State of the Meta - June 2017

[FightingWalloon]

We've had some big events and a fair number of Regionals. What is the read people have on the state of the meta?

From my vantage point (such as it is), it looks like the top decks sort out something like this right now:

Corp
HB Moons
SYNC

Are there any more that you would describe as top decks that you absolutely would expect to face at the top tables? CI or Skorp maybe?

Runner
Whizzard, Siphon
Whizzard, Temujin
Lock Haley

Anyone else? Is Andy still a deck you would expect at the top? NorCal Ayla?

[phette23]

I think when you look at the very top of major tournament results, everything you wrote is spot on. I would go ahead and include CI in the top corps, while Skorp is a strong meta choice but hasn't quite won anything yet.

There's a ton of viable tier two decks right now that, in the hands of the right pilot, could take down a regional, though. Things like Moons IG, Desperado Smoke, Hatchet Job Skorp, CtM, DLR & good stuff Andy, etc. are all strong. The meta looks wide open, honestly. If you want to play a particular faction, you can likely find a strong archetype in it.

[EmptyWorld]

There are simply no more big meta,the Euros and US regional are the best example.
The gap between T1 and T2 decks are really small,you can build a deck that teched against T1 decks and also have some decent match up against other decks.You just can't have a well-rounded deck.
It's hard to estimate the state of meta,and to be honest,the best meta is the meta that hard to estimate.

[miek]

I think there are about 4 Corp decks right now that will beat anything not teched for them. Ci, moon etf, hatchet skorp and sync boom. Of those, ci is probably the most obnoxious to tech against, requiring employee strikes or siphons t1. Moon etf is probably next, requiring ridiculous money tempo to keep up with trashes. As such I'm kind of on the opinion that siphon whizz is the best bet, as it has the tech for both of those (and okay matchups against skorp + sync too). That said, it can be an absolute dog to anything else that isn't those top 4,and isn't even necessarily that great against them either. The runner meta right now certainly is an enigma and I'm struggling to solve it.

[higgs_bozo]

I haven't found it very difficult to beat Skorp without tech. Unless you count Rebirth Quetzal, which I do almost every time I draw the Rebirth.

[Jamesgrety]

Corp side Etf Moon, CI, SYNC and Aginfusion seem the decks to beat.

As for the runner, I'd say that Smoke, Hayley and Kate are all well positioned to beat the above mentioned big 4. They pack a lot of hate cards which are useful in many matchups of these matchups (clot, film critic, sac con), they can have a good economic engine (prepaid Kate, Temu Smoke, Hayley with Aesop and Bloo Moose very soon) and they have a choice of breakers which is extremely good for the current meta ( stealh breakers, lady, mimic, atman, faust and chameleon).
Siphon Whizz seems ok vs Etf Moon, but not as good as a shaper, but very hard to pilot vs Sync and vs Aginfusion

[phette23]

What Aginfusion builds are you talking about? The ID is so new I just haven't seen it around much.

[Remorhaz]

From what I understand it's the glacier RP deck ported into AgInfusion. Get something gross like DNA tracker rezzed on RnD use caprice, nisei tokens and strategic use of AgInfusions ability to score out. Friends keeps the ice coming back and AgInfusions ability makes it hard to resolve run based events like siphon, spooned , legwork, deep data mining etc. I haven't played it. it seems a bit fiddly but I've been told it's good

[hsiale]

From what I understand it's the glacier RP deck ported into AgInfusion.

Ones I've seen resemble Palana more (they are on operation econ, not on assets). They are a bit poorer but having a way around powerful run events (and there's plenty of them in common runner decks) helps a lot. Then there are two AgInfusion-specific tricks.

1. If you get an Excalibur rezzed on some irrelevant remote and the runner has no way to break it, they cannot make any meaningful runs as long as you can install one ice per turn.

2. If you rez a big nasty piece of ice (usually DNA Tracker or Chiyashi) on the outside of some server (which, in other corp, would usually result in the runner avoiding the server until end of the game unless they have really good reasons to go there), you can throw the runner into that ice when they run elsewhere.

@Matuszczak has won Wrocław Regionals this weekend with Grail AgInfusion deck.

[FightingWalloon]

Do you think Skorpios will remain enough of a presence in the meta that in order to be viable in competitive play you have to be able to survive Skorpios rig-shooter?

(I have a deck I really like but it just flat loses to Skorpios. I figure that means it is not playable at a tournament, but I don't want to let it go.)

[Korrigan]

@Matuszczak has won Wrocław Regionals this weekend with Grail AgInfusion deck.

I won Bratislava Regionals on the same day but with a Ruhr Valley AgInfusion deck (https://netrunnerdb.com/en/decklist/43658/click-me-1st-bratislava-regionals-5-2-)