The Anarch IDs and the Impact on the Metagame

Netrunner General
62

Oooh what Iain build? The Retired Motivational Speaker / Stirling, Cooper, Draper, Price build or something else?

63

Just so happens I found the decklist, or at least a version of it that was accurate right up until the day of the event (and accidentally stumbled over my friendā€™s username at NetrunnerDB in the process, hah).

Iain Stirling, Old Connections

Iain Stirling: Retired Spook (Honor and Profit)

Event (19)

Hardware (8)

Resource (13)

Icebreaker (5)

10 influence spent (max 10)
45 cards (min 45)
Cards up to Honor and Profit

Decklist published on NetrunnerDB.

I think there was a last-second audible on game day, if I remember correctly, and the final list ended up being:

-1 Plascrete
-1 Special Order
-2 Indexing
+2 Makerā€™s Eye
+1 Scrubber
+1 Feedback Filter

The basic idea is to get a Logos out ASAP, then - as soon as they score one agenda - windmill slamming The Source and as many Fall Guys as you can get onto the table. After that you durdle around for a while making piles of money and multi-accessing as you can. This deckā€™s absolute worst matchup is against Jinteki: RP, which can go as slow as you can. Iainā€™s durdling just gives it more time to accrue inevitability.

1 Like
64

This is my favorite thing ever. I had Aurora in my testing list between regionals and nationals, and I hated everything ;). IAIN Y U NO HAVE INFLUENCE BROSEPH? I eventually went back to centrals-only + crypsis.

Iainā€™s bane is Glacier for sure, and while I had great success against older NBN, NEH has been really hard to deal with. Like, really hard. Damn that combo-assembling card draw.

Board control means Logos + Fall Guys the The Source and then desperate running until you win. Ryan and I use Keyhole so we can keep The Source out until weā€™ve locked down the win.

65

I truly believe all factions will be getting a way to rez ICE without runs.

66

I certainly hope not.

67

As already said, I wish I could like this comment twice. I have no idea what was going through Damonā€™s head during that interview.

68

I think the problem is this: Anarch have had the best ICE breakers, the best (only) ICE destruction, the best multi-access to a large extent since core. For ages the best decks have been Anarch cards out of Criminal and - to a lesser extent - Shaper. I think the designers have been worried that giving actual Anarch reliable draw would simply break them and actually I have some sympathy with that view. The problem is that the other factions will continue to be just better so long as they are more consistent. Inject is a good start at giving Anarch some more reliability but with a catch. What weā€™ve seen of the delux so far suggests they may still be operating in that mindset.

2 Likes
69

Yuuup. No real indication yet of anything changing. Anarch is going to be getting more toys in Lunar/Chaos, and fewer of those toys will be easily poached, but thereā€™s not much indication of things actually changing in any real/big sense.

Honestly, I feel like the fear of an uninteractive Noise deck is part of that, too. Itā€™s one thing to have a top tier deck that you play against, but one that just runs until it wins is much more frustrating ā€“ even if it doesnā€™t end up being as good, theyā€™ll still likely move to block it. But blocking that particular Noise build without mangling the rest of Anarch (or making Corps need 3x Jackson) is tricky, to say the least.

And, Iā€™ll be honest, the new toys look amazing, many of them will help significantly Iā€™m sure. Buuut itā€™d be nice if they got a new recursion thing, since that used to be their wheelhouse, and more in-faction economy/draw wouldnā€™t be the worst thing ever.

70

Absolutely. Noise has the potential to be the Astroscript of Runners when he is strong - i.e. he just randomly wins games and not a lot that can be done about it. I like the fact that he puts Corps on a clock, but the randomly chucking points into archives is unbelievably powerful.

Iā€™m not sure I agree with you about the new toys looking amazing. I think that the new IDs look amazing, but a lot of the Order and Chaos stuff is either weak (e.g. Human First) or competing for similar deck slots as other cards without really addressing the underlying issues (e.g. Incubator/Virus Breeding Ground/Hivemind).

I agree that new recursion would be nice. Deja Vu feels overcosted these days - relative to Clone Chip. I think Retrival Run will experience a revival once Inject hits, but itā€™s still probably overcosted by one.

71

I like Human Firstā€¦ :smile:

72

I like Human First, but you:

  1. Need to get it early
  2. Canā€™t install more than one
  3. Cannot get more than 6 credits from it (unless they forfeit agendas or thereā€™s a Runner Shi.Kyu on the way)
  4. Get less/nothing from Beale and DS

It certainly has a bunch of uses and Iā€™m looking forward to testing the hell out of it, but itā€™s not a solid economy option, generally speaking. Itā€™s supplemental at best, but Anarchs need a couple of core primarily-Anarch economy cards. Or a way to remove Brain Damage so that Wyldside+Stim Dealer could work out.

Thatā€™s actually the big issue, I feel like. Anarchs have the least draw/economy in-faction, but they have the most need for interlocking pieces. To cover all the threats a slightly smaller Crim/Shaper rig does, Anarchs need to devote almost a third of their deck to being able to break through reliably, with how the fixed strength breakers rely on other cards (Datasucker, Knight, D4V1D, even Ice Carver) to function effectively. Itā€™s a testament to how powerful all their stuff is that they can still function, despite being so reliant on multiple parts without any easy way of securing them.

EDIT: NEVERMIND. Reread Human First, noted the ā€œor stolenā€ part. Seems much better and more sustainable overall. Still not sure itā€™s sufficient/complete, but that does make it a damn sight better than Iā€™d been evaluating. Net 11 potential is so much more than Net 5, especially if it both punishes the corp (slightly) for scoring and rewards you for stealing. Ahahahaha!

Card draw still feels like the bigger issue, though hopefully Inject will prove more useful than Iā€™m anticipating and more wonā€™t be super necessary.

74

Worst case scenario, Corp destroys Human First before it gets you anything. Even then, you come out on top. Itā€™s definitely my favorite spoiled card so far. And even if it turns out to be ā€˜bad,ā€™ Iā€™ll still be playing with it! :smile:

75

Yeah, seeing that it both turns their scoring into a slight boost and turns you scoring into a boost to sustain youā€¦ potentially very nice. Will definitely have to see, but it makes failing to get into a scoring server slightly less painful, makes scoring at all on their part somewhat less desirable (not enough to stop them, obviously, but the mid-game FA-less NAPD becomes a lot more painful to score out), and does a bit of protecting against SEA-Source, Midseasons, and Punitive.

Again, I donā€™t think itā€™s super-stupendous, especially late, but itā€™s a much more solid choice than Iā€™d been thinking it was.

76

I like the new anarch hand disruption tools. Edward Kim and the partially spoiled ā€œWanton destructionā€ both give anarchs new tools to force discards, joining imp and hemmorage. If these new cards end up strong, they can punish fast advance and flatline decks by picking the combo pieces out of hand- could help deal some of the more frustrating features of playing against NBN these days, which is seeing the biotic labour and fast track in hand but not being able to do anything about them.

77

Yep, I think weā€™re about to be reminded why Jackson Howard was printed. The current top tournament corp decks already run 3 copies so it thatā€™ll keep Noise under control to some extent. I whipped up a fun Foundry deck for a league night and with the Jacksons otherwise occupied in NEH I felt I couldnā€™t even bring it out against Noise. The deck wasnā€™t all that fast so I figured Iā€™d need at least 10 turns to score 7 points after stabilizing. The new Noise will throw out say 1.5 viruses per turn, 15 mills at 0.4 points per card thatā€™s an average of 6 points (probably the game) going into archives. Project Vitruvius or Archived Memories might be able to help you out but it isnā€™t pretty.

Human First is quite playable with Aesopā€™s. Should be able to fairly consistently throw it down, get 4 credits and then sell it. Yet another reason the top of my wishlist for Anarch is a location tutor that can go grab Aesopā€™s Pawnshop, Personal Workshop, Wyldside, Duggarā€™s and who knows what else.

78

I canā€™t speculate about future Noise, but Iā€™ve been testing my own version of ā€œNoise Sauceā€ (called Gorman Sauce) and I think that estimate is a bit steep. Early game, sure, but once you hit late-mid and onward that number drops significantly, once you are relying on Deja Vu.