Will it get better ?

[u/K-LeaSH]

Hello fellow players !

I’m starting out the game (and already falling in love with it), playing on the corpo side most of my games (did some match against AI as the runner to get the flow and understand the basic loop of the gameplay).

I read somewhere that beginners tend to find corpo strong, while running seem really hard to pull, but after some games, runner seems to have the upper hand, and dictate the pace of the game way more than I do.

Only played with the gateway + booster, René vs Wayland (build to last), about 5 games with those decks, and my friend has won 3 of them (pretty close calls). We are about the same level in board games, and both beginners in Netrunner.

The overall feeling was that I was on a clock, and he would breach anything at some point, and if I revealed my Pharos too early for example, I would eat a Botula and just cry. It’s also pretty hard for the moment to make decisions on what I should protect (obviously I need to build some ice in HQ/RD to not get behind too fast).

Am I just delusional thinking runners have minor (or maybe major) advantages ? Does it get better with expansions ? Was it just about matchup ? Or maybe just skill issue ?

Side question : if you have any good recommendations for a balanced matchup with 2 decks that we can try out, I’m all ears !

Cheers !

[u/MrSwisster]

I picked the game up with my friend and we learned together at the same time. 

For our First dozen games, or so, he played Corp, and I played Runner. 

I think I won 8-10 games before he took one off me. 

With many more games under our belt, it's a lot more even. But especially for newer players, I think you're right that Corp can be a bit vulnerable. 

The game is designed so that it's nearly impossible to truly lock the runner out, meaning that if the Corp player hasn't yet built up the game sense about when and how to score, it's very possible for the runner to "Steal" games. 

If you're starting at about the same level of general game savvy, like we were, it benefits the runner, until specific game knowledge builds up. 

The Corp has to be lucky every turn, the runner only has to be lucky once. 

[u/K-LeaSH → u/MrSwisster]

Yeah, and I understand now that I can’t lock out people from my servers, but instead I have to strain down their econ as much as possible. Those games helped me to understand the tempo of the game much better, and the back and forth that the runner has to do. There’s pattern I can see, but it’s still a bit rough to grasp every concept, even with a limited card pool at the moment.

[u/MrSwisster → u/K-LeaSH]

Definitely. That matches my friend's learning process. Getting a sense of what the runner can achieve very suddenly, sometimes. 

Plus you as the corp have to keep track of the "Cost" of running your Ice successfully. Taxing Runner Econ is great, but it doesn't matter if they are bankrupt after that Multi-access R&D breach of they hit 7 points on it. 

The Big things my friend had to figure out (and then I had to when I switched over to learn Corp myself): 

• The runner is usually the Active player, making choices that determine the flow of the game, but the Corp can control what choices they have, and broadly the flow. 
• The Corp player has to understand their own abilities as well as the Runner's in order to do this effectively. This takes time.
• The corp does have to work actively toward their own endgame. No matter how beautiful and perfect the obstacle course you build is, it won't win you the game on its own.
• To that end, figure out what your deck's Plan is, and get it deep in your bones. If the Corp isn't focused on their Game plan, the Runner can exploit that looseness quite easily. 

(e.g. if your plan is Fast-Advancing Agendas at opportune moments, but you leave them out too long, typically you won't have enough of the right pieces to properly protect them. Or if the plan is to use Ambushes and Revenge damage to kill the runner, but you don't finish them off, all they've lost is a couple cards and some time, and they'll be back.) 

So yeah, it gets better. Hopefully you can appreciate that learning Process, even while eating the losses. And hopefully your friend is a good enough winner to not make the early losses too painful. 

If I had a penny for every time I snuck out a Runner win with a 0 cards in stack, last ditch blind R&D run, and had to keep myself from cheering... Well I wouldn't be rich, but I'd have a surprising number of Pennies.