Getting better with netlists

[razortoy]

So, I have about 40 games under my belt now, am pretty solid with the rules and basic strategies and am ready to start focusing on getting a bit better. I've played all 7 factions enough to get a taste for them and have run good netlists and built my own mostly bad decks. I don't really have time to devote right now to deck building AND playing so given my druthers, and the fact that I like the social aspect I've decided to use my limited hobby time for gaming and I want to focus on a couple of decks now that I've sampled the styles.

I'm not asking for specific decks here, more just a general idea on whether for improving play without regard to winning or losing (given my time constraints there are no tourneys in my near future and I've a solid enough self worth that I'm okay going 0-5 on the night as long as I have fun and learn and get better.

So my real question is, will I learn more, and become a better player with a stronger more consistent deck like a PPVP Kate or Noise Faust or will playing a weaker more niche style deck like a Nasir Solidarity or Chaos Theory Econ quick rush deck help me grow more as a player so next summer when I do get more time I'll be able to take advantage of the games I'm getting in now.

Thanks!

[AkAnderson]

I personally think a PPVP Kate deck can help you with tempo, establishing a board and capitalizing on (false) scoring windows. There's also a lot of moving pieces that open up a lot of options to help you get the finer points of the game down. I personally think it's easier to learn compared to the popular Noise decks. There's also quite a few flex spots that you could mess with and decide what you like more.

[McCaber]

There's also a lot of moving pieces that open up a lot of options to help you get the finer points of the game down.

True. There's nothing better at getting those timing windows down than by playing Shaper bullshit.

[bblum]

You came here with the right attitude

I think it really depends what you want to learn. Kate will never be a bad choice (I learn something new each game I play with Kate), but there are parts of the game to learn beyond the two questions Kate teaches, which are "when should I run vs draw and get money?" and "when should I trash econ assets?". Nasir and Andy are good decks to play on for learning tactics like pressuring the corp's credit pool, and Regass Maxx and Headlock Reina will teach you that scoring/stealing agendas is often very secondary to board position. I wouldn't recommend Noise or CT for learning more than the basics on.

[bahram]

Side note that I think Kate also teaches value well. Its easy to burn her money into the garbage with bad runs and poor timing.

[MondoPeregrino]

Maybe try to avoid anything too gimmicky. Like, NEH Turtlebacks asset spam is a heck of a lot of fun, but it doesn't really teach you how to build a scoring remote. I'd also try to avoid any tunnel-vision combo decks like CI silliness. They might be worth trying out once or twice to learn timing and weird card interactions, but all most of them really teach you is how to play that combo.

[jrp]

If you have someone you can set this up with, you can play games of past decks. I like Genesis HBFA vs Criminal (you can pick any old tournament lists from equivalent datapacks). Also, the Supermodernism playstyle (example) is worth exploring. You could find something similar in Cambridge PE (this one at least has a recent list).

They won't be directly relevant to today's game of course. But a top aggressive Siphon runner, and an aggressive rush/flatline corp, don't really exist today (I think - I could be wrong). So you won't find that play style among the top decks now.

I have been playing since core so I haven't done this with Netrunner. But I played games of old Caw Blade when I played Magic and felt it taught me a lot about the game.

[razortoy]

That's a cool idea but I'll mostly just be playing pickup and league games at the store on Netrunner night.

[voltorocks]

Bblum has it right on all points. Kate is good because she has a lot of moving pieces that can fit together very well in many different ways; so you'll learn many different aspects of the game playing her. Noise is more just good because he exploits a few powerful cards that also happen to mesh with his stupid ID ability - so while he is certainly good and can have very complex and interesting games, he won't teach you how to play any other runner besides Noise.

Outside of the "big" decks, I definitely recommend giving Solidarity (Nasir) a try, he's all about exploring the ins and outs of every aspect of "shaper bullshit" without the pillowy cushion of PPVPK's infinite money vault (though make no mistake, he can make a lot of money - he just has to use it right away). Headlock Reina and Control-focused crims (check out the Ken that won Spanish nationals recently) are also great ways to internalize really good habits w/r/t pressuring the corp into spending resources and exploiting them when they can't.

On the corp side, play any deck without astroscript and you'll get better

[fozzy_fosbourne]

If time is a limited resource and you are on the Accelerated Get Gud plan, I think it also helps to pick some decks that have a bunch of videos of high level play and commentary. Helps to quickly pick up some of the subtle interactions and major lines of play in an abbreviated amount of time, at least for a scrub like me

I enjoy watching the tank top guy talk about his cards .

[TheRedArmy]

I enjoy watching the tank top guy talk about his cards

Oh, that guy? You know he bet on himself to win Worlds last year in the middle of NEH Astrobiotics 2014? What a clown.