[Netrunner for Newbs] Running Without a Rig

This is part of a series of short articles I'll be writing to help beginners understand the finer points of running the nets. I'll be mostly covering some of the basic key concepts and strategies that more experienced players tend to take for granted, and how this understanding can significantly improve your gameplay.

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We Need To Talk About Ichi
Or, How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love Running Naked

A lot of beginner runners tend to worry about running. "What if I don't have enough credits to break their Neural Katana", "what if I run into a Heimdall", "will my click be wasted if I hit a Wall of Static?" and so on. The end result is a runner that isn't aggressive enough: which, in turn, lets the Corp grow his economy fearlessly and expand every which way like a Japanese tentacle monster.

This is bad. A Corp that doesn't have the fear of god put into it is a Corp that can get away with murder, and sooner or later, you're going to find that the person next on the hit list is you. But how can you, a solitary keyboard warrior, put the fear of god into a multinational corporation?

You run naked.

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Rub A Dub Dub...

Let's look at what's the absolute worst thing that you can facecheck by running on turn 1, when the Corp has (let's be generous) 13c from a double Hedge Fund or something funky like that. Well, you could eat a Hadrian's Wall and end the run, but that's hardly exciting. You may also faceplant into a Heimdall 2.0, which would be bad, but you can always click through it as long as you're running early enough. You may also run into a Komainu, which would hurt, but at least you'll still be alive.

What's the main thing that all of the above situation has in common? Let me spell it out for you.

• You survive. Hooray!
• You forced the Corp to spend money; money that would, otherwise, be used in some other way to make your life miserable.
• You now have information.

Let me repeat the last point: when you run, you get information. True to its cyberpunk theme, information is the main thing that you as a Runner needs. You can beat the corp in almost anything from economy (Kati Jones is a monster) to card draw (Quality Time can't be beat), but the Corp has a significant information advantage because he and only he knows what each facedown card is.

This information is vital because you not only know what breaker you now need to dig for, but if you're lucky, you also get a valuable opportunity to count some Influence. See an Ichi splashed in an NBN deck? Hmm, doesn't leave much Influence for 3x Scorched Earth. He might still be playing a SEA-Scorched deck, but it's unlikely that he's going to have Scorched so early on. See a handful of Tollbooths in Weyland? Probably not enough Influence to have more than one Midseasons, so you probably wouldn't have to worry about operational tags.

In short, every time you run and force the Corp to rez something in the early game, you get information, which helps balance the scales somewhat. Better yet, you stop the Corp's economy from growing, which lengthens the early game where you as the Runner can dominate. I've had games as Corp where the Runner basically dropped my credits to 1 or 2 by turn 3 simply just by hammering R&D with R&D Interface and forcing me to not only rez the ice over R&D, but to further ice it up on my next turn; and, once you're put into that position, it's going to be an uphill battle to recover.

Economics

The economic hit you're handing out to the corp is also something that shouldn't be underestimated. Even in our ridiculously generous scenario, rezzing a Komainu will knock the Corp down from 13c to 8c. Suddenly, the corp's options become that much more limited just by you forcing him to rez ice. Was he planning to fast advance something? Well, he doesn't have the cash to do it now. Was he planning on Midseasons-Scorching you? Good luck doing that with 8c.

Of course, in most situations the Corp wouldn't have 13c on turn 1. A standard turn 1 play for Corp is to double ice centrals and play an economy card: say 1x Hedge Fund for 9c total. If you force an Ichi or Komainu rez, the Corp is now looking at having only 4c remaining, forcing him to drop out of Hedge Fund range.

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Running Smrt

That said, don't keep running recklessly! Remember Komainu? That's a real and common thing. Or how about Komainu into a Shock? That's also a thing. Or Neural Katana into a Snare? Or a naked server with Ghost Branch?

Well, OK, maybe not the last one because nobody plays Ghost Branch (which is a shame, because it's so beautiful). But you get the idea. You should only run when it's smart to do so. And what, pray, exactly signals a smart run?

The key here is to look at the Corp's credits. If the Corp is Jinteki and has 4+ credits, beware of running on HQ or a naked unadvanced server because Snare exists. Don't run with anything less than a full hand against Jinteki, and never run last click in case you need to draw up to save yourself from a Neural EMP or something equally horrible.

If the Corp is NBN or Weyland and you suspect that he's playing SEA-Scorched or Midseasons-Scorched, try to run only when you have about as much money as the Corp so he can't kill you out of hand. Remember that Midseasons cost 5, SEA Source costs 2, and each Scorched costs 3, so if he has less than 8c or 5c, he can't Scorched you out of hand provided you have 4+ cards. Even if he can, as long as you can beat his trace through sheer gumption and money, you're safe.

Anarchs also have a very interesting card called Vamp that I'm sure you looked at, made a face and then put carefully back in your card box. Armed with the knowledge from this article, I'm sure you're suddenly thinking about how that card can - maybe, just maybe - be actually more useful than you thought it was. Sure, it's still not necessarily an auto-include, but it can be really powerful in the early game, where the runner usually has an easier time making money than the Corp.

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When Corps Fight Back

So! Your opponent read this article and is now running everywhere and anywhere in the early game, effectively making your life a living hell. What on earth do you do? You simply don't have the economy to rez everything, and when you do rez stuff, he either runs elsewhere or starts digging for the right things to break it for a ridiculously low rate.

The key as corp is to pick when you rez ice carefully. Remember what I said about information advantage? Hang on to that advantage as much as possible. Sure, it hurts to give the Runner free accesses, but try to hold back on rezzing stuff if they're running naked. Once they start dropping stuff down to power up their runs - like Datasuckers, Nerve Agents, Legwork or whatever - then you rez your ice.

The one exception to this rule is R&D ice, which you should just rez as soon as you can. A good score off R&D can kept them in business for days to come, and you just want them to stay out of there for as long as possible so they stop messing with your draws. If the runner is able to get cheap and consistent access to your R&D every turn, we call this state "R&D lock". This is bad, and you should strive to get out of this situation ASAP. Rez your first piece of R&D ice early and, when you can afford it, double-ice R&D so that there will always be an unknown variable that you can threaten the Runner with.

Always be aware that HQ is vulnerable to Account Siphon. For this reason, you should always have a piece of ice over HQ regardless of whether you have any Agendas in hand or not. Don't go overboard by stacking 4+ ice over HQ just because you're worried about Account Siphon, but also make sure that you're able to keep them out if you need to, or that you have some place to dump the money before they're able to Siphon you (eg. Adonis Campaign, The Root).