Near Earth Astrobiotics

Deck Archetypes
1

Hey guys! I feel like it’s time to start a thread about what I consider to be a major new player in the metagame. The new NBN ID is quite powerful, generating free cards for doing things you wanted to anyway, and giving us a boost of influence unseen in NBN before. TWIY Astrobiotics has been popular and powerful recently, with the addition of Fast Track to help turn down the variance on what used to be considered a pretty low skill cap deck. Some people, in order to free up influence for more reasonable ICE, have ported Astrobiotics into Making News, but usually, because of the heavy influence cost of Biotic Labor, made pretty mediocre use of the recurring trace credits. The new NBN ID solves this issue, and I believe if you’re looking to make a 49-card NBN FA deck, it is certainly the place to be. Here’s my first draft:

Near Earth Biotics (49 cards)

Near-Earth Hub: Broadcast Center

Agenda (11)
3 AstroScript Pilot Program
2 Breaking News
3 NAPD Contract
3 Project Beale

Asset (8)
3 Jackson Howard
3 Marked Accounts
2 PAD Campaign

Upgrade (3)
3 SanSan City Grid

Operation (10)
2 Biotic Labor
2 Fast Track
3 Hedge Fund
3 Sweeps Week

Barrier (5)
3 Eli 1.0
2 Wraparound

Code Gate (9)
3 Lotus Field
3 Pop-up Window
2 Quandary
1 Tollbooth

Sentry (3)
3 Rototurret

The addition of Lotus Field gives non-making news NBN decks a very reasonable, low influence midrange ICE splash. Along with Eli (because I just jam him in every corp deck), and Rototurret, (other sentries are underpowered or higher variance, or are Caduceus), you have a pretty dynamic ICE suite that can play Netrunner at every stage of the game. The rest of the ICE is just your standard NBN fare, with cheap ETRs, popups for taxing low-priority servers and protecting from Inside Job, and the miser’s Tollbooth because at some point you might want one.

The extra draws from your ID make this a 49-card deck that functions similarly to a 44-card deck. To take full advantage and save on influence, I’m packing my favorite Marked/PAD econ package alongside the mandatory Hedge and Sweeps. Getting the extra draws off these cards means you can simultaneously overtax the runner on trash costs while digging for what you need to score an Astro. SanSan and Jackson work similarly well for this, and Biotic/Astro/Breaking News fast advance plays can net you another card if you’re looking for one. This ability should not be underestimated. Throwing large trash costs at the runner has always been a valid strategy, and you usually wanted to draw cards while you were doing it anyway. If you’re fast advancing/scoring Astros, the extra cards help to close out the game before the runner can get enough random accesses to race you.

There are a few options I considered when building this deck. I think the big one is whether you play the full 3 Biotic Labors, (I decided against this because I didn’t want to cut Eli/Roto because the alternatives aren’t very good). If you do decide to jam 3 Biotic, I think the best option is to go to 2 Lotus Field, (3 might be too many anyway), and cut 2 Rotos and play some combination of Guard or maybe Chimera to check your opponent’s sentries. One big weakness of this list is that it’s mediocre against Atman on 0 and 4, (I often have this issue). Guard can help with that, as can Wall of Static or Datapike if people are moving away from Yog.0.

I was having some issues with my old NBN Tax deck, as the runners got Prepaid/Lucky Find and Security Testing. This list has the potential to play a faster game against these runners rather than relying on ICE towers and Ash to out-econ them in the long run. I think it’s potentially the best NBN ID at this point. Let me know what you think!

7 Likes
2

This was the second thing I tried with Hub, and I agree it’s an insane ID.

I tried 3 biotics, and 2 seems better.

Stuff is really expensive here, 2 melange or 2 private contracts might be better than pad.

Let us know how it goes.

2 Likes
3

Pan’d

J/k, this is looking nice. Whizzard is getting played more, and will eat this a bit, as he does, but hopefully you can get around this with the Astrobiotics game. I’d like to fit in all three PADs somehow.

Additioanlly, I think Corporate Shuffle might be nice in this deck, to further help protect against agenda flood, which is definitely a concern, and/or find those Biotic Labors.

4

I built one this morning. Zeitgeist is buzzing, I guess.

I am kind of eschewing the ability for speed, focusing on the INF.

Earth Angel

Near-Earth Hub: Broadcast Center (Upstalk)

Agenda (11)

Asset (3)

Upgrade (3)

Operation (16)

Barrier (7)

Code Gate (7)

Sentry (2)

  • 2x Guard (Honor and Profit)

17 influence spent (max 17)
20 agenda points (between 20 and 21)
49 cards (min 45)
Cards up to Upstalk

Deck built on NetrunnerDB.

5 Likes
5

LOVE the Reclamation Order.

I’m a 3x Biotic guy in TWIY and I imagine I’ll be the same here. If I need a gear reset, I’ll test Grim.

1 Like
6

Count me in as someone who built a similar list. I find it’s marginally less boring than the regular TWIY version. Mine, like Spags’s, had 3x Biotics and 1x Reclamation Order. I had a couple of Private Contracts, which worked well. I tried Diversified Portfolio, but that was a bit of a dud. I also tried including some Rainbows, which worked better than I thought (having been in the anti-camp when they were first spoiled), but is yet another card in that overcrowded 4 strength spot.

It’s just so strong being able to tax the runner with must-trash econ assets while at the same time getting set up to start fast advancing … then, of course, the regular NBN stuff take care of the rest.

7

I’m very interested to see how Grim goes. I’m a little uncomfortable with my only sentries being so easily instant-parasited. I’d probably at least drop one for a guard, and I also like Ichi 1.0 in general (though it’s yet another 4 str). I think with the advent of Lotus Field we’ll see more and more people turning to a 4 str Atman.

Also, Private Contracts just seems bad. Isn’t it just a net 3 credits over a total of like 8 clicks?

8

Well, it (Private Contracts) is no Eve Campaign, I’ll give you that, but you net 3 credits in the first 3 clicks, and in total 11 over 7 clicks. And it’s also rather useful as Siphon defence.

9

Not really. It takes a click to install and 3 creds to rez, which means the first 3 clicks don’t even break even. It’s really the world’s slowest hedge fund in asset form.

10

But you also get a free draw out of installing it. :wink:

1 Like
11

Ice mix:
I would replace x1 Rototurret with x1 Grim: Rototurret isn’t going to be useful against the runner once they get a sentry breaker, but you don’t want it early because they won’t have any breakers out. Grim is a great way to trash a program, especially if they are using Mimic or Femme as their sentry breaker. x3 Lotus Field and x2 Quandary is overkill for basic ETR code gates. I would take out one copy of one or the other depending on your meta. I would replace it with another Wraparound. Anti-AI is important with Rototurret and Quandary providing a big chunk of your ETR and Eli just provides taxing without hard ETR.

Economy:
Has Marked Accounts really proved viable? It’s very click instensive. It may be worth using some of the extra influence here for Mental Health Clinics which also help Sweeps Week.

1 Like
12

I am toying around with the new identity as well and it seems quite familiar. I decided to only go with two Biotic Labor to make room for two Blue Level Clearance, which I liked a lot in TWIY already. With a lot of Parasites and Intis around I also considered playing Himitsu Baku but I am not quite sure about it yet.

Near-Earth Ads

Near-Earth Hub: Broadcast Center (Upstalk)

Agenda (11)
3x AstroScript Pilot Program (Core Set)

2x Breaking News (Core Set)

3x NAPD Contract (Double Time)

3x Project Beale (Future Proof)

Asset (3)
3x Jackson Howard (Opening Moves)

Upgrade (3)
3x SanSan City Grid (Core Set)

Operation (15)
2x Biotic Labor (Core Set) ••••• •••
2x Blue Level Clearance (Fear and Loathing) ••••
3x Fast Track (Honor and Profit)

3x Hedge Fund (Core Set)

2x Shipment from SanSan (Second Thoughts)

3x Sweeps Week (True Colors)

Barrier (8)
3x Wall of Static (Core Set)

2x Wraparound (Fear and Loathing)

3x Eli 1.0 (Future Proof) •••

Code Gate (5)
2x Quandary (Double Time)

1x Tollbooth (Core Set)

2x Lotus Field i[/i] ••

Sentry (4)
2x Grim (Opening Moves)

2x Guard (Honor and Profit)

17 influence spent (max 17)
20 agenda points (between 20 and 21)
49 cards (min 45)
Cards up to Upstalk

Deck built on NetrunnerDB.
[Edit: Format of the decklist was messed up.]

1 Like
13

I’m just wondering, with BLC, Fast Track, and the ID ability, are you going to be flooding yourself?

2 Likes
14

Edit - bad idea, nevermind

15

So far flooding hasn’t been an issue yet and the extra draw and economy were extremely helpful.

16

I’m testing the following list right now:

Near-Earth Hub: Broadcast Center

Agenda (11)
3 AstroScript Pilot Program
2 Breaking News
3 NAPD Contract
3 Project Beale

Asset (2)
2 Jackson Howard

Upgrade (2)
2 SanSan City Grid

Operation (16)
2 Beanstalk Royalties ••
3 Biotic Labor ••••••••••••
3 Fast Track
3 Hedge Fund
2 Shipment from SanSan
3 Sweeps Week

Barrier (6)
3 Eli 1.0 •••
3 Wraparound

Code Gate (6)
3 Pop-up Window
3 Quandary

Sentry (4)
2 Grim
2 Guard

ICE (2)
2 Chimera

I’m very happy with having 3 Biotics and 3 Elis. Not sure if Grim is good choice, it has antisynergy with NAPD Contract (though with 3 Fast Tracks I don’t plan to score those a lot), on the other hand so far in each game it has killed a breaker.

2 Likes
18

NBN is probably the one faction where every ID printed for it will at least be somewhat playable because the cards are so good, so pretty much any NBN deck should be portable to this new ID. I’m also interested in Snare/Ash, and Midseasons decks with Celebrity Gifts.

1 Like
19

Btw, this deck has already been claimed by Kroen :wink: (bgg joke)

5 Likes
20

[quote=“jerklin, post:18, topic:1334, full:true”]
NBN is probably the one faction where every ID printed for it will at least be somewhat playable because the cards are so good, so pretty much any NBN deck should be portable to this new ID. I’m also interested in Snare/Ash, and Midseasons decks with Celebrity Gifts.[/quote]I wouldn’t port anything relying on traces. I tried Ash and he didn’t impress me, replaced with Snares now but played only one game and didn’t draw any (my current taxing build uses influence package of 3 Eli, 2 Ichi, 2 Pup, 2 Snare, 2 BLC).

The OCTGN win rate for NE Hub is currently crazy high (67,7%, though the sample size is very small, just 200 games). Will be interesting to see how it looks in a week or two.

21

At the very least, if you do, take Primary Transmission Dish as an econ-ish asset. I’d rather go relatively traceless and save the slots, but I can see how PTD would work well for it potentially. At the very least, it’s not impossible to get to a position where you’re better off for traces than MN, since you’ve got more reason to go horizontal (though horizontal MN could use PTD to make a rather preposterous Midseasons, I suppose. 11 real credits at the start turns into 17 (6 from Midseasons, 2 from MN, 9 from PTDs).