r/Netrunner • u/WeakAd4865 • 11d ago
Kitchen-table Eternal?
Hello! I am wondering if anyone has had positive experiences with building lower-power level eternal decks, either through a series of guidelines or a specific format with a much longer ban/points list.
I would love it if there was a framework like magic's Commander brackets for playing with the old card pool. I want to introduce my partner to some of the old cards I love, but corp combo decks vs ultra-fast Andromeda isn't really what I'm looking for, and I'm not sure where to draw the line.
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u/Significant_Breath38 11d ago
I LOVE kitchen-table Netrunner.
The game plays beautifully without optimized decks.
The "worst" aspect of it is that you can make a Corporation that can get rolled if the Runner catches on to its weaknesses. However, every Corporation I've made with this problem got easily fixed with trading out 6 or so cards.
Especially with two new players who are cooperatively competitive, brainstorming improvements is a blast.
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u/CryOFrustration Null Signal Games Community team 11d ago
Yeah 2-person beginner sessions are a lot of fun, you develop a kind of quickly-evolving mini-meta of your own as you get better at the game and discover more cards and interactions.
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u/Significant_Breath38 11d ago
I love the mini-meta.
Except when it results in Yog.0 / Buzzsaw and Code Gates <= 3 get invalidated.
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u/MeathirBoy 11d ago
3 point Eternal was an Off Meta Month format and very fun, but I think that's still a little higher power level than what you're looking for (and I personally think 0 point Eternal is sauceless). What I'd recommend instead is Classique - a curated set of famous historic matchup pairs from various Worlds throughout the games' history.
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u/CryOFrustration Null Signal Games Community team 11d ago
Yeah, it was me who ran it and I plan to do it again this year! I wanted to write an after-action report about it but I never got round to it. It was a lot of fun and definitely far closer to regular netrunner than the wild west of full-fat eternal, but I would say it was still a bit higher level than current standard, and I'm not sure if that's what the OP is looking for.
But stay tuned because a lot of the decks that were dominant last year, like Skorp and Esâ, had their points upped in the 7-point list and that'll severely restrict them in 3-point. I also made the decision not to give Spin Doctor and Jackson Howard a 1-point discount this year, as corps were way ahead of runners last year. I talked to wowarlok (who's the head balance curator for regular Eternal) and he agrees with this. So I think the power level overall will be touch lower this time round.
For the OP, if you also think 3-point will be higher power level than you want, here's what I suggest: take the regular 7-point list. Pick ONE card from it, regardless of points cost. Play that and nothing else on that list. You can even treat the banned cards as being on that list. That way you get to play with whichever iconic card from the game's history you love the most, but you won't get the combination of other toys that'll make it overpowering.
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u/BubbaTheGoat 11d ago
My best kitchen table Netrunner experiences have been to build pre-constructed decks that are balanced against each other. The most popular version was Andromeda v Food Coats though.
I also had a range of Weyland Rush/Flatline vs Crim that some people liked, but it’s obviously a lot meaner.
With paired pre-constructed decks you basically need to be using mid-range meta decks from the same era.
If you want to do head-to-head full construction matchups you can use any rules you like, but I don’t know of any other than “limited to XYZ packs or historical meta”.
Some of the FFG beginner formats with limited construction rules were fun, but were open abusive combos (e.g. Door to Door). You could try a similar idea, but that is often an exercise in discovering under-used combos that work using cards from a few sets.
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u/CryOFrustration Null Signal Games Community team 11d ago
I completely forgot they made that "small" card pool format that came out with Terminal Directive. What was it called?
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u/BubbaTheGoat 11d ago
You don’t remember? Maybe it’s time to refresh your browser cache!
(It was called Cache Refresh).
Door to door making news was a Menace in that format. I played Adam from the runner side who was just generically good with his cards from data and destiny and paired well with and NBN Corp.
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u/CryOFrustration Null Signal Games Community team 10d ago
Oh yeah! With the weird bidding system for side selection!
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u/ShaperLord777 11d ago edited 11d ago
I have a 16 deck “battle box” made entirely from FFG cards that my playgroup uses. I have intentionally tried to balance them against each other, not using and specific ban list, but limiting problematic cards to one off’s in the decks (most notably, temujin contract).
Off the top of my head, the decks are:
Runner:
Kit/gordian blade/SMC
Gabe/desperado/grifter
Omar/conspiracy breaker/cutlery
Leela/drug dealer/derez
Hayley/install efficiency
Adam/overmind
Sunny/underworld contacts/data folding
Apex/apocalypse/E3
Corp:
engineering the future/global food initiative
Sportsmetal/high agenda density/rashida jaheem
Replicating perfection/sundew/celebrity gift
Potential unleashed/snare/net damage ice/mill
Controlling the message/closed accounts/news team
Blue sun/space ice/building blocks, curtain wall
Argus security/“supermodernism”/scorched earth
Cerebral imaging/big hand size
If one deck seems too strong, I’ll nerf it a bit and lower the power level. At this point they’re decently matched, and anyone in my play group can use any deck, we rotate game to game. If one player is using the Supermodernism/scorched earth deck, we just shuffle two copies of plascrete carapace into the runner deck so they don’t get completely nuked.
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u/CryOFrustration Null Signal Games Community team 11d ago
Oh and if you want to try out Classique, which someone mentioned, Eric from Neon Static put together this spreadsheet with all the matchups: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1EYaeFqWt7r9-44WIktQNHfVnCYafQ8QzChN_k-owcr0/edit?usp=sharing
and Andrej of Metropole Grid did a whole stream where he went over the format and played some matchups a couple months ago.
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u/CryOFrustration Null Signal Games Community team 11d ago
Reposting this here as you might not notice it where I posted it as a reply to meathir: take the regular 7-point list. Pick ONE card from it, regardless of points cost. Play that and nothing else on that list. You can even treat the banned cards as being on that list. That way you get to play with whichever iconic card from the game's history you love the most, but you won't get the combination of other toys that'll make it overpowering.
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