I feel like the argument for taking action against PPVP was justified even if it does feel heavy handed. I think that PPVP Kate does in fact limit design space in a big way. Those decks are a couple shades too powerful and far too resilient to hate out. If you don’t do something about them they will continue to be a (if not the) dominant force in the meta with very little room in those decks for tinkering or innovation. You’re probably right that the problem lies more with Kate than it does with PPVP, but I think that this change is necessary to breath some life into alternative Shaper strategies if they aren’t willing put errata on IDs (which I do not fault them for because that seems like way more of a a shit show then a list does). The main reason I think it feels so bad to a lot of players is that all the other cards on the list will continue still see a good amount of play but PPVP becomes instantly unplayable once the MWL penalty hits.
My biggest complaint with this list is that Noise didn’t take a bigger hit. I really don’t want to see him everywhere because as tedious as it is to see Kate every other round, at least it’s Real Netrunner ™. Noise reminds me of some of the worst parts of playing MTG: realizing on turn 3 that you’re going to lose because your opponent’s deck curved out and yours didn’t with no chance to actually interact. Fewer Clone Chips means that he’s going to have a worse time against FA decks since they’ll have a much harder time Clotting you out. But then again those decks lose of out on a lot of the ICE that Noise doesn’t like to play against in Architect and Eli so who knows, it could just be a wash. If there is any reason to print a Core Set 2.0, it’s to stop Noise from being an evergreen ID.
So when is coming Anarch tutor to replace Parasite loss ?
Say you run into an Icewall, you don’t have a Fracter.
Criminal, Shaper : play your tutor, get your fracter, install and rerun.
Anarch : Install Parasite on Icewall, wait a turn.
If Parasite is nerfed, then Test Run, SMC & Special order runner side deserve a nerf, and Lotus Field (urge to play inf cost tutors, no Yog, inf cost decoder), Turing (urge to install a inf cost decoder) on the corp side needs a nerf too tbh.
This or there is an Anarch decoder soon which smells a little less like Force of Nature + a decent tutor.
You spend less inf by using tutors on top of this. You can play 1x breakers + 3x tutors, unfortunually this is for the 2 factions that needs the less inf about those problems.
Shaper need inf to play Alpha-shot HQ dig + 1x/2x killer + optim.
Crim need inf to play R&D dig + 1x/2x decoder + 1x/2x fracter + draw + optim.
Anarch need inf to play Alpha-shot HQ dig + 2x/3x killer + 2x/3x decoder + draw or solutions to their draw + tutor + optim.
I don’t think it’s really fair : Anarch need 3 more inf points either to play Parasite or 1x SMC/test run or 1.5x special order…
This is coming from a not-100%-Noise Anarch player, who actually can’t win without running servers…
Woah, why do you feel the need to import any breakers into Anarch? Mimic, Yog, and Corroder is still the holy trinity of breakers. D4V1D rounds out the group to handle most other troublesome ice.
And multi-access is trivial in Anarch. Medium is still incredible, and you also can switch it to Keyhole no problem. Wanton Destruction is perhaps undervalued in its capacity for HQ punishment.
Yes, Anarchs get hit a little harder by the list in-faction, but they can play around it. Hell, I’m running an effectively 9-influence Quetzal now, and it still performs admirably well.
Anarchs have far better influence than Criminals, they can spare three for the Parasite. I also disagree with Anarchs needing to import all those draw cards and icebreakers. With Inject, Street Peddler, I’ve Had Worse (No Plascretes is pseudo draw!) plus Wyldside&Pancakes you have the best draw of any faction. The cost of this is no tutors. Anarch also has Nerve Agent and Medium which with Grimoire is really good HQ/R&D dig in faction. Not to mention the almighty Keyhole.
Three inf on Parasite, three inf on Atman, three inf on Test Run/SMC, three inf on Career Fair, three inf on Clone Chip. This make an easy 15 inf for most Anarchs.
Three inf on Parasite, six inf on Aesops, three inf on Cache, three inf on Clone Chip. Throw in Déja Vu and Noise is hardly touched.
Three inf on Desperado, two inf on Zu.13, 1 inf on Mimic, 4 inf on Corroders, 2 inf on Datasuckers. I’ve now set up a nice economy and breaker set (okay, the economy gets screwed over by glacier decks). Let’s spend my last three influence on R&D dig (a win condition, please) or one clone chip (which can’t be supplemented with Déja Vu). Criminals then have Drug Dealer or Fisk Investment Seminar as their draw, giving them the worst draw power out of the factions. This’d be okay if the tutoring were better than three copies of Special Order.
The point being made in the article as far as I see it is - if you want to do the virus thing you pick Noise as a niche - if you want to play Anarch, there are many choices other than that.
If you want to play a Shaper deck you ask yourself “would this be better in Kate?” and most often the answer is “yes”
If you want to player a HB deck you ask yourself “would this be better in ETF?” and most often the answer is “yes”
Kate and HB ETF represent better-than-most IDs straight out of the core set. Noise and others represent “really good at this one thing” approaches.
No one has looked at DLR Val, Apocamaxx, L4J or other Anarch types, or even just “good stuff” or “RegAss” Anarch decks and then successfully implemented a new version by switching to Noise.
He’s got his area of expertise and is very good at that. Kate and ETF are just good.
My main worry, as per the article is that Fast Advance is back in force. NEH now has to pay Jackson tax (effectively) but has 17 influence anyway so can still rock and roll. Kate was the main predator (especially with the recent Sacrificial Construct addition - good to see all cards get play), but with that deck severely hampered, it may well encourage more choo-choo train activity.
As we know, only the morally bankrupt and the French play NEH.
Yog alone is the best solution to loose every single game vs a corp with 1x/2x 1-inf Lotus Field.
Either this is blocked by Turing, or you’re playing Force of Nature.
Sure, but it’s also the only tutor that can fail (etr on archives), ask dozens of prep clic before and solve the problem 5 turn after you see it. Parasite is better because as SMC / Test Run / Special Order, you would 80% of the time have a result in the same turn. With Retrieval Run, it’s more like 20% of the time (or else it would be in all Anarch decks).
For another function, I’m not saying Anarch have no 0 inf decoder, you know. But when you see the card, you must have very (very very) good reasons to put it there. And even with those reasons, you’d better play an AI instead of a decoder and hope your opponent have no Lotus Field / Turing.
If you want retreival runs, that’s fine but you’re hoping that no X or Y cards is hitting the table, whereas SMC / Test Run / Special Order have no specific counterplay.
4 breakers and 1 DS, where is your medium ?
Are you sure you allready draw and installed your console ?
Is it a possibility that this Atman x 1 is in the end of the deck, how many “clic draw” does it cost to you ? That’s 17.5 (=45/2)-5) + 7c in a mean game.
That’s hardly SMC/Test Run/Special Order-quick. And cheap.
Parasite did that inf-free in Anarch, now they are as slow as my grandmother. Not very fluff.
My Medium is installed using my extra MU from my Grimoire, assuming the game has even gotten that far. As Anarch you often don’t need to assemble a full rig before the game ends.
It’s hardly fair to argue that you might not draw your console when it’s only necessary for the end game MU. I’d also like to point out that I did include an SMC for my Atman. However, assuming my Atman is on the bottom of my deck (2% chance) and I never draw my entire deck, I’ll take the 2% of games I lose against the 30%(?) of decks running Turing post-MWL.
Let’s be honest here, the only competitive runners other than PPVP Kate are Anarchs. Now that PPVP Kate is dead, I think Anarch can accept the minor nerf.
Getting back on topic to the article, I’m very worried that Kate is too good for the game. She’s horribly warping perceptions of every Shaper that comes out.
Obviously you tutor Darwin for your already charged hivemind…duh.
If Kate is to ever be errated it should be hardware only. It’s thematic to her and you end up front loading 1 cred on econ sources that take time to establish.
The problem is that by balancing a card to only work because “all decks are obviously going to include to include these other cards” means that you allow for no diversity: exactly what this whole caboodle is trying to avoid…
I agree that Anarchs need a decoder to deal with this problem. I disagreed with him insisting that anarchs didn’t have the influence for a solution whilst keeping the deck viable. I’ve commented on the exact same issue here.
You can perfectly solve the main problem but your deck still have no other-than-Anarch tricks to rely on. Try to put a sneakdoor beta for exemple and these problems will reappear.
(I’m talking about decks that play Netrunner aka run to steal an agenda in this server).
Shaper have lots of options, Crim have limited options, Anarch have no options.
Inf in Anarch is not comfort inf as for Shaper & Crim. There’s also not much silver bullets for a whole faction as for Anarchs, especially regular Anarchs with codegates.
Yeah sure, Crim have no in faction tutor to spare inf on double-triple breakers.
Who are the factions importing non breakers programs, I forgot, Anarch just joined that club recently ? Next step if the kids are nice is console splashing permit ?