A Scattered Field

Speculations on post-rotation Corp strategies

This is a long read, but the spoiler is quite near the top, so you shouldn’t have to scroll too far.

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The rotation of Red Sands, Kitara, Reign and Reverie, Magnum Opus, and System Update is the biggest shake-up of ANR that we’ve ever seen. By my estimate, these sets contain something like 110 playable Corp cards and 100 playable Runner cards—to be replaced with 48 new Corp cards and 34 new Runner cards in Elevation.

This ‘great yeet’ is now upon us, and with it go almost every popular Corp archetype of the last two years. PE, AgInfusion, Azmari, NEH and Outfit all rotate—with no obvious replacement for any of them. Asa and Sportsmetal game plans may or may not prove to be interchangeable with Poétrï. Punitive Counterstrike—the backbone of most competitive flatline strategies—is gone. Ob loses Border Control—often, but not always, a load bearing piece of ICE. The only Corp archetypes that would seem to survive rotation in any way intact are Seamless PD and hyper-glacier BtL.

Compare this to the impact that rotation will have on Runner game plans. A few Runner archetypes will fall by the wayside—Bankhar Steve, Mulch, Aesops Lat, Akiko—but other runners, for the most part, would seem to be unscathed. Esâ will need to consider what Anarch recursion looks like without Labor Rights, but otherwise loses very little. Crew Hosh will need to find a suitable replacement for Aumakua, and Shaper will need to figure out how to break ICE efficiently without Turbine, but both of these problems will no doubt prove solvable. Deep Dive and reg Sable come out almost completely unaffected.

For those of us that have been worried about the disproportionate effect that rotation will have on Corp game plans, the 25.04 banlist update is a double-edged sword—it shows that NSG are cognizant of the issue, and that they are prepared to mitigate, but it also confirms that our concerns are valid.

This isn’t to say that the post-rotation meta will necessarily be terrible—I’m confident that we will figure these things out eventually. Rather, my point is that most players at the first few Elevation tournaments, I think, are going to be pretty comfortable playing the same sort of Runner deck they have been playing for years. What’s going to be more of a challenge is building an entirely new Corp deck.

The goal of this article is to consider what Corp strategies survive rotation, whether those strategies are still viable, and also what opportunities there might be for new—and old—strategies to emerge.

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I’ve grouped Corp archetypes into five categories:

• Asset

• Glacier

• Rush

• Tag (and bag)

• Mushin no shin

Many decks will pull from 2 or 3 of these archetypes to build their strategy, but, for our purposes, it’s easier to discuss things in the bluntest of terms.

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Asset

HB is back in fashion

HB asset decks use different card synergies to gain massive amounts of tempo, and to ultimately outpace their opponent. Trashing key pieces will derail the engine, but the Runner doesn’t usually have a lot of time to make that happen. It’s an archetype that first saw play in Engineering the Future, and then Asa Group, and that will—presumably—continue to see play in Poétrï.

There are still some unknowns around how a post-rotation asset strategy can turn a board state advantage into an actual win, but there are some compelling reasons to try and figure those unknowns out. Not least of which is the fact that all of the Runner asset spam tech is rotating, and no replacements have yet been spoiled. Paricia is gone, Imp is gone, Scrubber is gone, Miss Bones is gone.

Elevation certainly seems to be pushing HB in this direction. Installing a card whenever an agenda is scored or stolen is exactly the sort of thing that a tempo asset deck wants to do, and we’ve seen further support in Topdown Solutions, Humanoid Resources, Otto Campaign, and now Scatter Field.

Scatter Field

HB ICE: Code Gate

Rez cost: 3—Strength: 0—Influence cost: 2

While this ice is the only piece of ice protecting this server, it gets +4 strength.
Subroutine: You may install 1 card from HQ.
Subroutine: End the run.

“It is a fallacy that conscious observation can change reality. The consciousness of the observer isn’t required at all.”—The Encyclopedia Silica

Illustrated by Bruno Balixa

The thing that I love about Scatter Field is that it tells us that the best way to build some resilience into our asset deck is to include some small and midrange ICE to protect those assets. In this case, we have a 3 cost ICE that’s strength 4, and has two subroutines. Those are some good numbers! In the mid and late game, we can think of this ICE as adding 3 or 4 credits to the trash cost of whatever asset we put behind it. In the early game, the face-check is not as powerful as Drafter, and it shouldn’t be enough to dissuade the Runner from running without a decoder, but it’s certainly not nothing.

In terms of how we turn our board state advantage into a win, Fully Operational is the most direct path for turning a board state advantage into an economic advantage. The reprinting of Biotic Labor (in Nanomanagement), combined with tools like Topdown Solutions, Red Level Clearance, and Wage Workers, enable us to turn that economic advantage into a click advantage, which we could use to fast advance an agenda. Ideally, that agenda score should further reinforce our board state or economic advantage—something which any agenda score will do in Poétrï.

So yes, there are some very compelling reasons to consider playing a HB asset deck after rotation, but what about other factions?

Personal Evolution… Evolved

PE asset spam is an archetype that aims to overload the runner with board threats such as Bladderwort, Cohort Guidance Program and Reaper Function. It’s a style of PE that never really took off, despite some very promising performances.

Some fans of PE are, no doubt, going to be a little disappointed with AU Co—but asset spam players may be more enthusiastic. While it is going to be more difficult to create a flatline threat without the PE ability, clickless card draw is something that every asset spam deck wants and needs.

The economy engine and agenda suite will both need reconsidering—House of Knives is rotated and Blood in the Water may or may not be playable—but otherwise this deck mostly survives intact, and it will be interesting to see whether it can function in the new meta.

Can Epiphany deliver results?

NBN asset spam forks the Runner by forcing them to choose between trashing assets and clearing tags. It’s an archetype that was popularised by Controlling the Message, but it hasn’t seen much play since the banning of R+ and Bellona.

Given the amount of HB asset support in Elevation, it’s possible that we could see Epiphany or Synapse import these tools to create a classic NBN asset deck, but there is minimal support for this strategy in NBN itself, and 15 influence will only stretch so far.

I would be delighted to be proven wrong, but, unless we see a nearprint of AR-Enhanced Security, the days of asset NBN may be behind us.

Runner Counter-play

If Runners are nudged towards a run based economy package, which they seem to be, that package is going to play very well into any asset spam strategy—with or without asset tech.

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Glacier

Weyland: Building a board to last into the late game

Weyland hyper-glacier is an archetype that leverages advanceable ICE to turn the usual Runner late game inevitability on it’s head. The longer that the game goes, the more difficult and taxing it becomes for the Runner to make a successful run. For those who aren’t familiar, consider this worlds winning BtL deck as a starting point.

I don’t know anyone who is particularly keen to see this archetype become popular, but it mostly survives rotation, and Elevation seems to be nudging Weyland in this direction. Syailendra looks like Akhet 4,5 and 6, and will make it possible to cover all servers with a mostly unavoidable effect. Imagine a board state where every time the Runner makes a run a Corp card gets advanced—like Prav, but every run. Anthill can sit in the remote while we build our board, and KPI shuffles any agendas we draw back into R&D until we are ready to start scoring.

Losing Bio-Vault is certainly significant, although we might be able to find a replacement in something like Anoetic Void.

Restoring Jinteki glacier

Jinteki glacier strategies aim to score the first two agendas behind taxing ICE that is backbreaking for the Runner to contest, whilst at the same time creating a board state that makes it impossible for the Runner to successfully contest the last agenda. AgInfusion and Nisei Mk II have both been fundamental to this game plan, but despite losing these lynch pins, there are reasons to be optimistic about Jinteki glacier.

Restoring Humanity is a reasonable enough replacement glacier ID—more money is more good. Whether we play Proprionegation or not will probably depend on it being a satisfying Nisei replacement. Otherwise, Regenesis has proven to be a pretty effective way of getting to 7 points. A Teia players will also be looking forward to trying out Mahkota Langit Grid, although whether this is preferable to La Costa Grid remains to be seen.

It would help if we saw some solid Jinteki ICE in Elevation. We have decent upgrades in faction, and a pretty solid economy engine, so importing some ICE from other factions is manageable, but only up to a limit.

The most compelling reason to play Jinteki glacier, though, might be Mitra Aman. Botulus can be a real threat to glacier decks, and returning the host ICE to hand is about as good of an answer as there is.

NBN glacier: not at all Free-to-Play

NBN glacier is an archetype that uses porous, but taxing, ICE to bankrupt the Runner and to create economic scoring windows. It’s an archetype that hasn’t seen much play since the banning of Bellona.

Both of the new NBN IDs could support a glacier plan—Synapse avoids install costs, Nebula threatens to turtle and fast advance—but, as it stands, NBN has neither the ICE nor the agendas to really build that deck. Send A Message is fine, but we probably need to build out the agenda suite with a defensive 5/3, or a particularly synergistic 4/2.

Worth saying that, of all the Corp factions, NBN is the one that has been least spoiled. It’s still very much an open question as to what we are supposed to be doing with NBN—but glacier is one possibility.

LEO: the glacier deck of tomorrow

HB glacier is an archetype that uses large numbers of Bioroid ICE—which typically have good strength and subroutine numbers—to make it untenable for the Runner to get accesses. It’s an archetype that hasn’t seen much play, because games tend to go on even longer than Weyland hyper glacier, and so the deck often loses on time.

Architects of Tomorrow and Jinja City Grid are both rotating, which would seem to gut this archetype completely. LEO Construction offers a faint glimmer of hope that maybe HB glacier could one day be a thing—but, given that the rest of the HB spoilers all seem to be focused on horizontal rather than vertical play patterns, it isn’t obvious that this archetype will have the support that it needs straight away.

That being said, with Border Control rotating, LEO may be the only deck that can defend a Skunkworks + Anoetic Void remote from Light the Fire.

Still, probably one to come back to if and when NSG release some cheaper Bioroid ICE, or Bioroid upgrades.

Runner Counter-play

What’s particularly compelling about the glacier strategy is that the recent banlist is also pushing us in this direction. The Daily Casts ban may encourage runners to play Sidehustle and other run based economy cards—all of which are going to be just awful into a glacier deck. Banning Cleaver makes Akhet taxing even at strength 2, and Gamedragon Pro might work great with Pressure Spike, but it’s no Turbine—and Buzzsaw is going to struggle to break a strength 5 code gate.

The biggest threats to glacier strategies are going to be Botulus, and Devil Charm + Crew. Cards like Mitra Aman, Mavirus, and Business as Usual, will help with the former. It’s difficult to see what could help with the latter, but, otherwise, these archetypes would seem to be in a solid position.

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Rush

Evergreen PD

Seamless PD uses Seamless Launch to never-advance the first 4 points—sneaking them through a taxing remote that the Runner can’t afford to check. From there, it closes the game by pushing a 5/3 agenda with Skunkworks and Anoetic Void.

This is an archetype that has been present in the meta ever since NWE successfully demonstrated that “Seamless Launch is a good card, actually”. Its win rate has dropped significantly since the Luminal ban, but it has a game plan that should be familiar to most players at this point, and most of the core of the deck survives rotation.

We do lose a couple of three cost code gates in Gatekeeper and Magnet. Scatter Field is far from a perfect replacement, but it might just about do. We don’t know, yet, what to expect in terms of Runner breaker rigs, but with Turbine banned it seems reasonable to expect that Brân and M.I.C will both hold up well. The biggest concern is probably the rotation of Ikawah Project, as it remains to be seen whether or not HB will be receiving a replacement defensive 5/3.

Zippy Zwicky

Rush Weyland pushes tempo positive agendas faster than the Runner can deal with to get to match point. Then, once the Runner is setup to contest, it stops scoring in the remote and closes the game using fast advance instead.

This is an archetype hasn’t been popular since the release of Rebellion without Rehearsal—although it’s not obvious why. The rotation of Border Control and Oaktown Renovation means that this archetype is probably in bad shape, but we don’t yet know what the new Weyland agendas are going to be.

If we were to see a near-print of Oaktown Renovation or Corporate Sales Team, those are the sorts of agendas that might make a rush Zwicky build a very competitive choice. However, there is another issue. While pushing tempo positive agendas may happily get us to match-point, we would still need a way to close the game. Without Hostile Takeover and Audacity, that probably means looking at something like Big Deal or ZATO Grid—both of which are much easier for the Runner to disrupt.

Runner Counter-play

Without Border Control, a Skunkworks + Void remote is incredibly vulnerable to Light the Fire. If PD does find competitive success, it will be very easy for the Runner to tech against.

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Tag (and bag)

Supermodern Weyland

Similar to Rush Weyland, Supermodernism is an archetype that pushes agendas early, but it does so under the threat of something like Hard Hitting News. It’s an archetype that leans hard into the hidden information aspect of playing Corp—only the Corp player knows whether Hard Hitting News is in hand. Often, the Runner can steal the agenda out of the remote, but it’s almost impossible to know whether it is safe—or correct—to do so.

This is an archetype that we haven’t seen for a very long time. Weirdly, Punitive RH is probably the closest analogue in modern netrunner.

Old school Weyland fans will no doubt be enthused at the idea of doing 2 meat damage and giving the runner 1 tag, but the restrictions on BANGUN mean that the archetype will need some serious rethinking. Playing “NGO or Agenda” was a fairly important function of the deck, as was relying on the agendas in centrals to mostly look after themselves.

We’ve also lost Data Raven, Mausolus and Border Control—all of which were key pieces of ICE. Still, 2 meat damage and 1 tag is a heck of a tempo hit—and there isn’t much obvious Runner counter-play aside from Hannah. If we can somehow afford to follow up a steal with a Measured Response into Oppo Research then that’s likely a game winning play, but it’s also a play that costs 12 credit to make, so we will probably need some help from Plutus.

All of which suggests that we may need to look even further back into the netrunner annals, at a style of playing Argus that focused on lots of small agendas to maximise the ID ability. We have some really good 3/1 agendas available to us now, but it remains to be seen exactly how viable this style of play will be.

… Pseudo-modern NBN?

Again, we don’t really know yet what it is that NBN is supposed to be doing—but it’s possible that Nebula could be a sort of pseudo-modern NBN ID.

Consider a turn in the mid or late game—when HQ, R&D and the remote are all protected. We install in the remote, advance, and play an operation. The Runner ideally needs to respond by running the remote—to steal the agenda—and running R&D/HQ—to prevent a fast advance score next turn. Throw any amount of tags and tag punishment into the mix, and this presents quite the puzzle. For example, what if the operation that we played on click 3 was SYNC rerouting…

Building a kill threat would mean importing a large amount of Weyland cards—and it may be that we have to rely on Shipment from Vlad, IP Enforcement and Freedom of Information as tag punishment instead. We’ll just have to wait and see what the rest of the spoiler season brings us.

Runner Counter-play

Between asset strategies, tag strategies, and runners being nudged towards a run based economy package, Hannah is likely to continue to be an easy include in most runner decks.

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Mushin no Shin

Mushin is an archetype that leans even more heavily on the hidden information aspect of playing Corp. It asks the Runner “did I just advance an agenda? Or did I just advance a trap?” and relies on them making the wrong decision.

Fans of Mitosis and Saraswati will be able to import their decks straight into PT Untaian. Losing NGO Front might hurt, but Mitosis + Advance + Untaian trigger threatens a 4-advanced Cerebral Overwriter which is probably game ending. It’s unclear how competitive this archetype will turn out to be, but it will be familiar to some, so I think we can expect it to see some play.

Runner Counter-play

Lago, Aniccam, Steelskin, Stoneship, Dr Nuka and Hermes are all still in the card pool, and are all effective ways of defusing potentially lethal board states.

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Closing Thoughts

I have no idea how this meta is going to ultimately shake out—we haven’t even seen all of the cards!—but hopefully this article helps you to start to prepare for the first few tournaments. Remember that we’re all in the same boat, and none of us actually know what we’re doing!

Going into a new meta can be frustrating, nerve wracking and often intimidating—but exploring new card combinations and play patterns can also be refreshing, exciting, and joyous. It’s also entirely temporary, and we should try and enjoy it as much as possible while it lasts.

Megacity Championships kick off in just a few weeks, with the first one happening in Łódź on the weekend of May 10th and 11th. If you’re able to make it to Poland then you’ll be able to experience the excitement of a completely unknown meta first hand. If not, then The Surveyor is here to keep you informed of the latest developments.