[NEXT Design] Making It Work

It also tends to be brittle against Emergency Shutdown. I mean, sure, if you’re spending the cash, that sucks, but if you can spend the cash you can at least make sure the thing lands some damage first, rather than being Sneakdoored around and Shutdown without doing anything.

Also, if you have the econ, the ice aren’t broken by a super-expensive run. Opus + Efficient Breakers makes OAI a liability in some situations. I mean, that sucks for the runner, sure, but if you need that Ice to be there… yeah. It’s a smaller issue than the others, but I’ve found BER/OAI to work much better in decks that are already econ-strong as a boost more than as primary economy themselves.

Has anyone here tried using Security Subcontract in NEXT? If you’re rushing, you can use cheap ETR ICE and make your money back once a breaker hits the table. Also, it could make weak ice draws into psuedo-economy during the mid-game, when the last thing you want to see is an ice-wall. It’s also a nice surprise against Knight / Parasite. This is all conjecture, so take it with a grain of salt.

Unfortunately, my gut says play-testing will bear out the more obvious approach to economy.

Which is why I still prefer running 5/3 agendas - you need to save those slots.

I think something people perhaps haven’t realised about deckbuilding is that you have to make the agendas work for your strategy. You can’t just put 11 or 12 blanks in there because you’re losing too much value - those cards have to be pulling their wieght. This is the fundamental reason why Jinteki were terrible until H&P - their agendas didn’t work for any of their strategies, so they were packing a dozen blanks just to make up the numbers. Their best agenda was one they didn’t want to score (Fetal AI).

ABT and Priority Requisition synergise so well in a deck that wants to invest highly in ICE. They are essentially extra economy and clicks. Failed ABTs are not nearly so risky with Jackson Howard. You also have Archived Memories in faction and the fact that you will be putting ICE on archives anyway (especially against criminals).

3 Likes

Alright, found Upstalk got rezzed on OCTGN tonight. HAD to try this. Beat a Reina and a Gabe. Latter landed zero Siphons, AND LARLA’d to get his Corroders and Parasites back. Both games saw Bronze get our of Yog range. This is not great, but in its 1.0 form, I like it. May need SubMess or GLC.

William Cell

NEXT Design: Guarding the Net (Creation and Control)

Agenda (10)

Upgrade (2)

Operation (9)

Barrier (6)

Code Gate (9)

Sentry (9)

12 influence spent (max 12)
20 agenda points (between 20 and 21)
45 cards (min 45)
Cards up to Upstalk

Deck built on NetrunnerDB.

3 Likes

How were the Domestic Sleepers? Were you closing games out with them?

As you can see, the goal is to turn on Archers turn one, with them installed. Inazuma crushes before they’re set up, and CT can boost either.

Yeah, won both with them. Used two v. Gabe.

How… is upstalk rezzed if it isn’t even in stores yet? DB0, you so crazy :).

1 Like

Missed the spoilers?

I ran into a Midway Grid tonight, and was, like, ‘GG, time to build.’

Hey @spags, how do these work out for you?
Do you find they still have value in the late game, or are you relying on pulling one early while the runner is still exploring?

Successful Demo is re-enabled by Inazuma in a huge way.

Edit: @Spags did the troubleshooters seem essential, or could they be cut for Subliminals?

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Corporate Troubshooter and Inzauma probably gives you a shot or two at them mid game at least.

I really like them in Replicating Perfection (for punishing ‘touch a central and jack out’ runs). I went off them a bit in NEXT, not so much because of the mid-game, but more because I couldn’t play it first turn.

Demo is in there for the early game, but Inazuma and CT can turn it on late.

I think CT could come out for SubMess. However, love that late security blanket, but I’m unsure if I will have the creds. Also, don’t make me take out one of my fave cards!

I can always go up to 49 cards. :wink:

Yeah, but you can def. play them second turn.

This is my first post-Upstalk NEXT Design build. It’s a straight up glacier build, no fancy tricks except the Succesful Demos to get through those tricky first few turns.

Early playtesting suggests that Lotus Field is exactly as suggested. It shuts out Datasucker-based strategies but is expensive against the rest of the field. On the other hand if the Corp isn’t running Parasites, the NEXT ice builds up with the bioroids to be impossibly taxing very quickly.

Is it better out of ETF? Hard to say. This definitely has a better early-game not because of the free turn, but because you’ll see multiples of the next ice quicker.

NEXT Design: Guarding the Net (Creation and Control)

Agenda (8)
3x Accelerated Beta Test (Core Set)
3x Priority Requisition (Core Set)
1x Project Vitruvius (Cyber Exodus)
1x Project Wotan (Creation and Control)

Asset (9)
3x Adonis Campaign (Core Set)
3x Eve Campaign (Humanity’s Shadow)
3x Jackson Howard (Opening Moves) •••

Upgrade (2)
2x Ash 2X3ZB9CY (What Lies Ahead)

Operation (5)
3x Hedge Fund (Core Set)
2x Successful Demonstration (Creation and Control)

Barrier (10)
2x Heimdall 1.0 (Core Set)
3x Eli 1.0 (Future Proof)
2x Heimdall 2.0 (Creation and Control)
3x NEXT Silver (Upstalk)

Code Gate (11)
3x Tollbooth (Core Set) ••••• •
2x Viktor 2.0 (Creation and Control)
3x NEXT Bronze (Opening Moves)
3x Lotus Field (Upstalk) •••

Sentry (3)
3x Ichi 1.0 (Core Set)

ICE (1)
1x Mother Goddess (Upstalk)

12 influence spent (maximum 12)
20 agenda points (between 20 and 21)
49 cards (min 45)
Cards up to Upstalk

2 Likes

I think it’s Runner meta-dependent. If passive run-based economy is popular in your area then NEXT crushes because right from the get-go there are no soft targets so it’s hard to make a successful run; Desperado, Gabe, Security Testing, Dirty Laundry, Datasucker, John Masanori etc. will be way less successful and that stifles the runner’s early development.

This deck looks more like an ETF deck. The asset economy kinda cancels out the benefit NEXT gives you by denying successful runs.

I think you need more Sentries too. You want to make the runner have to go and find his breaker and pay to install it - further choking his economy. You’re letting him get away with two thirds of a rig by only running one Sentry (which can be clicked through).

1 Like

I feel like the Ichis should be 2.0 (you don’t want to be rezzing them early anyway, and for a midgame rez 2.0 is much much better) and one of the Heimys 1.0 should be the third Successful Demo. Also, if you run very few sentries and don’t gear-check for them, Ichi becomes more potent - but you also want the 2.0 for this, because otherwise you’ll only get 1 trash out of it sometimes where you could have gotten two.

Disagree on asset econ cancelling out NEXT, btw - the only thing here that you’d want to put into a separate server is Eve anyway, and if you slap just one decent piece in front of her, farming that server for credits will become tricky, to say the least. Then, just keep the second Eve in hand until the first runs out or gets nuked.

If you played this out of EtF, you’d be probably be missing the opening hand cycling pretty badly. 25 ICE is 25 ICE, after all :stuck_out_tongue:

Yeah, I agree. I meant that the style of deck looked more like ETF’s style of play, not that it would necessarily be successful as ETF. Good point re: Ichi 2.0.

On closer inspection, it looks like there’s not enough cheap ICE here. You only have 3 burst econ cards that you can play on turn one (although in all likelihood you see 9 cards before you play anything so a reasonable chance of seeing a Hedge Fund). Nevertheless, it’s difficult to see you rezzing a lot against early runner aggression, and if you let the credits drop to zero (or are forced there by Siphon / Vamp) it will be very hard to recover.

You might have to accept that one of your centrals could leak some big agenda points in the early game.

Yes, I accept that risk. Unless you play really cheap stuff like Paper Wall and Quandery I think you have to. The other option is to switch out Tollbooth and spend the influence on Sweeps Week, which is what my rush build was doing before Upstalk.

I’ll post a 2.0 version of the Rush/Fast Advance later. I think it will look quite a bit different - using the clearances to get money but also to draw into more NEXT ice quickly.

EDIT: I now have the Fast Adance/Rush build (Paper Wall 2.0) at the end of this post.

Playtesting is revealing a few things:

Archer is an absolute bomb with Domestic Sleepers, ABT and Priority Req, but Domestic Sleepers is really hard to fit into the deck and not fall below my 23 ICE minimum. I can’t see anyway of fitting them into the Fast Advance version. I can just about squeeze it into the Glacier, but Domestic Sleepers is weaker in that build because the 5222 composition means you shouldn’t need a “spare” point to win. The alternative is Inzamua on top of an Ichi, which is harder to set up. Personally though I don’t like Inzamua in NEXT because it is a dead ICE in the opening hand (and both builds are already quite Code Gate heavy).

I think both builds need Lotus Field. Decks without parasite have a horrible time against the NEXT Ice, which becomes very taxing surprisingly quickly. But decks with Parasite will target NEXT Silver, meaning that they can then Yog NEXT Bronze (unless you see all three and Mother Godess). Unfortunately Lotus Field is quite expensive for the Fast Advance build, and opens up an Atman 4 vunrability (since 4 NEXT Ice is your sweet spot).

NEXT Design: Guarding the Net (Creation and Control)

Agenda (10)
3x Accelerated Beta Test (Core Set)
3x Project Vitruvius (Cyber Exodus)
3x Efficiency Committee (Creation and Control)
1x NAPD Contract (Double Time)

Operation (16)
2x Archived Memories (Core Set)
3x Biotic Labor (Core Set)
3x Hedge Fund (Core Set)
2x Successful Demonstration (Creation and Control)
3x Shipment from SanSan (Second Thoughts) •••
3x Sweeps Week (True Colors) ••••• •

Barrier (9)
3x Wall of Static (Core Set)
3x Eli 1.0 (Future Proof)
3x NEXT Silver (Upstalk)

Code Gate (9)
3x NEXT Bronze (Opening Moves)
3x Quandary (Double Time)
3x Lotus Field (Upstalk) •••

Sentry (3)
3x Rototurret (Core Set)

ICE (2)
2x Mother Goddess (Upstalk)

12 influence spent (maximum 12)
20 agenda points (between 20 and 21)
49 cards (min 45)
Cards up to Upstalk

1 Like

Initial snap reaction to this is do you definitely want x2? It’s unique, so you don’t want to draw both and I don’t think it’s so amazing that you definitely feel that you need to see it in every game.

2 Likes

I agree it’s marginal between 1 or 2. The argument for x2 is that it powers up the NEXT Ice and the quicker that happens, the better. It’s also a nice starting ICE on HQ to keep Account Siphon out because it can’t be broken out the blocks with a conventional breaker.