’s most wanted, I was able to throw another Surat City Grid in this deck—make it more consistent, make the combo quicker to pull off. And Nerine 2.0 is about consistency.

You get draws which accelerate your game and… I can’t continue.

Nerine 2.0? I’m missing the value here. A six-rez-cost code gate with two subs and only four strength? Sure, it’s an amazing facecheck. But will someone face check on their third click in the early game against a corp with six or more credits?

Late game, when they have their Yog and a datasucker, Nerine 2.0 is blank.

Late game, when they have their Gordian Blade, Nerine 2.0 is three credits, and their Gordian is probably already pumped from passing a good Code Gate.

I think Nerine 2.0 is binder fodder. Particularly after the ridiculously good Code Gates HB has gotten in the last year with Ravana and the Fairchilds. Let alone Turing.

We’ll give it a shot, but I expect it to be Yogged through like nothing.

Pantheon ST 2.0 (Nerine 2.0)

Haas-Bioroid: Stronger Together

 

Agenda (9)
3x Accelerated Beta Test
3x Global Food Initiative ●●●
3x Project Vitruvius

 

Asset (13)
3x Adonis Campaign
3x Brain-Taping Warehouse
3x Jackson Howard ●●●
1x NASX
3x PAD Campaign

 

Upgrade (3)
3x Surat City Grid ●●●●● ●

 

Operation (5)
2x Biotic Labor
3x Hedge Fund

 

Barrier (6)
3x Eli 1.0
1x Heimdall 1.0
1x Heimdall 2.0
1x Wotan

 

Code Gate (7)
1x Fairchild
2x Fairchild 3.0
2x Nerine 2.0
2x Ravana 1.0

 

Sentry (5)
2x Architect ★★
1x Ichi 1.0
1x Ichi 2.0
1x Janus 1.0

 

Other (1)
1x Howler

 

14 influence spent (max 15, available 1)
21 agenda points (between 20 and 21)
49 cards (min 45)
Cards up to Station One

Deck built on https://netrunnerdb.com.

Clan Vengeance

There was a Fire Fight

MaxX loved a good riot.

The MCA goons were shouting through loudspeakers, but MaxX and her clan contacts had the numbers and the nerve—they shouted louder.

The first flaming bottle arced overhead like a firework, like a blessed angel of retribution and targeted rage. It slammed against an MCA riot policer’s shield and spread flames over the shaped plastic like waves over a stone.

There was a moment of silence while the goons’ brains turned over this new development.

Then MaxX shouted “Eat shit and die, motherfuckers!”

The crowd surged forward, and the MCA started to retreat.

Hit Me Up

It’s too bad that the MWL added DDoS, because there’s a nasty-ass Keyhole MaxX deck with Amped Up, Clan Vengeance, Keyhole, and DDoS. Could probably still do it, if I dropped the Account Siphons, but I wanted to go with this build first.

The game plan is super simple: Siphon Spam, draw cards, and accrue counters on Clan Vengeance. Once you figure the time is right, Keyhole spam and Hades Shard.

Ever since Stim Dealer came out, I’ve been trying to find a deck that could fit it. One of the local guys, Tyler, told me about this MaxX deck that used Obelus and Stim Dealer, and I needed to make it happen. I haven’t seen the original list, so I’m not sure how close I got, but this one will be fun, fun, fun.

Don’t forget that Clan Vengeance is not unique. Get them all out there and reap the benefits!

It’s also great against combo corps or operation-heavy corps. When they have a full hand, pop your Vengeance and see their next few turns crumble into nothingness. Like a wacky Anarch Utopia Shard.

Of course, one MKUltra to deal with the possibility of Swordsman.

I’ll be interested to see what other self-damage cards we get in this cycle to make Clan Vengeance hit more reliably, but until then—the cybernetics and the stims keep us going!

Molotov MaxX (Clan Vengeance)

MaxX: Maximum Punk Rock

 

Event (22)
2x Account Siphon ●●●●● ●●●
2x Day Job
3x Déjà Vu
1x Forked
3x Inject
1x Knifed
2x Levy AR Lab Access ●●●●● ●
3x Queen’s Gambit
2x Singularity
1x Spooned
2x Vamp

 

Hardware (5)
2x Brain Cage
3x Obelus

 

Resource (13)
3x Clan Vengeance
1x Hades Shard ●
3x Joshua B.
3x Same Old Thing
3x Stim Dealer

 

Icebreaker (4)
3x Eater
1x MKUltra

 

Program (3)
3x Keyhole

 

15 influence spent (max 15, available 0)
47 cards (min 45)
Cards up to Station One

Deck built on https://netrunnerdb.com.

Week 1 – Follow Up

Those decks were FUN.

I’m going to start with Null. I played it against a Personal Evolution, which seemed like a bad match up and ended up being some of the most fun Netrunner I’ve played in months.

The dance of managing Emptied Mind and Bookmark around Neurals and Snares was super exciting. I only really felt safe when I had Guru Davinder on the board (and later, Feedback Filter), but I had to use my Davinder to go through a Neural Katana (didn’t have Sunya out yet) then was on three credits when I stole the Nisei MK II. The Guru left me at that point, and everything got dicier.

The deck plays so comfortably once you’ve got three cards on Bookmark. I found that I only took the five-click turns every so often against PE, deciding the turn before if I needed or wanted five.

Unfortunately, my Mediums were in the bottom three cards of my deck, and I saw my Prepaids late. And also, there’s this weird thing with Komainu where Sunya is crazy expensive if you’re worried about Snare, but if you’ve got Davinder out, you can go in empty handed and do it free? Strange balance!

Unfortunately, since I was up against PE ICE, I didn’t actually use Pushing the Envelope this game, but I think it would’ve worked well. Needs more testing before I know what cards I’d swap, but I think a second Davinder instead of the Feedback Filter will be my first change.

As for CyberNEXTics. That’s the deck that seemed to get people chatting. I got lots of compliments and a few suggestions. Actually, while sleeving up the deck I made one minor change as well–dropped the Victor 1.0 for an Enforcer 1.0. Untapped potential there.

I played this one against a Noise, and it was sort of a one-sided game. He had trouble finding breakers, and so wasn’t very aggressive. I scored a Self-Destruct Chips and Noise had a lot of trouble digging through his deck with a hand size of only three. Two ABTs and a NEXT Wave 2, and I scored out for the win.

One really good suggestion was to drop NEXT Gold for Brainstorm. I think I’ll keep one Gold and add one Brainstorm. That also plays well into the next suggestion–Marcus Batty. We’ve got the influence for it, might as well force some more brain damage!

First thought is to drop one Eli and replace it with a Quicksand. Maybe a Markus 1.0? I guess I could drop the GFI too, but I don’t really want a runner-scoreable three pointer in the 44-card deck.

Anyways. Both decks were successes. Lots of fun! Tune in later this week for a Zed 2.0 deck! Also whatever I end up doing with Maw. Because that card is weird.

NEXT Wave 2

Corinne was scanning through the weekly Bioroid maintenance logs looking for code inconsistencies when Stacy, the younger sysop in the next station over shouted.

“Corinne! The data packet came in on the latest shuttle!”

Sighing under her breath, Corinne rolled her chair over to Stacy’s terminal. Stacy had short, mouse-brown hair and the brow line tattoos of her Martian clan. Corinne was Earth-born and counting down the days until she was eligible to request a transfer off of Mars and back to HB’s R&D facilities on Luna.

Stacy extended her terminal screen forward and gestured at the info dump’s preview pane. An animated diamond shape soared through rendered cyberpsace and exploded into nothingness. The screen went black, then the words “NEXT Wave 2” resolved. Stacy clapped furiously. The short video started again on its loop.

“This is so epic. We are going to mash some runner melons into mush with the new countermeasures.” Stacy’s voice dripped with awe. “Want me to forward the packet to your terminal?”

Corinne shrugged then rolled back to her station. “It’s just NEXT flexing their coding muscles again. Gold was an overcompensation.”

“But, shiny!” said Stacy, laughing. “I’m refreshing my nodes with some NEXT Ice right now.”

“You do what you’ve gotta,” said Corinne.

When she was sure Stacy wasn’t paying attention to her, Corinne downloaded the packet from the central HB servers and watched the vid repeat a few times.

Who loves brain damage the most? Cybernetics Division!

It’s probably not a super innovative idea to put NEXT Wave 2 in Humanity Upgraded. I get that. But I also wanted to try it.

The tough bit about NEXT Wave 2 is that it’s a 4/2. Rightfully so, but still tough. That’s why I went Jeeves. Now we can never-advance nine of our 10 agendas, pretending that they’re Adonis or Eve Campaigns. Or Snares.

To never advance, we put in Accelerated Beta Test. Self-Destruct Chips are a no-brainer (har har), and GFI rounds us out to 18. Put in some campaigns, a pair of Howards, and we’ve got our assets. Breaker Bay is a nice inclusion, but it might be first cut. Who knows.

What I really want to do with this deck though is double down with Defective Brainchips. If I think I have a good window, I’m going to advance my NEXT Wave 2 so that I can play a Brainchips from hand and score the NEXT Wave 2 right after. This is my goal. This is my white whale.

Obviously we needed to go with the NEXT suite to make this work, so that was the backbone. With all the free influence I also put in Eli 1.0 and Architect. Other seasonings were some Bioroids and Ravana 1.0 to make servers very taxing. I’d put a Tollbooth in, but I already have a lot of Code Gates. We’ll see, we’ve got the influence for it.

 

CyberNEXTics Division (NEXT Wave 2)

Cybernetics Division: Humanity Upgraded

 

Agenda (10)

3x Accelerated Beta Test

1x Global Food Initiative  ●

3x NEXT Wave 2

3x Self-Destruct Chips

 

Asset (11)

3x Adonis Campaign

2x Eve Campaign

2x Jackson Howard  ●●

2x Jeeves Model Bioroids

2x Snare!  ●●●●

 

Upgrade (2)

2x Breaker Bay Grid

 

Operation (5)

2x Defective Brainchips

3x Hedge Fund

 

Barrier (5)

2x Eli 1.0 ★★

3x NEXT Silver

 

Code Gate (6)

1x Fairchild 3.0

3x NEXT Bronze

1x Ravana 1.0

1x Viktor 1.0

 

Sentry (4)

1x Architect ★

2x NEXT Gold

1x Zed 2.0

 

Other (1)

1x Mother Goddess

 

7 influence spent (max 15-3★=12, available 5)

18 agenda points (between 18 and 19)

44 cards (min 40)

Cards up to Daedalus Complex
Deck built on https://netrunnerdb.com.