Deckplanning, with a twist
By Spazz– February 27, 2013
We have a winner!
The Netrunner game is turning out to be a big hit at Spazz Manor! The girlfriend is(as I type this) busily poring over the runner cards and constructing her deck. As people have been asking, I mentioned to her that they would like to see what she has come up with, so I will post her list after she has tried it against me.
Now I too would like to construct a deck, but instead of being a deck that is designed to win ruthlessly, or with brutal efficiency, I would like to construct a deck that is going to be the most fun for my girlfriend (and hopefully anyone else I play as well) to play against. So the primary objective is fun, over winning.
The Big Question
So what makes a corporation deck “fun”? I think that the answer to this question is the challenge that it presents to the runner, breaking through the defences and trying to ensure that the corporation is kept in check and, ideally, is kept reeling from run after run, so that they are not able to mount any kind of effective defense for their agendas in the remote servers.
Personally, I also like the prospect of each run being deadlier than the runner is anticipating, as the server may have carefully laid traps in place. It is for this reason that I am such a fan of Jinteki.
.
.
.
.
.
But then I also need to examine what is “not fun”, or more accurately put “what is not going to get my girlfriend furious when I play it against her”! Classic example of this is trashing the resources of the runner when she is tagged. While this is a totally legit move, and one that I would do against most opponents, it is this kind of thing that is just not going to be worth it! (At least not this early in her development of the game).
I think the hard and fast rule would be: If she blunders into it herself, then it’s all fair game, but I am not going to actively seek to trash her stuff. But having said that, if she does get a trace on her, and is careless enough to leave it on, I will have no problem scoring some meat damage on her with a Private Security Force if I score that agenda!
.
.
.
An interesting conundrum would be “Aggressive Secretary”. While this would fall into the “her blunder” category, I am still reluctant to trash programs.
To Recap:
The deck should be:
- challenging for her to beat
- exciting (i.e. not just a bunch of ice that is eventually going to be broken)
- dangerous to appraoch, but more focussed on the immediate consequences (net damage) than the more long-term and personal threats (i.e. Traces which then lead to trashing her “stuff”)
Can people give some advice to build this deck?
It seems to me that the best thing might be to reveal what sort of tricks are available before the game gets started. It is no fun to constantly run into a “new counter” for a strategy that you developed.
Having a situation where one person says, “Well I wouldn’t have even tried doing that if I knew that card existed” is never really a fun experience for that person. This is what killed any enthusiasm my girlfriend had for Magic.
Bluffing can be fun. Is this a trap? Is this an agenda? This is fun, but just make sure she knows what it could be instead. Just imagine running into Edge of World, Junebug or Snare! and having never seen the card before! That would seem too powerful and just plain no fun to play against. Make sure she has some expose cards as well so there is an opportunity to “option out” of the bluff game and then you can judge how much fun that side of the game is for her.
A fast advance or big economy deck as corp looks very intimidating for a new runner. Once they learn what ice needs to be feared then running is easier, but until then when the corp can play well then it might feel hopeless as the runner. Hopelessness is typically not a pleasant feeling.
I found that once I played corp I realized how vulnerable they truly are. Make sure she gets to see the game from that side as well. Once somebody feels more confident at running then I think they will enjoy the game more. Be careful though since getting blown out of the water as corp might be a big turnoff as well.
You might want to avoid Scorched Earth for a while and brain damage. Once she starts to get the hang of the interplay of the two sides then you can start to introduce more of these “painful” sides.
Also deckbuilding is hard. I’d really recommend starting with the base set and play enough games to find cards she’d like to replace and go from there. Starting from scratch is always difficult even for people who have done it a bunch and know all the cards available.
Thanks for the advice Frank! Lots of great food for thought there!
My girlfriend has played a few games already, so she is aware of some of the traps and pitfalls now. This is another reason that I like Jinteki, because she knows what pitfalls to expect, and it is fun to watch the triumphant smile on her face when she exposes a Junebug trap that I have carefully laid!
I have purposely sent Scorched Earth and Aggressive Secretary to the archives exactly for the reasons you mention. I have only use Scorched Earth once, simply because she was very non-chalant about leaving a couple of tags on her, Just to make the point clear to her why that could be bad, I dropped one of the two Scorched Earth cards that I had in my hand! She is pretty quick to remove tags now!
For deckbuilding, she started by taking a couple of cards from the Shapers in to the Anarch deck that she missed. Then, after she tried Criminals, she tried constructing a whole deck, which ended up being a gigantic monstrosity! What made me proud to hear was that she was able to articulate herself (without any prompting from me) that her deck needed to be streamlined to run better. Huge step!
I have tried getting her to run the corp, but she has refused up until now. Just last night she did say that she wanted to try another build as a runner, and then try her hand as the corporation. But as you say, I was totally amazed at how different (and vulnerable) the corp becomes when you are playing it! Such a different perspective than as a first-time runner!
That’s good to hear. That’s cool she’s excited about the deck building, but it is a struggle. I truly believe, once you see how hard the game is from the corp end it makes playing runner easier. Have fun!