Personal Evolution (Big Boxes Only)

phette23 2279

I'm building some decks with only the Core Set plus all three deluxe expansions to see what types of archetypes are will be available permanently throughout Netrunner's lifecycle. I'll put "big boxes only" in the deck titles so they can all be retrieved via search.


Plays similar to Cambridge style but noticeably lacks Ronin. That means your kill condition will more often rely on playing multiple Neural EMPs or Philotic Entanglement. The lack of Ronin also puts a lot less pressure on runners to check advanced remotes, so we should be more aggressive in using Mushin No Shin to score agendas to compensate.

Data & Destiny's most notable addition to this archetype is using 24/7 News Cycle to recur Philotic Entanglement. Combine with an EMP or 2 for the flatline. That combo is so good that making space for Fast Track to find Philotic easier makes sense.

A SSCG build would also be potent with these easily scoreable agendas, no Clot in the big boxes, & plenty of influence to spare (could drop AM, Overwriter, Archer easily). We'd perhaps want to steer away from Medical Research Fundraiser though, since it'd go a long ways towards the trash cost of SSCG. Finally, the 1x or 2x Scorched Earth builds would work well, too—remember that Cerebral Cast came in Honor & Profit so Snare! isn't our only source of tags.

Card Choices

Archer has always been really good out of builds with many small agendas. Works well to reset the runner's board & turn back on our binary ICE.

Medical Breakthrough is easily the weakest agenda but unfortunately the best option left without Fetal AI, Braintrust, & the other good one-pointers currently available. It still has a nice "punish you for stealing agendas" feel.

Archived Memories is there due to the lack of Jackson Howard, mostly. I started Netrunner in early 2015 so I'm not familiar with how people played without JHow, I'm assuming AM was a staple of many decks back then.

Not having access to Restructure, Subliminal Messaging, or Celebrity Gift hurts, so we turn to Medical Research Fundraiser. Jinteki can tend to get away with giving the runner money since we're primarily taxing them their cards anyways. One Diversified Portfolio helps us rebound in the late game & scoring an early Gila Hands Arcology is a priority.

2 comments
8 Oct 2015 syntaxerror111

I like the idea of a big box only deck. If nothing else it can serve as a starting point for new players, as the big boxes are many times an early purchase after the core set.

Also, Pop-up Window is from Cyber Exodus. Not sure what to replace it with :(

8 Oct 2015 phette23

yeah I always screw up at least one card in these decks. I was thinking -2 Popup, +1 Archer & +1 Diversified but that's just off the top of my head. Hard to find a good one-influence replacement.