Priority Construction

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.

Threat Level Alpha

Guards for Guarding

Harina paused outside the crew bathroom and leaned against the wall. For a movie about a bunch of kid’s fantasy creatures, there sure had been a lot of protection brought in. She nodded at two other sec team guys dressed up in AR-Enhanced armour just like her.

“It’s just a damned movie,” Harina muttered.

Meta Disgusting

Our goal? Draw into combo pieces, tax the runner, Hard Hitting News, Closed Accounts, Threat Level Alpha, eventually find a way to Psychographics into victory. Or just Exchange of Information into victory.

It’s just another stupid annoying Controlling the Message build. Something that dies to hate like Slums. But it’s got a convoluted combo with Fast Track and Vanity Project, and it has a Restructured Data Pool, so… cool? Honestly, I’m happy that Corporate Defector is a cool deck. The last four cards on the blog have been un-fun to build with. Maybe it’s because they’re NBN and Shaper, my two least favourite factions? Or maybe it’s because I’ve built 120 decks and I’m getting tired.

Or maybe it’s because these are all academic because rotation will be in effect a day or two after the final deck posts on the blog.

Dunno. But the pack is almost done.

Thanks for coming on this journey with me!

Crackdown CTM (Threat Level Alpha)

NBN: Controlling the Message

 

Agenda (8)

1x 15 Minutes

2x Global Food Initiative  ●●

3x Project Beale

1x Restructured Datapool

1x Vanity Project  ●

 

Asset (11)

3x Jackson Howard

3x PAD Campaign

2x Reality Threedee

3x Sensie Actors Union ★★★★★★★★★

 

Operation (19)

3x Closed Accounts

1x Exchange of Information

1x Fast Track

3x Hard-Hitting News

3x Hedge Fund

3x Psychographics

2x Sweeps Week

3x Threat Level Alpha

 

Barrier (6)

2x Data Ward

2x IP Block

2x Resistor

 

Code Gate (2)

2x Tollbooth

 

Sentry (3)

2x Data Raven

1x Thoth

 

12 influence spent (max 12, available 0)

20 agenda points (between 20 and 21)

49 cards (min 45)

Cards up to Crimson Dust

 

Deck built on https://netrunnerdb.com.

Rolling Brownout

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.

Sand Storm

Motivation

Caprice inspected the Crisium architecture that had been retrofitted to her Tennin servers. The melding of Weyland brutishness and Jinteki finesse had created a defensive measure beyond any she’d seen before.

That combined with her own abilities made the information nearly uncrackable. And this was the sort of work that Caprice enjoyed—She was protecting advances that would help everyone. Not just her sisters, not just Jinteki, but the struggling peoples of Earth, Luna, and Mars all together. New hybrid food types to be shipped to the red dunes of Mars. New medicines that could improve quality of life for so many people.

It was good work.

Misdirection and Deflection

I put in ALL THE DEFLECTORS. I think? I don’t think there are others.

Anyways, Bullfrog, Miraju, Susanoo, and Sand Storm all work together to force the runner where they don’t want to be. That’s usually Archives. Filled with Breached Domes and Shocks. Crisium on every central server (prioritizing HQ and R&D) will help Tennin’s ability fire, and it’ll help protect our Off the Grid server.

Yes. Off the Grid Tennin. With Caprice on HQ. Deflectors on HQ. Crisium on HQ. Friends in High Places plus Crick plus Interns to bring our Grids and Caprice back. With a good Tennin rotation, we can never-advance all of our agendas. And even if they do get some successful runs through our strange labyrinth of deflectors and grids and psychic clones, we can always leave two advancement counters on our Ice Walls to Trick of Light onto our agendas.

It’s a silly deck. But I think it’ll work.

Pinball Tennin (Sand Storm)

Tennin Institute: The Secrets Within

 

Agenda (9)

3x Improved Protein Source

3x Medical Breakthrough

3x Nisei MK II

 

Asset (6)

3x Breached Dome

3x Shock!

 

Upgrade (7)

2x Caprice Nisei

3x Crisium Grid  ●●●

2x Off the Grid  ●●●●● ●

 

Operation (13)

3x Friends in High Places  ●●●

3x Hedge Fund

1x Interns

2x IPO

2x Preemptive Action

2x Trick of Light

 

Barrier (3)

3x Ice Wall  ●●●

 

Code Gate (7)

2x Bullfrog

2x Crick

3x Mirāju

 

Sentry (1)

1x Susanoo-no-Mikoto

 

Other (3)

3x Sand Storm

 

15 influence spent (max 15, available 0)

21 agenda points (between 20 and 21)

49 cards (min 45)

Cards up to Revised Core Set

 

Deck built on https://netrunnerdb.com.

Biased Reporting

Talking Heads

“You have to admit, it’s a little fishy,” Gregory said, and Lily rolled her eyes.

“Well of course it’s suspicious, Greg.” Lily replied. “Three dome breaches within fifteen minutes of each other, all in corporate-controlled suburbs? It’s clearly terrorism.”

“Yes,” Gregory agreed. “But I mean that these attacks have all come after rallies organized by clan agitators. It has to be tied to them, and I’m calling for a complete and utter crack down in neighbourhoods suspected of harbouring seditious peoples.”

“Where’s the proof, Greg?” Lily said. “We’re here for facts, not to slam a boot down on anyone shopping after hours.”

Versatility

Biased Reporting is a pretty cool economy card and/or delay card. Against a fast deck like NEH that the runner has to stay on top of, this can delay the runner from trashing your assets while they reinstall their cards, or it can put you over the top to rez that SanSan and score that Beale.

Other than that as an economy card, this deck is pretty straightforward NEH spam, cash, and score.

I’m going a little bit crazy here by including two Mergers, but I think it’s a risk worth taking. That means we can go back to the six-agenda 3/2 spread. The good old days when Astro wasn’t one of. If a Merger gets stolen, we can score a Breaking News and EOI it back, just like if we’d lost a GFI. It might take some more gymnastics, but if we’re keeping the runner on the back foot trashing our assets and getting through our taxing central ICE, we might just be able to get those Mergers through the SanSan quickly.

Exchangeable Reporting NEH (Biased Reporting)

Near-Earth Hub: Broadcast Center

 

Agenda (11)

1x AstroScript Pilot Program

3x Breaking News ★★★

2x Global Food Initiative  ●●

2x Merger  ●●

3x Project Beale

 

Asset (12)

3x Jackson Howard

3x Marilyn Campaign  ●●●

3x PAD Campaign

3x Turtlebacks  ●●●

 

Upgrade (3)

3x SanSan City Grid ★★★

 

Operation (9)

3x Biased Reporting

3x Exchange of Information

3x Hedge Fund

 

Barrier (5)

2x Data Ward

1x Eli 1.0  ●

2x Resistor

 

Code Gate (5)

3x Pop-up Window

2x Tollbooth

 

Sentry (4)

2x Assassin

2x Data Raven

 

17 influence spent (max 17, available 0)

21 agenda points (between 20 and 21)

49 cards (min 45)

Cards up to Terminal Directive

 

Deck built on https://netrunnerdb.com.

O2 Shortage

For Your Safety

Reina had tracked some of the money back to holding accounts in Breaker Bay, but it had taken time. Time that she couldn’t afford to waste. HB was cutting some sort of deal with Jinteki, and—so far—hell hadn’t frozen over, so it had to be bad.

One of her side systems started to beep, but Reina was focused on her run. The Bioroid countermeasures that were protecting this server were hard to pin down. They changed, and each puzzle they threw at her took up more time. Always more time.

That’s when Reina started to pant.

She looked to her side and her eyes bulged. The dome was being evacuated?

Time to Tax

Sorry, this post is a day late. Yesterday was a potty training day for my 3yo! He did great.

It’s for reasons like this that I try to pre-write a bunch of posts, but I haven’t been able to pre-write anything more than a week in advance, and this week ended up being busier than expected. Who knew getting a mechanic to look at two cars while your wife is working and you’re home with three kids could be so complicated? Ha!

Anywho, this deck. O2 Shortage is a cool card. A Biotic Labor alternative, but also something that can enable a kill. I strongly considered putting this in a spiky Tennin Institute deck, but decided I would stick with HB so I could have five fast advance cards in one deck. The flip side is that I brought Snare into the deck. Which is something I think you need to do if you’re running O2 Shortage natively.

They have to be afraid of running with few cards. So they spend their clicks drawing. But then they lose their clicks to Turing and the Bioroids. Also Enhanced Login Protocol.

It’s another ETF Glacier. Maybe I should’ve gone Tennin, eh?

Gasping ETF (O2 Shortage)

Haas-Bioroid: Engineering the Future

 

Agenda (9)

3x Accelerated Beta Test

3x Global Food Initiative  ●●●

3x Project Vitruvius

 

Asset (12)

3x Adonis Campaign

3x Jackson Howard  ●●●

3x Marilyn Campaign

3x Snare!  ●●●●● ●

 

Upgrade (3)

3x Breaker Bay Grid

 

Operation (10)

2x Biotic Labor

2x Enhanced Login Protocol

3x Hedge Fund

3x O₂ Shortage

 

Barrier (4)

3x Eli 1.0

1x Seidr Adaptive Barrier

 

Code Gate (5)

1x Fairchild

2x Fairchild 3.0

2x Turing

 

Sentry (5)

3x Architect ★★★

2x Ichi 1.0

 

Other (1)

1x Loki

 

15 influence spent (max 15, available 0)

21 agenda points (between 20 and 21)

49 cards (min 45)

Cards up to Terminal Directive

 

Deck built on https://netrunnerdb.com.

Success

Step One: Pacify

Detective Inspector Creedy at the NAPD was having a rough day.

“I understand that you’re not responsible for every story that NBN puts out.” Creedy tried hard not to cringe as he saw the anger appear in Elizabeth Mills’ eyes. “But you see… our image…”

“The ends, Mr. Creedy, will justify these means.” Mills seemed to lose interest in the exchange as soon as Creedy faltered. The call went down hill from there.

Step Five: Success

I’m in my new house! I’m now writing blog posts from my old desk in my new computer room. I’ve got three posts for this week to finish off Blood and Water, then we go into Free Mars next week! Exclamation!!

This deck is pretty cool. Success is a game-ender if ever there was one, though as most Jemison decks seem to work for me, I wonder why I’m sacrificing agendas to score points… Darn combos.

This is pretty straightforward though. As long as you’ve seen the ruling! You see, Success goes on the advancement requirement, not the printed advancement requirement.

That means you can score an NAPD as a 4/2 then take two Bad Publicity—either by scoring a Geothermal Fracking and clicking it twice or by scoring two Hostile Takeovers.

With two Bad Publicity, the NAPD is now a 6/2. So you can Biotic, install a Government Takeover, and play Success. You sacrifice your NAPD to gain 6 advancements plus another 3 from Jemison. That gets you to 9 advancements and a scored Government Takeover!

Step Six? Profit.

Personal Success Jemison (Success)

Jemison Astronautics: Sacrifice. Audacity. Success.

 

Agenda (11)

3x Firmware Updates

1x Geothermal Fracking

1x Government Takeover

3x Hostile Takeover

3x NAPD Contract ★★★

 

Operation (22)

3x Biotic Labor  ●●●●● ●●●●● ●●

1x Consulting Visit

2x Fast Track

3x Hedge Fund

3x IPO

2x Mass Commercialization

2x Punitive Counterstrike

3x Restructure

3x Success

 

Barrier (6)

3x Fire Wall

3x Ice Wall

 

Code Gate (5)

3x Hortum

2x Mausolus

 

Sentry (5)

2x Archer

3x Colossus

 

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.

Reeducation

Brain Caging

Carlos itched at the neural net as the hologram droned on about market forces and guiding principles. Anya, another student sitting just to his right, looked just as uncomfortable, so Carlos leaned over and whispered.

“What’re you up to after class?”

Anya squinted at the blue hologram in front of them and sat up more stiffly. “Shut up, C, you know they monitor us in here.”

“Yeah sure, but do they care what we do after class?”

“They care,” Anya said flatly, keeping her attention on the program.

Carlos rolled his eyes and looked glumly up at the ceiling.

Then the neural net started to itch more.

“Hey, you feel that…?” Carlos’s voice quavered a touch, but Anya ignored him.

Reaching a finger up between the fibres and his hair, Carlos tried to find whatever was irritating his scalp. Then his body went stiff.

Electricity coursed through him, and his vision went white.

When his vision cleared, Carlos found his head between his knees. He was doubled over, and his chest hurt. He’d been panting.

Straightening quickly, Carlos focused his gaze on the teaching module ahead of him.

“C? You okay man?” Anya asked, no longer looking at the hologram.

“Anya, I’m trying to focus. This stuff is important.”

Same Old Thing

Okay. I have no idea what to do with this agenda. So, when in doubt, Psychographics a 5/3. This deck makes money. It draws cards, and it installs economy assets. You trash them? It recurs them. Hard. The ICE is good old NBN taxing ICE. Remember when NBN ICE used to be crap?

Anywho. We make a ton of money, then we Midseasons and Psychographics. Not exactly very amazing, but it’s in NEH now, so it’s a lot richer!

To the Victors NEH (Reeducation)

Near-Earth Hub: Broadcast Center

 

Agenda (8)

1x AstroScript Pilot Program

1x Global Food Initiative  ●

3x Project Beale

3x Reeducation

 

Asset (15)

3x Commercial Bankers Group  ●●●●● ●

3x Jackson Howard

3x PAD Campaign

3x Team Sponsorship  ●●●

3x Turtlebacks  ●●●

 

Operation (13)

2x Fast Track

3x Friends in High Places  ●●●

2x MCA Informant

3x Midseason Replacements

3x Psychographics

 

Barrier (4)

2x Data Ward

2x Resistor

 

Code Gate (5)

2x Archangel

1x Authenticator

2x Pop-up Window

 

Sentry (4)

2x Data Raven

2x Turnpike

 

16 influence spent (max 17, available 1)

20 agenda points (between 20 and 21)

49 cards (min 45)

Cards up to Blood and Water

 

Deck built on https://netrunnerdb.com.

Escalate Vitriol

The Daily Red

“CRIMINALS!” the man roared at the recorder, spittle visible as it hit the high-def camera lens. “They think the red planet is theirs for the taking, but we have something more to say on the matter, don’t we?!”

On-meta or anti-meta?

This deck lives or dies on Jackson Howard, and as usual, it’s pretty rough thanks to Film Critic. This is why we have two MCA Informants for when the Critic hits the table. Interestingly enough, if we trash a Film Critic with an agenda on it, it goes exactly where we want our agendas—in Archives.

Here’s the game plan, over draw a whole bunch. Install ICE, play economy operations. Discard all TGTBT, QPMs, and your Explode-a-palooza. Of course, you’ll also want to discard your Shocks and News Teams.

Eventually, they’ll run Archives. We should have a Data Raven or Thoth there. Since we’re Haarp, they’ll only get to steal one of our agendas, and we’ll get the QPMs. They’ll also take net damage, -1 agenda points (or two tags) plus however many tags from the TGTBT.

This should also overload their one Film Critic. Because if they Film Critic our Explode-a-palooza, then they don’t satisfy the Haarp ability, and they’ll steal another one.

That means we Midseasons them.

Then we Psychographics. We can install a Vitriol, Psycho, then click it to recoup our cash, or (if we have the cash and they have the tags) we can Psycho a Beale for the 7-point win. Or whatever you need after QPMs have been scored for you.

Lastly, we can totally Boom and Scorch them to death. Because of course we can.

In any other deck, I don’t see how Escalate Vitriol works. But it’s damn good in this one.

PropagandaPalooza Haarpsichord (Escalate Vitriol)

Haarpsichord Studios: Entertainment Unleashed

 

Agenda (13)

1x AstroScript Pilot Program

3x Escalate Vitriol

1x Explode-a-palooza

2x Project Beale

3x Quantum Predictive Model

3x TGTBT

 

Asset (8)

3x Jackson Howard

3x News Team

2x Shock!  ●●●●

 

Operation (16)

1x BOOM!  ●●●

1x Closed Accounts

3x Hedge Fund

2x MCA Informant

2x Midseason Replacements

2x Psychographics

2x Scorched Earth  ●●●●● ●●●

3x Sweeps Week

 

Barrier (3)

1x Data Ward

2x Pachinko

 

Code Gate (4)

2x Authenticator

2x Bandwidth

 

Sentry (4)

3x Data Raven

1x Thoth

 

Other (1)

1x Universal Connectivity Fee

 

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.

Shipment from Tennin

Re-Allocation

The Obokata Protocol had opened so many doors throughout the Jinteki infrastructure. Intrusive net criminals had moved on to easier pickings, and resources had been redistributed.

For the Tennin Institute, that meant more aggressive measures.

Catch 22

It’s a never-advance deck. Psychic Field is a way under-utilized card, and Hostile Infrastructure with Bio-Ethics Association is always a nasty surprise. Unfortunately, there’s a little anti-synergy in the Bio-Ethics Associations as they incentivize the runner to run, thereby turning the Tennin ability off. I’m not sure about it, but I still like the kill-threat package.

What you probably have to do is play smart—shocker. Don’t immediately rez a single Bio-Ethics Association. Keep them in reserve until the runner hits a Psychic Field or Shock. Then start dropping BEAs and not rezzing them.

When it makes sense (like after they score an Obokata Protocol), rez all three Bio-Ethics Associations for a kill shot. Don’t try and whittle the runner down like in a Potential Unleashed deck. We just don’t have the recursion to make that worthwhile.

As for the never-advance strategy, if they steal a Medical Breakthrough, then you can score Braintrusts and Medical Breakthroughs from hand using Shipment from Tennin or Trick of Light. If you have two FA cards, then you can never-advance an Obokata. If possible, I’d probably save my Jacksons for reshuffling Psychic Fields back in. Those are our bread and butter.

And if you’re getting lots of Shocks and Psychic Fields, feel free to throw a spikey piece of ICE (not an Ice Wall) on a remote to tax the checks.

Needs a clever hand, but it’s a pretty promising deck. Shipment from Tennin is cool as hell. Jinteki continues to be the faction that punishes you for running and punishes you for not running. I’m really going to miss Ronin.

Shell Tennin (Shipment from Tennin)

Tennin Institute: The Secrets Within

 

Agenda (9)

3x Braintrust

3x Medical Breakthrough

2x Obokata Protocol

1x Philotic Entanglement

 

Asset (14)

3x Bio-Ethics Association ★★★

2x Hostile Infrastructure

3x Jackson Howard  ●●●

3x Psychic Field

3x Shock!

 

Operation (13)

1x Archived Memories  ●●

3x Celebrity Gift

3x Hedge Fund

3x Shipment from Tennin

3x Trick of Light

 

Barrier (5)

2x Ice Wall  ●●

3x Kakugo

 

Code Gate (4)

2x DNA Tracker

2x Yagura

 

Sentry (4)

2x Colossus  ●●●●

2x Komainu

 

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.