Clot (now 2 inf)

I mean that an average Astrobiotics player is not going to lose to a superior opponent as often as if he/she were playing some other tier 1 corp deck. Perhaps this is simply due to a greater amount of variance in Astrobiotics?

I find that I lose far more often to ā€œweakerā€ opponents who play Blue Sun than if they were playing Astrobiotics, because thereā€™s just as much ā€œoops I winā€ if you get all your kill combo and a tonne of econ in the first 10 cards or w/e.

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As a current NEH player, Iā€™ve always found it easier to play it against a bad/average player than I do with HB/Blue sun glacier (interestingly not RP glacier, which also feels easymode against weaker opponents). But the games against stronger players feel like they are just as interesting and full of decisions as my games playing glaciers or other decks.

I think thatā€™s the same thing some others have been saying? To me that seems like itā€™s just a trait of being one of the strongest decks in the meta, especially following a period of corp dominance. In my newbie days I picked up Andysucker and felt much the same about it, probably because it was and is one of the strongest runner archetypes. Weaker players would tend not to guard against siphon and get crushed by siphon/shutdown/more siphon pain-trains, and the deck still has plenty of game against a stronger player because of the 9 card start.

See, I donā€™t think I agree. Iā€™ve heard it said that astrobiotics has greater variance, but of all the different corp decks Iā€™ve played, I think itā€™s actually one of the most consistent and robust.

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But if they donā€™t and you get your cards (that exist) to respond to the kill combo then you get to play ā€œrun the remoteā€ which is something youā€™d never get in the other match up.

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Sure, and if I get my legworks/indexings I can punish NEH for not having reasonable remotes. Thereā€™s no functional difference between the two cases.

I donā€™t think itā€™s autopilot so much as itā€™s merely the strongest deck.

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I agree with you.
Between playing a ton of good cards no matter what situation youā€™re facing, drawing faster than other corps deck and without having to pay influence for Jackson/DBS make astrobiotic one the most consistent corp deck right now. You donā€™t wait for any kind of special combination of cards since you can work out with pretty much everything you draw (and not just your biotic + astro)

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@Syntax Of course. But the issue for the corp - its more all in, more of a tempo hit. Knifing a wall of static - no big deal. Knife Curtain wall - and its a lot bigger swing to the corp.

Putting Agendas in Remotes =/= Keeping Agendas In Deck/Hand

All other decks have to deal with keeping agendas in deck/hand, too. FA gets to skip the remote step. If you had said this it would have made as much sense as I think it makes now:

Sure, and if I get my legworks/indexings I can punish ANY CORP DECK for not having reasonable remotes. Thereā€™s no functional difference between the two cases.

Existance of remote has no impact on whether legwork/indexing is good. And legwork/indexing is not a counter to FA when fast track exists.

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Itā€™s still a counter, just a counter with a counter :smile:

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Joking aside, I donā€™t view ā€œmulti accessā€ as a counter. Its a viable strategy. Increasing your accesses is a recipe for winning against any deck; and, when your only solution is moving faster it may be the only strategy worth going in on, but it is not a counter.

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Has this been used before? Pretty good title for what youā€™d like to do to an opponent Astro-training you.

This is true, but just a trait of FA, not a complaint about NEH. FA decks make certain sacrifices, they have to play a higher number of agendas, have to include biotics, sansans etc, all of which could have been ice/economy instead. They also donā€™t have the ability to constantly throw down cards in a taxing remote and force the runner to guess whether the newest install is an agenda, an upgrade or just another Jackson or Adonis. Itā€™s just a different archetype with positives and negatives.

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Letā€™s assume worst case scenario: NBN is not viable for the time being. Itā€™s not the end of the world. Itā€™s a card game; we will all still enjoy it, and maybe some cool things will happen as a result of FA being pushed out of the meta. In a way, scoring agendas out of hand is against the concept of Android:Netrunner itself. The game is less interactive and interesting when Corps arenā€™t bluffing into and defending remotes, but simply shoring up centrals hoping RND variance carries them through to the win. Regardless of your feelings about the autopilot factor, weā€™ve seen what an FA meta looks like and now we might see what a non-FA meta looks like. Is that so terrible?

No one mourned the (hyperbole inbound) death of PE, which I would argue is a brutally difficult deck to pilot optimally, and makes for very engaging games of Netrunner. Why are we mourning the potential temporary death of NBN. Do we all really think Clot will silence FA forever?

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A non-FA meta is a grossly runner dominated Meta. If runners can slow down safely, then corps have very little defense from Kati/Opus pounding and playing remote control. FA is a necessary threat in the game, since one of the best ways to play around a runner sitting back is via Breaking News into freelancer/closed accounts, which is still NBN.

And if NBN isnā€™t viable, then weā€™re down to a couple different caprice decks being the only strong, consistent strategies.

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To be fair, Caprice is already a problem, and is already splashed in HB (not really Weyland yet). When Runners adapt, Corps change; they are forced to. We have seen that in the past couple months with RP dropping Komainu and often Tsurugi due to MaxX and The Red Meta. Not all FA will be crushed anyway, as I think @bblumā€™s HBFA Rush deck has shown.

I expect to see a lot more Troubleshooter and AggSec in the coming months, which is a good thing.

Snatch and Grab exists, if every runner packs Kati, every corp can pack Snatch and Grab.

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My main fear after Clot is Caprice gaining even more importance. Future Perfect and Caprice will still be very strong even if Runners will slow down and pack Kati. Other glacier decks might have harder time against slower meta. Psi games almost killed Netrunner for me as a competitive game.

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Itā€™s definitely looking like the Summer of Snatch.

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