In the “So you wanna…” series we introduce each of the major and minor factions that you can play in Netrunner. These articles survey common themes, flavor, mechanics, and strategies that these factions employ, as well as a brief overview of key cards in the faction. “So you wanna…” will help you find the right faction to play and prepare you to compete against every faction in the game!

Welcome to Haas-Bioroid

Efficiency. Consistency. Reliability. This is what Haas-Bioroid has to offer when you join the ranks of their cyber-security teams. As a major rival to Jinteki in the market of cheap labor, they market and manufacture robotic laborers they call “bioroids.”

Haas-Bioroid’s line of mass-produced androids allow both their customers and their security teams to be highly productive while keeping costs low. Haas-Bioroid’s extensive line of Bioroid ice, assets, and upgrades represent some of the best value for your hard earned credit out there. The ability for bioroid ice to tax runners allow them to glacier up behind expensive-to-break ice. On the other hand, their cards which gain extra clicks allows them to score out quickly using a rush/fast-advance strategy.

While HB doesn’t offer many “surprises” in most of their strategies, they have a lot of cards that are very efficient at supporting their core strategies. In other words, while they aren’t really aiming to hurt or confound the Runner, you may be surprised at how annoying their ice is to break, and how quickly they can score out!

Engineering the Future

While there are other niche gameplans and IDs for Haas-Bioroid, for the vast majority of HB decks you will see, Engineering the Future is the ID of choice. In terms of efficiency and reliability, the 1 credit per turn for installing from EtF is the best of the bunch. It is an extremely general ID that supports both rush strategies and those that slowly glacier up taxing servers. Let’s look at some key cards that help support these strategies!

Signature Cards

Operation • Cost: 4 • Influence: 4 Gain [2 clicks].

Biotic Labor is the cornerstone of the HB fast-advance plan. With this card, you can quickly rush agendas out from your hand, scoring 1 or 2 points any time you have 7 credits (or 6, for Engineering the Future). Though many rush decks will include 3 copies of this, even 1 copy can help any HB deck score that winning agenda right when the Runner least expects it!

Asset: Advertisement • Rez: 4 • Trash: 3 • Influence: 2 Put 12 [credits] from the bank on Adonis Campaign when rezzed. When there are no credits left on Adonis Campaign, trash it. Take 3 [credits] from Adonis Campaign when your turn begins.

Adonis Campaign rakes in credits for the Corp over time. With an initial upfront cost, the net gain of 8 credits over 4 turns for a single click is good for any HB deck, but fantastic in EtF glacier strategies.

ICE: Barrier – Bioroid • Rez: 3 • Strength: 4 • Influence: 1

The Runner may spend [1 click] to break any subroutine on Eli 1.0.

[subroutine] End the run.

[subroutine] End the run.

Eli 1.0 looks quite innocuous at first glance. No, it is not punishing to hit an Eli 1.0 nor is it particularly effective at stopping any Runner by itself. However, at only 3 credits to rez, but a whole 4 credits to break with Corroder or 3 cards with Faust, Eli 1.0’s rez to break cost ratio is among the best for any barrier in the game. And 3 credits is an incredibly low amount to pay for a high-strength, multi-sub ice of any type.

Eli 1.0’s raw efficiency has landed it on the Most-Wanted List: each copy reduces the Corp’s influence by 1.

ICE: Sentry • Rez: 4 • Strength: 3 • Influence: 2

Architect cannot be trashed while installed.

[subroutine] The Corp looks at the top 5 cards of R&D and may install 1 of those cards, ignoring all install costs.

[subroutine] The Corp may install a card from Archives or HQ (paying all costs).

Architect, while not a very taxing ice for standard killers like Mimic or Mongoose, has one of the most punishing costs when left unbroken. It essentially gives the Corp two free clicks, and in the case of EtF, another credit, since EtF’s ability works once every Runner turn as well! In addition, it can nullify the install cost of a piece of ice, which can drastically accelerate the Corp’s board state.

Like Eli 1.0, Architect is so powerful that it has ended up on the MWL.

Engineering Victory

Haas-Bioroid is all about consistency. The card pool is not particularly “tricky”: you have multi-subroutine and high strength ice, cards that gain you clicks, and cards that combine multiple actions, usually installing, drawing, or gaining money, into one click. This allows you to construct very effectively around a scoring strategy and consistently draw into cards you need to advance that strategy.

However, since HB is a relatively straightforward faction, the devil is really in the details. You are unlikely to surprise a Runner who has experience, and in fact you rarely want to waste time doing so. You’ve got agendas to score and servers to protect, and no time to waste doing anything besides! Instead, you must learn the fundamentals of defending centrals and remotes, and understanding when you have scoring “windows” of opportunity against Runners of all types.

HB has access to a wide assortment of powerful ice at a reasonable cost. It’s no surprise, then, that icing strategies are fundamental to enabling HB’s game-plan. Try to mix ice types and strengths on a single server, to force the Runner to dig for extra gear. Or stack up the most taxing kind of ice on your most important servers!

Make decisions difficult for the Runner. Keep each server equally taxing for the Runner so that it’s not obvious which will be the most rewarding. Try to keep the cost-benefit relatively even among servers so that it’s hard to choose where to run. Good Runners will always exploit a weak server if they notice one. And finally, try to stack taxing ice (like program destruction sentries) before end the run ice (like barriers). When you rez that outer sentry, the Runner has a hard decision: they can’t jack out, and they can’t get in if they’re broke and have no programs!

Since HB generally values consistency over surprise factor, it’s important to understand when you have scoring windows. Your primary game-plan is going to revolve around reliably scoring agendas, since that is HB’s strength. However, it’s impossible to keep a prepared Runner out of every server, every turn. So instead, you must recognize when the Runner is unable or unwilling to contest a scoring attempt.

For an simple example, if the Runner has 0 credits and 0 installed cards, and you’ve stacked your scoring remote with taxing ice and ice that ends the run, it’s likely not worth it for the Runner to contest your scoring attempt. Install that agenda and score it next turn! Or if they spend a whole turn and go broke again trying to contest it, keep up your momentum and install another one.

Build your servers strategically to tax Runners and understand when you have scoring windows, and you will soon be engineering victories with Haas-Bioroid!

Playing Against Haas-Bioroid

HB’s cardpool primarily supports the fundamentals of icing and scoring agendas. As a Runner against HB, you too must understand what ice the Corp wants to put where, and when they want to score.

Running early in your turn is very important when face-checking HB Bioroid ice. Bioroid ice all share the ability for the Runner to spend clicks to break subroutines. As a result, HB can rarely keep Runners out of servers early, but once they are rich enough to start stacking multiple bioroids, clicking through all of them becomes impossible.

Be sure to balance early runs on the relatively “porous” Bioroid ice with the fact that you need to build up a rig that will give you the ability to break in later on. If you spend precious clicks on early turns, make sure the tradeoffs are worth it for you. Force the Corp to be poor, prevent an early 2 point lead, or even better, both! But don’t fall behind by going broke and giving up board presence by being unable to install breakers and econ.

And finally, always be ready for a 2 point, 7 credit Biotic Labor agenda score combo. Remember that Engineering the Future gains a credit for installing, so that means 6 credits can win them the game. Keep the Corp poor, or lock down R&D to prevent them from seeing any winning agendas, depending on your Runner strategy.

Is Haas-Bioroid right for me?

Do you appreciate consistency and reliability in your Corp? Love tweaking ice suites for that extra pinch of efficiency? Don’t mind having a straightforward game-plan that rewards solid play and fundamentals? Join Haas-Bioroid and begin engineering your victories, today!

If you’d like to try your hand at HB fast advance, check out a competitive deck by TheBigBoy, Sleeper Hold! This fast-advance deck uses Biotic Labor to repeatedly score agendas out of hand.

Or for a more glacial approach, try Snake Eyes’ Heineken 3.0. Punishing facechecks and taxing ice are combined here to make running a difficult decision for Runners.

We hope you enjoyed this introductory article on the Haas-Bioroid faction. Here at Levy University, your educational satisfaction is guaranteed, or your credits back!

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