[Netrunner for Newbs] Scoring Windows

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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Why Time Is Everything

The average Netrunner game can be broken down into three main phases:

• the early game, where the Corp doesn't have much ice up on the board;
• the mid game, where the Corp has a strong economy and can rez (or has rez) most ice;
• and the late game, where the Runner has most of his breakers out and can break through almost any server, given enough time and money.

The astute reader would probably conclude, rightly, that the Runner is strongest in the early game, the Corp is strongest in the mid game, and that things sorta equal out during the late game. However, how does understanding this help us as either Corp or Runner?

Runners Gone Wild

As a runner, you'll want to run everywhere and anywhere often early on, to either get as many free accesses as you can or to simply tax the corp by forcing him to spend money. If you're able to successfully keep the corp poor, you're set: you're effectively lengthening the early game by preventing the corp from getting his economy set up so that he can rez everything.

Remember that rezzing ice is not always good news for the corp. Not only does it cost them money, it also lets you, the runner, get a peek into the breakers that you'll need to start digging for. The moment you know that the ice over R&D is an Archer, you'll know never to run that server unless you have your Killer out. However, if the Corp never rezzes the Archer, you're just going to keep getting free accesses off R&D. It's usually win-win no matter what.

Creme de la Corp

However, inevitably - unless the Runner gets very lucky, or the Runner is very good - the Corp will eventually reach a point where he not only has enough money to rez everything, but to also put down his Agendas and score them. Welcome to the mid game: this is where it gets exciting.

During this time, as the Runner starts digging desperately for his breakers to get through the ice keeping him out, the Corp has a short period to catch his breath. This is what we call a scoring window, or a period of time during which the Corp can (more or less) safely put down an agenda and score it. It is vital, at this stage, for the Corp to get as many agendas scored as possible, because very soon we'll be entering...

The Late Late Show with NBN

When the Runner gets his rig up, he can go anywhere and everywhere. Scoring windows are now defined by the Runner's economy. To determine if it's safe for the Corp to try and score an Agenda, he has to ask himself this one question: does the Runner have enough money to break through all my horrible ice? We're assuming that the Runner has the programs to do so (because he either has the program he needs out, or has ways to tutor for it midrun), but does he have the money to power the rig, and is he willing to do so?

At this stage, both Runner and Corp should have a few Agendas under their belt, and both will probably be hungry for the last few Agenda points for them to cinch the game. The Corp must now carefully control the tempo of the game through the clever use of traps, bluffs and control of the Runner's economy.

Case Study

You have a remote server that will cost the Runner, with his current rig, 10c to get through. The Runner has 8c right now, but also has a Magnum Opus out. Both of you are at 5 points, and you're holding onto a 1 point agenda in your hand with no traps. What should you do?

If it were me, I would first make sure that my centrals - in particular, R&D - is as taxing as it is humanly possible for me to make it. Remember that a single lucky score off the top of R&D now can possibly make the game for the Runner, so you've got to protect that.

Next, I'll try to draw through my deck for another Agenda so that I can cinch the game. Once I have both in hand, I'll try to bluff out a scoring window for myself by putting the 1-pointer in the remote and advancing it by 1. If the runner hits the server, he'll tax himself to death and will probably have to spend his next turn charging up for another run: which then gives me the window I need to score my other agenda.

Addendum

Always bear in mind, however, the fact that nothing is ever certain. For all you know, in the case study above, the Runner may play a Sure Gamble and radically reduce the time he needs to spend running your server of death. What are the odds of him doing that, though? This is where understanding deck archetypes come in handy.

If you were building a deck with Magnum Opus, would you include Sure Gambles as well? Ehhh... maybe? But more likely than not, a deck with Magnum Opus isn't going to have event-burst economy as well. Or maybe I'm just talking out of my ass, and it's common in your meta to have mixed economies. I don't know. The point is, you'll have to understand the common archetypes that you're going to meet in your local meta and find out how they work so you can make educated guesses when you next match up with them.

Exceptions

So, as you're reading this article, I'm sure many of you are going, "but what about NBN/HB fast advance which scores Agendas out of hand? What are their scoring windows?" Well, smarty pants, there are always exceptions to every generalization, and fast advance is one of them.

A fast advance deck is successful when it is able to shorten the early game - by either using cheap, easy to rez ice, or by having a very strong burst economy - and lengthen the mid game. For them, a scoring window is defined only by one thing: when they have enough money to rez a SanSan and score an Agenda out of hand, or put down a Biotic Labour and score an Agenda out of hand. The strength of these decks is that it usually only cares minimally what the Runner does. It's playing its own game, and when you can force the other player to play solitaire with you, you're in control.

The counter to this is multiaccessing centrals. In Netrunner, unlike in many other games, there's no truly safe place to hide your victory condition. If it's in R&D, the runner can get at it. If it's in HQ, the runner can get at it, albeit with slightly more difficulty. Multiaccess solves this problem by letting you dig deep and dig fast. Multiaccess creates a scoring window for the Runner in the midgame, and that's fantastic. Now the Runner is back to forcing the Corp to play Netrunner instead of solitaire, and the Corp has to start paying attention again.

What about switch decks, where they have an alternative victory condition of flatlining the Runner? SEA-Scorched is the most famous way to go, but there's also the Jinteki death by a thousand cuts or the simple Jinteki Komainu-Fetal AI combo. How do these fit into the picture we've painted above?

Corps playing these decks can mostly ignore the phases we outlined above and rely purely on the Runner making a mistake to kill them. It's a bit like having a Sword of Damocles above your head when you go up against these decks: any time, your whole world can come crashing down. A good multiaccess against Weyland, for instance, may result in a Punitive Counterstrike wiping you out. A SEA-double Scorched may kill you no matter what happens. And so on.

What do you do? Flip the table and refuse to play against such decks? Of course not. The key is to simply be aware that they have a potential victory condition, and to play around them. If you see a Weyland with minimal influence spent on ice and operations, beware SEA Source, Midseason Replacements, or Snare. If you see an NBN sitting on more than 6 credits and refusing to drop anything down, beware double Scorched Earths. If you see Jinteki with unrezzed ice sitting on 4+ credits, beware Neural Katana or Komainu.

Think of the alternative victory condition as an additional layer on top of the framework I outlined above. It's something that you must always keep in mind if you're facing a deck that can potentially flatline you: and these days, almost every Corp faction has the ability to do so. As Runner, watch the Corp's economy very carefully to determine when it's safe to run and when it's not.

tl;dr

Executive summary time! Runners are strongest early, corp strongest mid, and it equals out late. You should try to score when you're the strongest. Scoring windows are mostly determined by economy and board state. Learn to identify them to decide if it's safe for you to run or score. Beware decks with alternate win conditions like flatlining: you must always keep them in mind when playing against switch archetypes.