Neal's Last Words

by Byron "Neal" Massey

Resifting Corporate R&D

Gridlock II approaches.

I was entering the decks from my "Data Sifting for Victory" column into Ken Hudson's beta version of NetNetrunner when I realized I had made an error (since corrected) in my Corporation. Since no reader caught on, I will not go into detail. Ahem. But I did decide to try a slightly different direction in version 2.0.

The cards are mostly the same but there's a significant change in plan: No Tag and Bag. I decided to try to win at all costs, which means more fast advancement, more bits and more program trashing. I'll let you decide which Corporation is more powerful.

I'll recap the Gridlock II deck construction format here:

* Voters who subscribe to the Netrunner electronic mailing list selected 75 cards for each side.

* The top 90 cards were selected for each side as a "pool" that players must use to construct their decks.

* Only one copy of any of these cards is allowed in a deck.

Here's the list of Corporation cards again:

Agendas (22)
Corporate Coup
Corporate Downsizing
Corporate Retreat
Corporate War
Data Fort Reclamation
Detroit Police Contract
Employee Empowerment
Fetal AI
Hostile Takeover
Ice Transmutation
Main Office Relocation
Marine Arcology
Marked Accounts
Netwatch Operations Office
On-Call Solo Team
Political Coup
Priority Requisition
Project Babylon
Project Zurich
Subsidiary Branch
Tycho Extension
Viral Breeding Ground

Upgrades (9)
Antiquated Interface Routines
Bizarre Encryption Scheme
Crystal Palace Station Grid
Dr.Dreff
Jenny Jett
Namatoki Plaza
Olivia Salazar
Red Herrings
Rio de Janeiro City Grid
ICE (27)
Crystal Wall
Data Wall
Data Wall 2.0
Fire Wall
Rock is Strong
Snowbank
Walking Wall
Wall of Static

Ball and Chain
Filter
Keeper
Mazer
Misleading Access Menus
Nerve Labyrinth
Quandary
Scramble
Sleeper

Banpei
Bolter Cluster
Cerberus
Cinderella
Homewrecker
Neural Blade
PI in the Face
Sentinels Prime
Shock.r
TKO 2.0
Nodes (17)
BBS Whispering Campaign
Brain Dance Campaign
Chicago Branch
Department of Truth Enhancement
Experimental AI
Holovid Campaign
Information Laundering
Remote Facility
Rescheduler
Rockerboy Promotion
Setup!
Siren
South African Mining Corporation
TRAP!
Vacant Soulkiller
Vapor Ops
Virus Test Site

Operations (15)
Accounts Receivable
Chance Observation
Day Shift
Edgerunner , Inc., Temps
Efficiency Experts
Management Shake-Up
Night Shift
Off-Site Backups
Planning Consultants
Project Consultants
Punitive Counterstrike
Scorched Earth
Systematic Layoffs
Trojan Horse
Urban Renewal

This is version 2.0 of Neal's Gridlock Weekend II Corporation:

ICE (17) Nodes (9) Operations (8) Agendas (9) Upgrades (2)

ICE (17):
Crystal Wall
Data Wall
Data Wall 2.0
Wall of Static

Filter
Nerve Labyrinth
Quandary
Scramble
Sleeper

Banpei
Bolter Cluster
Cinderella
Homewrecker
PI in the Face
Sentinels Prime
Shock.r
TKO 2.0

Again, I've left out all the big Walls and Code gates. Cyfermaster and Rammng Piston are too effective. It's not worth paying 6 bits for Rock is Strong when it can be broken for 2 or 3 bits. There aren't enough multi-sub Walls and Code Gates in Gridlock II.

I used all the Sentries but Neural Blade and Cerberus. Cerberus is too expensive for this plan and many runners will accept Neural Blade's Net damage; it doesn't end the run. Bolter Cluster is harder to ignore, although most of the Net damage will be prevented by the Shield programs (all of them are available in Gridlock II).

Bits (13):
Accounts Receivable
BBS Whispering Campaign
Corporate Downsizing
Corporate War
Department of Truth Enhancement
Efficiency Experts
Hostile Takeover
Information Laundering
Marine Arcology
Night Shift
Political Coup
Project Zurich
Rockerboy Promotion
South Africa Mining Corp

I used every cash card except Braindance Campaign and Holovid Campaign. Braindance is great if you already have a lot of bits, and a waste of an installation action if you draw it early. Holovid Campaign is just too slow to make sense.

Ambush and Access (7):
Experimental AI
Namatoki Plaza
Project Babylon
Viral Breeding Ground

Day Shift
Employee Empowerment
Off-Site Backups

The Runner cannot effectively protect programs with these cards. Microtech Backup Drive, Forgotten Backup Chip, Gideon's Pawnshop, and Junkyard BBS are the only options. If you can get a Runner to smack into your Experimental AI or Viral Breeding ground, you will probably win the game. It takes too long to retrieve a breaker suite and reinstall it, not to mention the expense.

The Namatoki Plaza works nicely with Experimental AI and Viral Breeding Ground. Project Babylon was included specifically to match these two ambushes, but it can also be easily scored with its difficulty of 3. Any of the other agenda work nearly as well. The Plaza is also a nice for the fast advnacement nodes: Vapor Ops, Chicago Branch and Remote Facility.

Information Laundering, South African Mining Corporation, and Department of Truth Enhancement are also natural matches with Namtoki Plaza and an ambush. Net and brain damage amubushes were omitted because of the previously-mentioned Runner shields.

Advancement (7):
Bizarre Encryption Scheme
Chicago Branch
Management Shake-Up
Project Consultants
Remote Facility
Systematic Layoffs
Vapor Ops

The cheese factory has expanded from my last version with Vapor Ops. Al Davis, CEO of the Oakland Raiders NFL franchise, said it best:

"Just win, baby!"

The rezzing upgrades were bad. Jenny Jett, Olivia Salazar, and Dr. Dreff work best with big, damaging ICE. With only one copy of Cerberus (the only ICE that really fills the bill), and two Proteus "payback" ICE, these upgrades are pointless.