Andromeda
The Daughter of Cepheus and his Queen Cassiopeia, a beautiful but also arrogant woman who boast to the gods that her Daughter is more beautiful than even the nymphs.
Andromeda was chained to a rock and later freed by Perseus. Her name means ruler of men and after her death Athena placed her among the star constellations in the northern sky.
My intention is to write a post which will extend over 3 month to show you the evolution of my Andromeda Deck, all insights a gained about games and cards and explanation for all decisions made based on our local meta.
Maybe this post will help your to set up your own criminal deck without just copying an existing one (which is not bad at all). Ultimately, this is the one and only possibility to win, If you build a deck, you will refine it, you play with it and you may realize that your deck is crap. Don't be sad about it. Copy another deck and start to melt it to your play style and favor. Dump bad designs, maximize the chance of winning if that's your goal. Look at the deck lists used on worlds or other winning decks on numerous websites. Try to understand why those players have chosen to use specific cards or combos. Everything put together will make you a better player.
Close after the release of Android Netrunner I started to play a lot of Gabriel Santiago Decks which were pretty strong in those days but shifted to shaper after Creation and Control was released. I tried Anarchs too but was never so convinced by Noiseshops and similar decks to keep me motivated. After I played different shaper identities somehow successful at the German Nationals and our Berlin City Grid tournaments I decided to put them aside for a while to fully embrace the appealing attraction of Andromeda.
Why Andromeda?
Well, I don't really like to agree with people if they simply say Andromeda has to be good because everyone plays it. People who see other people using Andromeda successfully are more likely to try her out too which causes more players to join the pack which makes the choice of Andromeda inflationary. That somehow blinds you. So we have to annalyze the card!
What makes Andromeda better?
For me it is all about statistics. If I use a 49 cards Deck and I can draw close to 1/5 of all of my cards at the beginning the probability is much higher to draw at least some cards I really want to see. That means in detail:
If I have 3 copies in my deck I have a chance of 38 % to draw one of those cards. If I use tutor cards which adds to my copies of ICE breakers I have 5 cards in total for one set (e.g. 3 special order + 2 corroder ) -> the chance rises to 43 %.
If I play singletons it is still 18 %.
The additional base link of one is a very nice addition to give me a little bit more flexibility in terms of taxing ICE, tracing and underworld contacts if I want to make use of it.
I can only recommend the interesting article on Stimhack by Alexfrog who writes about Identities and which supports your level of playing ANR.
He points out that Andromeda supports better players in general and you can get the most out of this ID if you are a decent player. I hope this also counts for me. My experience up to now really supports that theory from the opposite point of view. Andromeda is not very forgiving regarding mistakes. You have a huge advantage at the beginning but if you make some bad decisions you will get punished soon.
Criminal decks are classified to be strong in early game and may loose their punch later. I don't agree if you are not playing every card valuable for the late game during the first phase of the early game. I aim to create a deck which allows me to pressure the corp as long as possible and to annoy by derezzing valuable ICE in addition to be able to switch between R&D lock and surgical strikes to remotes. We will see if I will be successful with that assumption.
Basic deck concept:
Total Cards: 51
Event (24)
Account Siphon (Core) x3
Emergency Shutdown (Cyber Exodus) x3
Special Order (Core) x3
Inside Job (Core) x3
Sure Gamble (Core) x3
Dirty Laundry (Creation and Control) x3
Forged Activation Orders (Core) x2
Hostage (Opening Moves) x2
Lawyer Up (True Colors) x2
Hardware (12)
Desperado (Core) x3
Plascrete Carapace (What Lies Ahead) x2
R&D Interface (Future Proof) x2
Dyson Mem Chip (Trace Amount) x2
E3 Feedback Implants (Trace Amount) x1
HQ Interface (Humanity's Shadow) x2
Faerie (Future Proof) x1
Crypsis (Core) x1
Corroder (Core) x2
Datasucker (Core) x1
Sneakdoor Beta (Core) x1
Gorman Drip v1 (Opening Moves) x1
Expert Schedule Analyzer (Mala Tempora) x1
Garrote (True Colors) x2
Torch (Mala Tempora) x1
Resource (4)
Kati Jones (Humanity's Shadow) x1
Professional Contacts (Creation and Control) x1
Raymond Flint (Mala Tempora) x1
Underworld Contact (A Study in Static) x1
So, here we go. the first attempt to test my Andromeda deck. Yes, nasty 51 cards but I will definitely adjust that later.
Key cards:
I put a lot of events into this deck to give me some flexibility for every situation. Siphon can be used as an economy card (mainly) and to slow down the corp at the beginning of the game or during crucial turns. Some ICE derezzing or forced rezzing cards are always useful and Inside Job allows be to make a remote or central more porous. Hostage allows me to get my Kati or underworld contact faster. Lawyer Up is something I really want to test in combination with Account Siphon or after a run which causes me to get tagged.
My chosen hardware consists simply of some MU and link providers and E3 for nasty Bioroid ICE. HQ and R&D Inyourfaces are my way to increase the chance to snitch Agendas.
For ICE breakers i want to use Torch, Garrote as expensive but effective ICE breakers. Datasucker should make it less expensive for me to get into a server and Expert Schedule analyzer should help me to gain crucial information about the HQ. The rest should be self explanatory.
Results:
After a couple of games I realized that Garrote and Torch are way to expensive for this deck. I did a very simple calculation and thought both Icebreakers would pay off after a couple of runs but the cutback after installing is too grave. I was able to pay for it but during the period of saving the credits, paying and recovering the corp was in a much better position. Torch was an overkill. 9 credits, ouch. I used Raymont Flint rarely and may change for blackmail in the future so I will remove him too later. I love intel but I may switch to infiltration later instead of using Expert Schedule Analyzer. To overcome the issues with credits I decided to remove all R&D and left only one HQ Interface. Medium and Nerve Agent were the latest additions to allow multiple card access.
Total Cards: 49
Event (24)
Account Siphon (Core) x3
Emergency Shutdown (Cyber Exodus) x3
Special Order (Core) x3
Inside Job (Core) x3
Sure Gamble (Core) x3
Dirty Laundry (Creation and Control) x3
Forged Activation Orders (Core) x2
Hostage (Opening Moves) x2
Lawyer Up (True Colors) x2
Hardware (9)
Desperado (Core) x3
Plascrete Carapace (What Lies Ahead) x2
Dyson Mem Chip (Trace Amount) x2
E3 Feedback Implants (Trace Amount) x1
HQ Interface (Humanity's Shadow) x1
Faerie (Future Proof) x1
Crypsis (Core) x1
Corroder (Core) x2
Datasucker (Core) x1
Sneakdoor Beta (Core) x1
Gorman Drip v1 (Opening Moves) x1
Garrote (True Colors) x2
Nerve Agent (Cyber Exodus) x1
Medium (Core) x1
Gordian Blade (Core) x1
Kati Jones (Humanity's Shadow) x1
Professional Contacts (Creation and Control) x1
Raymond Flint (Mala Tempora) x1
Underworld Contact (A Study in Static) x1
After numerous testing I realized that Medium and Nerve Agent were drawn very late most of the time which is no surprise due to singletons but the influence costs are too high to use more. Gordian blade was definitely the better choice. I drew Garrote early but was not able to pay for it and ETR Sentries like Fenris during the early game were really annoying.
The next changes were more substantial:
Total Cards: 50
Event (23)
Account Siphon (Core) x3
Emergency Shutdown (Cyber Exodus) x3
Special Order (Core) x3
Inside Job (Core) x2
Sure Gamble (Core) x3
Dirty Laundry (Creation and Control) x3
Forged Activation Orders (Core) x2
Hostage (Opening Moves) x2
Lawyer Up (True Colors) x2
Hardware (11)
Desperado (Core) x3
Plascrete Carapace (What Lies Ahead) x2
Dyson Mem Chip (Trace Amount) x2
E3 Feedback Implants (Trace Amount) x1
HQ Interface (Humanity's Shadow) x1
R&D Interface (Future Proof) x2
Faerie (Future Proof) x1
Crypsis (Core) x1
Corroder (Core) x2
Datasucker (Core) x2
Sneakdoor Beta (Core) x1
Gordian Blade (Core) x1
Ninja (Core) x2
Resource (6)
Bank Job (Core) x2
Gorman drip was also too unreliable and wasted valuable deck space (although I changed my mind and value it now as an unusual economy card) so in favor of getting the deck size down to 49 cards it was removed. Unfortunately I needed some more defense against the imminent threat of getting scorched by Sea Source or autotag induced flat-lining and tried out decoy to defend against NBN and Weyland. I was not able to bring the deck size down to 49 but one card more does not affect the probability to draw a desired card very much (only 0,2 % lesser chance with 3 cards, decksize 49 or 50 ).
Garrote was swapped with 2 x Ninja. Two Bank Jobs - although somehow nostalgic - gave me some economy options because a lot of corps are playing assets unprotected. Some are not so we will see how reliable this option will be. One Inside Job was removed to make space.
Actually this deck was much more useful and consistent but it is still difficult to set up a R&D lock or HQ superiority. Economy is stable. Long term with Kati, burst with Account Siphon and Bank Job. Would love to use some Armitage Codebusting but deck size is a problem.
HB and Weyland was much easier to beat. Fast advance is still dangerous but this Archetype is strong either way. And yes, I hate Sweeps already... I am still unsure if one copy of Underworld Contacts is enough. Nevertheless I will try this deck for our store championships and refine it until the Chronos Protocol.
Another interesting experience was that I faced various ETR Ice which shakes the very foundation of the so called strong early game criminal play style. I was rarely able to run early and hard. It was very similar to my shaper deck although I agree with the general opinion that shaper shine later. Maybe I still make some mistakes or our meta is different.
The card pool is growing fast so we cannot prepare for all eventualities but we can try to get as close as possible. It may be futile and a King Sisyphus act but the struggle will be high rewarded with insight and wins.
Don't give up, play fair and hard.
Changes:
So, the time has come. I played several games and can say that I was not pleased as I thought I would be. Don't get me wrong. Andy performed well but I was only able to win through hard work. I had to make the right decisions at the right time and I was rarely able to set up my underworld contacts or R&D Lock. In addition I realized that Hostage gave a me a nice opportunity to pick my resourced but I just needed Kati. Bank Job was not very successful. Only Jackson was installed in a free remote and ceased to exists when I started to run.
Of 10 games I could use Bank Job once. Honestly I was pretty frustrated. Especially my old Nemesis the fast advance play-style freaked me out although Sneakdoor and HQ Interface performed very good. The most efficient way to deal with FA strategies is an R&D Lock but I was not able to establish it soon enough.
I spend one night, sitting over my deck and was close to putting Andy aside but Keyhole came to my aid and I changed the whole deck type:
Total Cards: 49
Event (20)
Account Siphon (Core) x3
Emergency Shutdown (Cyber Exodus) x3
Special Order (Core) x3
Inside Job (Core) x2
Sure Gamble (Core) x3
Dirty Laundry (Creation and Control) x3
Easy Mark (Core) x2
Blackmail (Fear and Loathing) x1
Changes:
Of 10 games I could use Bank Job once. Honestly I was pretty frustrated. Especially my old Nemesis the fast advance play-style freaked me out although Sneakdoor and HQ Interface performed very good. The most efficient way to deal with FA strategies is an R&D Lock but I was not able to establish it soon enough.
I spend one night, sitting over my deck and was close to putting Andy aside but Keyhole came to my aid and I changed the whole deck type:
Total Cards: 49
Event (20)
Account Siphon (Core) x3
Emergency Shutdown (Cyber Exodus) x3
Special Order (Core) x3
Inside Job (Core) x2
Sure Gamble (Core) x3
Dirty Laundry (Creation and Control) x3
Easy Mark (Core) x2
Blackmail (Fear and Loathing) x1
Hardware (10)
Desperado (Core) x3
Plascrete Carapace (What Lies Ahead) x2
Dyson Mem Chip (Trace Amount) x2
E3 Feedback Implants (Trace Amount) x1
HQ Interface (Humanity's Shadow) x2
Program (12)
Crypsis (Core) x1
Corroder (Core) x2
Datasucker (Core) x2
Sneakdoor Beta (Core) x2
Gordian Blade (Core) x1
Ninja (Core) x2
Keyhole (True Colors) x2
Resource (7)
Kati Jones (Humanity's Shadow) x2
Decoy (Core) x1
Bank Job (Core) x2
Armitage Codebusting (Core) x2
I still use Bank Job but I will definitely replace the card with my next update. Keyhole performed amazingly. It really puts the thumb on the corp and sometimes I was able to win after 3 rounds. One of it's advantages is the immunity against traps. Jackson Howard can still be very annoying but at the moment I am very successful with this deck. Blackmail was not good as I hoped but I will keep one card just in case. I removed Forged Activation Order because I forced the rezz of so many Ice Walls, Paper Walls and Pop Up Windows that I classified the card as waste of deck space most of the time. Two Easy Marks allowed me to burst for some credits. Blackmail was awesome. Weyland and GRNDL hate blackmail!
The card draw is still a problem. I need Keyhole fast and at the moment I do not have the influence for Diesel or Quality time. Maybe I will use Peacock to gain some points but I rather would love to keep Gordian Blade.
In conclusion I would say that the deck is pretty solid and definitely competitive (6th place Chronos Protocol Dortmund, 42 players in total) but still not at its end of evolution. I just wanted to show that not only a standard Yog, Mimic, Corroder, 3 x Datasucker Andy deck can win you games. Let's see what Honor and Profit brings, I already think of:
Keep running!
The card draw is still a problem. I need Keyhole fast and at the moment I do not have the influence for Diesel or Quality time. Maybe I will use Peacock to gain some points but I rather would love to keep Gordian Blade.
In conclusion I would say that the deck is pretty solid and definitely competitive (6th place Chronos Protocol Dortmund, 42 players in total) but still not at its end of evolution. I just wanted to show that not only a standard Yog, Mimic, Corroder, 3 x Datasucker Andy deck can win you games. Let's see what Honor and Profit brings, I already think of:
Keep running!
Pictures:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Andromeda_(mythology)
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pierre-Paul_Prud%27hon_-_Justice_and_Divine_Vengeance_Pursuing_Crime.JPG
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sisyphos
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