Effectiveness - Economy events and resources II

The second part of my effectiveness post will describe the runners economy or the economic system which consists of all events, resources or hardware in a given runners deck.

In the past, economic activity was theorized by mainly two cards named Armitage Codebusting and Sure Gamble as the basic economy with additionally cards like Stimhack, Bank Job, Easy Mark, Magnum Opus or disguised economy like Modded. 

This view ignores the value of recurrent credits (Cyberfeeder, Toolbox), and credit denial tactics (Xanadu, Reina, Running Interference), especially that which cannot be categorized totally like Account Siphon (Neither only credit denial nor pure economy).

The following chart shows us most resources and events and compares costs and net gain and turn 1 economy. Please note that Kati Jones and all click activated cards can be used specifically. Kati needs two credits to get installed and 1 click to activate. I defined 1 click valuable for 1 credit. So Kati pays off later.

    Chart 1: Economy resources and events (user selection)

Resources

At the present time runners have access to a broad variety of resources. The most used ones are Kati Jones & Armitage Codebusting which experiences a revival and Liberated Accounts which can cut both ways. Daily Casts is used from time to time and with its net gain of 5 it is a good card. Easy mark on the other hand is discussed due to the 2 credits net gain but delivers crucial burst economy sometimes necessary for other cards.

All of you are experienced runners and you know already about the pro and cons of several cards. You may already have figured out the best way to deal with economy but maybe some comparisons and calculations will be helpful for you too.

Should I play Armitage Codebusting or liberated accounts or both? And what about Magnum Opus? I could click for credits too!

Lets take a look at the following chart: 

    Chart 2: Click comparison - Liberated Accounts, Armitage Codebusting and Magnum Opus

Do yourself a favor and try to understand the chart before you read further. What does it mean in questions of the most essential resources a runner possesses? Time and credits or better clicks and credits?

I assumed you have enough credits (6) to pay for everything. Liberated and Magnum rips a hole into your pocket Armitage not that much. Now we start clicking for credits and Armitage goes directly into the income area whereas Liberated is still minus 2 credits in terms of in-ex ratio. Magnum takes a break and starts to be profitable after click 3. Liberated pays off after click 2. After the third click it changes immediately. With the third click Liberated generates 12, Armitage only 11 credits in total. With the 4th click already 16 while Armitage needs 2 additional clicks. 

Magnum Opus - in theory an endless supply of credits - pays off after click 3 but needs 8 clicks to be comparable to Armitage/ Liberated.

So, one disadvantage of Liberated Accounts is definitely the necessity of being able to pay 6 credits to install it while Armitage is cheaper but pays off later. Nevertheless Liberated provides us with more actions. You have up to 3 more clicks available which you should consider before you play one of those cards.

If you need money fast and you need more than 6 credits choose Liberated > Armitage > Magnum Opus. If you are short on credits try to generate enough credits in less than 2 clicks to play Liberated. If that's not possible play Armitage. Daily Casts is something between. You can't click for it but it pays off after turn 2.

Bank Job is very strong if the corp installs a remote you are able to attack successfully. Hard at work is terrible because it forces you to loose 1 Click. To forfeit an agenda is not something I want to do so Data Dealer is not a card I would play although the net gain is amazing.

Let's take a detailed look at another well used card called Kati Jones:

Kati Jones costs 2 credits and one click / round to load it or take the money.

When is it worth to do so?

    Chart 3: Comparison - click economy

If you load Kati for one click you can unload her with the second one causing you to loose 1 credit ( 2 for install, click, click -> 3 credits but you could click 2 x for 1 credit -> -1 credit in total). If you use your fifth click to unload Kati you earn 12 credits (net 10 or only 6 if you subtract the 4 you could use to click for credits). Only after the 6th click (the 6th click to take the money) it draws even with Armitage and after the 5th with Magnum Opus.

You should take at least 9 Credits from Kati, otherwise it would not be worth it:

    Chart 4: Kati Jones - click comparison

The first click for Kati is necessary to load her so you won't receive credits immediately. Use Kati for 9 credits if you really need to do so but try to use her as long as possible before taking the credits.

What's better? Easy Mark or Dirty Laundry?

Depends on the situation. Easy Mark provides 3 credits for 0. Dirty Laundry 5 for 2 but saves one click for a run which makes Easy Mark net 2 and Dirty Laundry net 2 + run. If you combine Dirty Laundry with Datasucker and Desperado you can enhance the effect to 3 credits + Token and run. 

If you just need 3 (2) credits play Easy Mark and don't waste Dirty Laundry on an Archive run to just get the credits.

Conclusion

At this point you should have a good feeling for all economy cards and the time it is worth playing and using all of them. You can do so with all new cards. Just take a moment to evaluate the card and put the net gain of credits into relation to clicks and situation.

Keep running. 

Picture: http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2013/106/d/9/bankjob__netrunner_by_el_grimlock-d61y95a.jpg

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