Haven’t had a chance to play with Masque yet, but the same game that I unlocked her I also managed to remove the 3 Shadow Team, so I’m gonna go with just straight replacing those three cards…
What repeatedly fascinates me is how many people discussing the campaign say that stuff that makes you access cards out of remotes is good. Yeah, Maxwell James is cool and all, but it was exceedingly rare for my opponent to advance agendas in remotes. So to use him, I’d have to make my way into HQ (which usually costs money) then wind up broke to go run a remote and, if I’m lucky, steal a 3/2. But more often, I’d just hit an unrezzed Marilyn Campaign, SanSan, or Delgado that I can’t afford to trash.
For all my griping, I did get to pack 8 and got 5 or so agenda points, but could never find my Delgados to close out the campaign, nor did I seem to have any hope of winning future games barring insane luck (my opponent and I decided to just stop playing at this point, as his Evidence Collections got the Global Food effect and he was repeatedly swapping back agendas I stole). But my opponent’s deck was pretty much entirely fast advance with a bit of never advance, and it was REALLY easy for him to do with me having very little way of actually applying enough HQ pressure or econ denial to make it challenging. Having to steal four agendas to win (in the early games of the campaign) or having him swap back his Elective Upgrades that I stole AND get the scored effect on them because I couldn’t find 11ish credits to pay through his ICE and trash his Delgado, felt frustrating and pointless to both of us.
Also, I found it was often very difficult to find my Siphons with only two in the deck.
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While Correlation =/= Causation…
That said, yeah. HBFA is alive and well in the campaign, with 6 3/2’s in the deck, and a 5/3 that adds more Biotic Labor into the deck.
R&D Lock is basically the only real strategy you have available as a Runner, because of how easy FA is to pull off and how you can’t stop it. I realized this after only one game and immediately made room for Maker’s Eye in the deck. I have no idea how Ayla can possibly pull it off, because with Steve I at least force HQ to have something resembling defense unless he wants me to get my events back multiple times…
Remote Lock is easily obtained with Steve and his Inside Job/Spear Phishing as well as Maxwell, but FA defeats Remote Lock, in the general case.
There’s another problem with Steve in this matchup though: Polyhistor is absolutely not what you ever want to do for HBFA… It sort of helps maintain an R&D Lock, but it also shoves more and more pieces into their hand where they want and need them.
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How do you ever maintain R&D lock? My game the corp got the ability to draw a card, return a card and then shuffle every time I stole. R&D lock was non existent at that point.
The same way you maintain R&D Lock when you steal an agenda on your last click in normal Netrunner? (By Favor of the RNG Gods; you just hit an agenda, it’s pretty unlikely to be another one right after. Not impossible, but no less or more likely with put back+shuffle vs just draw next card.)
The harder part of R&D Lock is getting enough money to break all the ICE on R&D every turn at least once (and more likely twice, in case you steal/trash.)
I do wonder how wise the recommendation to use only one core was; I too felt like not being able to run full playsets of cards just added unfun variance to the games. Trying to assemble a Scorch combo out of Skorpios is too hard when you only have two of them, and I gave up after a couple of games. Running Biotic for the Evidence Collections was a better choice, which just felt stupid.
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I think it’s because it’s designed as a second expansion for new players and it wouldn’t make sense to a new player to get more than one core set.
The whole point of R&D lock is that you 1. Know the cards coming down the pipe and 2. Know they aren’t getting agendas. I get that sometimes you hit the top card of R&D and can’t lock, but if you makers eye, you know what two additional cards are and probably have a turn of breathing room before another score is possible. The tempo of a game where you look at four cards and none of it matters because it will get shuffled is quite far in the Corps favor.
I had 2 Maker’s Eye in the deck from the start. When my opponent swapped my stolen Elective Upgrade for a fast-advanced 2/0, I switched to Medium, figuring that the only possible way to win was to steal all the 3/2s before my opponent drew them. It didn’t work, as I only managed to dig with 3-4 counters once and was completely unable to get the money to keep running R&D.
Even if I could have accessed the remote with Sneakdoor Prime (which always would have cost money, because my opponent consistently iced up Archives), I wouldn’t have had the five credits to trash Delgado. And yeah, Polyhistor was garbage. In retrospect, I probably should have played the one-of Desperado and a Akamatsu Mem Chip or something.
I feel this is why you absolutely have to have a Remote Lock plan in place. You should be able to get into any remote to trash Delgado if you want to avoid losing to 2/0’s game after game. Like… Sure, Remote Lock isn’t that useful for stealing agendas, but it’s useful to make sure you don’t lose the agendas you DID steal. HQ Lock can’t be done with the card pool, so it often ends up the safest place for agendas to pool up.
Step 1: Lock their remotes; prevent money assets from existing so that they have to money up. Trash Delgado.
Step 2: Lock R&D; Always know when a Biotic Labor is coming. If they draw out of your lock, hit HQ once next turn.
Step 3: Dig R&D; get a Medium going or Maker’s Eye.
Unfortunately, both runners end up on this plan. I feel Steve has an easier time at Step 1, while Ayla has a better time at Step 2.
Interesting to hear the reports of Corp dominance. I agree that Corp gets INSANELY better cards, I didn’t actually include a single non mandatory campaign card in my Steve. However, solid runner fundamentals were plenty to get me all the way through and eventually winning 7 games to 2 even after the Corp got their crazy cards.
I played Ayla versus Seidr, and finished my campaign in maybe 6 games. Mopus economy and agenda flood are both very good on the runner side. I was very fortunate to activate one of my cautions and deal with its effects in the one game; things might have been different otherwise.
No Spear-Phishing…? Also Maxwell James, but I can see a build that doesn’t run that. Also, Lustig is better than Ninja, but I guess you just used Mimic instead?
Those are all TD cards, but not campaign cards. 
I used plenty of TD cards, just none of the cards you open during the campaign other than the mandatory ones.
Oh. Herp. Derp.
I feel that the first Asset unlock for the Corp side is good, and that The Masque on Predator Runner side is good. BMI Buffer isn’t good until it gets an upgrade, and even then it’s only passable.
Are there any BAD corp unlocks? They start good and get kinda crazy. Runner cards start weak and become ok.
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I found that no, there weren’t. I included every card I could as corp, the code gates you end up getting are absurdly powerful. Turning the 3/2’s into mini foods was the most absurd part of it all.
We just finished campaign yesterday me runner (Steve) vs my daughter corp (Skorpio). 10 games and we’re happy that’s it’s finish we will paly real games next week end. I win the campaign but just because she made a bad error at her last games, I think she win 5 of the last 6. I win 3 of the first 4.
I don’t recommend Terminal Directive to other players. For us it’s dull game with little strategy. Welcome back to reality!
(Sorry for my English )
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I have been slowly working through the campaign with a buddy of mine and we are very close to the end. I’m playing Steve vs. Skorpios and we are having a great time.
I’m playing aggressive ethos and the card and ability unlocks are very cool. My first click access bonus has been oppressive and the upgraded Network Key is insane. Last night I played Maker’s Eye first click of my final turn and acessed 5 cards for the win (after face checking a fully upgraded Colossus).
My opponent opened packs 7 and 9, and that 2/0 agenda looks nasty. I’m going to slot Data Dealer in case I nab one.
So far, the balance and tension over unlocked abilities has been exciting and changed the game in intersting ways. After I took a chance and risked a caution -getting the Shadow Team- we have each carefully avoided unlocking another. Account Siphon and Snare! each have interesting added pressure when I have to put cards on my stack.
I’d love to use some of the campaign cards in regular play, but I know they haven’t been balanced for that. Once we are done I will probably look to switch sides and IDs to give the campaign another go.
So far, this has been a great way to play Netrunner with some variety. I hope they make more!
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