First two games from an absolute newb

So, I played my first two games of Netrunner last night. I ran a variation of the Reg-Ass MaxX list from the awesome article here and Quinns’ Tier 1.2 Gagarin Deck from netrunnerdb. First off, let me say that I haven’t played card games since I played Magic way back in the Ice Age. Literally, that was the last set I played. I am, however, a pretty hard core miniature gamer, so am the concept of combos, resources, etc. is pretty familiar and ingrained as are costs and counters, and stuff like that. Plus I have watched a ton of videos (thanks especially to Peachhack and Teamworkcast yours have been the most helpful! But really to everyone) and also listened to a lot of podcasts (notable shout-outs here to Terminal 7 and Run Last Click of whom I have listened to every single podcast and found them immensely helpful, and The Winning Agenda, most of which goes over my head). The netrunner reddit community has been FANTASTIC, also.

Okay, yeah I know my decks were probably not ideal starter decks, but here is why I chose what I did. First up the runner. I chose MaxX for a couple of reasons – 1. It seemed like her ability to draw every turn would help me get through my deck reasonably quick and help me out by forcing draws every turn and forcing a more active play style. I chose the Reg-Ass version because it seemed a bit more grounded in the fundamentals of good play which I do want to learn, and also or that reason seemed a bit easier for a beginner to play. That was the theory anyway. And 2. I like the way the card looks. A lot. 3. Maximum punk rock is pretty awesome. 4. If you think I need any more reasons you can go f*** yourself.

So, how did it go? Well, my friend Sergio was nice enough to volunteer to show me the ropes. We’ve been friends for a very long time, he’s something of a nemesis in other games we play – we often get draws when we match up and one of the things he said right away was that a great thing about this game was that there were no draws.He asked if I wanted him to bring learner decks, to which my answer was a somewhat foolhardy, “no way”. He did show me a quick example of making a run on a server before we started though, which helped out immensely.

The deck he brought was a Blue Sun deck. I’m not going to give a play by play, but just a couple of observations and highlights were making an early stimhack run on HQ and snagging The Cleaners. Knowing he had was looking to do meat damage, I made sure to end my turn with the full 4 cards every turn. He showed me the true economic powerhouse of Blue Sun and I was too timid on making run (and kind of pissed my money away in true Maximum Punk Rock fashion) and managed to go through my entire heap, then Same Old Thinged my Levy to reshuffle then milled all the way back down before he finally killed me on meat damage. I think he had about 15 cards left and 3 of his agendas were at the bottom. It was a long grind but it was definitely fun, and I learned a lot and made a ton of mistakes, including throwing away a D4v1d on a hosted Curtain Wall. One clever thing I did was putting Parasite on something I knew would just be picked up next turn and then using Scavenge to play an Imp and sacrificing the Parasite. The people watching thought it was cool and said they hadn’t seen someone do that before so it made me feel good. Anyway, ultimately I got smashed and learned a ton about the game and was raring for another shot, this time as the Corp.

Sergio brought out Gabe against me this time and I was able to put out some Caduceus and a Data Raven on a remote server. I got lucky and was able to score my Utopia Shard with Ash protecting it as it was just too expensive to get through everything, and then once I had the Shard up, it helped me score the next agendas I drew, both of which happened to be NAPD Contracts. The combination of the fee from Utopia shard double advance on the NAPD contract, plus the extra cost to access due to Gagarin, and NAPD’s extra cost just made it incredibly expensive to steal, and it was costing him 12 credits just to get through the 3 pieces of Ice protecting that remote. Quinns, that deck is legit if a total noob like me can pilot it. It just absolutely made sense what it was supposed to do – which was basically be really expensive to get through and steal anything while also threatening the quick kill – after running on HQ, Sergio knew that I had both a SEA Source and at least one Scorched Earth (I had two). I also had Paywall Implementation up basically the whole game (I ended up drawing into all three) which really helped the money game, because Gabe really wants to run a lot.

So, what did I learn? Well, I definitely need to play faster. All in all the two games took about two and a half hours, which was way longer than they should have. I had to read most every card and had a lot of questions. It didn’t feel that long, but it was. Once I learn the cards it will be faster, and the first game probably took up 3/4 of that time (stupid glacier). Next up, I think that the MaxX deck is pretty strong, but I also think it is a bit too advanced for me. There are too many decisions to be made. There is a lot of recursion in it, and frankly, I wasn’t sure what I wanted a lot of the time. I do like the feel and ethos of anarch, but also, Criminal looks pretty sweet, and Gabe seemed awful fun to play. I think most likely I will either look for a Quetzal deck or play a criminal. I love the card for Silhouette (I know she doesn’t seem that good, but neither am I, so there is that, and at 40 cards, the game should be quick, right?) So if you have any recommendations on solid decks for those two, I would be greatly appreciative. On the corp side, I am definitely going to stick with the Gagarin deck for a while. It was straight forward and fun to play.

Anyway, congrats on breaking the Wall of Text if you did. The Netrunner community has been absolutely fantastic and I wanted to thank you all again for answering all of my newb questions, they have been immensely helpful! I am well and truly hooked now!

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Welcome to the community!

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I don’t think MaxX is the worst to play if you’re learning the game. Recursion is easy enough to understand, and it lets you familiarize yourself with all your cards. But, as you said, if you want a deck to master and play competitively, MaxX does provide a lot of tough decisions.

Criminal is pretty straightforward, but kind of nerfed lately and may be frustrating when you jump into the scene. Please just play Andromeda or Leela though. It’s best to learn with an established archetype before you branch into pet jank decks like Silhouette.

Either way, sounds like you’ll love the game and have no problem becoming an above average player soon. Hope to see you around the forums and maybe on OCTGN.

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RegAss is a pretty advanced deck. I think you’d be able to swing it if you played repeatedly in familiar matchups, but she takes fundamentals to an extreme and really punishes you for doing the wrong thing, (going broke, clicking to draw when you should be clicking for credits, choosing far in advance whether to and when to levy, and being really picky about which runs to make) and the right thing is rarely obvious.

Gabe is a good runner to start with because of how straightforward the play is, but he’s just not very good right now. Quetzal is sort of marginal, and Silhouette is pretty much 100% useless outside a a few specific matchups.

Here’s an Andy deck:

Just Andy (45 cards)

Andromeda: Dispossessed Ristie

Event (17)
3 Account Siphon
3 Dirty Laundry
1 Emergency Shutdown
2 Inside Job
2 Legwork
3 Special Order
3 Sure Gamble

Hardware (7)
3 Desperado
1 Net-Ready Eyes
1 Plascrete Carapace
2 R&D Interface

Resource (9)
2 Earthrise Hotel
2 Kati Jones
1 Same Old Thing
3 Security Testing
1 Symmetrical Visage

Icebreaker (9)
2 Corroder
3 Faerie
1 Femme Fatale
1 Mimic
1 Passport
1 Yog.0

Program (3)
3 Datasucker

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Then you’re doomed like the rest of us. :'D

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welcome! prepare to slowly begin to resent all other games and the people who play them for daring to not be netrunner :smiley:

just my 2c - don’t let shaper flavor keep you from trying it; some of the most interesting and crazy plays you can make in this game are the sole domain of green decks (see also: “shaper bullshit”) while at the same time being one of the more straightforward factions to learn in.

*#*NasirMeidan4lyfe

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I feel like a highly rewarding but simple deck is Noise, but you’re unlikely to win vs good opponents as a beginner.

Take a good chaos theory deck with good breakers and money making and learn what to antcipate from ice, and when and where to run. That is the absolute basic level of the game. Money, breakers, go. When I taught my girlfriend to play (before ANR her most complex game was 1 game of vanilla Risk), I had her play this, and she learned it and loved it, and now gives me heartburn with Vamp Kit.

Chaos Theory Wünderkind

15 influence spent (max 15) •••••••••••••••
40 cards (min 40)
Cards up to Honor and Profit
Event Event (24)

2x Account Siphon ••••• •••
3x Diesel
3x Indexing
1x Levy AR Lab Access
3x Modded
2x Quality Time
3x Scavenge
1x Stimhack •
3x Sure Gamble
3x Test Run
Hardware Hardware (6)

2x Dinosaurus
2x Plascrete Carapace
1x R&D Interface
1x The Personal Touch
Resource Resource (2)

2x Same Old Thing
Icebreaker Icebreaker (5)

2x Femme Fatale ••
1x Morning Star ••••
1x Overmind
1x Torch
Program Program (3)

3x Magnum Opus

It also teaches you to watch the hell out with tags, but can still let you go tag me and teach you that sometimes you gotta YOLO.

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L4J (Whizzard packing Career fair and standard Anarch breakers) is more straightforward to play in some respects.

That was indeed quite clever. Good spot, especially for your first game.

Anarch is about destruction. Criminal is about underhanded nastiness. Shaper is about “I am awesome!”

Learning to play some of each faction is a good idea, just so you understand how the decks/plans work.

Ah man, tilting people out because I was running R&D every turn for 2 credits while they burned resources to protect it. Good times.

Well, when the world champion gives you a list, I guess it would be foolish not to give it a spin. Thanks! What should I be looking for when deciding to mulligan?

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Ideally, desperado, dirty laundry/gamble and either kati or testing. Extra copies of Laundry/gamble are bonus, as are some breakers. Desperado is the most important thing.

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So, I don’t have Future Proof (the only thing I am missing up to current) and I lack the psychological composition to proxy (I know, I know - just to show you how crazy it is, I actually ended up getting 3 cores so I wouldn’t have to proxy) so until I manage to track one down, I made a couple of changes using cards I have. I know it isn’t as good - but it is using what I have. If anyone has other ideas for what to put in rather I am definitely up for suggestions - especially since I currently have 4 influence available, it seems a waste to not fill it. Basically, it was -2 R&D interfaces, +2 Sneakdoor Betas, -3 Faerie, +1 Femme Fatale, +1 Inside Job, and +1 Bank Job.

Just Andy recommended

Andromeda: Dispossessed Ristie

Event (18)
3x Account Siphon
3x Dirty Laundry
1x Emergency Shutdown
3x Inside Job
2x Legwork
3x Special Order
3x Sure Gamble

Hardware (5)
3x Desperado
1x Net-Ready Eyes ••
1x Plascrete Carapace

Resource (10)
1x Bank Job
2x Earthrise Hotel
2x Kati Jones
1x Same Old Thing
3x Security Testing
1x Symmetrical Visage

Icebreaker (7)
2x Corroder ••••
2x Femme Fatale
1x Mimic •
1x Passport
1x Yog.0 •

Program (5)
3x Datasucker •••
2x Sneakdoor Beta

11 influence spent (max 15)
45 cards (min 45)
Cards up to Chrome City

Deck built on http://netrunnerdb.com.

You really need some way to pressure R&D. Makers Eye can fill the slot if you don’t have RDI.

An extra net ready eyes would be good. A couple of quality time could help you power through the deck, and maker’s eye plus an extra same old thing would be a fine way to hit R&D at key moments.

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Cool, thanks, I actually really like those suggestions a lot since they make the list a bit more consistently aggressive. I went with +1 Net-Ready Eyes, +1 Maker’s Eye, +1 Same Old Thing, -1 Sneakdoor Beta, -1 Femme and -1 Inside Bank Job.

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Maybe drop a Corroder and add a pair of Mediums for R&D threat? It has synergy with Desperado and Dirty Laundry. Of course, then MU gets a bit tight with Sneakdoor.

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I do love Medium. It’s all sleeved now, I will play a couple of games and see how it goes and if I end up needing more R&D threat I will figure out a way to get Medium in there. :smile:

It’s nice that there are so many options.

I am a new player too pal, and I also started with Andy. The deck above is a very good one to start with (better for beginners than the stealth deck). It encourages a lot of early running so you’ll get a lot of practice in dealing with all the types of ice the game has to offer.

After I got used to that, I branched into Anarch and Shaper. Both were very different and it took some time to get used to the need to play differently. I got Shaper down now but Anarch is still a problem. I would recommend you try Anarchs last of the runner types for that reason.

On the corp side, it’s much easier to become competent. I tried Jinteki PE, then Jinteki RP, then NEH Butcher Shop (I love to kill!). After that, Weyland and HB. In hindsight I think that HB may be the best of the bunch for beginners, in terms of a strong but easy to pilot deck. I only didn’t select it because it had a boring ID card :smile:

Maybe one of these decks for HB:

Good luck!

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That platinum edition deck is really cool. I like HB a lot in the fluff and card art - it’s probably my favorite, but missing Future Proof has made HB super hard to build since no Eli. Nice to see Platinum Edition doesn’t have it, so I might build that one out. I am going to be teaching a friend of mine to play as well, so giving him an easy to pilot corp might be nice.

edit: ahhhh it is a really old deck, that explains the lack of Eli…

If you want the knock off substitute, Markus (which you should have) is a okay Eli replacement.

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It’s not that old. Eli was out then, but eli does not stop runs early. The next ice do, is called great checking.

Parasite makes this less food since parasite is often played. Still it’s a strong deck, maybe not tier 1.

1 Like