With Data & Destiny imminent, I find myself thinking about this topic again. Like @Callisto above, I think Personal Evolution is pretty strong out of just the big boxes, here’s my latest attempt:
Personal Evolution (Big Boxes Only)
Jinteki: Personal Evolution (Core Set)
Agenda (12)
- 3x Gila Hands Arcology (Creation and Control)
- 3x House of Knives (Honor and Profit)
- 3x Medical Breakthrough (Honor and Profit)
- 1x Philotic Entanglement (Honor and Profit)
- 2x The Future Perfect (Honor and Profit)
Asset (10)
- 2x Cerebral Overwriter (Creation and Control) ••••
- 1x Project Junebug (Core Set)
- 3x Psychic Field (Honor and Profit)
- 1x Shi.Kyū (Honor and Profit)
- 3x Snare! (Core Set)
Operation (16)
- 2x Archived Memories (Core Set) ••••
- 1x Diversified Portfolio (Honor and Profit)
- 3x Hedge Fund (Core Set)
- 3x Medical Research Fundraiser (Honor and Profit)
- 3x Mushin No Shin (Honor and Profit)
- 3x Neural EMP (Core Set)
- 1x 24/7 News Cycle (Data and Destiny) •••
Barrier (2)
- 2x Wall of Static (Core Set)
Code Gate (5)
- 1x Chum (Core Set)
- 2x Enigma (Core Set)
- 2x Pop-up Window (Cyber Exodus) ••
Sentry (4)
15 influence spent (max 15)
20 agenda points (between 20 and 21)
49 cards (min 45)
Cards up to Data and Destiny
Decklist published on NetrunnerDB.
I also tried to build Reg-Ass MaxX (which was discussed above) and Desperado Valencia out of the big boxes. They don’t look too bad but I really miss Kati Jones and the great card draw engines Anarch received recently. I’m guessing Noise would be the strongest Anarch if the big boxes were the only card pool, even without Cache.
Runners were a lot easier to build than corps; no Jackson makes it really tough to know how you could possibly stand up against Noise, but I didn’t play in the pre-JH days and presumably it was possible. In general, the runners just seem to have more options even though they’re missing all their best silver bullets (Plascrete Carapace, Clot…Feedback Filter was in C&C, though). I started trying to make butchershop, since Scorched Earth and Traffic Accident are available, but just couldn’t find enough viable burst econ without Sweeps Week and Restructure. Astrobiotics NBN is probably still a strong option with but I’m not sure what ID you’d use (SYNC just for the smaller deck size and to make Data Raven more taxing?).