How does anybody deal with SanSan City Grid when they have an unrezzed cheap ICE in front of it? Run with $5, dump your money, jack out, get $5 again + break cost, run again? It’s just miserable. NAPDs are another sad story.
Scrubber is OK but you’re still behind a card and a click the first time you use him so he’s yet another long-term investment which are already bad bets against Astrobiotics.
One thing to think about is with Nasir you have to have a deck that can function while hovering around zero credits. That is where you play.
This makes SanSan’s and NAPD’s tough (but they are tough on everyone). The bright spot is if you are able to trash/steal them and it zeros you out (the usual goal of the corp when playing these things), then you are right where you are supposed to be instead of in a hole! 
I don’t feel that’s quite true, though. Most runners can build up to deal with things that Nasir… can’t, really. Imp seems like it might be a worthwhile splash to deal with those sorts of situations, and Cache could help somewhat (though leaving it on the table’s obviously risky). Any means of banking credits that can resolve clicklessly is good.
Ghostrunner will be really useful (probably an autoinclude) for Nasir. It doesn’t come out until next pack though. Net Celebrity, also in the next pack, will also be useful. It appears Nasir didn’t get everything he needed right away, but that is not surprising.
Yeah, clearly Nasir will get stronger as his support cards in the cycle are released. Net Celebrity is definitely an include for me since you can use that credit for anything during the run.
Cache is awkward because it’s further incentivizing purges on your Datasucker and Parasite and you have to take the money before accessing. I’d much prefer Ghost Runner even if I’m not running stealth breakers. About the only upside of Cache is you could get a critical mass of things to use with Aesop’s Pawnshop.
If you’re already running Ice Analyzer and Armitage, you add Cache and maybe some extra copies of Inti and you have plenty of things to pawn.
I was expecting to see Cortez Chip based on the name of your deck. Too bad it doesn’t synergize with Nasir’s ability.
Uh, it does… Just like Xanadu and Rook, except it’s not always on so you probably want to combine it with Snitch.
I’m not sure Blackguard + Snitch works, however… Since it’s Blackaguard that makes the corp rezz the ICE in 2 (when Snitch’s ability trigger), instead of the normal window for rezzing the ICE in 2.3, is it still “just rezzed”?
Buuut Cortez Chip doesn’t work that well with Nasir anyway. It’s an additional cost, not an increased rez cost, so his ability doesn’t come into play.
Ooops, my bad. I don’t know why the wording is different for an effect that is otherwise almost always the same.
The real difference boils down to this: you are allowed to not pay additional costs, and thus avoid whatever would normally happen. This is why the runner can choose not to steal an agenda guarded by Strongbox or Red Herrings, or pay the additional cost on NAPD or Fetal AI - normally the runner has to steal agendas when found, but they are allowed to refuse the additional cost and thus do other things, like ignore it or Imp it.
Similarly, for the corp, if you Snitch+Blackguard an ice, I normally have to rez it if I am able - even if you have increased the rez cost via, say, Reina Roja’s trait. But if you have added an additional cost to rez the ice - such as via Running Interference, Cortez Chip, or the built-in additional cost on Archer - I can refuse to pay the additional cost. This ruling is why you can’t Snitch+Blackguard an Archer to force the corp to lose an agenda.
For reference to deckbuilders, here are a list of cards that actually increase or decrease rez costs (and thus work with or against Meidan’s ability):
And here are cards that do not increase the amount of credits gained by Nasir’s trait or Social Engineering, because they actually impose an additional rez cost - they do not actually change the rez cost.
One nitpick: the ability to Imp an NAPD Contract isn’t connected to the additional cost thing in any way. You can Imp a Braintrust just fine, even when with no Red Herrings, Strongboxes or Sources around.
The normal chain of events goes like “Access” → “Oh, it’s an agenda, I must steal”, with Imp being able to trigger on access, before the actual stealing.
Oh man, this is what The Collective’s ID ability should have said!
“Choose two runner identity cards. Gain the identity text box of each of them.”
and keep it as a Shaper 55/5 with 0 link. If it turns out to be too weak, go overboard and have it be three runners (which means you get to keep the artwork as a bonus, too). Now that would actually… you know, be a collective.
(mind-linked Gabe and Silhouette? Yes please!)
edit: I think I’m gonna tweet this idea, been too long since I got ridiculed anyway 
I heard from a playtester that at one point it used to allow you to play runner identities as one-of ressources (0 cost, 0 influence).
You are, of course, correct; I was thinking of the ability to avoid killing yourself by not stealing a Fetal by not paying the additional cost and got that mixed up with what I usually do (namely, imp it). Fixed.
Now that would’ve been interesting, as two or three runners. Huh… they’d automatically be better at being The Professor than The Professor is, if you included him. 
“Hi. We’re a Collective composed of The Professor, Rielle Peddler and Gabriel Santiago. We like long walks on the beach, polyamorous relationships and getting into your servers. Prepare to die.”
Like that? 
There was a card in original Netrunner called “total genetic retrofit” - a reworking of that allowing you to change identity would be kinda fun.
On the subject of The Collective though, do you think we’ll see them anyway in a different guise? I can’t remember what the details of the competition were now, but they’ve already commissioned artwork for them so I’d be surprised if we didn’t see them in an alternative form somewhere down the line.
Maybe as a Resource?
I have been fiddling around with Nasir as a stealth deck. It seems ok. I think there are probably a number of optimisations to make to this list, but here it is for discussion anyhow.
Secret Agent Man (45 cards)
Event (11)
3 Diesel
3 Modded
2 Net Celebrity
3 Test Run
Hardware (16)
2 CyberSolutions Mem Chip
2 Dyson Fractal Generator [color=#cf3713]••••• •[/color]
2 Lockpick
2 Omni-Drive
2 R&D Interface
2 Replicator
2 Silencer [color=#444f80]••••• •[/color]
2 The Toolbox
Resource (8)
3 Ghost Runner
2 Order of Sol
3 Personal Workshop
Icebreaker (3)
1 BlacKat [color=#cf3713]•••[/color]
1 Dagger
1 Refractor
Program (7)
3 Cloak
1 Magnum Opus
3 Self-modifying Code
Built with [URL=http://netrunner.meteor.com/decks/F342zzYYi49Dz7rLF]http://netrunner.meteor.com/[/URL]
I’ve found it works best in mid to late game, as it’s heavily rig based. Once you’re up and running, the corp will be weary to rez ice as it allows you to dump your hardware off the workshops, and if they do, they end up just providing more fuel for your breaker suite. Once set up, it seems as if unless servers are very deep, you always have the cash to get in.
I prefer Nasir for this build than the other shapers. Kate’s economic bonus is actually a slight weakness here, you want to spend all your cash all the time. This is why first cut is almost certainly modded. I have found them to just sit in hand unless I have spent my money already then they become sortof useful. Exile can’t work, Professor no, Chaos Theory is an option, but I prefer 45 cards (not sure what I would cut, though opus and modded look likely, and probably the second sol). The extra mem would be useful, but I want to to at least try a build that seems to naturally suit Nasir himself. Kit is a pretty good option for stealth lulz, but she would go about it a very different way. Due to influence Shaper seems the only option for a full stealth rig at the moment.
It is very strong once you have a couple of cloaks out, and recurring hardware support for the breakers. I haven’t come across a server I couldn’t break into once set up.
It has a very noteable weakness to trace and tag n bag. In my meta this isn’t prevalent, but I could definitely see there being room for hard counters to that, probably some good ol carapaces.
I’m pretty sure there’s something strong lurking in here, would be great to hear your feedback.
On its face I’d say this lacks HQ pressure/multiaccess. I’d consider swapping one or more of the out of faction stealth cred generators for 2x HQI. Also, since you’re pretty much all in on the mid-late game I think Procon is a natural fit for all the drawing you’ll be doing to assemble the parts of your rig.
I’m pretty new to the game. I can’t see how to play Nasir well in a meta full of zero-cost ICE.
Face checking ICE early in the game in particular seems like a good way to waste your money.
How do you play and deck build for this guy?