Xand's Guide: Startup with NBN

Xandorius 1506

WELCOME TO XAND'S GUIDE

Hello! My name is Xandorius. I've published a series of decklists for newer players using Nisei's Startup Format. There is one decklist per faction, using the startup IDs. Each decklist will discuss some ideas about playing as and against the faction, an overview of a gameplan from early to late game, and a breakdown of why I chose each card in the list. These lists are meant to give players a place to get started and some things to think about as they continue on their Netrunner journey. Discussion and tweaking to your own playstyle/ideas is highly encouraged!

You can find my other startup guides here!

NO SUCH THING AS BAD PRESS - PLAYING AS NBN

NBN is all about influencing the runner. If they take a tag; punish them! If they run; tag them! If they do nothing; score out! By creating these different forks, you can pressure the runner to run when they shouldn't, or sit back when they should be running. Tag punishment can push games in your favour, and taxing ICE can help you get there.

NO NEWS IS GOOD NEWS - PLAYING AGAINST NBN

If you're up against NBN, you want to be aware of the threats they might be using. Many of their threats have break points, such as Public Trail allowing you to avoid the tag if you pay 8. You don't want to end up in a situation where you are forced into the Corp's preferred choice. NBN can also score fast with tools like SanSan City Grid. If you want to win against NBN then you need a way to deal with tags, a way to trash their key assets, and a decent amount of money. Although often taxing, lots of NBN ICE loses its teeth once the runner is set up and it frequently doesn't end the run so a final YOLO play can still close out the game.

PILOT EPISODE - EARLY GAME

The plan on this deck is to pressure the runner with tags as we build up a taxing scoring server to score out. A hasty runner will float a tag and hopefully have us trash a program or maybe even flatline them!

In the early game we want to ICE centrals and get some econ rolling. Marilyn Campaign in a remote can get some early cash, and Pop-up Window and give us money while the runner does early pokes.

RENEWED FOR ANOTHER SEASON - MIDGAME PLAN

As you transition to the midgame, you want to start utilizing your tags and tag punishment. Tags already reward you through your ID ability, but Retribution and Orbital Superiority can potentially cause a huge disruption for the runner. Seamless Launch can help with some sneaky scoring and AMAZE Amusements will make it difficult for the runner to steal those agendas while still staying tag free.

A FLAWLESS FINAL CHAPTER - ENDGAME GOALS

As we move to the endgame, using Retribution to lock the runner out of a sever by trashing key icebreakers can seal in a win. Spin Doctor is good early game for draw, but he can also be used late game to give you pieces back. I think lategame is where a surprise Ping can really throw off a runner too. There's some solid mind games that can be played around when, and how, you tag the runner. Setting yourself up for nearly guaranteed tags is how to make this deck sing.

SO MANY SHOWS, SO LITTLE TIME - CARD CHOICES

Agendas - The agenda suite here aims for fairly easy to score choices. Remastered Edition can make scoring further agendas easier, Project Beale and Tomorrow's Headline are both strong 3/2s in their own right. Lastly, Orbital Superiority gives a possible kill option if we set the runner up to fall down hard.

Assets - Simple choices here, one gives you money, the other gives you cards and filtering.

Operations - A well placed Public Trail can seriously hurt the runner. Either by tossing their money out the window, allowing you to trash a key resource, or by blowing something up with Retribution. In particular, the ability to trash a console will have the added potential of forcing a runner to trash programs too as they run out of . Seamless Launch helps score out agendas as they pretend to be assets.

Upgrades - AMAZE Amusements presents a challenge for the runner to clear tags enough, and ties together nicely with Tomorrow's Headline.

ICE - Ping and Funhouse push tags even further. Hagen and Ballista may trash a program that leads to locking out the runner. Tollbooth and F2P can be quite taxing in ther own right. Finally, Pop-up Window is surprisingly annoying, and the money it makes you can add up.

READING THE TV GUIDE - FINAL THOUGHTS

Thank you for taking a look at the list! There are lots of tweaks and options you can swap in to fit your style and meta. Try out Whitespace to see if it can combo well with Tollbooth for extra taxing. Tithe might replace pop-up as a small stinging ICE. Consider Fast Advance tools like Biotic Labor or SanSan City Grid to speed up your scoring plan. Or switch things up to run 5/3s and spike the runner with a Punitive Counterstrike when they run poor trying to steal them. No matter which way you build NBN, you'll be able to find your favourite show!

Take care and see you on the Net!

Xandorius -Xandorius

3 comments
12 Jun 2021 ntrnnr

@Xandorius thanks so much for these startup decks. Any recommendation of which 2 of the startup decks fit together nicely to have beginner duels? I am playing your beginner shaper vs beginner weyland right now and am having a tough time.

30 Jun 2022 kaisemic

These have been a godsend for me, as I’ve just gotten into the game. Would also love to hear which of your decks would be matched well against each other, as well.

8 Jan 2023 Redemptor

Struggling with NBN and appreciate the guide! I’ve made a few replacements to keep it legal with Uprising cycling out - will you be going back through your guides and updating them by chance?