As I’ve mentioned before I’m a bit of a control freak. I love control decks, which is to say decks which mess with the other guy’s plan as much as trying to implement your own. Astrobiotics is the example of the extreme opposite of a control deck- it doesn’t really care what the other guy is doing, it just wants to wall up, make money and score out ASAP. To show you how it could be done differently, this week I’m janking up an NBN control deck.

Let’s start with the basics. Control wants to dictate the pace of the game as much as possible. You do this through advantageous trading, that is to say, you do things that end up setting your opponent back just a little more than you, while still advancing the game as reliably as possibly. Over time, these advantageous trades build up and you can start dictating the course of play. You can control a runner by doing a few different things- you can threaten them into doing things by, say, putting a card down and advancing it. You can directly attack their cards under certain circumstances (with tags for example), you can limit their options and you can put incremental pressure on them using advantageous trades,

NBN of all the factions is unique in having a card that can wreak havoc on a runner without the runner having to have done anything first. That card is Invasion of Privacy, it’s somewhat overlooked, but it has three very important unique factors:

The runner doesn’t have to have met any preconditions for you to be able to use it (other than not having a billion credits) The runner can’t interact with it to prevent you using it under normal circumstances (without Imp for example) It gives you, at the time of your choosing, perfect information about the runner’s options which is the ideal scenario for a control deck.

The control it provides is in killing off events and resources in the grip- which is also damage of a sort and so combines well with a damage-flatline strategy. Unlike a lot of things in Netrunner it gives you direct control over exactly what damage you do- if you only get one out of three cards they’re holding, YOU get to pick the one to go.

As a perfect storm scenario, imagine: You are Making News vs pesky Andromeda. You have a pretty secure looking hand with an Invasion of Privacy turn one. You can dump your credits into it for a total trace of seven meaning that you get to see Andy’s hand and the best she can do is lose all her crucial starting credits and STILL lose the most pivotal piece of that opening hand (and probably another couple of pieces since at 0 credits she won’t be doing much turn 1. Or she can let you clear out all her gambles, siphons, indexings, katie jones’, security testings etc and start with a couple of breakers and a desperado.

The key to making this card work is provide it a deck that demands the runner stay low on credits so you can fire it successfully, and have the tools to use the information you glean from using it to make plays.

To that end, I wanted to make a deck that puts a lot of credit pressure on the runner consistently throughout the game. Tags are a great way of doing this, as are cards like Jackson Howard, Marked Accounts and Bernice Mai. One of my housemates plays a very nasty NBN shell that I drew on for inspiration, with some brutal tricks- particularly a twice advanced breaking news in a server protected by Data Raven and Bernice with Midseason Replacements and two Scorched Earth in hand. Eugh.

So, let’s get to work.

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‘You can run, but you can’t hide’

Identity: NBN: Making News

Cards: 49 / 45

Agenda points: 20 / 20

Influence: 15 / 15

Agenda (12)

3x AstroScript Pilot Program

2x Breaking News

3x NAPD Contract

2x Project Beale

2x TGTBT

Asset (9)

1x Snare ●●

3x Jackson Howard

2x Marked Accounts

3x Primary Transmission Dish

Ice (13)

2x Data Hound

3x Data Raven

3x Pop-up Window

2x RSVP

3x Wraparound

Operation (12)

3x Invasion of Privacy

1x Power Grid Overload ●

2x SEASource

3x Scorched Earth ●●●●●●●●●●●●

3x Sweeps Week

Upgrade (3)

3x Bernice Mai

Decklist from Little Chiba

I want to control the runner as much as possible which means interfering with their board. This means Invasion of Privacy, obviously, but also SEA Source, Power Grid Overload and Data Hound. Three Scorched Earth to provide a reliable death threat (Invasion of Privacy can act as an erzatz Scorched Earth in some cases too).

To add some taxing pressure I’m running Bernice Mai, Jackson Howard, Marked Accounts and Primary Transmission Dish. All of these are effectively free to rez (since PTD only needs to be rezzed immediately before you run a trace that pays for it) but cost the runner at least 3 to get rid of, the perfect example of an advantageous trade- zero investment beyond a click needed.

For ice, since I’m running a lot of non-economy operations and assets, albeit ones that don’t cost much, I don’t have room for a lot of traditional economy. This means while I’m going to have a lot of options and trace credits on the board, my actual funds will usually be quite low, meaning ice will need to be on the small side. Popup Window will of course help mitigate this, Data Raven is a no-brainer, especially when combined with Bernice as mentioned above. Data Hound provides brutal punishment for a runner who facechecks it without being able to break it- especially early game (if there’s a Primary Transmission Dish down, a free trace 7 can pretty much give you three or four turns perfect information and odds on snipe something really tasty like a Plascrete Carapace) and worst case it’s 1 credit to rez for 1 credit to break. RSVP works well with my taxing assets and Wraparound fills out the barrier slot.

I only really have room for three Sweeps Weeks for economy operations and, besides, I’m not sure this deck will consistently have the funds to fire off Hedge Funds as they come up.

The normal NBN suite of agendas is slightly altered here. Three NAPD Contracts, but only two Project Beale, one of them being replaced with two TGTBTs- icing for the Bernice – Data Raven combo.

With one card and some influence to spare, a single Snare can put the fear of god into a runner who thinks they’re on top of things- or perhaps even kill them outright.

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To play this deck you want to try and get the runner moving early and spending their money, rather than sitting back and banking up. Much of the power of this deck is lost if a runner is sitting at a load of credits, luckily though you can really tax them hard and fast if you play your cards out aggressively and force the pace of the game.

Forcing runners into situations where they have to take tags is a good way of draining credits, and trading 8-10 credits for an agenda is often a play you want to make- remember that your goal is mostly going to be to kill the runner at some point rather than score out, though since you’re playing NBN if the runner doesn’t come and play your game you’ll just score out quickly anyway.

Remember that the core function of this deck is control, and control is maintained in netrunner games through credit pools. Do everything you can to keep the runner’s pool low and everything you can to keep yours high. Let them trash your Jacksons rather than shuffling in a few cards you don’t really need, double click your marked accounts to tempt them into trashing them. Leave servers just open enough that they’re tempting to run, but will keep the runner on the edge of running out of steam.

I’ve played this deck three times now with a 2-1 record, give it a go yourselves and tell me how it comes out…