NEXT Design: A Rush of Efficiency (Post NAPD List)

Under general strategy, you say ice all 3 servers. Do you mean all 3 centrals or HQ, R&D, and remote? Or does it depend on the ice you have in hand/match up you're facing?

I could see the merits of either I was just curious as to your thoughts. Great looking deck! I'm to give this a spin today I think.

@Tbone6963 Great question and I should have clarified. I almost always ice HQ, R&D and remote with the first 3 ice. If I only get 2 ice from the ability, I will usually ice the remote and whichever central server has a higher likelihood of giving up points if I leave open for a turn. You really want to play aggressively with this deck and don't mind giving up a couple of agendas much like an NBN deck. The ice is all so easy to rez, the you will be able to protect yourself again pretty quickly. If you get an Efficiency Committee scored, you can close out the game pretty quick from there. A scored ABT usually also gives you 2 more ice that I would add to the remote in many cases and then start jamming out agendas in the remote. Good luck with your plays and let me know what you think!

This looks super fun. I can't wait to try it out. Thanks for sharing!

I dig the idea behind this deck. I'll definitely try it for myself, but I have a lot of trouble believing that Paper Wall is ever a good call. A replace by Vanilla is the most obvious fix and one that you point out but even like Wall of Static or Enigma? Would the extra 6 credits really push this deck over the edge? I don't know.

I tested this out a few times on Jinteki.net. It's been a bad week for me luck-wise. Out of about a half-dozen scored ABT's across my plays I managed to get one Paper Wall up and rezzed.

I also set a personal record for rolling hot one's in a Pathfinder session this weekend, so I must have angered the luck gods somehow.

I played this a bit and some of the fundamentals are strong. I think some of the ice is over the top and unnecessary though. For instance, you shouldn't ever rez a next gold. It shouldn't even be in the deck.

I also found that the deck tended towards HQ flood. A savvy runner whose up and up on the deck is likely going to nail you with some HQ accesses and then it'll be a race to see who can win on R&D.

That's not a bad proposition, but it's also not particularly amazing. I think faust puts enough pressure on the deck that I wouldn't compete with this.

Would you swap Paper Wall into Vanilla?

@musingly Absolutely - hope you like it and let me know what you think.

@Everynone I understand your point, but let me present a common turn 1 situation to present a counter argument You have 3 ice in your opening hand: NEXT Silver, Paper Wall and Quandary. I put the Silver on the remote, Quandary on R&D and the Paper Wall on HQ (this depends on the matchup, but generally would be the case). If I Hedge Fund click one, install Efficiency Committee and advance, I have 8 credits to protect myself with next turn. A smart runner will challenge the remote, forcing me down to 5 then try to take that opportunity to hammer my centrals assuming I either have to 1. Protect myself and forego scoring the agenda next turn or 2. Take a chance that their multi-access run/whatever won't do too much damage. If you play Paper Wall, you get to score the Efficiency Committee AND protect all of your centrals. A Wall of Static or Enigma would result in you not having the credits to do both. Over a long enough game, the Runner will have enough money and breakers to access your remotes - that is a given. By that point, the marginal difference between and Quandary and an Enigma barely makes a difference, so you may as well play ice that maximizes your early game advantage as that is what this ID is all about. If you get the turn 2 score - you barely even need to worry about the quality of your ice as you just need an agenda to score and a Shipment from SanSan/Biotic Labor. All you want is enough to force the runner to get a breaker. I think you could certainly change the ice suite around a little and have success, but hope that at least helps give some additional clarification over why I play something as admittedly puny as Paper Wall. Thanks again for the comment and checking out the deck!

@say200426 I plan to make the switch when it is released. I don't think having the 1 extra strength to fade the turn 1 parasite is more valuable than having ice that sticks around. Main reason is because with the Rototurrets and NEXT Gold, there is a chance you can get a program trash and turn your lowly Vanilla back into a brick wall for the runner. I think that situation comes up more than the Paper Wall saving your butt from the extra 1 strength, but the decision is pretty close. Hope this helps and let me know what you think.

@GrantZilla1979 I'm about to pour one out for you although I can certainly say I've been there myself a time or two. You live by the Beta Test, you die by the Beta Test. Keep scoring those Beta Tests, and your free NEXT Gold will come...

@gumonshoe thanks for the comment and feedback on your experience playing it. I hear your point on NEXT Gold, but I'd be curious on what other ice you didn't think fit the deck. I've been back and forth on the Gold, but ultimately went with it for two reasons. First, it gives you something big to hit off a Beta Test (of which it is not uncommon to fire two in a game). Two, there are games where the Runner just assumes I have all end run ice and assumes they can face check with impunity. Gold gives you something that keeps them honest and can end the game on the spot either with the damage or just putting them so far behind if you snipe two breakers.

I understand your point on the HQ flood, but I never found that the deck was experiencing that any more than NEH as your are drawing roughly similar numbers of cards with an identical agenda count in the deck. The big advantage that NBN will always have over HB in the fast advance department is the fact that AstroScript Pilot Program is a 3/2 while Efficiency Committee (our fast advance equivalent agenda) is a 4/2. It is a significant advantage (along with the 5 extra influence for whatever crazy reason) that I doubt will ever be overcome.

While I think you could certainly compete with this deck and have success, you need look no further than the Spark Agency deck I posted to see what I'm taking to battle in a tournament for that very reason. If nothing else, hopefully everyone gets some direction and success playing an ID that has long been in many a card binder. Thanks again for the comments and please do let me know if you have other specific thoughts on the ice suite - it is greatly appreciated.

I'm curious what the strategy here is vs. runners who can tutor and recur Clot. There's no scoring upgrades like Ash or Caprice, and every FA tactic requires a telegraph (either playing Biotic or hitting Efficiency Committee), so how do you close out games? Are you managing to get three gear check ICE on the remote and push out 7 points before they get their rig out?

@lukesim3 That is pretty much it. The clot recursion threat typically only comes out of Shaper in my experience. Pre NAPD as I mentioned, this matchup was awful as they had 3 Clone Chips and Clot and Parasite. Post NAPD, you are seeing a lot of cuts to 2 Clone Chip and 0 Parasite. This makes it tougher to establish a Clot "lock", but your plan B is to just gear check them and install behind a remote with different subtypes. Everyone assumes that Runners have all the answers, but if you play this deck aggressively, you will often find that they can only do so much. You will still have games where things don't work out, but that is the downfall of rush strategies in Netrunner in general. If they play Clot when you need to fast advance, just clear it and make them have the Clone Chip. Hope that helps and thanks for the comment!

What are your thoughts on switching Bifrost with Gila Hands? I think with that, you could have a more stable econ throughout the game.

I ran this the other night, swapping out the Paper Wall for Quicksand and shuffling around to get 2x Guard. A single Mother Goddess on the remote kept the runner out most of the game but - I got horribly agenda flooded vs. Leela Patel: Trained Pragmatist.

My takeaway was that I liked the Agenda/ICE distribution but the initial headstart is just not as valuable as Haas-Bioroid: Engineering the Future's ability over the whole of a game.

I like this deck, the rush is real and I love this ID, thanks for posting! I've had a lot of success with this deck in testing.

BE AGGRESSIVE BE BE AGGRESSIVE!

I'm hitting Faust EVERYWHERE. What do you think of swapping out one or both Rototurrets for Turing? Gives it a little bit of AI hate at the same cost/influence.

@onibaku06 I tried it at some point in the past with Gila Hands. What I most often found is anytime I was getting to the point in the game where I'd used it enough to get real value from it, I was playing too slow and would fall behind. I think Bifrost Array has more explosiveness in terms of what it allows you to do. If you want to play with it, I would try a 1/1 split between it and Bifrost as you're often drawing enough to have some selection and can just choose to score that instead. Overall, both are great agendas, I just think you'll find that Bifrost can put you ahead where Gila Hands just provides steady, but slow value.

@GrantZilla1979 I fully agree that this ID is not as good as ETF on balance although I will say that NEXT Design is the 2nd best pure rush ID after Near Earth Hub. ETF just provides such amazing long term consistency and guarantees value if you just play the cards in your deck, while NEXT trades all of that for the opportunity to get in front fast and leverage that into a fast win.

2x Guard is not a bad idea at all with the increase in Security Nexus, which is a big reason I have it in the deck. What did you think of Quicksand? It is an ice I keep looking at as a potential contender, but I just can't convince myself to add more barriers or replace anything that I already have.

@Veste Absolutely and thanks for the kind words. I think you summed up best by demanding that people have to play this deck aggressive. This deck wasn't in my wheelhouse when I started, but it really helped me start to play more aggressively and make the runner have answers. What you quickly learn is that Corps sometimes are afraid based on assumptions that the Runner has an answer to what they are about to do, when if they just made an aggressive play, the Runner would be helpless. Best of luck as you continue to play the deck and thank you for the feedback.

@agrajag I think that is a totally reasonable swap and you could honestly swap both if you wanted. The barriers and code gates (and Mother Goddess/Chimera) are what I consider the "staple" ice in the deck as they are cheap and serve the primary goal of the deck of keeping the runner out and forcing them to find a breaker. The sentries are really more the meta call cards and have rotated the most within the deck over time. If you need more AI hate, don't be afraid to load up. Also, if you need to get a remote 2 ice deep before trying to score, that is also perfectly reasonable. Hope that helps and let me know what you think when you make the switch. Thanks for the feedback.

Looks fun. I played a similar deck for a bit, and found Profiteering to be very strong. It's a safer turn 1 gambit that can fuel a very aggressive start, and you can biotic it out midgame for money.

I have been trying a similar deck lately to middling success. Have you considered swapping out the Pop-ups and Wraps for 3x Special Offer. The Special Offers are basically Hedge Funds in ICE form, which makes them great for NEXT.

Someone said to learn the game I should play a rush NEXT, so I picked this deck up. The problem I have consistently is getting enough credits to sustain the rush. Do you ever have that problem or any ideas what kind of play best avoids that?

Been having some fun with this deck. Started 0-4 with it but then started to figure out what I was doing and went 4-0 in last 4 games. My only change to the deck is using 3 Vanilla and 2 Wraparound. I find these days that Wraparound is almost always 0 because decks don't run breakerless AI very much.

One small tweak I'm thinking about is putting in a copy of Excalibur for its ability to restrict repeated runs on a key server.

Thanks for the deck.

@FightingWalloonWelcome to Netrunner and glad you are having success with the deck after some additional games. The decklist was created before the release of Vanilla, but I totally agree that it is an auto 3-of. The core of the deck is really the agendas and operations. The ice just needs to end the run and be as cheap as possible. Vanilla, Paper Wall and Quandary just make it that much more consistent to get early scores while keeping your credits available for scoring agendas. I haven't tried Excalibur, but think it would be an easy swap with something like the Chimera or Guard. Would love to hear what you think when you try it.