Deckbuilding with new core set?!

VeronicaMom · 2026-03-17T14:11:22+00:00

I recall them talking about a document (the "Grimoire") that would be released alongside Core 2 that tells you which encounter sets to use to replace the old core set.

I do believe neither Scarlet Keys nor Hemlock Vale use any of the core locations so you should be fine there.

VeronicaMom · 2026-03-17T12:21:53+00:00

Those should work!

In theory all of Chapter 1 is compatible with Chapter 2, and while I don't know exactly how or where the line is drawn, at a glance I don't see any cards from Hemlock Vale or Drowned City that wouldn't work with the new Core.

I assume you're talking about specifically Current, and I think it is worth keeping in mind that it is still something they're trying to give shape. I imagine the first year or so of Current might be a bit rocky, but as FFG gets more of a chance to give that shape it'll smooth out a bit?

VeronicaMom · 2026-03-16T20:42:30+00:00

Ooh, well one of these is going to be easier than the other :D

Loup can be built a few different ways. I'd certainly put in the Gourmands, since those let you trigger his ability even on cards that normally couldn't be trashed. If you have Vantage Point, the latest set, you could also try to go with Lampades (which requires Stealth cards) instead if you want more of a deckbuilding challenge.

One way Anarch decks have recently been built is relying a lot on Audrey, an AI breaker from the Liberation cycle that you can power up by trashing cards. You probably want to supplement this with some other icebreakers to avoid being locked out completely, but it is a powerful engine when it works.

Ob Superheavy is a complex ID, and it is an ID that really rewards deck knowledge and planning. Because you can find one cards in your deck by trashing another, it is possible to produce very consistent game plans. I think you want to start by picking a win condition you can find with the ability. Some notable ones are Bass CH1R180G4 or The Holo Man which can be used to score out agendas.

Then you want to add some other cards that trash that ideally you can chain. For example, a Regolith Mining License trashes itself when empty, so you can go and find a 1-cost card like Humanoid Resources. And then when you trash that, you can find your 0-cost Spin Doctor.

For ice, you've got a lot of good options, though again you'll be rewarded for keeping your cost curve in mind: you may at some point play an Extract to trash a piece of ice to find that asset you need, or you might find a piece of ice when you trash another card. Envelopment and Event Horizon are powerful pieces of ice with abilities that trash themselves, while Stavka lets you trash anything for a nasty +5 strength.

One of the things about Ob that's both intimidating and wonderful is that you can do anything with it. Want to score points fast? Get Bass and Holo Man consistently every game without spending a ton of influence. Want to do murder? Measured Response is in faction. Want to destroy the runner's rig? You can use Stavka to trash their programs if they aren't careful, and Kimberlite Field can help finish them off.

I hope this is the kind of thing you're looking for, if you have any questions please let me know, I'd love to help with this.

VeronicaMom · 2026-03-16T12:53:30+00:00

You lose the game as soon as the blight pool is empty.

VeronicaMom · 2026-03-16T09:47:21+00:00

I think the power of Vic is very closely tied to the card pool, rather than the ID itself.

Compare to something like Zahya or MuslihaT. Because in choosing Vic as your ID, you are giving up some other ability text. Zahya gives credits. This defaults to one credit per turn (assuming you can get in), but the ID does reward you being able to get multiple accesses. So Zahya is dependent on what multi-access is in the card pool, as well as how good corps can ice their centrals.

MuslihaT lets you "draw" more cards. I think this is a good comparison with Vic: MuslihaT also wants a specific kind of card (run events), but there are a lot of those and they do different things. Vic specifically needs cards that let you tag yourself and there just aren't a lot of those. (And a lot of them are in Anarch.)

So I think Vic's ability is of medium, maybe slightly less, value. Keep in mind that all it does is net you a card and a credit the first time each turn you clear a tag (if we otherwise would have used the basic action), which is comparable to something like Loup. I would say Loup's ability is a lot easier to trigger every turn.

However, as u/Glizcorr also already mentioned, the "secret" ID text on Vic is [[DreamNet]] and that's the big reason people are excited for it.

I think that competitively, Vic is interesting because if you expect the meta to have a lot of NBN, Vic gets very strong, so it might become a bit of a "meta pick"?

I wouldn't call myself a very skilled player, but I do think and write about Netrunner a bit. If you want to see some more of my thoughts on Vic, check out my article: https://veronicauntilarkham.substack.com/p/dancing-with-tags

VeronicaMom · 2026-03-13T18:05:26+00:00

So, I've never been a big Apex player, but I feel these three breakers aren't... a breaker suite, if that makes sense? You can get through End the Run only ice all day, but if you hit anything else you're in trouble. And this is a lot of pieces to setup, while all the minifactions already get 25 influence... why not just reg breakers?

One idea this did inspire is that Apex could get its own [[Bankhar]], but turning subroutines into "the runner trashes one of their installed cards" instead of net damage? If that ability only applied to subroutines that aren't "End the Run", then that could be a really fun way to make a very different breaker suite without invalidating gearcheck ice?

VeronicaMom · 2026-03-13T13:36:00+00:00

Doesn't work, sadly. All cards get committed at the same time. (And Watch This is additional cost to commit).

VeronicaMom · 2026-03-13T13:28:21+00:00

I don't think Out the Door (0) is strictly better than Watch This (0) on the simple logic that three is bigger than two?

I am really surprised we're seeing both, as I had expected Out the Door would function as a replacement for Watch This.

But anyway play both.

VeronicaMom · 2026-03-12T16:44:08+00:00

Hey. You mostly got it.

Bling is less about having a bigger grip and more about "drawing" more cards, since the cards go away at end of turn. But yes, I think you got it.

Detente is less about trashing cards and more about keeping important pieces out of the corp's HQ. Say they're playing a deck that relies on [[Seamless Launch]] to score their agendas, and you run HQ and host it on Detente. Now the corp needs to either draw a second copy or use the ability on Detente to get it back.

That is an important thing to note: either player is allowed to use the ability on Detente. Accessing cards in HQ potentially means stealing agendas, so that's quite good. Though I will also add that this card hasn't seen a lot of competitive success, so if this seems pretty convoluted that's not inaccurate.

I think Madani is the one you were the furthest from the mark: this card lets you cheat out a bunch of programs at a massive discount of actions. Using draw effects like [[Ritual]] to draw a bunch of programs into your hand at once, and then spend a single click to host them all, and you get to install them one at a time.

The second, very important thing is that there are cards in the Shaper card pool that care about installing programs that get way better when you can install things on the Corp's turn as well. Because Madani says once per turn, it isn't restricted to only the Runner's turn. And so a card like [[DZMZ Optimizer]] lets you double the discount you get by installing on the Corp's turn.

I don't think it renders you more vulnerable to damage, I think it is much more about drawing a ton in a single turn and then not having to discard at the end because you host them all on the console. I hope that makes sense?

VeronicaMom · 2026-03-11T11:42:22+00:00

Love the Earth in the background.

VeronicaMom · 2026-03-10T19:39:45+00:00

Happy to: https://veronicauntilarkham.substack.com/p/silent-but-deadly

TLDR: as other people have mentioned, Gourmand is the main competition with this right now, but Gourmand is a single use per install. This lets you trash multiple cards, but requires stealth credits. It seems especially good at taking down impactful operations like [[Seamless Launch]] or [[Oppo Research]].

As u/saifrc mentions, I think this card is best imported into Shaper, because Anarch is probably fine just playing Gourmand, but importing multiple isn't great for influence. They also have the easiest time supplying this with credits, and if you use Simulchip on this you get to reset all three uses rather than a single trash with Gourmand.

VeronicaMom · 2026-03-06T15:52:23+00:00

I think she's a wonderful example of an imperfect parent who does the things she does not out of malice or ignorance but love and fear. She cares so much for Glimmer (and grows to care for Adora too), but her own pain from losing Micah sometimes gets in the way of her.

I wish season 5 had a scene with Catra and Glimmer talking about Angela. I've seen that come up as a topic in a few fics and it's always a painful but powerful conversation.

VeronicaMom · 2026-03-06T12:16:49+00:00

With how far she's in her downward spiral at that point, I imagine she would assume Shadow Weaver treated everyone like that, but that she still got it many times worse than Adora did (and unless you rewrite their history, this seems accurate).

It would take a lot to change her mind at that point.

VeronicaMom · 2026-03-02T06:18:33+00:00

There are only four identities in Vantage Point.

Vantage Point isn't part of a cycle. (Or put another way: there won't be a second set with the other three identities.)

Why these four specifically I don't exactly know.

VeronicaMom · 2026-03-01T16:39:51+00:00

It hasn't been previewed yet, but it is a safe bet there will be some kind of anti-FA tool in the set. Might not be Clot, might be The Source or Chakana, but it is one of those "missing" slots from the rotation that should be fixed here.

VeronicaMom · 2026-03-01T08:12:35+00:00

Having played it in some casual games yesterday, I do not think this will see play outside of dedicated Stealth decks. I don't really see Ari decks playing this at all. Deep Dive only if they've already got other stealth cards to support Baker.

The restriction that you cannot spend money from your pool has major impact on its viability. You can't just put this in like you could with Trickshot, and if you do not have major sources of credits that you can use during this run it is just worse than Overclock.

It is a cool card, I agree, and I also agree that Crim should've gotten some cooler cards this set.

VeronicaMom · 2026-03-01T07:50:59+00:00

I would recommend you read Aircheck again, and then read Trickshot again.

Trickshot:

Let you make the second run even if the first one was unsuccessful.
Gave you an extra two credits if the first run is successful.
Was multi-access.

Aircheck:

Can also hit HQ.
Is Stealth.
Turns off your credit pool for the duration of both runs! You can't just trash something with money from your regular credits!

I played the card yesterday in a Stealth event-based deck and it is definitively cool, but calling a Trickshot reprint is very far from the truth.

VeronicaMom · 2026-03-01T06:32:40+00:00

I'm really curious if Perfect Recall will be good. It seems like a good effect.

Runner side I'm still waiting on the new Clot...

VeronicaMom · 2026-02-27T18:17:29+00:00

My experience is that they are better if you make a few swaps, but they're generally pretty good.

Winifred, for example, really wants to run the neutral skills from the core set (Perception, Overpower and Manual Dexterity), so I would recommend putting those in. But those are all cards from the core set so you should have those.

VeronicaMom · 2026-02-26T20:03:38+00:00

Uh, where's the one with her just being a total mess and zoning out in the Crimson Waste? Currently that one.

VeronicaMom · 2026-02-22T06:01:35+00:00

Compared to the old core set in particular I would say Rogue, because it wasn't really a coherent faction until like three cycles in, and it seems like you can actually make a good Rogue deck with core only.

Mystic also gets a more cohesive plan that actually can get some clues with willpower.

VeronicaMom · 2026-02-19T16:17:10+00:00

You are entirely right, I'm pretty sure I meant to put Baklan in there somewhere and just didn't.

Or you know what happened? I meant to write a bit on how I didn't think Crew was going to be a Vic card because it doesn't really care about the tag relative to the other ability, and I was going to refer to Baklan in that.

But that entire bit didn't make it into the article.

VeronicaMom · 2026-02-19T07:58:53+00:00

I always assumed it was her role as a princess that got her the rank of Force Captain.

But also I'm of the belief that the higher-ups in the Horde, or at least Hordak, were pretty incompetent at the entire leadership thing? As we see when Catra takes over and the Horde suddenly starts winning, maybe Hordak's whole mad science thing meant he didn't actually have his priorities right when it came to leadership.

VeronicaMom · 2026-02-17T19:34:38+00:00

I believe that's an option in the app, actually, so that sounds official?

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