The Second Bigboy Teaching League starts June 3

The Second League is nearly over. (I’m afraid I do not know exactly when the Challenge Board stops taking reports, so it will shut down soon, but I’m not sure when.) We had 34 players who played well over 150 games using the constructed decks provided by Abram Jopp (@thebigboy).

Here is a nearly final accounting of how the Corps and Runners did overall and against each other:

Corp Overall and vs. Runner

ETF - 17-18
* Andy - 2-4

  • Kit - 11-9
  • Whizzard - 4-5

GRNDL - 16-16
* Andy - 3-1

  • Kit - 8-14
  • Whizzard - 5-1

PE - 47-17
* Andy - 11-2

  • Kit - 20-9
  • Whizzard - 16-6

Spark - 17-17
* Andy - 1-4

  • Kit - 14-7 (2 by Flatline!)
  • Whizzard - 2-6

Overall Runner Records

Andy - 11-17 (9-6 w/o PE)
Kit - 39-53 (30-33 w/o PE)
Whizzard - 18-27 (12-11 w/o PE)

NOTE: These numbers reflect games reported through a Google Form set up to collect data on league results. Not every game in the league was reported, so the data are not 100% complete.

As you can see, PE had a major impact on the league. Like the first league, the Corp/Runner balance was pretty good overall among the original six teaching decks by @thebigboy. There were better and worse match ups for each deck, but as a whole, they were pretty balanced with a nearly even Corp/Runner split among the six original decks.

The new Personal Evolution deck was a monster. Participants in the league had lots of conversation throughout the league about why PE was so strong, but the it was still winning at a high rate in the closing days of the league despite players having ample opportunity to practice against it.

Overall, I’m very pleased that the league has been so well received. We will have a Final Four top cut to wrap things up before looking forward to the start of the Third TheBigBoy Teaching Deck League. Stay tuned.

1 Like

Are you thinking about tuning down the PE list?
Perhaps swtiching the ID to RP (or Aginfusion, Potential Unleashed)?

Definitely not PU or AgInf. The purpose of the league is to make decks that win in fair ways.

Honestly I think PE is the right level, but if I wanted to tune down the list, I’d lower the amount of econ or the quality of the ice. Remove some DNA trackers or Kakugos for Tsurugis or something, or replace some of the IPOs with something like interns for more flexibility but less raw power.

I don’t think the jinteki should change ID, PU grinds the runner even harder and arginfusion is slightly too gimmicky as a teaching deck. As harsh as it sounds, this is a deck you just have to learn to play against. All the net damage is fair in the deck as you only take them in your own terms (with the exception of komainu and DNA tracker, but if you’re face checking without breaker, that should be taken into account of?) I think learning how your deck operates AND your opponent is what makes this game exciting. I understand as runners we all think we should be invincible when we are set up, but we gotta learn to use our whole deck as resource, even if we’re just drawing and dumping them in the bin. Think of every agenda in PE like NAPD, except you pay cards instead of money. Sorry for the long rant, but I really appreciate the PE’s deck design and would want everyone not to be scared of it. Shout out to @thebigboy for making all these interesting decks. I’m sure everyone appreciate all your efforts

2 Likes

If we keep the PE (TBD by surveying participants), I would encourage players who did very well with it to try to play something else next league. That way we can determine if there is self-selection bias involved here (i.e. the best players were choosing to play PE because it was the new thing but less comfortable players stuck with the same deck they played last league)

1 Like

If you participated in the 2nd League, please give us some feedback to help guide our future deck selection.

BBTL Deck Feedback Questionnaire

1 Like

I, at least, intentionally played Not PE, only playing the deck once afaik. (To see what it looked like) And thereafter, asked people if they wanted to play against the PE to practice against it, and most people declined.

First game of our single elimination finals will be streamed by @thebigboy on July 5 at 2 p.m. Central Time (USA).

1 Like

Second game of the single elimination files will be July 6 at 4:30 p.m. Central Time (USA).

Here is a video of the second semi-final match from the 2nd BBTL, for those who are interested.

As the BBTL 2 wraps up next with our final match, I wanted to thank everyone for playing.

Our survey asking for feedback remains open, but here are some highlights from the 16 responses we have received so far (out of 34 players who played at least 1 game in BBTL 2).

68% of respondents said we should keep the PE deck for BBTL 3.

Respondents were evenly split on whether we should make room for a new Runner deck by dropping a current deck or whether we should just add extra choices even if that creates an imbalance on the number of Runners available in each faction.

Here are some of the written feedback we have received as well:

I would like to see rotating decks, but stick with the theme of teaching fundamentals. Each deck should be about some fundamental part of the game.

The goal will be to always keep the decks aimeda t fundamentals.

Organising this tournament was a brilliant idea, and I must thanks you a lot for that. Maybe there could be some attempt to restrict a bit who’s playing against who accordin to their position in the leaderboard, but I understand the difficulties behind this idea and the potency that it would reduce drastically the number of games played for people not being available at the same time.

Players can request games vs players not in the top 4 or only in the top 4. I don’t think we will be implementing any kind of Swiss format in the near future.

It might be alot of work, but I think there should be a video/article about the basics of netrunner. Like where to run, how to build servers, when to run, where to run, scoring window, etc

Check out the announcement for BBTL 3. I have tried to include some material of this nature there. I’m always open to people suggesting other things to include.

I enjoy playing the BB teaching decks. But I worry that they’re not balanced enough for a competitive tournament. Though I do think they do their original job of teaching how to play a faction very well.

Mission accomplished.

Thanks for this amazing idea, would have quit the game without it. It has helped immensely

All the motivation I need to keep organizing events for our amazing community.

Good luck and have fun!

2 Likes

And a champion is crowned. Congratulations to @ruby_fell for your hard-earned victory!

1 Like

Hi, I’m new here and a beginner Netrunner player. I haven’t played much, but have most of the cards that have been published so far. I found the @TheBigBoy 's article on beginner/learning decks, but I think with the current fiasco going on over at NetrunnerDB, the links to the decklists are either broken, or were recently made private? I’m wondering if anyone who’s familiar with them could either rebuild the Shaper and HB deck lists and share them, or copy/paste the list in a comment/response here? I’m introducing a brand new player to the game tonight and was hoping to build the decks before we play. Thanks so much in advance!

1 Like

Shaper - Kit

3 Quality Time
3 Sure Gamble
2 Cerberus “Lady” H1
3 Scavenge
2 Tinkering
2 Gordian Blade
3 Test Run
2 Personal Workshop
3 Magnum Opus
2 Legwork
2 Dinosaurus
2 Beth Kilrain-Chang
3 The Maker’s Eye
3 Self-modifying Code
3 Diesel
2 Stimhack
3 R&D Interface
2 Femme Fatale

HB - EtF

2 Enigma
3 Ichi 1.0
3 Project Vitruvius
3 Architect
2 Tollbooth
3 Adonis Campaign
3 Eli 1.0
3 Ash 2X3ZB9CY
2 Archived Memories
3 Turing
1 Corporate Sales Team
3 Breaker Bay Grid
3 Eve Campaign
2 Global Food Initiative
3 Jackson Howard
3 Accelerated Beta Test
2 Biotic Labor
3 Hedge Fund
2 Wall of Static

I think @TheBigBoy also mentioned in this thread that he would publish all the decklists so they can still be accessed in the meantime, but don’t know if that’s happened yet.

3 Likes

They’re all published now. You can find it on his user page:

1 Like

Thanks so much guys! Thanks for the quick response, but these came about 8 hours too late, so I ended up using the Shaper and HB decks lists from Terminal Directive and just started the campaign. Mike beat the pants off of me as the Runner in both games we played (either the shaper deck is much better than the HB deck, or I am just that bad)…I’m definitely building these decks though so I can practice and learn to play Corp side better with my son.

1 Like

Just an FYI, (I don’t need it now, as I’m focusing on HB and my friend is using Shaper) but in case anyone else was looking…it seems the NBN Learning deck didn’t make the re-publish cut. Thanks again everyone, I’ll be trying these out this weekend. :slight_smile:

1 Like

Hmm… I can’t find the Spark deck there. Are my stupid eyes missing it-or can anyone post it?
Thanks in advance.

1 AstroScript Pilot Program
2 Global Food Initiative
3 NAPD Contract
3 Project Beale
3 Jackson Howard
3 Launch Campaign
3 PAD Campaign
2 Ash 2X3ZB9CY
3 Product Placement
2 SanSan City Grid
3 Hedge Fund
1 Interns
3 Sweeps Week
2 Bastion
2 Wraparound
2 Archangel
2 Enigma
3 Pop-up Window
2 Tollbooth
2 Assassin
2 Caduceus

1 Like

Thanks!