Hello everyone. After months of NBN, IG and Anarch dominance, it’s finally time for a new MWL and FAQ – and this one’s a doozy. It’s been discussed all over the place and I can’t add more to that except for saying I think the Astro errata may yet prove to be a mistake. But this is Sneakdoor and we want to know what people are playing, so let’s have a look at what’s been happening and figure out what this meta is gonna look like!

A lot of the decks below will just be my versions of others’ decks. I’ll try and give credit where possible but if I miss it, my apologies and please let me know.

CORP GOODUNS

Although losing Astro hurts, SYNC EoI (thanks Calimsha) is still brutal. You’re now more reliant on using SanSan or Psychographics to score Beales but having Quantum Predictive Models can provide more opportunities for the Runner to either score points for you or allow for more EoI or never advance plays. Clot and Film Critic still cause problems. NBN Kill may see some serious play when BOOM! drops, given the obvious Breaking News synergy. Obviously the list linked here needs some serious changes, but could be great.

BABW Midseasons could potentially be in a really good place. Vanilla and the potential to see less Faust both add a lot to rush strategies and Consulting Visit is absolutely bonkers, letting you have 4 Midseason Replacements for 4 influence. Seems good.

Palana Glacier is still just as good. That said, top players have noted difficulties against Shaper, and as Shaper is likely to be very prominent soon that may be an issue. Classic asset-based RP Glacier might also be great if we see less Whizzard.

HB FA is likely to be the new FA option of choice simply because they have 6 3/2’s, Jeeves and good ICE. It’s not as strong as classic NEHFA but good nonetheless. Don’t cut your Clots just yet kiddies.

Sandburg is some pretty serious business and lets you get your ICE extremely large, extremely fast. Since this is dropping at the same time that D4v1d + Cutlery is going to MWL-Land, it’s extremely likely that you’ll see a huge amount of Sandburg in the near future, and I’ve already seen (possibly not serious) calls for it to be on the MWL! The card itself seems balanced to me – you need 2 remote servers, for one thing, and Political Operative already exists and is widely played.

The question is, what do you put it in? NEXT ICE seems much better now, especially Silver. Blue Sun glacier can make a billion credits so could be a strong candidate. Really, any Corp deck that can make money can work with this. I took the idea for this monstrosity from Nordrunner and somehow it hasn’t dropped a game.

Finally, the new NBN ID, Controlling the Message, lends itself well to durdly Museum Asset decks (because everyone loves those). This has an actual scoring plan via Psycho-Beale so might be worth keeping an eye on.

RUNNER GOODUNS

Shaper is very happy right now – straight-up Kate doesn’t get affected by the list at all and was already very strong. It’s possible you can cut Clot but right now I’m keeping it. Similarly, stealth Kate will benefit from both the game slowing down and Mirror being available both for memory and replenishment of stealth credits. If these decks can cut Clot, they can also potentially fit in more tech against Asset decks like Paricia. Nexus Kate could also benefit from a slower meta and Apocalypse Kate is strong.

The Spy Camera decks, most notably out of Hayley and Geist, are the current flavour of the month and seem extremely strong in a slow meta. Once the engine gets up it can generate an insane amount of money incredibly fast them remote lock and snipe agendas from the top of R&D.

Other than Geist, Criminal is likely to remain at the same rough power level. Au Revoir or Stealth Andy should be good picks.

Meanwhile, Anarch has been absolutely gutted but should still have some strong options available. Minh MaxX is as strong as ever and you could switch the Employee Strike in this list for a Faust if you want. The newly spoiled Omar Keung could have strong synergy with this strategy as well.

Dumblefork can exist but will need to either lose Clone Chips or replace Wyldside with Earthrise Hotels. Either is probably a fair tradeoff to bring the deck’s raw power level down to the rest of the field.

Some kind of L4J/Reg-Ass Anarch has potential too, as this could always be pretty comfortably run out of any Anarch ID and Null could be well suited to this strategy. With less Clone Chips it’ll be weaker, but all Anarch is now.

Noise is boned. Sad times.

HAS THE SKY FALLEN: JULY 2016 EDITION

Nah.

See you guys next time!