Criminal 1.3: F5HQ

Hi, welcome to Netrunner. I'm not sure if you wanted it, but I thought I'd give you some friendly advice, which you are free to take or leave. :)

1. Run Corroder instead of Snowball. Corroder is 2 credits cheaper, costs the same influence, and starts at 1 higher strength. You will find this better than Snowball's ability 9/10 times (or more).
2. You aren't running Account Siphon, which is absolutely amazing with Gabe. Have a way into HQ but think you can't get into a remote server with unrezzed ice? Siphon 5 credits from the corp, gain 12, and then run the remote. The corp can no longer afford to rez ice so you get rich and get your agenda. If the ice is already rezzed, play Emergency Shutdown and then run. Or make the corp trash ice it can no longer afford to rez with Forged Activation Orders. While we are on the subject, I would suggest losing Lawyer Up, Decoy and Plascrete and instead stick with multiple Crash Space. You get tag removal credits and damage protection. Less pieces to set up is always better.
3. You have no way to break code gates above 3. A tollbooth on a remote server is basically a win for your opponent. However, you definitely want cards that allow you multiple card accesses on one run. If you cut Nerve Agent and replace it with HQ Interface, you can keep multi-access in your deck and use the saved influence cost on a couple of Datasucker. Now every time you successfully run a central server you get a counter that either saves you money on future runs or brings down big code gates to Yog's strength. It also makes Crypsis somewhat less ungodly expensive to run.
4. I would suggest Infiltration instead of Satellite Uplink. It's a credit cheaper and can be used for money in a pinch. You don't want to be sitting on a credit and looking down at half the cards in your deck. At least there is always a use for Infiltration.
5. You probably want 3 Inside Job, you definitely want 3 Sure Gamble and you probably won't use Leverage. Ever. (It's cool in theory but 2 bad publicity is so terrible the corp will never take it.) Compromised employee is probably only useful facing NBN.
6. Test Run is not as good here as Self-modifying Code. I understand you may not have it yet, but the influence is the same and you get your program during the run (<---HUGE) for one fewer credit and you don't have to put it back, redraw and install.
7. Let's talk credit economy and click economy. You are spending precious influence on Liberated Accounts. This isn't a bad card at all, but you have to have 6 credits to install it, and you aren't actually making money until you click it the third time. You end up netting 10 credits after five clicks. That's only 5 more than if you have clicked for credits...with the caveat that about half the time you won't have enough credits to even install it. Armitage Codebusting only costs 1 to install and has a similar effect. You can take money when you need to install something or get into a remote, but you can do it this turn, which is often important. But you get less money. Play with both and see which you prefer. I would say go with Armitage.
8. It costs 98 credits to play all of your cards. For the purpose of basic deckbuilding, assume the opportunity cost of whatever economy cards you include like this: Easy Mark = +2 credits. Why? Because in lieu of playing it you could have simply clicked for a credit. In this case, Easy Mark is +2 over a free action. Sure Gamble is +3. As stated above, Liberated Account is +5. Therefore, your deck has only +17 against 98 in costs. Assuming you got roughly half way through your deck during a match, you would have to click 18 times to draw those cards and click (roughly) 41 times for credits. That's 15 turns just getting cards and credits. In short, (and especially for beginning players) include more money. Add Bank Job. It's amazing economy. Add 3 Armitage Codebusting. You definitely want Account Siphon. Hell, go Hog Wild and get yourself a Magnum Opus. Whatever you do, be rich. In Netrunner there is hardly a point to being a Criminal if you can't be rich.

Best of luck to you in your deckbuilding efforts and I hope you enjoy Netrunner as much as all of us!

@PapaBear Yes please, advice! I published thislist in the hope of getting feedback.

• Okay, +1 Corroder; -1 Snowball done.
• I would love HQ Interface over Nerve Agent but unfortunately I don't have that datapack.If I continue with this deck, that will be a must buy. Infiltration over Satellite is a great idea. When I ran with this, I found I wasn't getting a lot of info on the second card flip.
• I've done +1 Sure Gamble and Inside Job.
• My thinking behind Leverage was that since I had no other net damage protection, if I spent most of my hand after an HQ run, I could lay down Leverage to buy me a turn to replenish those cards. It saved me in the last game because the cards I accessed were mostly "Do 1 or 2 net damage." Do you have any suggestions on how to protect against that?
• I love the economy suggestions and I've already made those changes. The one I'm not sure about is Magnum Opus since it's a memory hog and I'm already using a lot of slots with Sneakdoor/Nerve Agent. I was actually using Compromised Employee for both a drip economy, and when used in combo with, Forged Activation, was often a net gain of 2 credits (or at least a derezzed piece of ice). What do you think?

for leverage, if the corp has a way to kill you, they are just going to take the bad pub and win the game. Against spiky Jinteki decks, the trick is to go slow, always run on the first click, and draw up if you need to so you don't die