Moving on from playing with the core set sample decks, I am taking my first step into deckbuilding.

Seeing as I have the deluxe expansion Creation and Control, and this is based around the Shaper (green) runner faction and the Haas-Bioroid corp faction, my idea is to create two mono-faction decks. I won’t be using any influence at this stage.

I think I ought to be able to tweak the sample decks into something better, something that plays smoother.

Starting with the Shaper runner deck, I will stick with Kate as the runner identity. She makes it cheaper to install hardware and programs, which makes it easier to get her rig set up. (The rig is all the installed programs and hardware, including extra memory, icebreakers and other programs).

My plan is to select a specific set of icebreaker programs and then build around them to finance and support them.

One of the tricks that Shapers can do is run for more cards on R&D using Maker’s Eye, which makes it easier for them to steal agendas and trash assets.

There are three basic kinds of ICE, code gates, barriers, and sentries, so I will need a breaker for each of these. The breakers are decoders, fracters, and killers respectively.

I choose Gordian Blade, Inti, and Dagger. I will need Cloak to pay for the Dagger, and I can use Self-Modifying Code to fetch any programs I am missing.

I can have up to three Cloaks, each giving me 1 credit per turn, so that is a maximum of six memory units with three breakers. I will use Akamastu Memory Chips to provide the extra memory. They cost 1 credit to install, but with Kate’s ability, they can be free.

For finance, I will use Sure Gamble as that gives 4 credits for one click, plus Daily Casts which unlike Armitage Codebusting does not require any clicks to pay out. I will also use Dirty Laundry, which pays 5 credits if I run successfully and there is almost always a server to run on.

For card draw, I will include Diesel which draws three cards, and also Professional Contacts which I think is a great card as it draws a card and gives 1 credit. This is equivalent to Magnum Opus, which gives 2 credits for a click, but I think a click and a card is more flexible.

For support cards, I will include a copy of Escher, which rearranges the installed ICE on the corp’s servers. This can help clear a path if I am missing a particular breaker. I will also include Scavenge to help install programs, Same Old Thing to be able to replay any of my events (such as Maker’s Eye, or my finance cards), Tinkering which helps if I am missing a breaker, Omnidrive which adds memory and provides more recurring credits.

Putting all that together gives me this deck list:

3 x Diesel
3 x Dirty Laundry
1 x Escher
3 x Maker’s Eye
2 x Same Old Thing
2 x Scavenge
3 x Sure Gamble
3 x Tinkering

2 x Akamatsu memory Chip
2 x Omnidrive
2 x Personal Touch

3 x Cloak
2 x Crypsis
2 x Dagger
2 x Gordian Blade
2 x Inti
3 x Self-Modifying Code

3 x Daily Casts
2 x Professional Contacts

Next is to do a HB corp deck to play against.