New Revised Core Set On The Way For Android: Netrunner
September 12, 2017 by brennon
Fantasy Flight Games are really shaking things up within the world of Android: Netrunner as they announced a Revised Core Set for the game this week.
This new set replaces the existing one and shakes things up when it comes to the different characters you can play as and the card pool that is available to players. Netrunner is about to undergo what is called Rotation where some cards are dropped from legal play in tournaments and so this Core Set acted as a way of bringing some cards back into the fold whilst also solving a lot of problems with the game.
So, why is this important?
A lot of players had been leaving Netrunner for other games because what had made it such a special game had vanished from the meta. Instead of it being a game of running, bluffing, taking chances and high-stakes gambles with incredible payoffs, it had devolved into a game with little to no interaction between players and a very shallow gameplay experience.
By removing a lot of the noted problem cards from the pool and reworking the core set to open up new options for players to get their heads around the hope is that it will reshape the meta into something more akin to how Netrunner originally felt.
Of course, this is only a personal opinion on the game, but hopefully, this does reinvigorate the player base into jacking back into their rigs and running to bring down the Corps once again.
The Update
So, one of the big things in the update for the set is that we're seeing a change in the Runners and Corps. Whilst most have stayed the same we now welcome Chaos Theory into the mix (with lovely new art)...
...alongside the veteran, Gabriel Santiago (and my favourite Runner).
Reina Roja also now replaces the consistently good Noise from the Core Set taking the focus away from viruses and instead focusing the Anarch faction towards alternative methods and her unique suite of programs.
Haas Bioroid has also had their original identity replaced with Stronger Together which I always thought was decidedly more thematic for them.
Overall, this seems like a great new way to get yourself into Android: Netrunner. For those of you who still have your original Core Set and the first two cycles, you can still 'make' this set so you don't have to go out and buy new cards. All you have to do is sit down and sort out your cards from those which have been exiled (Netrunner joke, haha - Princess Space Kitten) and those which are still included on the roster.
As a massive fan of Netrunner I can't wait to see what this does to the game and maybe I'll be tempted to jump back into Cyberspace soon.
What do you think of the update?
"...hopefully, this does reinvigorate the player base into jacking back into their rigs and running to bring down the Corps once again"
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Interesting to see the way they’re handling rotation now it’s finally arrived. Still a couple of cycle more than I’d prefer. Won’t be enough to get me back to Netrunner, though, as I’m falling in a Rokugan hole lol
Yeah, I think we’ll have to wait until after Worlds before we know whether or not this has had the desired effect.
Got a lot of friends getting into L5R!
Think this is a great move for FFG though I know some of the cards they are removing from the Core Set will be sorely missed (<3 Kate, Noise & ETF).
It's nice to see that they've worked it in such a way that you will not need to buy this if you've been picking up the cards from the start anyway.
A very exciting time and this weekend is UK Nationals which I'm sad to be missing but will try and keep up while enjoying the epicness that is the Wolsung Bootcamp! 😀
Az
Yeah, I sat down with my housemate yesterday and built the new Coreset. Going to have some games over the next few days to see how they measure up against each other from a purely starting point of view.
I think it’s a good method of evolving the game. Alas, given that there have been some seriously over powered cards in the recent cycles this may only be a foundation for a solution rather than a solution. Perhaps this and the MWL* together will be a solution. In any case, i’ll be keeping my eye on the game to see how this shapes it.
* The Most Wanted List is a list of cards that cost additional ‘influence’ to include in a deck, thus making it difficult to include multiple copies of multiple cards on the list.
It will be interesting to see what happens with MWL and what appears on it after they’ve let the revised core set breath for a bit.
I don’t imagine that the MWL will change a great deal. A good number of the non-Core Set 1.0 cards that are on it are overpowered with out much, or even any support from other cards. But then i’ve been out of the game for a while making my own Hack of it and trying to find people to play that.
At least FFG have thought of the problem these types of games have ahead of time.
It kind of makes me wish that companies like GW applied this kind of logic to their own expansions as well.
It still doesn’t solve the fact that the constant release of new content creates the problem that they’re trying to solve …
Sounds good to me. This could be good time to start Netrunner.
I’d never played Netrunner before but I love the theme and this looks like a good time to try it out.
Also @mecha82
If you have a group of friends who haven’t played Android Netrunner and would be up for trying it out i would recommend getting a Core Set, forming your own little gaming group, and staying away from forum chat about overpowered decks and cards that will ‘give the game away’ as it were. Even if down the line you find that the game has failed to overcome it’s flaws, you can get a lot of good gaming time out of the Core Set, building and playing decks and getting good, before you reach that stage.
netrunner may or may not be better than FFGs other LCGs, I wouldn’t know. but the setting and flavour of the game are very cool. updated art makes this tempting.
stop flashing card games at me, that’s two in a week. your going to magically transform my money into cards.
Fall to the dark side. Plastic and metal are cool…but cardboard is far more fun 😉
you fiend 🙂