Apex following the three directives

This is not meant as a serious deck for any kind of competetive play.

This is more of a theoretical approach towards the following questions:

1. Can you make a viable deck out of two of the mini factions?

   I see a lot of decks here where all influence points are spent for cards of the same faction. Shapers with 15 inf in anarch cards, anarchs with 15 inf in criminal cards and so on. But would Data&Destiny allow a reasonable deck with one mini faction spending 25 inf on another one? Probably not. I found no way to make this look halfway acceptable using more than 20 inf on adam. And somehow I had the urge to add at least something that can potentially break non-ETR-subs.

   I'd love to see a deck made from only neutral or mini-faction cards. So, come on, prove me wrong!

2. Can you put the three directives to good use?

   As I see it, people don't include them at all. Not even in Adam decks! Well, at least not more than the standard 1-ofs that are not considered part of Adams deck. And I can't blame them. When I first saw the directives I thought "Wow. What a heavy disadvantage for an ID, having to start the game with this.". But what if I was wrong and these cards are not a burden? So I searched for decklists on NetrunnerDB containing directives. I found mostly Adam decks (of course), a few Apex decks with one directive or the other and a single non-D&D ID with a directive: Always Be Scoring. A nice approach to combine Always Be Running with criminal tools and an ID that tends to always be running anyways: Ken.

   I'd like to see more of that. What directives do you use for Apex? Or for any other runner than Adam?

Adam's Cards in this deck

• Independent Thinking makes use of trashing installed cards, which is exactly Apex' thing! The perfect drawing power for him.
• Always Be Running offers a way to break non-ETR-subs, Endless Hunger can't break. Profit!
• Neutralize All Threats could easily be replaced by HQ Interface here, but this deck is running on a low credit economy and the 4 for the Interface could be a tempo hit.
• Safety First's downside is mitigated by Heartbeat's ability to prevent all kinds of damage. And it ensures that you always end your turn with at least 1 card. Apex needs cards to fuel his ability of installing one facedown when his turn begins.

The three directives

This is more of a card review than a deck description, but this deck's purpose is to see if you can make use of these cards outside of Adam, so I guess this somehow belongs here. Plus, reviews aren't enabled yet for D&D cards.

• Always Be Running forces a run every turn. Well, there are already a lot of archetypes trying to run every turn. So, does this hurt them? Maybe. But if you're not Adam you get to choose when this will be installed and active. So if you intend to run every turn lategame anyways, this shouldn't hurt too much. But what does it give you? Well... It gives you a way to tackle that one big ICE once per turn. seems like a harsh cost, but actually, what would you do with these clicks? gain 4? Well, ask yourself... Could you have broken that single big ICE with 4? Perhaps. But if it's a really big and scary one it might be far more expensive. But wait! ABR only breaks a single subroutine, so what are we're going to to about a scary big multi subroutine ICE like this guy? Well, we're going to use e3 Feedback Implants. Because, really, that's what e3 is made for! Bringing down any ICE that you can get a leverage on with some other, expensive or limited way to break subs. And ABR is just that.
• Neutralize All Threats forces you to trash. It forces you to wreck havoc. Sounds fun for guys like Apex and Whizzard that tend to destroy everything that is, just because it's fun to see the world burning. But yes, it is restrictive and you might want to back it up by some recurring cedits that can be used for trashing assets or a Bad Publicity oriented build that pays for the trash costs. but what does it give you? Well... It gives you a HQ Interface for 3 instead of 2 influence and 0 instead of 4. If you are not a criminal, want a HQ interface, can spare the influence and want to save yourself 4, this might be worth considering. I think I'll try it on Whizzard: Master Gamer.
• Safety First reduces your hand size, which is generally dangerous and increases the threat of a flatline, especially against any form or brain damage or hand size reduction from the corp's side or anything that deals a lot of damage at once, like Scorched Earth. You can work around this downside by either preventing damage or increasing your hand size. There are a lot of ways for doing that. But what's the point of a card if it gives you a disadvantage you need to work around? Well... It gives you a card. One free draw every turn as long as you don't fill up your hand to the max. If your hand size is 3, try to end every turn with 2 cards to get the most of it. This is a serious drawing power! You could even combine it with a Drug Dealer to increase the amount of cards in your grip to 4 at the beginning of the corp's turn. Now you can start every turn with 4 cards and use 2 of them without needing to draw.