Feeling down about Netrunner

I’ve been feeling pretty sad and unexcited about competitive Netrunner recently, for a few reasons.

  • Stale card pool. It seems like the current decks are good enough that new expansions are only for improving existing decks, or bringing a formerly top deck back to the top e.g. Noise. In fairness I expect rotation to help this (though rotating core + deluxe also would probably have been good).
  • No local tournaments. This may just be a problem for my area since I see nationals / GNK lists still posted from other places. But last year we had several store champs, then regionals, then 1-2 GNK-type tournaments per month until the next store champs. This year between regionals in June and today, there has been one tournament. I found out about it after I had already booked a trip so I didn’t go.
  • Spoilers. FFG was able to stop the unofficial spoilers. Then they themselves spoiled 2 data packs and a deluxe. Just like with unofficial spoilers this made me unexcited to think about either the current card pool (lame duck) or the D&D card pool (can’t test at tournaments or use testing results right away (though this would only be a problem if there were local tournaments ;))).

On the plus side, there has arguably been a stale card pool for a while, and my other two problems should be temporary. So hopefully things will be better in a few months.

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Invent a new top tier deck, run a local league with achievements, and stop caring about spoiled cards.

I think that the group-think problem netrunner has is leaving us with 2-3 undiscovered very powerful deck types that could exist. Maybe more. Someone good just has to discover and test a new ‘good’ deck. The cardpool seems meh because of this.

If you can run your own league, you can attract more players, invigorate your local community, and find a lot of fun ways to augment the game. League achievements and even just prizes and competition help re-ignite love for the game. Hell, just run a draft!

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You mean you’re not happy with Data Leak Reversal spam and milling? For shame :wink:

Time to start playing Nasir!

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Highly recommended.

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Really surprised to hear you think the card pool is stale. The decks in my meta have never been more dynamic. The last two packs of San San have included a lot of really interesting cards that we’re all having a blast testing out. I can’t wait to try out Gagarin with the latest pack. Public Support, Expo Grid, and Tour Guide all have my head buzzing with ideas.

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I played against this yesterday from a newer player in my meta, and it was super frustrating to bust into a gagarin remote as noise and have all that stuff to trash. I just gave up and medium pounded him till I won, which with more tuning, he could have stopped.

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heh, take a break man, or play some totally weird stuff with friends. The game is too much fun to be sad about.

As for competative decks, they change, but do so slowly. People have (valuable) experience in strong decks, they won’t let them go easily. But last worlds, we complained about NEH FA and how andy was always there. In fairness, clot changed something, but this last SHL final valencia and RP (but no longer the ELP-sentry monster) were common, and in the meantime butchershop and kate are (have been?) dominant.

And that’s just the tier 1 decks, tier 1.5 has moved around even quicker, and that within a year.

I think there’s hope for the meta yet, but it’s true, if you play enough, you keep seeing the same decks. In a month or two everything may be different :slight_smile:

And some really interesting IDs to boot.

Sounds like it’s time to start a local league! Talk to your FLGS about ordering some GNKs. They’re usually pretty cool about that sort of thing.

The card pool is only as stale as you make it. Building and tuning a new competitive deck is a pretty big time investment that a lot of people just can’t commit to, and that doesn’t even count all the people who live in areas without much of a competitive scene to test against at all.

Of course, it’s easy for me to say this stuff because I live in a large city with a very diverse meta in the local scene. I pretty much always have guaranteed access to games two nights a week. Most of the best players around here make their own decks instead of running the same boring stuff over and over. We’re pretty spoiled!

I guess there’s online play too, but I’ve never actually tried, so I don’t have much to say about it.

Break the meta :).

It’s doable.

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I feel like it’s gotten more boring as kill decks have been completely neutered. Film Critic killed Midseasons and IHW killed net damage. Bring back the flatline, FFG.

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Kill is stronger than ever.
Breaking news 24/7 peace out

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I think the problem lies with the card pool mostly being deckbuilding traps, and players understanding of the game. There are only so many ways to win, hidden information isn’t as important as it should be. The game, competitively at least, discourages experimentation, and that’s the biggest problem with it. At least, that’s what I feel

Join my Sith style of Chameleon Kate.

I just want 1 apprentice to my Sith Lord status.

Currently open. :frowning:

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No one continues to play traps in servers, and no one continues to run expose.

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Data and Destiny brings a lot of playable cards, and it feels to me that most players are waiting for someone else to innovate because innovation is hard.

But the players that are actually willing to put in the effort to innovate are either (a) mostly unsuccessful because blind alleys are just the nature of science, or (b) sitting quiet on their secret tech to have an advantage at Worlds.

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Ive been experimenting again with GRNDL Refinry and Reversed Accounts in my HB Glacier builds.

Not quite a trap, but baits with benefits if you dont bite… I’m enjoying it. And the impact has been pretty high, especially when someone has no idea its coming.

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cough @Zeromus cough
:smile:

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Netrunner is probably the best card game ever created. I’ve been playing essentially non-stop since early 2013. Excitement has waxed and waned a little bit, but have been going to weekly meetup every single week. Even when I think I might be tired a little bit of the game, all I need to do is sit down for a match, using real cards, and the excitement is rekindled.

I do get burned out on OCTGN, and have stepped back a bit from it. I think the game truly shines as a tactile experience.

If you happen to be spamming games on OCTGN, maybe ease up on that and find some real people and cards to play with, if you can. It’s the best.

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This is the only explanation I have for the lack of a spark thread and far more nbn chatter in general

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