The latest episode of Agenda7 is now online. Probably our last one for 2013.
It’s a long podcast, but we cover a lot – what happened at Worlds in Minnesota, cards 21-40 of the Spin Cycle, the introduction to drafting that was revealed last month, and the strategies behind turn planning in Netrunner. Turn planning – what separates good players from average ones.
Podcast 16 includes:
1 – Data Token review from Team Covenant
2 – Go7 Gaming Card Organizer and Action Token review
3 – Top 5/4 cards from Second Thoughts
4 – Drafting Netrunner!
5 – Turn planning strategies
6 – Acknowledgment & contact
Episode 16 was recorded November 30th, and is available on Libsyn.com.
Agenda7 is also available on iTunes. Leave a comment there if you like the show. Or don’t. Check out our RSS feed on the left hand menu, and you’ll never miss another pun by Glen ever again! We’re happy to say that every episode of Agenda7 has now been uploaded to Libsyn.com, and we’re slowly uploading them to YouTube as well. I don’t see the point so much on YouTube, but people tell me it’s a thing, so I do it.
Show links:
Super cool Team Covenant Data Tokens
Go7 Gaming’s awesome Card Organizers and Premium Tokens.
Check out Go7’s Kickstarter campaign here!
Direct download link: 16 Agenda7 Netrunner Podcast
Agenda7 
Hey guys, thanks for another great podcast.
I have to say that my favourite two cards in this pack are Scheherazade and Copycat. I’ve got a Shaper deck that plays single copies of a lot of different programs with plenty of ways to search for them (Test Run, Self-Modifying Code, Clone Chip, lots of draw power). Included among these are a lot of temporary programs like Self-Modifying Code, Faerie, Deus X, Crescentus, Copycat, and Imp. Now, I use Kate and Sahasrara, so I can install every one of these temporary programs (and almost all of my other programs) for free, meaning that Scheherazade pays me for program installs, often in the middle of runs. On average, I’ve been earning around ten credits per game with Schederazade, and I’ve never really suffered any consequences because of the types of programs I have installed on her and the deck’s ability to call up whatever program it needs to help prevent program trashing. I’ve been very happy with how well it works, and even though Power Shutdown is going to cause some problems, I have enough other zero cost programs to absorb the impact, and Imp in the event I run into a Power Shutdown during one of my accesses. Copycat also allows for some very interesting accesses and acts as a surprise that the Corporation may not be ready for, especially when you pull Copycat out of your Heap with a Clone Chip in the middle of your run. My favourite is when the Corporation has a remote with rezzed ICE that they’ve got Off the Grid installed in, and they’ve installed and advanced because they are confident that the Runner can’t get through. Copycat allows you to jump to the Off the Grid server so long as you can pass another piece of ICE that’s on that server, saving you the click to run on HQ and usually getting you through for much cheaper. You then get to score the agenda, trash Off the Grid for free, and watch the Corporation player’s heart break.
Regarding Record Reconstructor, I built a deck that uses the Shaper breakers to maintain strength for the rest of the run as well as Copycat with program recursion, several copies of Escher. In this deck, the Corporation is penalized for having the same piece of ICE on the same server, or for having the same piece of ICE on different servers, so it is disadvantageous for the Corporation to install duplicate copies of ICE. As a result, I found that the Corporation was trashing its own ICE with relatively high frequency. Record Reconstructor, in this deck, allows me to keep putting those pieces of ICE back on top. I use Chakana and R&D Interfaces to lock R&D, and Record Reconstructor adds to that lock by making it harder for the Corporation to draw past where I’ve seen. Furthermore, I use Datasuckers, so I get virus counters every time I use Record Reconstructor, and if the Corporation installs the piece of ICE on a new remote intending to never rez it, I can use Escher to get rid of a unique piece of ICE somewhere else that’s causing me problems. I was actually very surprised to see just how many cards I was happy giving the Corporation back when using Record Reconstructor, and if you run Aesop’s Pawnshop or zero cost programs that you want to protect from Power Shutdown when that comes out, it can have other uses when the Corporation deck doesn’t have many duplicate pieces of ICE.
Thanks for writing Skiesbleed – it’s obvious you’re busy experimenting with new cards. Are you playing Shaper consistently and splashing? – that’s what it sounds like. Or are you all over the place with your factions?
When I play new cards – I’m all over the place with factions. It’s part of doing the research into the cards for the ‘cast and partly to get to know my enemy better. I have always favoured Shaper when deckbuilding and analyzing cards – what does this card do for GREEN? But when it comes to competitive play, putting a Criminal deck together that works fast and unpredictably always wins out. Now with Honor and Profit – even more so.
Sounds like you put a lot of singles in your decks – do you have playsets of anything?
Shaper and Jinteki are my preferred factions, but I build decks for all factions. I find that I have far more ideas for Corporation decks in different factions, though, so I do a little less experimentation with Criminals and Anarchs than I do experimenting with all of the Corporation factions. I will certainly be experimenting with Criminals a lot more once Honor and Profit comes out, and I’ve started doing more experimentation with Anarchs again now that Reina Roja and the Caissa set is out.
I have playsets of every card, and it’s just that one deck that plays a lot of single copies. That deck takes a toolbox approach, having many programs with unique effects and tiered icebreakers that I can tune to my opponent’s ICE. Shapers can support this style because of all of their recursion and search cards. The deck has three copies each of Clone Chip, Self-Modifying Code, Test Run, and Scavenge, so I find I can always get what I need when I need it. Outside of this deck, it’s rare for me to include single copies of anything. If I have a means to search for it then I will consider it, provided I already want those search cards. A great example of this is with Hostage in a Criminal deck, especially if you’ve got tag avoidance so that it’s harder to trash your unique resources. I have, on occasion, put a single copy of something like Scorched Earth in a deck like Jinteki with Snares and False Leads, or in an NBN Psychographics deck, but I usually try to avoid this. Scorched Earth is often worth the single copy, because it can sometimes win you games that you otherwise would’ve lost, and it can prompt your opponent to stall a bit to protect themselves if they see it. It also tends to throw off their influence evaluations, but I don’t see that alone as being a strong enough reason to use up four influence.
5 meat damage from Scorched Earth IS a big deal. It let’s you double scorch through a single carapace even if the runner has a full hand.
Off the Grid: It’s not even necessary they don’t get into your HQ, it’s enough if the can’t get into your HQ and then in your remote server afterwards. This CAN close out games quite easiliy and is a great way to score 4/2s. It doesn’t really suit my playstyle though.
Swordsman will shake up the meta in some areas. In my meta, Atman/Crypsis only decks aren’t that common. I personally switched from all-out Atman to a more conventional rig where Atman plays more of a support role and I think it’s already better. Still, the existene of this card is pretty important.
Wotan is pretty terrible. Barriers are the easiest to break without support and you can always eat all the penalties if you really have to get into that server. It’s still an amazing target for Bioroid Efficiency Research but it still pretty much just ends the run. Not enough bang for your buck in my opinion.
Restructure is AMAZING. By far my personal favourite from the pack. It requires to be built around out of Weyland but really enables to play more big ice again. I absolutely love this card.
Shipment from SanSan is really interesting in HB with Efficiency Committee because it’s a very cheap way to fast advance once you rushed a Committee out. You basically can score a 3/2 with 0 credits if you play EtF. I won’t use it in NBN though.
Not a huge fan of any of the runner cards. Eureka + Motivation will be nice if more worthwile and expensive resources or hardware comes out but for programs, Test Run into Scavenge is a lot more effective.
Bishop is pretty meh. Datasucker is a better card to reduce ice strength.
Scheherezade (totally guessed the spelling just now by the way) can be really nice. I have to test it a little more.
Leviathan is god awful. It’s more important to be able to break small code gates effectively, even if better high strength code gates come out. Breaking Enigma for 3 credits and with that install cost is just utter bullshit in my opinion.
Hard at Work is amazingly bad. It’s the worst economy card in the game and it’s not even close. Armitage is pretty much inherently better in most games and people don’t even play it that often anymore. Please, please, please put this in all of your decks, becaase i love winning with my corp decks.
The other cards are fairly decent. Copycat can be really nice but it’s very situational. Recon is more on the bad side, the other are mediocore.
Overall a solid data pack. Restructure is amazing.
Thanks Paradox – I really missed the 10 meat damage with 2 Scorched Earth and The Cleaners – great end game strategy.
I agree that the corp got the better of this pack – finally!
You don’t encounter an unrezzed piece of Ice. So Reckon / Inside job can carry on after the OUTERMOST piece of ice. (outermost was used on the Pawn card)
First piece of ice actually means first rezzed piece of ice (or) the first piece of ice encountered !
While I agree that this will be the ruling, but I still wish FFG would have taken more care with the wording of the card.
So the guys in our local meta here in Las Vegas have already made a cube and we have done 2 different draft nights. The first time I still had yet to purchase at least 3 data packs and C&C so I had no idea how to properly use some of the cards I was drafting. I was frequently saying in my head “hey I’m pretty sure I heard them talking about this card on Agenda7 so maybe I should take it.” Not even knowing for sure if the reason I recognized the name was because you might have been saying how terrrible it was. LOL
Either way I had a blast drafting. Yesterday when we did it I was all caught up with expansions and C&C but I still got my ass handed to me by the veteran guys. Well the games were close but I didn’t win one. Despite that I will draft any chance I get because it was so much fun.
BTW all of our veteran guys here in Vegas are listeners of the podcast and have mentioned it multiple times! Keep it up. Thanks for the shoutout.
Shout out to Las Vegas! Thank-you for listening Jeremy – and your kind words. There’s alot of Netrunner podcasts now – I’m glad your group thinks we’re one of them.
Oh man, I can’t wait to try drafting. That’s a good idea putting together your own cube – we should probably try that here. I like your comment about card assessment – maybe we should try that as a topic. Assessing a card in Netrunner – with so many available now – can be a tricky process.
Keep running Vegas!