We're So Back

Some random thoughts on meta issues to be address in 2026.

“As great as Elevation is--and I really do think that it is great--the loss of so much of the card pool so abruptly completely changed the game, and, with the competitive season now behind us and new cards on the horizon, I finally feel safe to say (publicly) that I don’t think that it changed it for the better. I love netrunner, but it has been a real struggle these last 6 months to find decks that are both competitive and that I enjoy playing.”
-Kikai; AU Co deck writeup, emphasis mine.

I could not have said it better myself! I took a break from ANR for most of this year because the loss of so many cards created a situation that did not lead to enjoyable ANR (for my tastes).

Life is finite.

Disposable time is precious.

There are dangerous outdoor activities to be enjoyed, especially in the summer.

But goddamn are we back. As in, I’m playing a lot again. Playing, mind you, not winning.

I went to a tournament this weekend, and even though I didn’t do well I had fun and learned a lot. As much from conversation with the good players after the fact as from the act of getting trounced a bunch.

The format is… fine. But reading Kikai’s post made me think about what’s gone and what the Standard format might benefit from going forward (and what it might benefit from losing).

So, yes, this is a “complainer” post. As always, I remind people that fans of a thing are often good at identifying issue, but seldom skilled at correctly diagnosing the best possible solution. And despite what some might say about the format, Worlds turnout was very good this year and the player base seems engaged.

False Lead

“False lead is an insanely toxic card in this format.” - Icecreamcollege

The corporation side needs specific threats to force the runner to run. The simplest (but fundamentally effective) is slowly ticking up a face-down card (is it an agenda, or a Clearinghouse?) behind ice. Alternatively, splattering the board with a bunch of face-downs that are likely to be complex mixture of econ assets, traps, and must-contest 3/1s (or, in the past, 2/1s) is part of how the Corporation can develop a game-winning state. I believe the game needs these proactive threats both to maintain Runner/Corp balance and to prevent it from spiraling into installrunner.

False Lead is mainly in that latter category. If the runner lets 1 or 2 of these slip by, dodging a combo kill after an Oppo Research is extremely hard unless they have set up a board state full of kill protection (Stoneship Chartroom etc.)

While False Lead is not “inherently broken”, it is a bit of an NPE card.

1. Very few people are excited to put False Lead in their deck. It’s a means to an end, not the point.

2. Once one False Lead is scored, the runner’s turn planning becomes much more complex and (quite noticeably on Jnet) you have to constantly be asking between actions if the Corp wants to forfeit it. Presumably we got rid of Clot for similar reasons?

3. False Lead is basically never played “fairly”, it is used exclusively as a piece of a kill combo.

In short, I support banning False Lead… but not until alternative Corp wincons are printed. One of the most difficult design spaces in ANR is creating corporation run pressure that is effective without being oppressive. Last year we saw Dr. Vientiane Keeling become format-defining to the point where it was Pinhole or bust (and even with 3 n your deck, you had to know the match-up extremely well).

In the past, we’ve seen things like Urban Renewal or SIU often dance between “difficult but acceptable” to “why do I bother with this bullshit”.

As always, how it feels boils down to how accessible the tech to keep something in check is across factions and how demanding the play patterns are. If something is countered by ample cross-faction tech, it should demand tight counterplay. If something is countered only by narrow cards, it shouldn’t create an overwhelming subgame.

There’s a separate question about why we feel the need to support a specific playstyle that often devolves into this type of thing (lateral/assets), but that’s an axe I don’t really feel compelled to grind any further.

Esâ

The debate between aksu, davz131 and The King about this identity, the Sabotage mechanic and Begemot is worth listening to.

Esâ is very, very strong. In the hands of weaker runner side players (say, yours truly), the RNG of the sabotage mechanic can sometimes be enough for them to steal games from quite strong corporation players. In the hands of a player the likes of Jan Tuno, this ID is monstrous. I happen to think it’s good if the game has a “high floor, low ceiling” (what David Sirlin calls a First Order Optimal Strategy in his classic text on competitive games) ID for newer players to lean on, but this is very much a “high floor, high ceiling” ID. High skill players will make note of the cards that have been milled and be able to extrapolate how exactly that curtails the corporation’s possible action flow over the remaining turns and plan accordingly. The King makes the point that Sabotage constrains Corporation action due to the loss of the tools being milled- I would just modify that statement that how much it does depends on how heads-up the opponent is. One of my weaknesses as a player is that I’m often on autopilot and don’t pay sufficient attention to what is going into Archives or the Heap. But yeah, if you’re at the top tables at a big tournament, the exact composition of the “milled” cards really matters.

Do I think anything needs a ban? Look, I’m just happy that there’s an Anarch alternative to MaxX At Home (Hoshiko). But, if there’s one card I think is kinda BS… it would probably be Chastushka. Even last season, netjogging would reiterate to me that all I wanna be doing is just playing Chastushka over and over. Punch people in face, steal their stuff.

Begemot is a real bastard too, but it only break barriers. Yeah, it makes Brân 1.0 look like garbage, but it’s basically a reg breaker. This isn’t Laamb or Faust.

Like Deep Dive, Chastushka was a card kept somewhat in check by abilities like Border Control or AgInfusion. The missing defensive options really cause problems.

If you want a picture of the future, imagine a Chastushka punching on your HQ—for ever.

One possibility is that we just need to wait for some more anti-Hardware options to be printed. Retribution is tough to land, but destroying Marrow is theoretically something that could keep this ID in check? ZATO a Hammer subroutine? Comments are open!

Creative Commission

This card is basically Sure Gamble with lower downside due to the low play cost. It’s a bit too good (allowing extremely rapid econ recovery to close any potential scoring windows), but the Shapers kind of need it until their econ options expand a bit. Long story short: ban as soon as new econ drops, and keep it banned.

Nebula

This ID is a mistake. I don’t loathe playing against it, I just think it’s the single most obviously erroneously designed card in the entire Elevation set. I’m a bad runner player, so don’t read too much into this, but I played full-powered Eternal Andromeda into an opponent with Standard Nebula and I lost. There are no balms for such wounds. The opponent was nice and said that Nebula is a high variance ID (a bit of a F.O.O.S. in other words) - some of its draws are very, very difficult to beat, full stop. I’m pretty sure I’m just bad at Crim, but OK.

It’s also a mistake because of the single credit it drips when you flip it. This ID would still be amply playable without that, which shows just how pushed it is.

It’s also a mistake because it’s boring. (Subjective, I know.)

Let me explain.

I often lose to good Ob players. The ID ability on Ob is bonkers, and you’re never quite sure what they are up to. But I have a pretty good sense that like Birthing Pod players of ages long past, the Ob player is having a very good time. The decision trees are interesting.

I often lose to AU Co. Most of the time, the AU Co. player is having a pretty good time. I might not be, but that’s on me really¹. They have to balance the real possibility of agenda flood with managing complex board states full of interlocking assets in order to threaten a kill.

Nebula? I think a lot of the times, the Nebula player is pretty much letting the deck do its thing. You ice centrals, tax them out, fast advance. Maybe you have a kill threat, maybe you don’t. This is also super annoying given that there’s no Clot or equivalent lock them out of their basic play pattern. You can either get into HQ/R&D or you can’t and you lose.

Criminal Faction: Pretty Much Spot On

I mean, I can’t win with it, but it seems to very much be a “low floor; high ceiling” type of faction. I should probably get 100 reps with MuslihaT until I “get it”, because my win rate with AlPi’s Baz deck has been utterly atrocious.

The point is, people who know how to play Criminal do quite well at events, but nothing about the faction right now “feels unfair”. Like, what’s the best Crim card right now? Bravado? (Probably, I’d play 9x Bravado if I could). Also, props on the design of Transfer of Wealth; it’s basically right where it needs to be.

Until next time!

1. I’m being very diplomatic here.