I definitely want the game to be tilted slighty towards the runner, since games where I’m playing against a hapless runner don’t feel good even as corp :). But closer to 55-45 maybe, and balanced around high level play.
The problem is variance: the Corp is hugely vulnerable to variance to R&D. If the runner gets unlucky pounding R&D, they can simply switch to clearing hand and running remotes. If the runner gets lucky, they can win the game in a single turn; nay–even a single click. Most of my corp losses with my “good” corp decks come down to me getting to match point and then being unable to close the game out because R&D suddenly gives up two agendas in a row, or no agendas until the runner has an insurmountable lead.
I actually think corps are much stronger now with OM than they used to be (Mr. Howard, you’re the best). It’s important to make sure that we remember that the win rates are all keyed to a specific time period :).
I agree it helps a ton. Also, just not having to worry nearly as much about Noise helps you gear your deck towards beating other runner decks.
With some more good ice, some more resilient ice (please make something that is immune to stuff like Parasite and Shutdown!), and better economy, corps could be decent. We need more answers.
Jackson was the first needed answer. A couple more and we might see high level play be a lot closer to balanced.
I think @hypomodern’s point shouldn’t be overlooked. The runner benefits uniformly from corp draw variance. The simplest case is a flood of agendas without enough ice. Another case is when combos don’t come together. Also, agenda clumping in R&D is severely punished by RDI. Jackson saves those games that you normally would’ve lost in 5 turns, giving you the opportunity to turn it into a win.
Note: in the next two paragraphs I’m not talking about anyone in this thread, just broadly what I’ve observed over the past several months in the ANR community.
I’m willing to bet the broader field of players don’t play with decks that reduce draw variance (read: not enough rezzable/effective ice) or, to quote Damon, use etr ice like a crutch Bad runner decks can perform ok, given a decent pilot. A bad corp deck has no hope.
Runner deck construction is a lot more fun, because you have persistent synergies between cards you can plan out (Atman/Desperado/Datasucker, Clone Chip/Parasite/Imp, etc), and you generate an idea of how your rig will look. There’s such a wealth of options it’s hard to go wrong.
Corp deck construction is far less glamorous, and I bet players in general spend a lot less time thinking about it. They probably don’t understand why their decks aren’t as effective as they could be. A lot of players spend time thinking about 3-card combos that happen once every ten games.
But at higher levels of play, I agree, some more ways to punish runner mistakes would be nice. I think Bernice Mai probably doesn’t get enough play, and assets are generally underutilized/poorly utilized.
As it is, it doesn’t take a lot of forethought when running, whereas a lot of thought needs to go into planning as corp. If they evened that out a bit, I think that’d be great for the game as a whole.
Yes I agree. I LOVE Bernice Mai. The games from the A:NR invitational should show why.
So often an early play of 1 ice + Bernice behind it, on turn 2-3 or so (first remote created), will be followed by the runner running it (finding a Shadow or Popup or something), then getting wrecked by Bernice.
Alternately, sometimes a bernice on a central causes the runner to go into perma-tag mode, which they can handle because they have plascrete and stuff, but it does hinder them, because basically everyone plays some resources now, and you can also use Closed Accounts.
One of the BEST things you can do as the corp, is to induce a run through ice on a remote server, which doesnt contain an agenda. Even if they trash an asset or whatever, the very fact that they spend time and money attacking something that WASNT your central servers, helps you get ahead and relieve pressure. If you can get the runner preoccupied with running your remote over and over to kill Melange, SanSan, check that face down card that was a Bernice, etc, then you are NOT GETTING CRUSHED on your centrals! This is part of why Melange is so good. Even if you didnt get to use it, if you drew the runner there and drained some of their money, it was good.
I completely agree, if you can pressure the runner to run where you want them, you’re in the driver’s seat and you have a shot. Hopefully you have tools in your deck to capitalize on this. If the runner is running where they want to, then you’re in trouble.
The main issue, as I see it, is that multi-access is just so strong. Jackson Howard helps break an R&D lock, but only once. As soon as you pop him you’re back in a scenario where the runner will see your whole deck before you and won’t allow you to draw your remaining JHs. Fringe exception: JH is in HQ (or elsewhere in play) when you pop a rezzed one.
Could the runner go far wrong if his sole strategy was to get a full suite and 3 x RDI into play as quickly as possible? Mix in tactical runs/events to keep the corp poor and you’re not far off optimal runner strategy. There’s simply no need for the runner to run remotes until the corp is at match point - which is exactly the argument I’ve been making about why Jinteki (and HB) shell games aren’t working.
I’m not saying don’t run remotes - by all means knock out known economy assets if you can do so cheaply. But in my view I’m often happy to let the corp have his Melange. One turn of Melange pays for the installation and rez of one piece of ICE (if I don’t Siphon it straight off), and I can neutralise that ICE using fewer resources than it took the corp to get it into play, so I’m just going to carry on doing my thing and smash into R&D (where I know all the agendas are without any guess work).
What the corp needs is extra protection for R&D: ways to deny access, ways to punish multi-access, ways to divert the run, traps hidden in the deck.
On a separate note, how would you feel if the corp (for example) was +2 hand size and drew 7 to start with? Would the extra cards help mitigate a bit of variance, while also giving the corp enough extra options to close the gap? It would also have the fringe benefit of making agendas slightly safer in HQ and reducing the power level of HQI.
The corp can, at most, draw 7 cards in their turn (with JH). It’s very possible for the runner to see more than that.
Assuming the runner has 3 x RDI, you have to use Jackson twice every turn to see a single card that the runner hasn’t already (unless the runner trashed any).
If the corp is restricted to effectively one click per turn to actually do anything constructive with then they’ve still as good as lost.
Actually if Hollis played those 50 games in that period, he’d be bumping TWIY’s performance by about 2% if his win rate really is 70%… that’s pretty hilarious. I doubt he played 50 games in one week, though.
Actually if Hollis played those 50 games in that period, he’d be
bumping TWIY’s performance by about 2% if his win rate really is
70%… that’s pretty hilarious. I doubt he played 50 games in one
week, though.
50 games in one week is conservative for me after a new datapack is released. Consider that I have about 2000 games logged on OCTGN, and db0 only started tracking this stuff in early November of last year, I think
However, I might be mistaking my estimate of “Games Played as TWIY” with “Games Played Total”. In which case, take about 15-25 of the games off that number to account for my bias in choosing to play Corp right now.
Bad runner decks can perform ok, given a decent pilot. A bad corp deck has no hope.