Help with newb corp Deck Hass-Bioroid/Brain Damage

It is tricky to advise in specific terms right off the bat but I would say this:

Work out HOW you want t win the game, and then build around that.

For instance, start by looking at agendas, do you aim to score 2 3pointers and a single 1 or 2 pointer or 3 2 pointers and a single 1 or 2 pointer? From there you can say "OK, am I going to try and rush these out quickly, before the runner can do anything" or "Ok, I am going to build to such an incredibly taxing, dominant position, that the Runner just can't touch me."

I would say, if you are a new player, it is best to play one and just doggedly pursue it, rather than trying to mix and match.

thanks for the advice, I wanted to punish the runner for running on my remotes with the more powerful dice and even try and push some brain damage on them. So I suppose I was aiming for taxing the runner but this was a hard task as they would just grab so much coin they could run through what I had.

You say you lost three times in a row. What happened? That's often useful to factor in when reshaping a deck. Were you short of money to rez ice? Were your bioroids being too porous?

Some of the cards you've included are just bad, I'm sorry to say. I wish Zed 1.0 was a viable choice for a deck but it just never is. Akitaro Watanabe is pretty terrible too (although if he does ever find a home, maybe it is in NEXT Design: Guarding the Net).

I'd definitely include Successful Demonstration in here for economy. NEXT Design: Guarding the Net is as likely as any ID to stop the runner getting in early game.

I love NEXT design, and I compulsively build NEXT design decks. First off, a fact that pains me but has to be acknowledged: it's not very good. I support your use of it, but be aware that by choosing it over Ending the Fun you are handicapping yourself right off the bat. Until you get better, I might advise switching. If you do stick with it, consider how best to leverage its early pace. As I see it the two options for doing that are rushing out 3/2 agendas or building up an early credit lead with assets.

My initial reaction to this list is 'Too much ice, not enough money', but I might be underestimating the economic impact of Alix, Akitaro, Bioroid Efficiency and Awakening Centre. That said, the reason that I have difficulty evaluating those cards is that they're rarely played - probably with good reason. If you're going for a long game strategy Melange might be a good alternative - NEXT can start pumping it from turn two.

On the subject of ice, I know it's tempting to go for a really high count to ensure your ability fires at maximum power, but that consideration shouldn't be your only concern. You need a deck that functions past turn 1, and I'm strongly of the opinion that it's worth accepting that sometimes your ability will only fire for two ice in the name of that functionality. Two ice installed and drawn for is worth four s. That's as much as Andy gets, and she's generally considered pretty good. Evaluating mulligans with NEXT is really hard. Consider keeping hands with two strong ice and some money.

Lastly, although it makes me very sad indeed, I have to say that brain damage is usually not worth it outside certain dedicated murder decks. The runner can lose a couple of cards, play with a three card handsize and still not be nearly as set back by it as you were by the effort it took you to land it. My first deck was also trying to do brain damage out of HB, so I feel your pain.

Wow, that's a lot of thoughts on NEXT design. I should put up a review.

I've never been that great at putting together HB decks, but I'd try to take advantage of the cards which allow you to rez your best ice for cheap. In addition to Awakening Center you have access to Howler and Oversight AI.

That's 3 different ways to rez Heimdall 2.0 or Ichi 2.0 for cheap.

If you're looking for things to spend your influence on, Archer would be a good investment. Expensive to rez, way worse for the runner to break without some tricks. Snare! always ruins a runner's day if you can pay for it.

Finally, I'd think about lowering the amount of ice you have in the deck. It's true you want to keep the runner out, but it's worth more to have 1 layer of ice you can rez, then 2-3 layers of ice you cant. I usually run 15-20 ice in my decks, depending on the build.

If you cut down on the total amount of ice in your deck, slip in a few other tricks or econ boosters like Green Level Clearance I expect your deck will run smoother.

I would say go simpler simpler simpler. So try and purely just say "OK, let's make it expensive to get in" - sure, a lot of games you will lose to runners who can make money faster than you can lay down defence. That's fine. What you need to do is get a strategy up and running and refine it.

I would say that maybe try and use some combination of big ice, Bioroid Efficiency Research, & Oversight AI to make big taxing servers that the runner, sure, can get into but at a certain cost. Then you can consider putting traps like Aggressive Secretary, or bluffs like Thomas Haas into that server to make those runs worthless some of the time.

Since you don't have Jackson Howard I would also limit the amount of agendas in your deck by taking 6 3 pointers and a couple of 1 pointers - sure, it'll mean some games you get loads of 3 pointers early and lose, but we're not trying to win every game. We're trying to develop a strategy that can be built upon.

I would echo those above and say switch to ETF for a bit, see how wonderful it makes every turn, and invest in a lot more simple economy cards; I'd make 3 Green Level Clearence part of your deck for instance, as well as the aforementioned Bioroid Effeciency Research and Oversight AIs which sort of work like psuedo economy, especially considering your limited card options.

If you want me to someday put together a suggested list I'd be happy to do that.

(Ha! Wombat posted just before me! You win this round Wombat!)

thanks to all 3 of you for the words of advice - I can see one point that sticks out to all of you - lower ICE count and include more Econ. I actually did have Melange in my deck for one of the runs though I never used it. I'll pitter around with it taking your comments into consideration. @Greasythumb could you recommend a specific data pack that is strong for HB and a good next purchase for me? I ask you directly only because of your mention for your love of NEXT Design, I certianly welcome all input. I'll move some things and edit stuff and see what you guys think. Thanks again for help.

The problem with pointing at a single data pack is they're all fairly balanced between the fractions, so you're getting 2-3 new HB cards in each. A lot of the cards that would be good with NEXT Design: Guarding the Net are sets spread out over multiple packs... you don't want just one of them.

A better question would be, how do you want to play your deck? If we know what kind deck you would like to build we can recommend cards to augment it.

Right now most of your cards kinda support glacial play, big ice that takes the runner longer to setup for, giving you time to score larger agendas. You can also make decks that are super fast, scoring agendas before the runner has time to setup, or decks that focus on killing the runner.

There's plenty of ways to play, what do you want to do?

No matter what corp you play the first data pack that any serious netrunner player recommends (for corp) is Opening Moves, home of Jackson Howard. I'm not going to break that trend. I've experimented with Jacksonless lists, including in NEXT, and they are always worse than their Jackson toting competitors. The reasons why are amusingly and comprehensively covered in the review on this site.

Eli 1.0 from Future Proof is also ubiquitous for very good reasons. He's cheap, and although he's not quite as good as he was (every faction has a decent counter now) he's still really upsetting to break with Corroder, which is still quite a big deal.

Apart from that, the NEXT suite of ice works pretty well in its associated ID. You don't necessarily need Gold unless you really want it (it needs a bit of extra building around) Bronze and Silver were popular long before Gold came out. And hey, Bronze is in Opening moves! That pack is looking better and better.

I would agree with Greasy on both accounts, I totally wasn't thinking about off - corp cards and Jackson is a staple of almost everything (Look him up to see why). Future Proof is an amazing set too, every faction gets useful cards, the problem is it's been sold out lately. Fantasy flight were printing another batch, but I don't know if it's out yet.

I did review a few sets and two that stood out for me for HB were 'What Lies Ahead' and 'The Spaces Between', both contain at least one identity and one card you can splash in pretty much any HB deck.

What lies ahead has Haas-Bioroid: Stronger Together , Ash 2X3ZB9CY , Janus 1.0, and Mandatory Upgrades.

The Spaces Between has The Foundry: Refining the Process, Enhanced Login Protocol, and Heinlein Grid

Ash is a good shout. Ash lets you score agendas.