[Project CROW - 1] Hard-Hitting times

Project CROW

This deck is part of the Project CROW mini-campaign for beginners familiar with System Core 2019. It is meant as a glimpse into current competitive Standard decks. The campaign starts off with a match of Reina Roja vs. NBN: Making News and progresses in 4 Steps to the classic Valencia Estevez vs. NBN: Controlling the Message matchup and introduces and discusses the use of new cards step by step. The final decks are the winning Corporation of Worlds 2018 and an adjusted version of the winning Runner deck of the Taunton Regional 2019.

If you are confused by the name, there is a great meme in the netrunner community around the Corp deck. And if you have feedback regarding these decks, feel free to contact me on Slack!

Decklists

Corp 1: Hard-Hitting times Runner 1: Getting to know the basics

Corp 2: Recursion is everything Runner 2: I can make news as well

Corp 3: Enter the Bankers! Runner 3: There has been a t e r r i b l e accident

Corp 4: Final stop: AMERICA CtM Runner 4: Final stop: FREDPI-ish Val

Overview lists by @presheaf:

These great lists show you what cards to put in and out for every game transition: Corp overview, Runner overview

Common part

Coming out of the SC19 meta, one of the central cards that is introduced in this step is Hard-Hitting News (HHN in short). This is the central card in the matchup and what the whole game will revolve around.

Let's take it apart: HHN only triggers if a run has been made in the previous turn, so the Runner controls this part of the card. This means as the Runner try to only run if you've got sufficient money or know for sure they do not have a HHN in hand. For what amount of money the Runner should have, there are two limits. If they are above 8c, they can in any case remove all 4 tags the card gives them. Since the card is a terminal, the Corp cannot use the fact that the Runner is tagged until their next turn, so if you can clear all 4 tags, you're fine. This may still leave the Runner behind broken economically. The second level is if the Runner has a similar or larger credit total than the Corp. Since the card costs 3 to play, is a trace[4], the Runner has 1 link, and Making News typically has 2 recurring credits, the Runner cannot get hit, if they have 2 more credits than the Corp. Even if only a few credits shy, it rarely is advantageous for the Corp to go down to 0 credits just to land those 4 tags, if the Runner is able to remove them next turn anyways.

Another new card is Rashida Jaheem, which is a good tempo card for the Corp. They will typically install it in the scoring remote and it draws them cards and gives them credits to boost them in their game plan.

Corp part

Your game plan is to build a scoring remote together with Ash 2X3ZB9CY and Red Herrings, while making centrals (especially R&D) a hassle to run with Data Ravens and Hunters. Install Daily Business Show and PAD Campaigns out in the open, to generate drip economy and keep HQ clean. You have the threat of HHN to make trashing your assets unviable.

If the Runner has to drop low in credits to keep up, you can use HHN to tag them. This might force the Runner to give up the economic war and "go tag-me" (stay tagged). The Reina deck does not neccessarily need its resources and going tag-me has the benefit of making the Data Ravens and Hunters ineffective. The Runner can now try to win by getting good accesses off of HQ and R&D. If they do not win fast enough, you can use Psychographics to score your final points especially together with Project Beale for some ridiculously large amounts of agenda points. Keep in mind: a single 13-advanced Project Beale will give you 7 points to win the game.