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geniusisobvious · 9 years

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Deck Discussion - Mill Druid

I'm going to share some of my favorite decks in the various card games I play. I hope that the process of writing down my thoughts will and the feedback I get from my friends and readers will make me a better player.

This is my current favorite deck in Hearthstone. I've seen one other person play a similar deck, but other than that I think it is pretty unique.

Here is the link to Hearthpwn.

Here is the list if you don't want to click on the link.

Innervate x 2 Naturalize x 2 Mark of the Wild x 2 Wrath x 2 Mana Wraith x 2 Nerub'ar Weblord x 2 Grove Tender x 2 Cold Light Oracle x 2 Dancing Swords x 2 Goblin Sapper x 2 King Mukla x 1 (Legendary) Swipe x 2 Keeper of the Grove x 2 Druid of the Claw x 2 Loatheb x 1 (Legendary) Clockwork Giant x 2

That's it. There are a lot of narrow cards in this deck but they all work together to make a pretty darn effective deck.

I'll describe what the deck is trying to do in case you can't figure it out. The deck wants to make everything more expensive to cast and flood your opponent's hand with cards they can't use, while pummeling them with high body, good attack minions. In an ideal world, you make the opponent burn cards they can't hold in their hand.

This deck has lots of card draw and cheap, beefy minions to control the board and beat down your opponent. Mana Wrath and Nerub'ar Weblords are great starting cards as they will slow down your opponent and often cause you opponent to use their control on them rather than the big fellas in the deck. I think the unorthodoxy of this deck also leads to wins because your opponent simply doesn't know how to handle it. This is also a strong adventure deck because the AI doesn't know how to adjust either.

I'll go through each of the card choices and then talk about possible alternates for this deck.

Innervate - Fantastic Druid card. Should be in every Druid deck.

Naturalize - Best control card in the game and the drawback is actually a benefit by turning on the Goblin Sappers and Clockwork Giant.

Mark of the Wild - Useful for containing other rush decks.

Wrath - The versatility is really nice. Can be strong early removal or card draw.

Mana Wraith - Good early minion that screws with the opponent's tempo and clogs up their hands. They typically have to spend their turn killing it, allowing you to further improve the board state by having the first chance to cast normal priced minions.

Nerub'ar Weblord - Ridiculously high body for a 2 cost minion. The weblord is always the MVP against zoo decks as it clogs up all the battle cry minions like Abusive Sergeant while also handling a number of one body early minions. Usually gets a scoff when it is cast but they are core to the deck.

Cold Light Oracle - Card draw for me and card clog for the opponent. It is negatively affected by the Nerub'ar Weblord, but you usually want to put out beefier minions out early anyways.

Dancing Swords - Underpriced minion and the drawback can work to turn on Sappers. Not good for every deck but great for this one.

Goblin Sapper - The inspiration for this deck. These bastards can be innervated out first turn and win the game singlehandedly. Typically a candidate for MVP in any given game.

Grove Tender - High body and card draw. Always draw the card with this ability. The ability is not a battlecry so it is not affected by the weblord which is nice.

King Mukla - He's a Legendary but he's honestly a fringe card in this deck. Adding the two cards to the opponent's hand is nice in the right situation (say when you are about to Naturalize and/or cast a Cold Light Oracle) but that isn't every situation. Those banana's are usually out the next turn and on a minion you didn't want to see made larger. The Battlecry also means it doesn't work well with the Weblord. King Mukla is a recent addition and I require more play with him to see how he fits.

Swipe - One of the best control cards in the game. It is hard to see a Druid deck without at least one Swipe.

Keeper of the Grove - Good to keep in your hand and deal with problems as they come up. Ability is not a battlecry so it is not affected by the Weblord. Often used to remove Taunt.

Druid of the Claw - Another fringe card. The charge can be nice to close out a game and the taunt can be great against rush decks. I think I need to get over the fact that it don't leverage others cards and just accept that it is a solid card on its own. Again, the ability is not a battlecry so it is not affected by the Weblord.

Loatheb - Recent addition to the deck. The reason I added Loatheb is to delay the Flamestrike by one turn since the majority of minions in the deck have 4 body or less. Solid minion and fits the theme. Probably should have been in the deck earlier but I haven't had enough games with him to see how well he works.

Clockwork Giant - I had a Clockwork Giant but didn't put him in this deck. Then I realized that if Clockwork Giant doesn't fit in this deck, then it doesn't fit in any deck. It seems to work well, so I crafted a second one. It's a minion that can come out surprisingly early in this deck and is really difficult to deal with.

Cards I've been considering would be Mechanical Yeti since yetis are awesome and Mechanical ones fill their hand. I also had Mark of Nature, which is good for closing out games but can be a dead draw in a number of situations. At three mana, there are also a lot of other cards trying to get out at that time.

The one time I played a similar deck, they had a different take on the deck. They used Healing Touch, Antique Healbots, and the brewmasters to recur Antique Healbots and Cold Light Oracles. Basically, it was more of a ramp/control deck that counted on Fatige damage to win the game rather than the rush style that I've made.

In terms of matchups, this deck probably has the hardest time with rush mech decks due to the discount provided by Mechwarper and the early utility of Annoy-o-Tron. Zoo matchups are ok, especially if you get a weblord early. Handlock is ok as long as you are careful with how you use your control cards and if you can get them to burn some good cards from exceeding their hand limit. Anything else without a really cheap mana curve is going to be hurting because of there are a lot of cheap, beefy minions to deal with.

I hope you like the deck concept. Please let me know if you have any questions, comments or suggestions.

#Decks Hearthstone Druid

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geniusisobvious · 9 years

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Doomtown is a great game and I think this playlist would make it better. I'd love to see blueswitch's playlist for Netrunner.

AEG’s Doomtown:Reloaded is the most thematic game I’ve played so far this year. Every turn tells a rich story of shootouts and magic. As with every good narrative the enjoyment can be increased with an appropriate soundtrack. Building on the “weird west” fiction the game is built on, I’ve...

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geniusisobvious · 9 years

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Reviewing Up and Over

Up and Over is a very strong corp data pack. You can expect to see a lot of cards from this pack coming to a Corporation near you. In particular, Blue Sun is the changing how the game is played from the Corp side and I think the runners have been slow to adapt.

Here is a description of the rating system. I got the images for my post from NetrunnerDB and here is a legalese blurb on Netrunner.

Architect

Architect is a flat out great card. It makes face checking without a killer seem foolhardy. It just breaks up a ton of run events. If they play Indexing, you can install end the run ice on top of R&D. If they Legwork, then you can dig through your R&D for ice to put on a remote and then install your agenda there. Did Noise mill an agenda out of R&D? You can dig it out and put it in a remote, or even better grab a Jackson Howard. There are just a multitude of tricks and that you can pull off as a corp player with Architect. Neither of the subroutines End the Run (EtR) but the runner does not want those subroutines to fire. I was discussing card games with a friend a couple of nights ago and we were discussing how to evaluate the strength of cards. To me the best indication of a card's strength are the number of scenarios you want that card in play, or, more likely, the number of times you don't want that card in play. I'm having a hard time thinking of scenarios you don't want Architect in play.

Here is a list of all the Killers and their cost to bypass Architect:

Alias: 4 credits

Cuj.0 H3: 3 credits and 1 power token

Creeper: 5 credits

Dagger: 2 credits and a 1 Steath credit

Faerie: 3 credits

Femme Fatale: 4 credits

Garrote: 3 credits

Mimic: 2 credits

Ninja: 4 credits

Pipeline: 5 credits

Switchblade: 2 stealth credits

In most cases, you are costing the runner as much to get past Architect once as you did to rez Architect. That is fantastic value. In my mind HB now has 3 of the most splashable ice in Eli 1.0, Viper, and Architect. The other bonus is that each of those ice are different types. Did I mention that Architect can't be trashed? Parasite will only lower it's strength. Kraken fizzles. This is a dominant card that you can expect to see in virtually every deck. The only downside is that it costs two influence, which is still very managable.

Rating: 5/5

Uncertainty: 1/5

Peak Efficiency

Peak Efficiency is a great Haas-Bioroid card. It fits the Engineering the Future, the Foundry and NEXT Design really well. Install more ice, get more credits. My previous post was designing a deck around this card. This card has really got my brain spinning. Peak Efficiency is a well rounded card as well. It fits in any faction's high ice build. Five credits is a pretty reasonable return to expect from it and at one influence, you can see this card in a lot of different places. It is easy to like the idea of getting paid for rezzing ice. You invested a lot in defending yourself. You should get a return on your investment.

Rating: 5/5

Uncertainty: 1/5

Labyrinthine Servers

Despite the fun name, a 5/3 designed to kill the runner just isn't useful. Very few AP ice stop the run so if the corp is playing a lot of AP ice, the runner can probably steal the 5/3. One way I could see this happen is that the runner is afraid to run it, suspecting a trap. A 5/3 would reduce the agenda density, freeing up more room for traps, so there might be something there. That is the main benefit of gained from playing The Cleaners. Not the ability, though that is nice, it is the reduced agenda density. Hm, maybe it is useful. Which identity would you play with it though? Industrial Genomics is my best guess. Until that is figured out, just leave Labyrinthine Servers in the binder.

Rating: 1/5

Uncertainty: 3/5

Ashigaru

Jinteki gets some more big ice. The problem is that Ashigaru has three influence which means you'll probably only see it in Cerebral Imaging and Jinteki. The main concern with Ashigaru is how do you rez it? Oversight AI is an option but out of faction. Mutate is in faction and seems quite random at the moment. As weird as it sounds, Ashigaru will see more play when there are more big Jinteki ice, making a Mutate and Precognition worth including in a deck. At the moment, all the big ice are very high influence so there isn't enough big ice available to Jinteki to import to make Mutate worth it. Ashigaru is expensive but you get what you pay for.

Rating: 2/5

Uncertainty: 4/5

Mamba

Mamba is interesting in that it is aimed at two different identities: Nisei Division and Personal Evolution. Since Mamba doesn't End the Run (EtR), it is a better fit for Nisei Division as there are other cards that mitigate non-EtR ice such as Caprice Nisei and Future Perfect. It's nice that there is some AP ice that can't be stopped by Mimic but to pay six credits to rez ice that doesn't EtR, those subroutines need to be powerful and 1.66 net damage is not powerful enough. In the future there might be ways to increase power counters but until that happens, don't expect Mamba to see much play.

Rating: 2/5

Uncertainty: 4.5

Reversed Accounts

Reversed Accounts gives a very strong first impression. It's free! It costs three credits to trash! It drains the runner of money regardless of what the runner does! Those are all good things, but the click intensity of Reversed Accounts is quite high. It takes a click to install, a click to trash and a click to pump up. The ideal situation is probably to spend a click to install and hope the runner spends the three credits to trash. If the runner gets up to eight credits, spend a turn pumping up Reversed Accounts and trashing it. It's worth noting that the case described above is only an anti-Magnum Opus turn with eight credits lost for four clicks. I think Reversed Accounts is a good card, but it needs to work with other expensive to trash assets to maximize scoring windows. Imp, Whizzard, Scrubber and Paricia are becoming more and more useful as the asset based economy is coming back. Mental Health Clinic turned the tide and it will be interesting to see what turns it back.

Rating: 4/5

Uncertainty: 2/5

Universal Connectivity Fee

Universal Connectivity Fee (UCF) is a nice taxing ice. It is a trap so only AI breakers work against it. It has a mild effect that lasts and can be painful if properly timed. Along with Kitsune, it is the only trap that says in play once rezzed. UCF is also only one influence which is a nice touch as well. I think there is some potential to use Chum along with Kitsune and UCF as part of a taxing ice combo that deals net damage. A four strength trap ice that takes a credit and does three net damage is nothing to sneeze at. UCF is basically a not quite as good Pop-up Window.

Rating: 4/5

Uncertainty: 3/5

Blue Sun: Powering the Future

Blue Sun is a totally different identity and I think has really changed the balance of Netrunner to the Corp's favor. What works against most other corps doesn't work against Blue Sun and vice versa. Parasite doesn't work, neither do Caissas. Economy assets that drain Like Adonis Campaign or Private Contracts, can be refreshed indefinitely. Blue Sun is perfectly happy playing the kind of obnoxiously large ice that the other corporations can't afford to play. It is much slower than other Corps because to use the ability to the maximum, you need to keep reinstalling cards, costing you one click per turn. That one click per turn is a huge investment over an entire game but Blue Sun's power is worth the investment. Until Runner's figure out Blue Sun, it is the identity to beat.

Rating: 5/5

Uncertainty: 1/5

Changling

Changling may not be a great ice but I really like it. It is expensive for what it does, but it's ability keeps it viable for quite a while. It's a great piece of ice for Weyland as it pairs really well with Power Shutdown, Archer and other Destroyers. The next deck I am going to post will utilize Changling along with some destroyers and Will-o'-the-Wisp to lock the Runner out of remote servers. It's very specialized which lowers it score but Changling can be quite powerful in the right deck.

Rating: 2/5

Uncertainty: 3/5

Reuse

The art and the flavor text are both great but Reuse is the anti-Architect. While there are very few scenarios that having an Architect is a bad thing, it is hard to think of a scenario where drawing a Reuse is a good thing. How many cards in a Corp deck are best placed directly in Archives? Shock! and Shi.Kyu in an Industrial Genomics deck and.... It is possible to make a functional deck with Paper Wall, Quandry, Ice Wall, Burke Bugs, etc. along with Security Subcontract and Reuse, but it would be hard to see how that deck is a better choice than any of the others available. Beyond the clicks it takes to draw the cards that are discarded in the first place, Reuse also requires two clicks to play.

Let's do the math:

Trash 1 card = 2 credits = -1 credit compared to clicking for credits

Trash 2 cards = 4 credits = 0 credits compared to clicking for credits

Trash 3 cards = 6 credits = 1 credit compared to clicking for credits

Trash 4 cards = 8 credits = 2 credits compared to clicking for credits

Trash 5 cards = 10 credits = 3 credits compared to clicking for credits

So in the best case scenario, Reuse is still worse than Hedge Fund and requires you to have enough obsolete cards in your deck that you can have a hand full of them. This card is so bad, there must be a complimentary card coming in Order and Chaos or a future datapack. Nothing else makes sense.

Rating: 0/5

Uncertainty: 5/5

Hades Fragment

Hades Fragment is a strong agenda with an ability that is useful throughout the game. Once scored, it is a mini Jackson Howard putting cards back into your deck. The one per deck limit is annoying but does more to strengthen Fast Track than anything else. 5/3 Agendas are hard to score but the ability is so useful that it is worth including in most decks. Trap decks and decks that have an operation based economy as well as decks that use Power Shutdown should all be easily able to fit in Hades Fragment. Some have mentioned that Hades Fragment is good for cycling agendas but I disagree. If you are able to score a Hades Fragment, you are past the point of being agenda flooded. Similarly, if you are agenda flooded, having a Hades Fragment is not going to help.

Rating: 4/5

Uncertainty: 4/5

Docklands Crackdown

Docklands Crackdown is a card that can be very powerful but requires significant support. Docklands Crackdown is best thought of as a Weyland card that might be splashed in some Haas Bioroid decks featuring Mandatory Upgrades. Docklands Crackdown is not hard to trash and expensive to pump up so you probably want ice like Wotan or even better, Off The Grid protecting it. Docklands Crackdown can cripple a lot of runner decks by making installations prohibitively expensive. Daily Casts, Armitage Codebusting, Aesop's Pawnshop, all stop making sense as financial options. The downside is the time it takes to set up a lock. Docklands Crackdown works beautifully with Power Shutdown. Power Shutdown slows the runner down by making them find another copy of their breaker which buys you more time to set up Docklands Crackdown. Once Docklands Crackdown is set up, it makes Power Shutdown that much more painful. Docklands Crackdown is a great card for Weyland and opens up new ways for the Corp to interfere with the Runner's rig development

Rating: 3/5

Uncertainty: 4/5

Inject

Inject is card draw for Anarch which was sorely missing from the Anarch repertoire. Revealing the cards drawn isn't ideal but trashing programs can actually be an advantage. Anarchs have Retrieval Run and Deja Vu to dig those programs up with a minimum of fuss. Injecting and retrieving a Morning Star is something that I am looking forward to doing repeatedly. While Noise probably won't play Inject due to the heavy proportion of programs in his decks, the rest of the Anarch Runners will use Inject heavily. This isn't a great card but it is a great Anarch card. The uncertainty for Inject is high as the more program recursion that comes out for Anarch the stronger Inject becomes.

Rating: 4/5

Uncertainty: 4/5

Origami

Origami is part of a continuing trend to help the runner increase their hand size. Box-E, and Public Sympathy have come out before and Beach Party and Brain Cage have been spoiled to come out in the upcoming San San expansion cycle. This gives the runner options to protect themselves from Scorched Earth rather than just leaning on Plascrete Carapace. It also provides options for the runner and makes cards like Wyldside and Savoir-Faire more effective. Because Origami takes up MU, it should be paired up with Ekomind to overcome it's weakness. As useful as extra cards in hand are, MU is a more valuable resource. The heavy influence cost of Origami and Ekomind and the fact that you require multiple copies of each means that Origami is limited to Anarch runners.

Rating: 2/5

Uncertainty: 4/5

Fester

Fester is a great virus support card and pairs well with viruses like Lamprey and Darwin. Fester can stack so forcing the corp to spend three clicks and six credits to clear virus counters is very taxing. Fester increased the efficacy of viruses to the point where you can expect to see all Anarch runners running a virus deck, not just Noise. In fact Noise probably won't run Fester as he doesn't have the deck space for it. Anarchs are the specialist in economic destruction and Fester is just another tool in the tool box. Fester will probably become even more powerful with the new viruses coming in Order and Chaos.

Rating: 3/5

Uncertainty: 4/5

Autoscripter

Autoscripter is an interesting card as it is very expensive to splash out of faction but it is fantastic in Noise decks. It is unclear which Criminal runner is playing Autoscripter. Perhaps all them of the as the effect is very powerful but fragile. Criminals are probably the best faction to guarantee they only make successful runs. In most decks I have the feeling this will be the 46th card since Criminals typically don't play a ton of programs and the influence cost is too high for regular play in Anarch and Shaper decks.

Rating: 3/5

Uncertainty: 3/5

Switchblade

Switchblade is a great stealth killer. Being able to get past Archer for two (stealth) credits is fantastic value. It works brilliantly with Silencer in faction as well. Running Silencer, Switchblade and Femme Fatales is a great start to a breaker set for Criminals. Dagger is good as well so Shapers won't spend the influence and Anarchs won't splash for a Switchblade either, given that is it so stealth credit dependent and Anarch doesn't have a consistent way to fund Switchblade in faction. BlacKat is stealth optimized, but not stealth dependent so Anarchs really aren't in the stealth breaker market. The other component is that there are not a lot of huge sentries to deal with that see a lot of play and a Criminal runner will probably use Emergency Shutdown to deal with it rather than Switchblade. It is not that Switchblade is a bad card but there are other options that are more effective.

Rating: 2/5

Uncertainty: 4/5

Trade In

Trade in is a hardware tutor which was missing in Netrunner before. However it is not a great tutor. You need to sacrifice a piece of hardware to get another piece of hardware. In order to fit Trade-In in a deck, you need Trade-In, expendable hardware and your targeted hardware. That is a lot of cards and it also takes an action to install or play each of those cards. There are very few pieces of hardware that are so critical to a deck that they require that kind of effort, especially outside of Shaper. The one use I could see if you wanted to build a Shaper deck that runs Ekomind. None of the other consoles are worth the effort. When there is more powerful or deck central non-Shaper hardware released, you will see more Trade-Ins. You probably won't see it for Neutral or Shaper hardware since Shaper already has great card draw.

Rating: 2/5

Uncertainty: 5/5

Astrolabe

Astrolabe is a great default console. It saves you clicks and speeds up your deck. It doesn't give a large memory boost but it doesn't need.to. Given how expensive Toolbox and Monolith are, Astrolabe becomes the default Shaper console. It matches up very well with horizontal corp decks like Replicating Perfection and Near Earth Hub. Astrolabe doesn't provide huge upside but it is easy to use and doesn't take anything off the table.

Rating: 4/5

Uncertainty: 3/5

Angel Arena

If Netrunners were actually divided into playing into only the runner side or only the corp side, this card would cause riots from the runners.

"What the hell is this?", the runners would say, "They get Architect and we get this piece of trash? What are we supposed to do with this card?"

There is nothing to be done with this card, it could help you look through your deck faster but it is one credit per card to look at. Angel Arena doesn't even draw the card, it only reveals it. The runner needs credits to steal agendas, break ice, install hardware, software and resources, trash assets, defeat traces and on and on and on. Dumping credits into a card that does none of those things is insane. For Angel Arena to be effective, you probably need to put around ten credits on it. There is not a single card in the game that is so powerful that it could cost an extra ten credits and still be worth it. This is the worst card in the game and it isn't close. Leviathan, give up your throne.

Rating: 0/5

Uncertainty:1/5

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geniusisobvious · 9 years

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Updating NEXT Upgrades

Initial testing was successful as the deck went 3-1 with the only loss being at match point and because of user error. As expected economy was the primary concern. Adding three Successful Demonstrations should help when the runner is face checking ice early to drain credits.

To make room, both Architects have been removed. The Architect is one of the most expensive ice in the deck and it doesn't end the run. It's ability is also limited because this deck doesn't have a lot of economy assets, unlike most HB decks. Architect just wasn't a great fit for this deck. A single Adonis Campaign was also removed as early credits are vital for this deck and Adonis Campaign requires a early secured remote, which diverts ice from the scoring server early in the game. In future edits, the other Adonis Campaigns may also be removed to make room for Archived Memories, Blue or Green Level Clearances or more ice.

To summarize: -1 Adonis Campaign, -2 Architect, + 3 Successful Demonstration

Here is the complete deck list:

NEXT Design: Guarding the Net (Creation and Control)

Agenda (10)

3x Accelerated Beta Test (Core Set)

3x Mandatory Upgrades (What Lies Ahead)

3x Project Vitruvius (Cyber Exodus)

1x Eden Fragment (The Spaces Between)

Asset (7)

2x Adonis Campaign (Core Set)

3x Jackson Howard (Opening Moves) •••

2x IT Department (The Source)

Operation (11)

3x Hedge Fund (Core Set)

3x Power Shutdown (Mala Tempora) ••••• •

2x Peak Efficiency (Up and Over)

3x Successful Demonstration

Barrier (6)

3x Eli 1.0 (Future Proof)

3x NEXT Silver (Upstalk)

Code Gate (9)

3x Enigma (Core Set)

3x NEXT Bronze (Opening Moves)

3x Quandary (Double Time)

Sentry (6)

3x Rototurret (Core Set)

3x Guard (Honor and Profit)

9 influence spent (maximum 12)

21 agenda points (between 20 and 21)

49 cards (min 45)

Cards up to The Source

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geniusisobvious · 9 years

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NEXT Design, Guarding the Net

As you will see in my next post, I am really excited about Peak Efficiency and I wanted to build a deck around it. Since I am a chronic fan of the underdog, I wanted to use Peak Efficiency with NEXT Design, which I haven't seen used in quite a while. This is a shame, because NEXT Design is equivalent, if not better than Andromeda. Andromeda starts with nine cards, which is the equivalent of an extra turn at the beginning of the game, if not more powerful because of the extra options you have. NEXT Design starts with the equivalent of two(!) extra turns. First the three clicks of placing ice. Then three clicks of drawing up to five cards again. Then the mandatory draw so the corp player has seen 9 cards and has three ice installed. Of course, ice doesn't help if there isn't the money to rez so there needs to be a plethora of cheap ice which isn't a problem for HB since they have the NEXT suite of ice.

While NEXT Design is great at starting the game, there is no benefit as the game goes on, so NEXT players need to take advantage of their strong initial position and somehow leverage that position throughout the game. Enter Mandatory Upgrades. If the NEXT player can score this early, they will have an extra click for the rest of the game. So now this deck has a mandate: leverage your early game advantage to score a Mandatory Upgrades. With the mandate created, let's look at the agendas that fit that theme.

To score a specific agenda early, the corp player needs to maximize the chance it will be in the starting hand. That means three copies of Mandatory Upgrades. Since there will be high proportion of ice in the deck to maximize the NEXT Design ability, the deck should also take advantage of the high ice ratio with Accelerated Beta Test (ABT). ABT is a strong agenda; for only three advancement counters, it is worth two agenda points (it is a 3/2 agenda). So it can be installed and scored it in one turn once after Mandatory Upgrades. This creates an HB fast advance process that we can utilize throughout the game once we score Mandatory Upgrades. HB is also fortunate they have another 3/2 agenda in Project Vitruvius which also allows us to dig up cards from the Archives. We will make use of Project Vitruvius' ability with the cards discarded by ABT along with some other cards in the deck. Three of each 3/2 agenda along with the Mandatory Upgrades gives us 18 agenda points. The agenda density in the deck should be as low as possible to make room for more ice, so rather than going with a couple of one point agendas, we will go with Eden Fragment, which will let us stack up our cheap ice for free. If we don't score an early Mandatory Upgrades, an early Eden Fragment is a nice consolation prize. When scoring ABT we want to use the ice we uncover to stack ice higher, not create new servers. With 21 agenda points, we are ready to move on to the next most important component of the deck, the ice.

A lot of ice is required for the NEXT Design ability as well as ABT and Peak Efficiency. The ice has to be cheap to rez as well. It also has to stop the runner in his tracks, not just tax him, in order to score Mandatory Upgrades. Since Quetzal is everywhere right now, the barriers to include to keep the runner out are limited. Eli is very taxing and has two EtR subroutines which means that Quetzal cannot bypass for free. Eli can be clicked through though, so it should only be installed on central servers, where the runner only has a chance to score an agenda, not a guarantee. NEXT Silver should have multiple subroutines most of the time which will prevent Quetzal from getting in without E3 Feedback Implants or a fracter. Paper Wall could be a choice here but with the prevalence of Quetzal right now, it is often a dead card. Markus is another option but is relatively expensive and can be clicked through, both of which go against the mandate.

There are a number of cheap EtR code gates and the mandate requires the cheapest available. Quandary is perfect for this deck as is NEXT Bronze. Finally, Enigma is included because good runners run HB with clicks to spare and Enigma will punish them for that behavior. NEXT Bronze will eventually be able to ignore Yog.O and the prevalence of Lotus Field will make Yog.O less common. At least, that is the hope. So far that makes six barriers and nine code gates.

The sentries also need to end the run so in goes Guard. Inside Job is becoming popular for Criminals that run central only breakers along with Femme Fatales. Guard stops them both. Rototurret is the other EtR sentry with the added bonus of trashing a program if they were foolhardy enough to run without a killer. There are three of each. Architect is the main reason the runner is foolhardy to run HB without a killer as its subroutines are very powerful. However, because it doesn't end the run, there are only two. The mandate requires keeping the runner out of the remote servers. As with Eli, Architect should be installed on the central servers to tax the runner. All eight of the sentries cost four credits but EtR sentries don't come cheap and they all have powerful abilities. The average ice cost is a hair over three which is quite respectable. Now to figure out how to pay for the ice.

Hedge Fund is an automatic three-of because of the options it gives at the beginning of the game. On average it takes ten credits to rez all three of the initial starting ice so a Hedge Fund gets awfully close to that. Peak Efficiency is a great card for this deck as it synergizes with ABT and will be a powerful credit generator later in the game. Finally with all the EtR ice, Adonis Campaign can be protected and is a great source of funds. The most expensive card in this deck is Hedge Fund so there should be enough economy. Actual testing will tell if more is needed. Finally, it is time to look at the support cards.

The ice is cheap but weak. To increase the ice's effectiveness, three copies of Power Shutdown are included. This should kill the first ice breaker to hit the table and keep the runner locked out. The biggest worry with this deck is a rush deck with cheap ice breakers. Cheap breakers are like candy to Power Shutdown. Project Vitruvius and Architect will help dig out any cards that were trashed by Power Shutdown as will the next card, Jackson Howard. Read this to see why there are three copies of Jackson Howard. Two copies of the final card, IT Department, round out the deck. IT Department is great at using up the extra clicks from Mandatory Upgrades and can make Rototurret a terror while making Guard completely unassailable. Unless advancing an agenda, IT Department should be pumped up at least once a turn.

Here is the complete deck list:

NEXT Design: Guarding the Net (Creation and Control)

Agenda (10)

3x Accelerated Beta Test (Core Set)

3x Mandatory Upgrades (What Lies Ahead)

3x Project Vitruvius (Cyber Exodus)

1x Eden Fragment (The Spaces Between)

Asset (8)

3x Adonis Campaign (Core Set)

3x Jackson Howard (Opening Moves) •••

2x IT Department (The Source)

Operation (8)

3x Hedge Fund (Core Set)

3x Power Shutdown (Mala Tempora) ••••• •

2x Peak Efficiency (Up and Over)

Barrier (6)

3x Eli 1.0 (Future Proof)

3x NEXT Silver (Upstalk)

Code Gate (9)

3x Enigma (Core Set)

3x NEXT Bronze (Opening Moves)

3x Quandary (Double Time)

Sentry (8)

3x Rototurret (Core Set)

3x Guard (Honor and Profit)

2x Architect (Up and Over)

9 influence spent (maximum 12)

21 agenda points (between 20 and 21)

49 cards (min 45)

Cards up to The Source

This deck hasn't been tested but the economy looks sparse which will be confirmed in testing. The deck's built in recursion should focus on bringing economy cards back into use. Our best bet is to stay in faction with Successful Demonstration. To make room Rototurret and Guard would probably be reduced to 2 copies each. With such weak ice, this deck could be susceptiple to Parasite recursion but as often as Blue Sun is played, Parasite recursion is not that fashionable at the moment. Overall I think this is a fairly strong deck with a number of cards that feed off of each other effectively.

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geniusisobvious · 9 years

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Netrunner Legalese

I love Netrunner and I also like not getting sued so I'm just going to put this here as a due diligence matter.

Netrunner is a TM of R. Talsorian Games, Inc. Android is TM and Copyright(2014) Fantasy Flight Publishing, Inc. Netrunner is licensed by Wizards of the Coast LLC. Copyright(2014) Wizards.

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geniusisobvious · 9 years

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Review Methodology

Rather than repeating the same paragraph over and over again. I thought I would post this once and link to it.

The review system has a score between 0 and 5 for card rating and uncertainty. For the rating system 0 means the card is unplayable and 5 means you should expect it to be in your opponent’s deck. For uncertainty, 0 means we know what the card is about and 5 means that we have no idea how powerful the card could be in the future.

That's it. Easy, right?

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geniusisobvious · 9 years

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First Contact review

Sorry for the delay folks but I am going to catch up quickly with my reviews. I had a bit of a protest break as Fantasy Flight sent a cease and desist order to NetrunnerDB which I think is the best site for building decks. Additionally all the images in my post are links to NetrunnerDB so sending out a new post with no images seemed like a waste of time. That seems to have been cleared up now and I still love Netrunner so let's get back to it.

The review system is the same as last time with a score between 0 and 5 for card rating and uncertainty. For the rating system 0 means the card is unplayable and 5 means you should expect it to be in your opponent’s deck. For uncertainty, 0 means we know what the card is about and 5 means that we have no idea how powerful the card could be in the future.

IQ is an interesting card that has great potential for Cerebral Imaging. The main issue is getting it rezzed early in the game or with Eliza's Toybox (see below). I like when data packs have built in combos to try. Seeing 20 strength code gates on HQ will cause the runner to despair. A card like this is where cards like D4v1d and Sneakdoor Beta become critical. This is a very different piece of ice and I think it will take a while for people to understand how to get the most out of it. It's worth noting that it is a decent card to play even outside of Cerebral Imaging as a 5 strength code gate is no joke. There might also be a dump your hand deck filled with Quandary, Paper Wall, and other cheap ice. IQ has a role to play there as well. The influence and specialization mean that it probably won't be splashed much.

Rating: 4/5

Uncertainty: 4/5

Eliza's Toybox

Eliza's Toybox is probably the best card in the datapack. All those awesome huge Ice that you can't ever afford to rez? Now you can only for the cost of 3 clicks. Beyond seeing Janus and Heimdal 1.0 and 2.0 running around like preschoolers hopped up on sugar, I think Weyland will splash this regularly, in particular Blue Sun. Eliza's Toybox allows me to tweak my barrier only deck to graduate from Ice Walls and Walls of Static to Curtain Walls and Hadrian's Wall. It also works for Archer. Fortunately for the runner, there are answers to expected surge in huge ice. D4v1d was released in the last datapack and I think we will see more E3 Feedback Implants and Grappling Hooks. Breach and the stealth breakers also increase in strength rapidly. There is another niche developing in terms of corp defense and the runner is going to have to learn to adapt. The diversity of viable strategies is why I like Netrunner so much. I don't think NBN and Jinteki have as much use for Eliza's Toybox which lowers it from a 5/5 rating.

Rating: 4/5

Uncertainty: 1/5

Kitsune

On the other end of the usefulness spectrum, there is Kitsune. Kitsune is only useful in a trap deck, when you have a trap in your hand that you want the runner to eat. Snares are expensive and always scary, so I don't think you need to spend the three credits to rez Kitsune to get the runner to run into a Snare that will cost you another four credits to activate. Kitsune is a one time use, so it it not worth playing for a Shock. Shi.Kyu is the best trap to pair with Kitsune, but that is a very narrow window. There might be more appropriate traps coming down the road, but until then, Kitsune is binder fodder.

Rating: 1/5

Uncertainty: 4/5

Port Anson Grid

Port Anson Grid is a great card for Jinteki. Pairing Chum with Port Anson Grid only costs three credits but can cause the runner a lot of issues. Facechecking Jinteki has become a very scary proposition. This might also create more diversion decks that use Bullfrog, Cell Portal and Susanoo-No-Mikoto. I think there is potential there so we'll have to see what the community comes up with.

Rating: 3/5

Uncertainty: 3/5

The News Now Hour

Right now the runner currents aren't strong enough to make this card worthwhile. Playing this card would keep your currents in play longer but but how much deck space do you want to dedicate to your currents? I'd rather have another copy of the current than The News Now Hour and I doubt a current will come out that is so strong that I'll want to dedicate more that three card slots to keep that effect in play.

Rating: 1/5

Uncertainty: 3/5

Manhunt

More tagging for NBN. I think this current is part of this cycle's theme of piling tags on with NBN. Right now there is only Information Overload that punishes extra tags, but I get the feeling that more pain for excessive tags is coming.

Rating: 2/5

Uncertainty: 5/5

Wendigo

This card makes the single ice type strategy that much more viable. Remember how I mentioned that Criminal central only breakers are really hard to deal with for my Barrier only decks as Passport is cheaper than Breach and protects it from Power Shutdown. Well, now I am more than happy to Power Shutdown that Passport if Wendigo will stop Breach from working. Wendigo also pairs with Archer and Grim to punish the runner if they don't have their entire breaker set. Wendigo is a specific function card but it is very nice for that case.

Rating: 3/5

Uncertainty: 3/5

Crisium Grid

It took me a second to figure out what the point of this card was. I didn't think that John Masonori was so powerful that he needed a silver bullet. But I figured it out. Crisium Grid pairs with Off the Grid. It also negates Account Siphon, Emergency Shutdown, Datasucker and on and on and on. Basically you place this on your HQ against Criminal Runners and make them trash Crisium Grid before they can do any of their fancy tricks. The influence cost of one means you will see it splashed in any decks that have issues dealing with Account Siphon. I don't know if Crisium Grid will see a lot of play but there are decks that could definitely use this. Personally, I'm interest to see how this would work with Off the Grid and perhaps Eliza's Toybox.

Rating: 3/5

Uncertainty: 3/5

Chronos Project

Chronos Project punishes Noise and Exile. Fortunately, I don't think it will be played often. If you aren't playing against a recursion deck, then the ability is useless. There are more powerful agendas and 3/1 agendas aren't that prevalent due to increased agenda density they create. In the right deck though, they can be very effective. I think Weyland meat damage and Jinteki net damage decks could use Chronos Project to remove what they punch out. The more I think about this, the more l like Chronos Project. I think it will be a staple in certain types of decks.

Rating: 3/5

Uncertainty: 4/5

Shattered Remains

More hardware destruction. I don't see the hardware that is so good that requires this kind of focus. There was a bit of a blind spot in terms of what the corp could trash, which this addresses but right now I don't see the need.

Rating: 3/5

Uncertainty: 4/5

Lancelot

Lancelot is the next Grail ice to come out. The power is decent when paired with Galahad and it will only get stronger as the rest of the ice come out. The influence cost is significant. The Grail ice are powerful when they are in sets, but they can reduce your options from other factions. I think HB has the best identities for running Grail ice, as the Foundry, Cerebral Imaging, and Custom Biotics all have ability to complement Grail ice or deal with the influence cost.

Rating: 3/5

Uncertainty: 4/5

Quetzel: Free Spirit

Quetzl is a strong identity and she will see play right away. Her ability is strong throughout the game. She naturally pairs with E3 Feedback Implant and other disposable breakers like Overmind, D4v1d and the upcoming heads of Cerberus. Remember when E3 Feedback Implant came out and we were wondering what the point was? Well now we know. Corps will have to move away from cheap End the Run (EtR) ice like Ice Wall, at least initially while everyone is playing her because she is new. I don't think she needs to defend against Cerebral Static because her ability is strong but it isn't so strong that your deck is crippled if it doesn't work.

Rating: 4/5

Uncertainty: 1/5

BlacKat

BlacKat is a not a good stealth breaker but it is a good breaker that gets better with stealth credits. Dagger is much more powerful as a breaker but doesn't work without stealth credits. BlacKat is more of the middle ground. Three influence cost is steep and I'm not sure which faction is building a stealth breaker deck. I guess Criminal or Shaper can pull it off but Anarch can't as they don't have the tutoring ability in faction. Maybe this is what Professor is supposed to use. I'm not convinced that BlacKat is better than Corroder unless there are a lot of multiple subroutine barriers coming. So either Quetzl is useful and BlacKat isn't or the other way around.

Rating: 3/5

Uncertainty: 4/5

Duggar's

Duggar's is a card meant to be used with Retrieval Run. You stuff your hand, trash all your extra cards and then dig out what you need at a discount. This is a classic Anarch card and I think it will see a lot of play and change how runner rigs are built. It is a very specific card but I think it will be very powerful.***Edit: Time has proven me wrong. I haven't seen this played yet and I don't know if I ever will. I made a Whizzard Origami (Origami is in an upcoming set, but my thoughts have drastically changed with respect to Duggar's so I am mentioning it here. deck and I preferred to use Wyldside rather than Duggar's. It is just too many cards at once.

Rating: 3/5 **Edit: 1/5

Uncertainty: 5/5 **Edit: 2/5

Box-E

Box-E is yet another incomplete card. The ability right now does not justify choosing it over Desperado or Doppelganger. I have a feeling it will but we will have to wait for those cards to make an appearance. Combining Public Sympathy and Box-E would be a different means of defense from Scorched Earth and the like but that not ideal and I don't see why the runner needs so many cards in their hands. The 2 Memory Units (MU) is nice and the influence cost means it could be used with Duggar's, Quality Time and Freelance Coding Contracts in an Anarch deck. Right now though, the 2 MU can be achieved without taking up a console slot more effectively. One possible use of Box-E is as cover for Stimhacks, but I think Public Sympathy covers that ground more efficiently. It's the worst Criminal console but the low influence cost means it will see play in other faction decks, particularly Shaper, which has very specific consoles.

Rating:2/5

Uncertainty: 5/5

The Supplier

The Supplier is a criminal Kati Jones. Over a couple of turns, you get two credits for a click. Actually it is better than that because you save the click you would spend on installing the card. You can load up the Supplier but as a resource, it can be trashed and all the cards on Supplier would go with it. It also drains your hand of a card which is one card less of defense against damage. On the other side, if you have a card you want to keep but you still want to run this turn, you can store the card on the supplier and be confident that net damage won't pull it out of your hand. The Supplier works well with Rachel Beckman (see below) both in getting her out and using the extra clicks more effectively. The Supplier works brilliantly as part of a connection deck and may provide the speed necessary to make connection decks viable.

Rating: 4/5

Uncertainty: 3/5

Refractor

So to answer my earlier question about who was going to build stealth rigs; Shapers are going to build stealth rigs. All they are missing now is a Fracter and I doubt that BlacKat is it. Now there is a full set of breakers if people want to go stealth mode, but I think that tactic is premature at the moment. A strength 2 breaker for 1 credit is powerful and could bypass popular code gates like Enigma and Quandary without even needing a stealth credit. A very specific card but powerful. If it wasn't for the prevalence of Lotus Field, I would argue that Refactor would be worth playing even without stealth credits and just using Datasucker, given the number of low strength code gates.

Rating: 4/5

Uncertainty: 4/5

Order of Sol

Nasir gets some help. Order of Sol is not that powerful but is very clearly a brick in the wall to make Nasir playable. It will be interesting to see how the other pieces come together. Of course getting an effortless credit is nothing to sneeze at but a single credit is rarely enough to turn the tide. Running into something like NAPD Contracts with three credits and Order of Sol does nothing, because you can't just spend 3 credits and then the 4th credit from the Order of Sol, you have to have all 4 credits in hand at the moment you access NAPD Contracts. Because of this, I think this will be a marginal card except for Nasir. It is also unique so you can't load up on multiples.

Rating: 1/5

Uncertainty: 5/5

Hades Shard

Hades Shard was built for Noise. Access Archives early and you don't have to worry about accessing Archives later as the corp builds a big wall around it. Because it is a resource though, it can easily be trashed and limits your ability to use cards like Data Leak Reversal. You are going to end up paying to install Hades Shard in most cases because keeping it in play won't be viable if you want to use Hades Shard to it's full potential. It can be powerful but is also limited beyond its one copy per deck. I'm still not sold on the Shards and Fragments.

Rating: 2/5

Uncertainty: 4/5

Rachel Beckman

Rachel Beckman is the anti Joshua B. Joshua B will get you tagged and doesn't care. Rachel won't get you tagged and hates tags passionately. Joshua B is cheap to bring in and if he gets trashed, you can be fairly confident he will still pop up again. Rachel is expensive to bring in and you better have New Angeles City Hall on your side if you want her to stick around. I love the contrast in styles with the same ability. Rachel is too expensive to see in every deck but will be great in the right deck

Rating: 4/5

Uncertainty: 1/5

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geniusisobvious · 10 years

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The Spaces Between Review

It is Christmas come early for Netrunner fans. Barely three weeks after Upstalk came out, The Spaces Between comes out right after. I have a couple of tournaments coming in the next couple of weeks and I'm excited to see what people do with the newly available cards. Since no one reads this blog, I'll be going through some deck ideas that this expansion has inspired that I'll be taking to the upcoming tournaments.

The review system is the same as last time with a score between 0 and 5 for card rating and uncertainty. For the rating system 0 means the card in unplayable and 5 means you should expect it to be in your opponent's deck. For uncertainty, 0 means we know what the card is about and 5 means that we have no idea how powerful the card could be in the future.

The Spaces Between is designed to be a foundational data pack with the introduction of currents. If you are not already familiar, currents are events/operations that stay in play until either another current is played or the opposing side scores/steals an agenda. If you aren't playing currents, you could be a significant disadvantage. The designers of Netrunner have added yet another dimension to compete on.

The Foundry: Refining the Process

The Foundry: Refining the process is an interesting identity for Haas Bioroid (HB). Most HB identities depend on lots and lots of ice. NEXT Design: Guarding the Net , Engineering the Future and Stronger Together all benefit from a high ice ratio in the deck, lots of bioroid ice and lots of installations, respectively. The Foundry can depend on fewer ice than a normal deck because of the ice tutoring. That may be more powerful than the obvious combo of using NEXT ice. Having to dedicate fewer card slots to ice, allows you to use more of the great upgrades that HB has. I think this will be one of the top HB identities, once people figure out the best mix.

Rating: 5/5

Uncertainty: 3/5

Enhanced Login Protocol

Enhanced Login Protocol is probably the best overall current right now. Costing the runner a click for their first run is a heavy tax to pay and the ability makes the current more likely to stick around. I like the click advantage theme that this card builds on for HB. Combining this card with Mandatory Upgrades, Director Haas, Strongbox and others (including most bioroid ice), makes for a strong thematic deck. I think you can make a competitive click advantage deck, and if it weren't for some of the other cards in this pack, it would be the next deck I would try to build.

Rating: 4/5

Uncertainty: 1/5

Heinlein Grid

Heinlein Grid is another strong addition to the click advantage theme of Haas Bioroid. This card is works amazingly well with bioroid ice. Many bioroid ice are cost effective or equivalent to break with clicks rather than ice breakers. Heinlein Grid punishes that activity severely. A broke runner can still click through bioroid ice and steal an agenda, so this does not stop the runner, it just makes them commit to one road of breaking bioroid ice or the other. Heinlein Grid also stops the runner from clicking through one sub-routine and using E3 Feedback Implants to get past the rest. I think mixing and matching bioroid ice with cheap end the run ice (like the NEXT suite of ice) along with Heinlein Grid would be extremely difficult for the runner to go through. I expect most HB decks to be using Heinlein Grid moving forward.

Rating: 4/5

Uncertainty: 1/5

Encrypted Portals

I really like Encrypted Portals, but I am not sure how to use it. Lotus Field is an amazing code gate but increasing it's strength actually hurts it by putting it in range where it can be broken by D4v1d. The other Jinteki code gates that see common play are Inazuma and Chum, but there aren't any code gates that are that punishing. Victor 1.0 and 2.0 are mean but they aren't game changers. I think the ice that benefits most is Sensei, especially paired with neutral ice like Enigma and Data Pike. These ice were limited to the early game before Yog.0 came out but with the presence of Lotus Field and Encrypted Portals blunting Yog's power, these ice should have a lot more staying power. The other ice that could see more play would be Rainbow, which becomes even more taxing.

I'm also not sure which Jinteki identity works best with Encrypted Portals. Harmony Medtech doesn't work because you want a low agenda density. Code Gates aren't painful so the synergy with Personal Evolution isn't really there. I think there are two directions you can go with this card. You can either lean on Caprice Nisei and go with the Nisei Division and splash souped up RSVPs. The other way to go would be with Replicating Perfection and splashing Tollbooths and Popup Windows. Actually, I think all three of those ice would work with either identity.

One final note, I have to say I am impressed with how the designers are releasing cards that compliment each other. They were guilty in the past of releasing teasers of card that were neat but not useful until additional cards came out (I'm looking at you, stealth cards). This cycle seems to be doing a nice job of creating complimentary cards that all support each other. Encrypted Portals works nicely with Lag Time and when combined with Will-O'-the-Wisp, gives the option of making a viable single ice type (in this case code gates) deck. I'll be reviewing Lag Time and Will-O'-the-Wisp below.

Rating: 3/5

Uncertainty: 4/5

Cerebral Static

Cerebral Static is a game changing card. Depending on your identity as the runner, you will need to play currents to counteract Cerebral Static. Noise and Kit are the the two identities most affected, at least so far. Cerebral Static causes those runners to dilute their decks with defensive currents. The corp currents are more powerful than the runner currents, so runners will need to design their decks around the currents they have available to mitigate the disadvantage. Given how useless Cerebral Static is against many of the identities, such as Andromeda, it will be interesting to see how often Cerebral Static will actually be played.

Rating: 3/5

Uncertainty: 4/5

Targeted Marketing

Targeted Marketing is a good card in the right deck. It is an anti silver bullet card. The most common usage will be to name Plascrete Carapace in decks where you are trying to flat-line the runner. Beyond that, I don't see a usage for this card. This card is very powerful against your friends, since you know their decks, but if you are playing in a tournament, you'll need to build your deck to get the most out of this card.

Rating: 3/5

Uncertainty: 2/5

Information Overload

Information Overload is one of those cards that you want to build a deck around. It is the first card to punish the runner for carrying a lot of tags. I made a deck with Information Overload and the main thing I learned playing with it, is that it is expensive and situational. When the runner has no tags, it is basically useless. If the runner has a lot of tags and runs into Information Overload, it can reset the game for the runner. At most you only want a couple of copies in your deck. They are too situational otherwise. This might be the first truly win-more card in Netrunner. Alex Frog talks about win more cards in his article about combos and about win more cards. Alex says win-more cards are not an issue in Netrunner. Generally I agree with him but I think Information Overload is the exception. If you have given the runner a bunch of tags and have 6 credits and have Information Overload installed somewhere the runner wants to go, then something good can happen. But if the runner has a bunch of tags, you should probably be drawing through your deck as fast as you can for a Project Beale and Psychographics instead. Information Overload is a fun card, but I don't think it is a competitive card. At least not in the current environment.

Rating: 2/5

Uncertainty: 4/5

Paywall Implementation

Paywall Implementation is probably the weakest current in this data pack. It does something that Weyland already does quite well (generate revenue). It rewards the corp for allowing successful runs, which the corp typically does not want to do. I don't think this card actually is meant for Weyland, I think it is meant to be splashed. This would be a good card for a Jinteki trap deck, but the two influence cost is expensive for the marginal utility considering how easily the runner can remove the current from play. This card should only get play as a defensive current and right now, none of the runner currents warrant playing currents defensively.

Rating: 2/5

Uncertainty: 4/5

Sealed Vault

And here is the silver bullet for Account Siphon. This card should reduce the frequency that Account Siphon is played for a couple of reasons. First off, it stops Account Siphon cold. Second, because the trash cost is so high, most corp players won't bother to protect it with any ice. That means that cards like Security Testing and Bank Job become a lot more viable. It will be interesting to see how the Criminal economy mix will shift because of Sealed Vault. It is free to rez, cheap to put money in, cheap to take money out. The influence cost is great, and Account Siphon was the most dominant card in Netrunner so expect to see a couple of Sealed Vaults in every deck. I think this is a really powerful card that will decrease in power as it's effectiveness becomes well known. It is interesting to note that the Account Siphon silver bullet appeared in the same pack as the currents. This combination makes the Spaces Between a "must have" datapack The question is whether Sealed Vault will be picked up along with the currents or if the currents will be picked up along with Sealed Vault

Rating: 5/5

Uncertainty: 1/5

Eden Fragment

It is early days, but I have to admit that I am not thrilled about the shard and fragments thus far. They all seem to have marginal utility and the one per deck restriction makes the utility they do have too inconsistent to depend on. Eden Fragment is a 5/3 agenda that allows you to build big stacks of ice cheaply. The problem I have with it is that if you have a server well defended enough to score a 5/3, you probably don't need your servers to stacked with more ice. The one use I could see would be a deck with filled with cheap ice, but again if you can score a 5/3 then you are already in pretty good shape. To build a deck around this, you would need to include some tutoring ability like Fast Track, Aggressive Negotiation, or a pumped up Project Atlas. The ability isn't strong enough to justify that kind of investment. The other fragments may make a deck filled with agenda tutoring worth while, but right now it is not.

Rating: 1/5

Uncertainty: 2/5

Lag Time

Lag Time is my favorite current. I like the idea of pumping up ice, and Lag Time paired with Encrypted Portals or the upcoming Superior Cyberwalls quick makes cheap ice more effective in the later stages of the game. The biggest issue with cards like Enigma and Datapike are that made useless by Yog.0, with Lag Time and a single scored Encrypted Portals. You can also include Experiential Data to strengthen your ice further. Combining these cards makes using fixed breakers less reliable and quickly adds up to extra costs for the runner. I think there is a pretty strong Replicating Perfection deck based on cheap pumped up code gates. You don't need defensive currents as the corp, but if you did, Lag Time would be one of the top choices.

Rating: 4/5

Uncertainty: 4/5

Will-O'-the-Wisp

Will-O'-the-Wisp (WOtW) has the potential to be a powerful card. I created a Weyland barrier deck, with Ice Wall, Archer and Power Shutdown along with neutral barriers. I had two variants based on different identities. Both variants depended on Weyland's agenda driven economy. My theory was that it didn't matter how much bad publicity I had if the runner didn't have the right breaker. The first variant was with Because We Built It, and I splashed Trick of Light, Wraparound and Jackson Howard. Due to the Because We Built it ability, I used Oversight AI and Hadrian's Wall as well.

Because I was accumulating so much bad publicity with the first variant, I said, what the hell, let's try this with GRNDL and go crazy with the bad publicity. I took out Trick of Light and added two Archived Memories along with Interns. This allows me to really recur the WOtW effectively.

You can see my latest builds of these decks here: Getting it Done Get'r Dun v2

Without WOtW, these decks wouldn't be possible and they really push the runner to have lots of tutoring and/or recursion for their breakers. Obviously, Shaper decks have a lot of recursion and tutoring, but I've actually found that they tend to take their ability to find the breaker they need for granted, so you can lock them down. This is especially true because most Shapers tend to splash Corroder as their cheapest breaker or go with Inti. Both are very susceptible to Power Shutdown. I think the hardest challenge for these decks are the Criminal decks with the central only breakers. Passport is cheaper than Breach and provides Power Shutdown cover, The abundance of Special Orders also keeps Breach coming back.

As you can tell from my rant above, I think WOtW is a very cool card and opens up an entirely new approach for the corp to defend against the runner. Agendas like Encrypted Portals and the upcoming Superior Cyberwalls will only make this approach more viable. It will be interesting to see how this evolves.

Rating: 3/5

Uncertainty: 4/5

D4v1d

Finally, an awesome breaker for Anarch that has a high influence cost. Anarch players have suffered for a long time watching their breakers be used by other factions to better effect than Anarchs themselves. With a influence cost of four, the other factions probably won't splash D4v1d. This is unfortunate for the other factions because D4v1d is a fantastic card. For three credits, you can break three subroutines of any piece of ice that has a strength of 5 or greater. That's only a credit a subroutine which is fantastic value. It also pairs well with the fixed breaker suite. Now the Anarch player doesn't need to lean so heavily on Datasucker to make the breaker suite work. It also pairs wonderfully with an Overmind/E3 Feedback Implants breaker suite. D4v1d is probably the best card in this datapack and expect to see it played regularly. As I said in a previous post, I think this is the cycle where Anarchs catch up to the other two factions and I think D4v1d is a significant part why. Normally, I would mark it down for the high influence cost but I think it is good enough to still get the top rating.

Rating: 5/5

Uncertainty: 2/5

Scrubbed

Scrubbed is probably the best runner current. That is not saying a lot but Noise is glad to have a current that generally works with what he is trying to do and will defend against Cerebral Static. Scrubbed paired with Datasucker, Parasite, Ice Carver and Darwin/Fixed Breakers is a decent rig. The one downside to Scrubbed is that it works counter to D4v1d. Fortunately, there are not many 6 strength ice so if it knocks something down, it will either be into fixed breaker range or still be in D4v1d's range. I expect to see Scrubbed in all Noise decks moving forward and it might be splashed in other identities, depending on what they are trying to do.

Rating: 4/5

Uncertainty: 4/5

Three Steps Ahead

Three Steps Ahead is a strong criminal economy card. It helps shift the criminal choice of console from Desperado, now and forever, to at least considering Doppelganger.

There is this amazing deck list from the Chicago Regionals that illustrates the power of this type of card. Somehow that guy won a tournament with 87 players without this card being out yet.

When you consider cards from the next datapack, like Rachel Beckman and The Supplier you can see how Three Steps Ahead can start to challenge Account Siphon for the primary income event for criminals. The tags from Account Siphon would trash Rachel Beckman whereas Rachel Beckman paired with Doppelganger still allows the runner to gain 10 credits from a single event. This is one of the few first click only events which means that it cannot be played from the heap with Same Old Thing, not that you would want to anyways. Account Siphon is still king, but there are challengers to the throne, since Sealed Vault helps the corp and Three Steps Ahead provides another alternative. I think this is a pretty good card now with potential to be foundational in some types of decks.

Rating: 3/5

Uncertainty: 3/5

Unscheduled Maintainance

Unscheduled Maintainance is the weakest runner current. The ability is only worthwhile early in the game or if you are building an ice destruction deck. Anarchs are best at this but I don't see how the Anarchs can spare the influence cost since they are dependent on other factions for their economy and/or tutoring. This card may become more powerful later but I think this was part of the deliberate weakening of the Criminal faction.

Rating: 2/5

Uncertainty: 3/5

Cache

Cache is not a Criminal card. Cache is an Anarch card with an influence cost. There is no reason why a Criminal would pay 1 credit and 1 MU to gain three credits when they can do that for no credits and no MU with Easy Mark. Since Easy Mark has the same influence cost as Cache, Shapers and most Anarchs would choose Easy Mark if they want 3 credits for a single card. For Noise though, this card provides the foundation for a virus based economy. With a Cyberfeeder, Scheherazade, Grimiore, and Aesop's Pawnshop, you can net 8 credits from a single card. That is amazing economy, and you can dig up two of them with a single Deja Vu. Every Noise player I know is thrilled about this card.

Rating: 4/5

Uncertainty: 1/5

Net Celebrity

Net Celebrity is a solid defensive current for Kit and also supports Nasir quite nicely. Getting a credit steers Kit away from DinoYog.0 and towards using Torch and Cyber-Cyphers. Nasir will always need recurring credits and Net Celebrity is an effective source. I still don't think Nasir has the support cards he needs but this is another brick in the wall for him. The value of Net Celebrity is higher for Kit and Nasir than for the other Shaper Identities. Anarch may splash this since they are so desperate for economy but in most cases, Scrubbed provides better bang for the buck.

Rating: 3/5

Uncertainty: 4/5

LLDS Energy Regulator

LLDS Energy Regulator is pretty useless right now. I'd like to think it will become more useful in the future but looking at the how often Net Shield is played, I don't think LLDS Energy Regulator will ever become that useful. Runners are creating more hardware based economy rigs, but I don't think it will be so prevalent that you'd ever need to tie up a memory unit. Sacrificial Construct already does what LLDS Energy Regulator does and it doesn't use a memory unit. There is potential to Clone Chip this up and prevent your console from being destroyed but I don't see that example happening often enough to justify the room in your deck.

Rating: 1/5

Uncertainty: 4/5

Ghost Runner

Ghost Runner is an incomplete card. It is impossible to judge right now as there is only one breaker that depends on stealth credits. Once the other breakers are out, it will be very interesting to see how well they work and if they are worth the hassle. Once the complete breaker set is out, I think Ghost Runner will see play in every stealth deck. We just aren't there yet.

Rating: 2/5

Uncertainty: 5/5

#netrunner #TheSpacesBetween #review

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geniusisobvious · 10 years

Text

Reviewing Upstalk

Upstalk, the latest expansion for Netrunner is here. As the first expansion of the Lunar Cycle, there are several cards that require compliments to flesh them out, like the grail ice. In the current meta-game, Anarch is significantly behind the other two factions, Criminal and Shaper. I'm hoping that this is the cycle where Fantasy Flight balances the factions out. On the corporate side, Jinteki got the love it so desperately needed with the Honor and Profit expansion and now sits comfortably among its peers. Replicating Perfection is the flavor of the month right now with the glacier variant. Overall, I think the Corp is ahead of the Runners right now, and I don't see how this Lunar expansion, where everything is owned by corporations, will make things any easier on the runner.

Similar to Stimhack (which is a great site) I'm going to give the cards a rating out of 5 along with an uncertainty rating out of 5. For the rating score 0 is terrible and 5 is amazing. For the uncertainty score 0 means we know exactly what this card is about and 5 means we don't have any idea. On to the reviews.

Domestic Sleepers

Domestic Sleepers is an interesting card in that it is easy to score but takes an additional turn to pump up. It will be interesting to see what the community does with this card. There are significant pros and cons to this card. On the pro side, it is an agenda that is theft proof, if the runner steals it, they get nothing except Data Dealer fuel. This can be really handy if an ABT goes against you. On the con side, it doesn't count for any agenda points in deck construction, which means if you use Domestic Sleepers, you are stuffing your deck with extra agendas. It also takes the equivalent of seven clicks to score one point (two clicks for the credits to advance, Two clicks for the advance action and three more clicks to make it worth a point). All these clicks make it the most expensive one point agenda in the game. I don't think that there is room in HB decks to put in agendas that don't progress your deck's goal. Having theft proof agendas is a perk, not a strategy.

Rating: 2/5

Uncertainty: 2/5

NEXT Silver

NEXT Silver is a pretty straight forward card. It is cheap ice that can pair with other NEXT ice to become more powerful. Including Mother Goddess (covered below), there are now three ice (including other NEXT Silver) that can act to pump up NEXT Silver. I personally think you can never have enough cheap End the Run (EtR) ice so HB players should be happy. When NEXT Gold (and maybe Platinum?) come out, this card will just get better and better.

Rating: 4/5

Uncertainty 1/5

Lotus Field

Lotus Field is by far the best card in the expansion. It requires reworks of several popular runner decks that depend on Anarch fixed breakers, Data Suckers and Parasite. It can't be reduced which means that it can't be killed by Parasite. It takes Gordian Blade three credits to break and it takes even more with other breakers. Kit decks with DinoYog will probably be making a comeback as it is one of the few deck builds that can handle Lotus Field efficiently (more on this later). There are a few other Shaper cards that can pump up Yog but setting up a combo to defeat a single ice means the corp is winning in the deck construction phase. It only has one influence cost so expect to see it everywhere. This is a meta-defining card that will have to be accounted for in all runner decks.

Rating 5/5

Uncertainty 0/5

Mutate

Mutate is more potential than reality right now. There are only a few cards that allow you to sort your deck Shiro and Precognition for Jinteki right now and since Mutate has three influence, it is highly unlikely to see play in other factions. Jinteki is all about the power of the mind though, so it wouldn't surprise me to see more preview cards coming. On a bit of a tangent, I think Bullfrog is a great ice to use Mutate on. Once you use Bullfrog and move the run onto your most heavily defended server, you can Mutate the Bullfrog into something stronger and create a very strong scoring server while avoiding the install and rez cost of your outermost ice. For right now though, Jinteki doesn't have enough big ice to make Mutate worth a slot in your deck.

Rating: 1/5

Uncertainty: 4/5

NBN: Near Earth Hub

Near Earth Hub is a good identity but I don't see how it is great. I think Replicating Perfection is better but Near Earth Hub is probably on par with Engineering the Future. The issue I see is that HB has much better assets than NBN. I think Near Earth Hub can create a strong economic stress deck with Red Herrings, Marked Accounts and Pad Campaign but I don't see how Near Earth Hub is better than its comparables, both in faction and across faction.

Rating: 4/5

Uncertainty: 3/5

Primary Transmission Dish

Primary Transmission Dish falls into the same logic. If you want to boost your trace, why aren't you taking Making News as your identity? This is more expensive than Net Police and if trace starts getting powerful, I think Net Police will have more value as the natural adjustment for the the runner against trace is more link.

Rating: 3/5

Uncertainty: 4/5

Midway Station Grid

Midway Station Grid will become a staple in NBN decks as soon as the community starts design around it. NBN is already fantastic at financial competition and this will push the envelope further. Multi-subroutine ice are already becoming popular due to the prevalence of AI breakers. Midway Station Grid will make those even stronger. Considering the tradeoff between strength and routines, this makes Parasite more powerful, put considering the blow that Lotus Field delivered, it will be interesting to see how the meta adapts. My final note is that NBN doesn't have a ton of strong multi-subroutine ice (Uroboros is the only one that comes to mind), so we'll see if the future expansions will bring some ice that compliment Midway Station Grid. I had a quick thought about pairing this with Amazon Industrial Zone, Woodcutter, and Tyrant, but Amazon Industrial Zone and Midway Station Grid are both regions. Alas, those three Weyland cards will continue to live in infamy as some of the worst cards in the game. Midway Station Grid is good though.

Rating: 4/5

Uncertainty: 4/5

The Root

The Root is a card that I would love to see work but I think it is too expensive and too big of a target to be effective. As I type this, I start thinking of decks with The Root that have tagging ice. Heads, you let me keep The Root, tails you get tagged and probably killed. This is not a fun game for the runner. Maybe you don't consider the card on how much value you get out of it, but on what you could force the runner to do because of it. For the ratings, it won't get a great score, but writing this review has given me a couple of deck ideas, which is the wonderful thing about Netrunner.

Rating: 2/5

Uncertainty: 1/5

Taurus

Taurus is a needed ice for corp and is an especially perfect fit for Weyland. A number of runner decks are creating their economy from hardware such as Cyberfeeder and Prepaid VoicePAD. Plascrete Carapace also counters Scorched Earth with the corp largely unable to do anything about it. With Taurus, now the corp can do something about it. I expect Taurus to feature heavily in flatline decks. It might even become a staple Weyland ice. After all, when wouldn't you want to take out the runner's console?

Rating: 4/5

Uncertainty: 2/5

Mother Goddess

Mother Goddess is a gimmick card right now. It pairs well with NEXT ice, but you can only have one copy out at a time, so the impact is limited. It can pick up the bioroid property as well but since it only has the bioroid property when it is installed and rezzed, it's functionality is limited. It also picks up Code Gate, Barrier and Sentry sub-types which turns it into a slightly more expensive Rainbow in most cases. I think this card has the most potential to become more powerful in the future as new expansions come out but right now, I can't see this card making it into anything other than a NEXT ice deck.

Rating: 2/5

Uncertainty: 4/5

Galahad

Galahad is an incomplete ice right now. Fortunately, it is still strong on it's own. As I mentioned above. Cheap EtR ice will always be in demand. It is cheaper than Wall of Static while having less strength which doesn't matter in most cases except for resistance to Parasite. By the end of the cycle, it could be be quite powerful. The identity I see primarily using grail ice is Cerebral Imaging, because I don't know which other identities can afford to take up space in their HQ with ice waiting for the runner to trigger something.

Rating: 4/5

Uncertainty: 5/5

Bad Times

When I read Bad Times, I initially thought it is an amazing card and would be in every corp deck. But it costs four credits to play. Losing two Memory Units (MU) definitely hurts the runner, but it doesn't shut them down. There was a great article on Stimhack.com a while back about how "win-more" cards are good in Netrunner because they allow you to exploit opportunities when they arise. Win-more cards are what I refer to as run maximizer cards. While I agree with the author that run maximizers are critical to a deck, they still rank below run enablers in importance. The problem with Bad Times is that unless you can pair them up in a single turn, you are only going to knock out the run maximizers like Medium. While run maximizers are strong cards, they are dependent on run enablers. Run enablers are useful on their own. I don't know if disabling run maximizers is a powerful enough effect to find it's way into most decks. Bad Times is an expensive card of indirect defense, and when you put it that way, you can see that it isn't a strong card.

Rating: 2/5

Uncertainty: 3/5

Cyber Threat

I think Cyber Threat is a good Anarch event, but I can't figure out how to fit it into my decks. It exposes ice to Parasite and prevents the Anarch runner with fixed breakers running into a situation they can't solve. This is a fantastic card against Archer and big bioroid HB decks. There are a couple of edge cases as well. Against Replicating Perfection it lets you run directly at remote servers and you could run servers protected by Off the Grid as well. I think Cyber Threat won't see much play in Noise decks but will get a lot of mileage in Reina and Whizzard decks. The high influence cost means it won't be played outside of Anarch, which lowers its rating.

Rating: 4/5

Uncertainty: 3/5

Lamprey

Lamprey is an Anarch card and people will put it in Noise decks because it is a cheap virus. It is a better card for Criminal decks, though. Gabe can use his ability and Lamprey as a mini Account Siphon every turn. Wiping virus counters against Anarch is often a good move because you are disabling multiple cards. Spending an entire turn to eliminate one card against Criminal rush decks may actually be a benefit to the runner. Because of that, Gabe can consistently run and drain credits out of HQ. Reina decks might play Lamprey but I would just clear virus counters as the corp the instant they play one. I'll probably clear a Parasite and a Data Sucker or two in the bargain.

Rating:3/5

Uncertainty: 1/5

Paper Tripping

Paper Tripping is a powerful but narrow card. I think it's usefulness is defined by your local metagame. I look forward to the day when you can design a deck around this card, but I think that will be a ways down the road.

Rating: 3/5

Uncertainty: 3/5

Power Tap

Power Tap (and Paper Tripping for that matter) signal a change in the importance of tracing and tagging, respectively. We've seen it before (caissa being a prime example) where cards that don't look like they add much to the game become much more relevant as the rest of the cycle is revealed. I have a feeling that is the case with Power Tap. Right now, though, this card is clearly inferior to Compromised Employee and Compromised Employee doesn't get much play.

Rating: 1/5

Uncertainty: 4/5* This is my own personal bias

Nasir Meidan, Cyber Explorer

Nasir is another incomplete card. I'm sure there are more cards coming to boost Nasir. The most obvious ones to come down the pipe are stealth breakers and credit sources. Currently I don't think Nasir is competitive, although it will be interesting to see what people do with Personal Workshop, Sahasrara and other recurring credit sources. Much like caissa in the last cycle, we'll have to see what else is coming to make Nasir work. Right now, I think his ability is more of a liability than a strength and he is the worst runner available. When he becomes more viable I think he'll shift the meta towards having cheaper ice.

Rating: 1/5

Uncertainty: 5/5

Social Engineering

Social Engineering is Nasir's ability without the downside of clearing your credit pool. Although the art shows Nasir, He has the tiniest window of all the runners to use the credits gained. He has to spend those credits in the phase between when the ice is rezzed and Nasir encounters the ice. That means Personal Workshop, Savoir-Faire, Clone Chip and Self-Modifying Code as instant abilities. Given the unreliability of what the ice costs, your only real option is Personal Workshop which can use any number of credits to further your goal. This is a situational card that will have a hard time seeing play as the meta will shift due to the presence of Nasir towards cheaper ice. Competitive decks want consistency and this card doesn't deliver. It may find a home splashed in Criminal decks with Emergency Shutdown and Forged Activation Orders but Criminal already has a strong economy. You could think Anarch, because they always need help with economy but it can't pair with Cyber Threat. I think this will be like Copycat, a card with interesting potential, but just that, potential.

Rating: 2/5

Uncertainty: 3/5

Leprechaun

Here we go. This is the first good runner card outside of the Anarch faction. I think this will be a pattern for this cycle where Anarch is powered up to match the other two factions, especially leading to the next deluxe expansion. Leprechaun is fantastic. It's cheap. It's tutor-able. It can save you three MU. It can host breakers. It even matches the faction's colour theme. When I saw Leprechaun, I immediately thought of Kit hosting a Paintbrush and Magnum Opus on it. That is a scary thought for corps. To me, Dino-Yog is back with a vengeance. Paintbrush never really made a dent in the Netrunner landscape due to it's high MU cost and the unreliability of finding MU hardware. Leprechaun addresses all those issues and gives Paintbrush the chance to shine. Other cards have also come out like Omega to boost Kit. The memory freed up with Leprechaun is what makes it all happen. Professor also gets a massive boost and probably passes Nasir to rank as the second worst runner Identity. The risk of losing your Leprechaun is minimized because Sacrificial Construct is already a card. The influence cost is only two so Leprechauns wielding Morning Stars and Garrotes will probably become a fairly regular occurrences. I love that mental image.

Rating: 5/5

Uncertainty: 1/5

Eden Shard

Eden Shard is the first shard to come out and I have to say, it is kinda of underwhelming. You can make a successful run on R&D or pay seven(!) credits to install which gives you the incredible power to...make the corp draw two cards. I get that Eden Shard shoots down all the combos based around Power Shutdown, but I didn't think those combos were that special to begin with. It doesn't even do a great job of dealing with it since you can only have one copy of Eden Shard in your deck. If you are running that combo, I'd just keep it and add in a couple Foxfire on the off chance that they put it in their deck and happen to have it out when you want to try your combo. This is a silver bullet that doesn't really work to a problem that wasn't really a problem that its own silver bullet. It doesn't even pair with cards like Gorman Drip v1 I hope the other shards are more...interesting?...useful?...something.

Rating: 1/5

Uncertainty: 3/5

I hope you enjoy reading the review as much as I did writing it.

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geniusisobvious · 10 years

Text

Netrunner Card Reviews Opening Thoughts

This is the first of a series of posts about Netrunner. I hope my writing will allow me to improve my thinking about the game, as I really enjoy Netrunner but I think I have a lot of room for improvement.

I really enjoy Netrunner as it is a multidimensional strategy game. As the runner, you can attack their remote servers, deck (R&D), hand (HQ), or discard pile (Archives), ice, economy, or, most likely, a combination of all of the above. There are viable runner decks that can win without running anything other than Archives.

On the corp side, you can attack their gear (hardware and programs), their economy, their clicks (actions per turn), their hand (Grip) and most recently, their memory units (MU).

Despite the number of dimensions each side can attack on, there are a few broad categories of cards beyond the standard event, resource, program, etc.

On the runner side there four basic card types.

Run-enablers - These cards allow you make successful runs. Icebreakers are the most common run-enablers, but events such as Inside Job also allow you to make successful runs. This is the second most important category for a runner.

Run-maximizers - These cards allow you to make the most out of your runs. Since running can be expensive, it is best to get the most out of each run possible. Run-maximizers can include accessing extra cards like HQ Interface or disrupting the corp like Account Siphon.

Painkillers - These cards prevent the runner from getting flat-lined or punished on other ways.

Tutors - Tutors is a broad category that includes card draw like Diesel and card retrieval like Deja Vu. Basically any card that helps you find the card you need is a tutor.

Economy - This is the most important category for the runner. If you don't have a good economy, you can't play any of the other cards. You can have too much economy, but it is hard to do. When in doubt, add more money. The way I think about it is like this: Is this non-economy card so good, that I would want to draw it even though I can't pay for it? Economy also applies to link and MU. Economy is the foundation for your entire deck.

On the Corp side, there are also 5 basic card types.

Run-stoppers - All End the Run (EtR) ice falls into this category. Caprice Nisei is one of the rare non-ice cards that can stop a run as well.

Run-minimizers - Upgrades like Ash and Red Herring minimize what the runner can achieve during a given run. Some ice like RSVP also fall into this category.

Punishment - These cards punish the runner; for having a tag, for making a run, for being a runner. There are ice, upgrades, assets and operations that fall into this category.

Tutors - Just like the runner side, any card that lets the corp find the card they are looking for is a tutor.

Economy - Economy is a broad category. It can include credit economy as well as cards that allow you to advance your agendas more efficiently.

Of course these categories are quite broad, but in my next post, I'll go into deck construction and we can see how keeping these categories in mind can help us create solid decks.

Did I forget any categories on either the corp or runner side?

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geniusisobvious · 11 years

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You are what you do

Life is really very simple. If you want to be good at something you just need to start doing it.

You want to be a writer? Start writing. You want to be a singer? Start singing. You want to be a runner? Start running.

It's that easy. The other side of the coin is also informative.

Do you spend a lot of time complaining? You're a whiner. Do you spend a lot of time watching TV? You're a loser

The key to a successful and fulfilling life is simply spend as much time as possible doing what you want to be good at. I have a nice couple come in about once a month and clean my condo. They really take pride in making everything perfectly clean. I get to spend my time doing things I take pride in and it's much easier to maintain my condo's when it is already really clean. It's a win-win.

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geniusisobvious · 11 years

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Hidden Business Models

Peter Drucker stated that an organization should re-examine itself every five years and determine what it does and why it exists. The answers are unique to every firm. With the massive increase in visibility to companies, both positive and negative, companies need a foundation to stand on when buffeted on every side.

Many companies have different business models than what you suspect. Most people think that McDonald's is in the food serving business. It is in the real estate business. That's true of most restaurants.Restaurants compete on multiple dimensions. A good restaurant needs service, decor, food, and location. Location is the dominant dimension. People go to Noma because the food is good. People go to McDonald's because they are hungry and it is there. There is one Noma, there are hundreds of thousands of McDonalds. The vast majority of restaurants have ok food. It's not bad but you go there because there isn't far from here. How many restaurants do you know that you would drive an hour to get to? Think about the restaurants with the best food that you know. It is likely that they are in the boonies. They have to have amazing food because they need to lure people there.

Starbucks is more blatantly driven by location. That's why you can find one on almost every corner. I want a coffee - hey look, there is a Starbucks. Do people make better coffee than Starbucks? Absolutely but they aren't right there when you need a coffee, Starbucks is.

You can expand this to most retail goods as well. If the goods were all that mattered then they would primarily be sold online. Books are all that matter in a bookstore. That is why Amazon has done so well. It identified a market where the product is all that mattered. Why do businesses pay the cost of maintaining a store front? Because you aren't buying a purse/suit/outfit. You are buying an association with a location. You're buying prestige.

Moving from products to services, McKinsey, Bain and other consulting companies are not really consulting companies, they are educational companies. Here is a description of what they do (from an outside perspective):

They take in thousands of MBA graduates.

These new arrivals work to solve intractable problems in business using a standard methodology that they are taught that has proven it's effectiveness in the real world time and time again (ex. the McKinsey Way).

After three years, they leave to work in the real world, typically with clients that they have consulted and solved problems for. A small proportion stay to become senior consultants and educate the new entrants.

Compare this to a university:

They take in thousands of high school graduates.

These new arrivals work to solve canned, outdated problems using a standard methodology that has little to no applicability to the real world.

After four years, they leave to work in the real world, typically with companies that need help so desperately that they can't find an experienced person to hire. These firms resign themselves to putting in the effort to make this new graduate functional in their position. A small proportion remain to become graduate students and educate the new entrants.

I have no doubt that McKinsey et al know that they are an education business. I just wish that the universities did as well. They could use these consulting companies as exemplar to model themselves after. If they did that, they would have absolutely nothing to fear from Massively Open Online Classes (MOOCs). As it stands right now, they have much to lose to a glorified YouTube channel with a multiple choice survey app strapped to the side. I think that tells you more about the state of post-secondary education than anything else I could come up with.

MOOCs will dramatically change education. I hope they will take care of the low ground (the basics) allowing universities to use the brain power at their disposal to create useful solutions that the world needs. I'm worried that they will drag the universities down to the same level. I'm worried that universities won't do what Peter Drucker asks all organizations to do.

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geniusisobvious · 11 years

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To win the drug war, stop making it a war.

I'm reading Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith and I got a complete unrelated idea in my head that I thought I should write down. Actually, I think they may be related but before I get ahead of myself let's get to my idea.

America and the rest of the world is losing the war on drugs. Hundreds of thousands of people have died in Mexico and Central America due to drug related violence in the last couple of years. The reason we are losing the war on drugs is because we are treating it as a war and not as a medical emergency.

We consistently go after the producers and distributors. They are the ones we are "fighting against". We go after their supply lines and infrastructure and kill or capture their foot soldiers. This clearly doesn't work. Drugs are cheaper and drugs lords are getting richer.

The problem with going after the suppliers is that the demand is still there and the entire history of human civilization is that when there is demand and an ability to supply, the supply will come to meet the demand. Restricting the suppliers just provides better profits for the remaining suppliers which invites more competition to meet demand. Adam Smith was discussion corporations of artificers (what we would call guilds, of say, blacksmiths). The guilds would limit the number of blacksmiths be requiring an apprenticeship of 5 to 7 years before you could work as a blacksmith. Furthermore, a blacksmith could only have one apprentice at a time. This severely restricted the supply of ironworks and supplies from neighbouring towns would be smuggled in to meet demand. Supply will meet demand if it can. Always has, always will.

The solution is to go after supply. Rather than lock up suppliers in prison, we should send the users for treatment. Now you are probably saying that it isn't illegal to use drugs and you can't impinge on people's freedom like that. I could argue that it is odd that one side of a transaction is deemed less savory than the other side but I'm not. There is one situation in which the freest and most open societies in the world lock up their citizens against their will to society's acceptance and approval. That situation is in an epidemic.

If you have contracted a dangerous contagious disease, you will be quarantined and treated until you are cured and no longer a threat to society. It is acknowledged that that substance abuse is a disease. The realization needs to spread that it is a dangerous contagious disease. People don't start drugs randomly or on an isolated basis. They start using drugs because their friends or role models do. Drug users should be taken in and quarantined in a specialized treatment facility to be released only when they are cured. Hot spots of contagion (clubs, bars, certain neighbourhoods) should be targeted first to break up the transmission network. Further tracking of contagious individuals could continue as needed with widespread drug testing. Failing a drug test should be cause for quarantine or at least investigation of a person's home followed up by another drug test. The threat of interruption of John P Officeworker's life would probably also significantly reduce the demand. This would also allow the homeless, many of whom have compounding issues of mental illness and addiction to get the treatment they need. Other users typically have disorders that they are self-medicating for, be it depression or social anxiety disorder or some other issue.

There are obviously many times more consumers than suppliers so you are probably wondering how we are going to pay for all this. Make no mistake, it will take a massive effort but massive efforts are how big problems are fixed. I'm going with US numbers because they are the most available but I think the same case can be made across the western world. Well, considering that there are over 300,000 prisoners under arrest for drug related offences (non-violent) and a each prisoner costs $20,000 with an average sentence of 14 for possession and 24 years for trafficking. For simplicity let's say it's a 50/50 split of trafficking and possession and the average sentence is 20 years. If you release all the non-violent prisoners (treating any with addictions, approximately 50%) you have 120 billion dollars to play with. I would set up treatment centers in existing prisons using non-violent drug distributors as your first group. Release them as they recover from their addiction and bring in the next group. The program could then be expanded and fine tuned.

Finally you probably wondering about the intrusion into people's lives with drug tests and house searches, etc. I would argue that submitting to a drug test and possibly being treated for a few month is less of an impingement on our liberties than a society that has almost three percent of it's population in prison or on parole. We can solve the drug problem. We just can't do it the way we are trying now.

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