Effectiveness - Economy assets and operations I

Surely there never was so evil a thing as money, which maketh cities into ruinous heaps, and banisheth men from their houses, and turneth their thoughts from good unto evil.

In this article I want to talk about corp assets and operations and runner event and resources who earns us credits we need to pursue our goal - winning the game. 

If we take a look at all available assets most of them are providing us with credits over time. A Pad campaign for example earns us 1 credit / turn. Other assets can be triggered like Melange Mining Corp which in theory would provide us with 7 credits each round if we trigger it or private contracts which earns 2 credits / click for a total maximum of 14 credits. Others provide drip economy like Pad Campaign which should never be underestimated. 

How can we evaluate which assets or operations are more useful?

Well this is very difficult and cannot be measured by the net gain only.

Parameters which are important to consider are: 

- costs to play the card 

- income or net income

- trashcosts

- click activated or active without further doing

- credits/ click ratio if available

- additional effects

Assets

At the present time 9 economy assets exist. I have not included Thomas Haas, Alix T4LBO7 and Security Subcontract because they are very situation dependent and need preparation to get active (e.g. advancing Thomas Haas). 

Let us take a look at a general chart. I put all assets in, added the play and trash costs and the net gain. It is obvious that a Melange Mining Corp could be triggered every round but we will rarely do so. Private Contracts can also be triggered 3 times every round so please keep in mind that some cards cannot be compared to each other.

I will not write much about the chart, most is self explanatory. I guess it is pretty clear that Eve Campaign is better for long term economy and therefore not for rush decks, Melange for burst economy although a little bit outdated in times of operation based economy (HB excluded) and nobody plays Server Diagnostics and Sundew is a good card for Jinteki: Replicating Perfection.

From my point of view economy cards like Pad Campaign or Eve Campaign are very useful to bait the runner to trash it. Bank Job is rarely played at the moment because a lot of corporations are only opening up a single remote (and the runners adapt) so you can install those cards in a remote without ICE in more situations than before if you play versus criminals. The runner has to react somehow. If he possesses a strong economy he can try to draw even with you to avoid traces but a corp with more money is much more dangerous than without or less. The best advantage you might have is to play multiple assets and the runner cannot afford to trash all of it. Your credit pool will increase every round and pressures the runner.

But what about cards with similar effect, which one should you play?

Well, the whole economy aspect of netrunner is quite complex because of the dependence on the situation during a match and the decision which card is  more useful in a given situation. Should you always play all of your economy cards as soon as you get it?

Players are sometimes indeed behaving like that. Every Hedge Fund, Beanstalk, Pad Campaign will be played as soon as possible. I may criticize that as bad game play. If you hold back economy cards you limit the runners knowledge. If he siphons you can recover and interfere with the runners plan. 

Eve and Adonis Campaigns and sometimes Pad Campaign can be installed without ICE protecting the server. If you put ICE in front of it don't rezz it unless you want to tempt the runner to encounter a sentry or click denial ICE like Eli. Don't necessarily rezz your asset next turn. Sometimes it is better to wait some turns until you have established a stable economy, are able to pay for your asset and still be capable of rezzing all ICE you want or win traces or play operations. 

Marked accounts is a wonderful card. A click is necessary to fire it up but a trashcost of 5 and 0 rezz costs are something to consider. If you install 3 the runner must spend 15 credits to avoid 3 credits/ turn for you. Awesome.

Melange Mining Corp was very good during the first stages of the game but now it's a little bit old fashioned. You can still burst but Restructure and other operations allow the corp to use non trash-able economy cards with comparable effect. You can fire MMC multiple rounds but you cripple your actions.

Operation based economy:

Operations are a good way to gain credits. Some have additional effects like drawing a card (Green Level Clearance) or are dependent on a unsuccessful run (successful demonstration). Only one card allows us to get credits without spending at least one single credit (Beanstalk R.) and Celebrity Gift needs 2 clicks. 

Remarkable is Hedge Fund and Restructure. For a net gain of 4+1 you need 5 credits more in comparison to a net gain of 4 which costs 5 credits. Let's see how FFG will try to balance those cards in future datapacks.

Additionally surprising is that FFG values the ability to draw cards with 1 credit and 1 click from a base level of zero and 3 cards if those cards provides us with cards. This will be visible if you compare Green and the upcoming Blue Level Clearance. You spend one click and 1 / 2 credit and gain 1 or 2 cards. Anonymous Tip let us draw 3 cards for zero credits but one click which is similar to Diesel on the runners side.

It will be interesting to see how this will develop in the future. At the moment the simple rule is that operations which need additional effects to trigger (Sweeps, Successful Demonstration) are higher rewarded. The rest of the economy cards are close together with minor disparity. You should really be careful which economy operation suits the style of your deck. Anonymous Tip may sound good in a rush deck but can also flood your HQ with Agendas which may unfortunate. A Jackson Howard may be helpful although it may reduce your economy cards. Or put a Green Level in your deck to equate both demands.Restructure should only be played in heavy economy decks and definitely in Weyland:BABW.

Another advice may be to never rely on a single way to obtain credits. If you play 3 MMCs and 3 Hedge Fund and the runner trashes your Melange before you can make use of it you will face serious trouble. 

I have not forgotten agenda based economy which is very strong but restricted to factions like Geothermal Fracking or Hostile Takeover. Gila Hands as a neutral agenda allows us to spend 2 clicks for 3 credits. A slight but sometimes extremely valuable card because 4 is a magic number (4 for Snare, Neutral Katana, Rototurret, Bastion and more). 

When you build your Deck you should be able to generate enough economy in appropriate time to pay for all key cards. You should very rarely be forced to click for credits although it will be inevitable sometimes.

In the next post I will write about runner economy.

Pictures: http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m94y4e8wgh1qd80v3o3_1280.jpg