Nero Severn: Reflections on the new Criminal

No, not literally. He is better than Snitch for sentries because the corp has to rez to make you jack out.

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Does that really make him any better though?

For sentries, yes–especially against Archer.

Yes, it does. And it often feels good to bounce off a Data Raven if it was just rezzed. The tempo loss for corps, especially early game, is real. I think if ice suites are sentry-heavy, then Nero is going to get a lot of free accesses.

Imagine you’re the corp, and you have a standard opening of Ice, Ice, Credit. One of those ice is an architect (or Caduceus, or whatever). Are you really willing to spend 4 credits to turn off a single access? Those subs aren’t firing against Nero, so it might as well be a 4cr ice wall. That’s a shitty decision to make as corp.

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Alright, it’s about to get weird and could cost a lot of influence and memory but what about False Echo? You can force a rez a little more or bounce the ICE back to their hand. I doubt this is going to be another Fisk where everybody got excited than it turned into a horrible flop.

Another thing to remember is Criminal is more about econ denial so if played right, I think he can do a good job.

I am thinking about how his ability actually works for your game, rather than just what it does explicitly. One benefit is that you won’t rely on killers to start running aggressively, and you won’t necessarily be handcuffed to cards like mimic or faerie for deck slots (let alone digging for them). I think its a great ability for a stealth rig, since you won’t have to find switchblade quite as early/need 3 of them, and when you do, you still have a nice ‘get out of jail free’ card for not blowing through 2 of your stealth credits if you don’t want to.

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This is a great point as one of the weaknesses of using Switchblade was not being to run early. With Nero, you don’t have to set up Switchblade and at least 2 recurring stealth credits before pressuring the corp.

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Might still be slower to set up than Stealth Andy, but using Switchblade as a sentry breaker alone is still decent, even if you didn’t go all-in, I think. Might be worth doing, though, I dunno.

Heck, if you can tolerate some inefficiency, can even fit a full stealth rig with normal breakers without any memchips, so long as you’re using Reflections. 1 for Switchblade, 1 for Refracter, 3 for Cloaks, and 0 for Sherman if Reflections is in play. Sherman’s not quite Corroder, but it’s decent enough I think, and you could run the B&E Suite as back-up breakers if you really wanted the extra security.

I mean, the B&Es will be better in Geist with Tech Trader, I imagine, but they’re still decent as Stealth backups. You just need the draw power and initial money to get set up/use Sherman, but I think that should be pretty manageable. Hell, with Stealth stuff High-Stakes Job becomes all the more playable, because you’re unlikely to be spending any real credits or to be kept from accesses.

Feel like Exclusive Party might also be decent but am unsure if that’s just me really liking the card or what.

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I totally agree that Andy gets a finished stealth rig faster, BUT, Nero might be more effective prior to a completed stealth rig.

If we ARE going to go niche ‘jack off’ with Nero, what does his deck look like?

What synergises directly with his ability at the moment? Au Revoir, Reflection, The Turning Wheel all give jack out (or at least, just ‘run’) benefits. More broadly, cards we might want to look at are Jak Sinclair, Crescentus, Faerie, Emergency Shutdown, and Snitch.

If we’re using Reflection, we may want to look at Underworld Contacts or Cloud breakers (note this is good if we’re dedicating 3 MU to Au Revoir) as well. In fact, I think this would be the perfect deck for a Sports Hopper. It wants to get to 2 link to turn on cloud/UC, but then doesn’t care about the rest, so can ditch them as an inf-free-slightly-crappier Quality Time.

Could we play around with something like this?

Nero Nonsense?

Nero Severn: Information Broker (Democracy and Dogma)

Event (7)
3x Inside Job (Core Set)
1x Legwork (Honor and Profit)
3x Sure Gamble (Core Set)

Hardware (6)
3x Reflection (Democracy and Dogma)
3x Sports Hopper (Salsette Island)

Resource (8)
2x Earthrise Hotel (The Source)
1x Kati Jones (Humanity’s Shadow)
2x The Turning Wheel (The Liberated Mind) [color=#708090]••[/color]
3x Underworld Contact (A Study in Static)

Icebreaker (9)
2x Faerie (Future Proof)
1x Femme Fatale (Core Set)
1x GS Sherman M3 (Data and Destiny) [color=undefined]••[/color]
1x GS Shrike M2 (Data and Destiny) [color=undefined]••[/color]
3x Spike (The Valley)
1x ZU.13 Key Master (What Lies Ahead) [color=#32CD32]••[/color]

Program (7)
3x Au Revoir (The Source)
2x Self-modifying Code (Creation and Control) [color=#32CD32]••••• •[/color]
2x Snitch (Cyber Exodus)
14 influence spent (max 15)
37 cards (min 45)
Cards up to The Liberated Mind

Deck built on NetrunnerDB.

EDIT: Also, I’m afraid I will totally be claiming the name ‘Jacking Off’ for this style of Nero deck. I hear that’s a rude phrase for you Americans.

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I have yet to throw a list together, but getting a decoder early seems like what Nero wants to be doing. Barriers are nothing and sentries are barriers. Zu seems good here with passport backup.

The Au Revoir idea is going to work maybe once out of ten games. :wink:

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The Jack Off deck. I don’t think I can stop laughing, hilarious is an understatement. Please let this stick.

@CJFM, don’t barriers typically give criminals fits because they have to import a fracter?

Hey, who wants to talk about Nero sage?

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And then you use e3 feedback implants if it’s a multi-sub ICE. That actually sounds pretty good to me. Set up a link economy using Dysons to boost MU to boost Sage’s Strength. I like it a lot.

You tell me. I’m just a Shaper on vacation in criminaltown :wink:

Barriers give us fits? Maybe I’m doing something wrong, but every one of my non-Faust/jank criminal decks automatically spend 4 influence on Corroder. With the obligatory Special Order X 2-3… meh?

Now code gates I hate. Hate hate hate.

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Suck it up and play Peacock. Its not like the good 'ol days where we would splash for Atman, Cyber-Cypher or Zu.13.

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Rex/Passport/Femme are all good cards. Scavenge is a thing Crim should be playing right now.

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I just meant that I think the question for criminals is more “what do I do for code gates” rather than “what do I do for a fracter.”

How many scavenges do you slot in? 2? I can’t see how I’d fit in more while keeping to three desperado.

3 Desperado (-3), 2 Corroder (4), then… 2 scavenge and 2 rdi/makers? I guess you could SoT if you had to. I’ll give it a shot with 3 Rex (or 2 w/ passport).

Well, being completely honest, I’m sticking with Ken for now, and have low expectations for Nero, so that helps. I’m playing 2 each of Femme, Corroder, and Rex, 3 Faerie, 1 Scavenge, 2-3 SoT depending on the mood. 1 Special order, 2 Drug dealer, 3 FiS to locate said breakers.

I totally forgot this was the Nero thread (thought it was the Sad Sack Criminal one that’s been going for a while). I’ll try it out with Leela though.

1 Like