Hi all! I have been successfully peer-pressured into trying Netrunner. I played three games against a veteran friend this weekend via Jinteki: one with the System Gateway starter decks so I could get my feet wet, and two with meta, tournament-placing decks from netrunnerdb.
I not only loved the game but also loved the process of discovering each deck’s deal, its gameplan, its little tricks and misdirections. I fell in love with this immediately and made me want to get into brewing decks myself. Are there any guides for deckbuilding in the current (or current-ish) format you could recommend? I prefer text over video but either works. Thanks in advance and hope to play with you all soon!
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These two links may help a lot:
You should absolutely check out Métropole Grid! Andrej has an entire series explaining the basics of deckbuilding, and he generally does a lot of beginner-focused content. Even just watching him build a deck live on stream and trying it out will give you lots of useful pointers tbh!
Neon Static have also been doing more stuff for beginners lately. They don’t have any deckbuilding guides per se but they’ve done a few beginner-focused videos.
TMKF mostly does tournament reports, but he’s got at least one video where he does a deep dive on how to play a popular deck, and watching it would help you realise how the deck was put together which would give you lessons for your own deckbuilding. Baa Ram Wu does a lot of that in their livestreams as well, explaining the deck at the start of the stream before trying it out on Jnet.
The point about watching a deck get explained before it’s piloted on stream is the part that clicks for me—seeing why a card is included matters more than a list. Since you prefer text, chouxflower’s reg-ass write-up is the closest thing to a structured guide, and it walks through the reasoning rather than just the slots. One thing that helped me learn: after a game, note which cards sat unused and ask whether they were dead or just matchup-specific. That question tends to teach more than any tier list.
Focusing on the reasoning behind card choices is what I’d emphasize too. The reg-ass write-up stands out precisely because it explains why each slot exists rather than just listing cards for you to copy. If watching streams isn’t your thing, pausing after a game to review which cards never got played is a practical habit—it separates genuinely dead cards from situational ones. That kind of reflection does more for deckbuilding instincts than any tier list, and it’s easy to do solo without needing a guide.
The point about noting unused cards after a game is what I’ll try first—it’s concrete and doesn’t require watching anything. As someone just starting out, copying a list without understanding the slots has been my main problem, so the reg-ass write-up sounds worth seeking out for the reasoning. I’m also curious whether matchup-specific cards can be identified before playing, or if you really only learn that by testing them across several games.