Starter Deck - Runner Intermediate

CBTech 6581

People often ask for starter decks when they first get Netrunner to get an idea of how to deck build or what makes a deck strong. The recommended starter decks in the core set aren’t very efficient nor do they use any influence, so I have worked with some friends to design a few starter decks. Every starter deck is made of a single core set and we have also made variants with no 1-of cards so anyone with 3 core-sets can throw together these starter decks and have them lying around to introduce new players. We have tested the Beginner decks against each other and the Intermediate decks against each other and they are pretty balance with the runner winning slightly more often.

Beginner decks are designed for players just picking up the game. They are straight forward and have very little tricks.

Intermediate decks introduce players to more complex and interesting concepts such as search, traps, and viruses.

Advanced decks are your own decks that you design and build. Get familiar with the other factions and cards. Experiment and have fun!

This deck was designed to introduce players to some of the more interesting programs such as static breakers (Yog.0 and Mimic) as well as viruses. We also introduce search with Special Order, ICE destruction with Parasite, and card synergy (Datasucker with static breakers and Parasite). Noise’s ability also makes things interesting for the Corp as they will have to learn to also protect Archives from attack.

To make this deck with no 1-ofs. -1 Grimoire -1 Ice Carver +2 Stimhack

6 comments
10 Mar 2015 JamesManhattan

This deck could really use more ways to make money. Has this been playtested? I tried it out and went broke. That's even after I started with two Easy Marks in my hand.

10 Mar 2015 CBTech

I have extensively tested this deck against my other corp intermediate starter deck. Against other decks it might not stack up as well, but these decks were designed to play against each other to teach concepts before the user moves on to create their own decks.

Money can be tight, but this deck is running 9 pure econ cards (Easy Mark, Sure Gamble, Armitage), 3 partial econ (Infiltration), and 5 cards that will help make runs cheaper (Cyberfeeder, Datasucker). Cyberfeeder can also be used to play viruses making those cheaper as well. There is no permanent money source, but in the core set the only permanent money is Magnum Opus.

Feel free to experiment with the influence. You could remove the 2 Personal Touches and the Net Shields to free up 6 influence which could allow you to import some other economy. Here is what is available. Magnum Opus - 2 inf (always solid, though the 2 memory can hurt this deck if you don't see memory or a djinn) Bank Job - 2 inf (potentially useless, but likely not if played against my corp intermediate deck) Account Siphon - 4 inf (I wouldn't really consider this an econ card)

10 Jan 2016 NULLhypothesis

Thank you so much for the effort put into creating your starter decks. It seems like this deck does not meet influence requirements under the MWL. Do you have any plans on an update that accounts for the additional influence from Yog.0? I'm very new to the game and don't have a good suggestion. I was merely curious.

Thanks again. And, cheers!

12 Jan 2016 clydeiii

If you're just starting, I don't see why you should care about MWL. If your're going to a tournament with this, well, hopefully you realize it isn't legal.

12 Jan 2016 NULLhypothesis

I am starting out by I want to play decks that are tournament legal. The official manual in the Core Set big box specifically points out that it's recommended starter decks are tournament legal (but they are significantly worse than anything Oniya has provided). Whatever though =\ I don't feel like there's much more to say on the matter.

22 Feb 2016 JDC_Wolfpack

I don't think MWL is a huge concern if you're playing with a single core set. These cards were tested against each other. The reason for MWL was that as the game expanded there were cards that broke how the designers went about creating new cards. Parasite Datasucker is strong but without instant speed clone chips it becomes much clunkier when you need to click to instal and recur with déjà vu.