Netrunner: Whispers in Nalubaale Review

In this series of articles Marc and Chris, our resident runners of nets, review the latest expansion for Android: Netrunner. In these articles Marc and Chris will introduce their favourite cards from the newest pack and then give a whistlestop tour of the rest of the cards. There are a lot of card names mentioned in these articles. If you don’t recognise a particular card, or need a refresher about what it does, we recommend either searching for a card on NetrunnerDB or installing this Chrome plugin to let you quickly look up what the cards do. Without further ado, let’s jack in…

Whispers in Nalubaale

Pack summary

This pack is a must if you’re a fan of Anarch, unusual Runner decks, or Corp trap decks. Anarch get a very interesting new ID in Freedom Khumalo, as well as more tools that add to the virus theme of this cycle. The new Shaper breaker Laamb suits aggressive Shaper decks as much as janky decks using Surfer, which is fantastic! Equally, the new Shaper run Event Compile facilitates all sorts of mid-run shenanigans. On the Corp side, Mwanza City Grid, at one influence, fits into trap decks from all factions, while Viral Weaponization goes well in Jinteki decks that try to empty the Runner’s stack and grip.

Whispers Nalubaale Marcs Favourites

Laamb

Icebreaker design has come a long way since the start of the game. Many icebreakers released during the early cycles of the game were just different combinations of strength, cost to install, cost to boost strength, and cost to break subroutines. Sure, some icebreakers (Dagger) required specialized resources to work, while others (Sage) required special deckbuilding to use, but by and large that sweeping statement holds. In recent cycles, however, we’ve started to see icebreakers with abilities other than the ability to break ICE. Some icebreakers derez ICE (Golden, Peregrine, Saker), some uninstall it (Ankusa), while others reward you for not breaking ICE (Persephone). The new Shaper icebreaker, Laamb, follows this more modern icebreaker design philosophy. Once per turn, for two credits, Laamb can turn any ICE into a Barrier. Which is perfect, as that’s exactly the ICE type that Laamb breaks! In fact, the numbers on Laamb are such that the Runner can basically get through any piece of ICE for seven credits. In my testing, having Laamb installed is a bit like having an AI icebreaker installed; you can run safe in the knowledge that nothing will surprise you.

Why is this one of my featured cards this pack? Because it supports the archetype I have been banging on about in basically every pack review during the Kitara cycle; aggressive Shaper! Now while it’s true that Shapers can rely on cards like Self-modifying Code to pressure lightly defended servers in the early game, they are a limited resource. With Laamb installed, however, the Runner can begin to pressure any server regardless of the ICE installed on that server, finding weak spots in the Corp’s defences.

The ability to manipulate the subtypes of ICE fits thematically with Shapers, and is an ability we have seen before in Kit’s ability, Paintbrush, Egret, and Tinkering. In contrast to most of those examples, Laamb’s ability does not require a Click, is reusable, and flexible as to its target. It can also be combined with other cards that care about Barriers. Perhaps the Runner uses Laamb’s ability with the efficiency of Paperclip or Yusuf? Or even Quetzal for that matter! But perhaps my favourite combo is with Surfer, which lets you surf into any server once per turn, providing that you have the money. That final point is perhaps the main downside of Laamb, namely that it can be expensive to use. But if you’ve got the cash, and the memory, to use it, Laamb is certainly a very fun card that I expect to see popping up in unusual combos and aggressive decks for a long time.

Despite my fawning over the aggressive Shaper archetype, I’ve actually used Laamb most in this Adam deck. Adam wants to be aggressive, especially early game, to begin snowballing towards a win, which is what Laamb excels at. Cards like RNG Key and Multithreader mitigate the expense of using Laamb, while Brain Chip gives you the memory to install all these programs.

Whispers Nalubaale Laamb Logic Bomb

Logic Bomb

The other card that I want to highlight from this pack is also featured in the above deck list, Logic Bomb. Adam’s Directives give him a suite of very useful abilities from turn one, but with sometimes considerable downsides. Find the Truth lets you peek at R&D, but the Corp gets to see everything you draw, so you can’t easily surprise them. Safety First lets the Runner draw cards if they are below hand size, but also reduces the Runner’s hand size by two. Logic Bomb, while not a Directive that Adam can start the game with, is no different. It gives the Runner the ability to bypass an ICE by trashing Logic Bomb, a very powerful effect; it can be combined with Run events, like Legwork or The Maker’s Eye to get the Runner into the server in question, or used as a safety net if the Corp surprises the Runner with a nasty piece of ICE. This power comes with the disadvantage of the Runner losing all their remaining clicks. Much like Adam’s other cards, this disadvantage can be overcome with clever play and deckbuilding. For example, if the Runner runs last click, then Logic Bomb’s disadvantage doesn’t come into play. This works particularly well with another of Adam’s cards, Always Be Running, allowing the Runner to spend clicks breaking ICE before they use Logic Bomb.

Against some decks, though, Logic Bomb’s disadvantage makes it almost unplayable. Against Argus, or against NBN decks playing TGTBT or Data Raven, using Logic Bomb can result in the Runner being tagged on the Corp’s turn, which is sure to be bad news considering how much Adam relies on Resources. At five influence I don’t expect to see Logic Bomb in other Runners, although, what with its Trash effect, it might make an appearance in decks with Tech Traders and ‘unconventional breakers’ such as Kongamato and Grappling Hook.

Chris Favourites Whispers Nalubaale

Mwanza City Grid

A lot of people will not like Mwanza, but for the right sort of persona it is their dream card. It makes a ridiculous amount of money in exchange for the significant downside of increasing the number of accesses that the Runner gets. This is a terrible effect for the Corp; multiaccess for the Runner is something that Runner decks want to happen, not Corp decks! The money you get from Mwanza isn’t usually enough to make it worth increasing the odds of losing Agendas. It definitely isn’t a card that you can just add to an existing deck and hope for the best. However if you build a deck that can turn that downside in to an upside, the balance shifts. You do this by making card access more dangerous, by including traps within your deck. Many Jinteki identities can be built around this plan, although the threat is arguably highest in PE (Personal Evolution) which adds additional net damage from stealing agendas to the Snares and other traps. It is safest to place Mwanza on HQ where you can see the cards prior to choosing to rez Mwanza, however you may also want to keep agendas or key operations in HQ and thus prefer to place Mwanza on R&D. Using recursion effects on trap cards can eventually make any R&D run a very dangerous proposition in the late game.

I like Mwanza best when out of faction, which is easy to do considering it’s one influence, where is serves as a greater surprise to the careless runner. It is well suited to Argus decks, which like PE, add an additional tax to accessing agendas. By making both agendas and traps dangerous, the threat level of multiaccess can be kept high. Rather than increasing the danger, you can also decrease the risk of agenda loss, by playing Mwanza in the NBN identity Haarpsichord. For this ID, only one agenda can be stolen each turn, lowering the amount of points that can be taken in a big run. Additionally, NBN has lots of agendas that fire effects when accessed that also add to the value of Mwanza. Want to try Mwanza? Here is a very spicy Jinteki build and a peek at it out of faction.

Whispers Nalubaale Mwanza Jackpot

Jackpot!

Neutral economy always needs to be looked at seriously, as influence free economy is a priority in most deckbuilding. So how does Jackpot! stack up? It has two big problems that may be sufficient to deter many players. Firstly, it does nothing when you are already on match point, as stealing the agenda to trigger it ends the game. So instead you need to find it early, and then use the money from it in the middle of the game. This is more restrictive than most economy and it will be something that you don’t want to draw late on. Connected to this is the fact that you don’t have control of when it pays out, and bad luck in the middle of the game may lead you to losing tempo compared to other drip economy. However, I do think it is better than that first impression.

Zero install cost for drip economy is good value compared to cards like Data Folding. It is is also great when playing against Punitive Counterstrike, giving you the cash inflow before the trace. Effectively it rewards you for something that you should already be doing in stealing agendas, and whilst this does make it a win-more card rather than a lose-less card, there are decks that want that. In Netrunner, stealing and scoring agendas is supposed to have a tempo cost, and as a way of mitigating this and keeping the tempo on your side, Jackpot! hits the jackpot. So where do you play it? It is best for Runners who are strong in the early game but want cash to keep things going, and thus I feel its best in Adam and Criminal. It’s even better when you can use the dead late game copies for something, like fodder for Patchwork or Severnius Stim Implant. It’s also worth noting Jackpot!’s synergy with Fan Site, giving you access to the money when the Corp scores as well.

Elsewhere in the pack

Whispers Nalubaale Anarch

Anarch

Freedom Khumalo is a really interesting Runner design, making trashing assets cheap, like the rotated Whizzard, and synergising with virus counters, like the rotated Noise. However, Freedom also lets you trash ICE and Operations from HQ, potentially disrupting Corp combos or keeping servers unprotected for longer. With the suite of new virus cards released this cycle, there are lots of interesting things you can do with Freedom, and his ability is skill testing in a very pleasing way.

Trypano is very similar to the rotated card Parasite, in that they slowly build up to destroying ICE. However there are key differences. Parasite destroyed ICE based on strength, making it very good at destroying low strength ICE, and its destruction could be sped up on stronger pieces of use by using Datasucker counters. Trypano, on the other hand, takes just as long to destroy small ICE as it does big ICE. This slow build up is a little too slow to be as big a threat as Parasite was. However, like its predecessor there are ways to accelerate Trypano. Cards like Virus Breeding Grounds, Knobkierie, and Contaminate all speed Trypano up enough to become a threat that the Corp needs to be careful of, but requires a lot of set up.

Aside from Trypano, Contaminate’s ability to add virus counters is good with both Gravedigger and Imp. However it will probably be most often used to recharge Aumakua after a purge.

Whispers Nalubaale Criminal

Criminal

Embezzle is a card the rewards clever play, and is very fun to use. If you name the correct card type when running HQ, you can both gain economically and disrupt the Corp’s plans. Knowledge of HQ from prior runs is a good guide to what to name, but even without that you can usually make sensible choices. Naming Operation is often strong, sniping fast advance or kill tools that were being saved for the perfect moment. Less sensible but very fun is leaning in on using it for ICE destruction, with Wari, Leela or Anushka, to set up the ICE ahead of time. I’ve also seen it used in decks playing Apocalypse, to try and remove ICE from HQ to slow the Corp’s recovery.

Slipstream has too many conditions to be useful. The fact that it can only transfer the run to central servers and you need to have already passed rezzed ICE are restrictive. You still have to break two pieces of ICE, so it’s only good dependent on you opponent’s ICE choices and if they have central servers with lots of ICE. The combo with Spear Phishing allowing for a double bypass is interesting, but is probably still too unreliable to make Slipstream worth the deck slot.

Whispers Nalubaale Shaper

Shaper

The Shaper’s have been tinkering with their rigs again, and this time they’ve installed a Gebrselassie mod, which makes an icebreaker maintain its strength for an entire turn. Gebrselassie is good in decks where it can be expensive or difficult to boost the strength of icebreakers, such as those that use stealth credits or Na’Not’K. Although it’s a bit dependent on your opponent’s ICE makeup, you can move Gebrselassie between your breakers to find the most efficient use. The movement mechanic also makes Gebrselassie flexible, letting you install it with no breakers installed and moving it once they are. If you’re facing servers with stacked Surveyors or Seidr Adaptive Barriers then Gebrselassie will definitely save you a lot of money.

Finding exactly what they need at the right time has nearly always been a Shaper trait, with cards like Self-modifying Code and Test Run being staples in Shaper decks. Compile is sort of the combination of these two cards, letting you find a program from your deck when you encounter the first ICE that run. However, if the program is still installed at the end of the run, it gets put to the bottom of the stack. I’ve seen some really good uses of this card, letting Runners fetch D4V1D to break high strength ICE, before it gets squirrelled away until the next time it’s needed. You can also combine Compile with Brahman to uninstall the program it installs, or fetch a Self-modifying Code or Grappling Hook and trash them before the end of the run. Compile seems to have most utility in Hayley, allowing her to to install something from her hand as well when Compile triggers. You can also combine it with Window, if you’re feeling particularly adventurous! Compile is a very flexible card and one that fits into both competitive decks and decks that are perhaps doing something a bit strange, which is a hallmark for great Netrunner design in my opinion.

Whispers Nalubaale HB

HB

Remote Enforcement’s problem is the existence of Corporate Sales Team, the gold standard for 4/2 agendas. However, its effect of finding, installing, and rezzing ICE is not to be considered lightly. The ability to install new ICE on the remote makes it well suited to a glacier style of play where one taxing remote is built and used to score Agendas. Whilst this effect is good, to make it worthwhile in comparison to Corporate Sales Team you want to be running expensive ICE, to get the most value from the free rez. Good choices include Fairchild and NEXT Diamond. The downside of this is that you risk then not being able to rez that ICE in games where you don’t score Remote Enforcement, but as a fan of NEXT Diamond, I’ll take that risk.

Kamali 1.0 is a fun piece of brain damage ICE, that is, unfortunately, a little bit on the weak side due to its low strength and the Runner being able to choose the least bad option. It’s an interesting choice in identities that like getting the most out of Bioroids, such as Stronger Together, but ultimately not likely to be a popular ICE.

Warden Fatuma adds subroutines to ICE, like the very fun Wetwork Refit. But it’s easier to play around, as assets can be trashed if they are too much trouble and the subroutine that Fatuma adds will do nothing if the Runner is running last click or spends clicks to get through the ICE. It’s home is in janky Seidr Laboratories decks and with people like me, who will combine it with Wetwork Refit, Patch, and Rover Algorithm to make a “heavily edited” ICE themed deck.

Whispers Nalubaale Jinteki

Jinteki

Viral Weaponization does a lot of damage to the Runner, but its effect triggers such that it cannot be used to instantly kill the Runner. Which gives the player a choice, do I use it to tax the Runner as a tempo hit, or do I try and work around its restrictions to do the kill anyway. The taxing method seems to be its best use, giving the Corp an opportunity to try and score an Obokata Protocol the next turn, especially if you combine it with synergistic cards such as Data Loop or Kakugo. But if you don’t like that idea and really want to use this card to kill the Runner Plan B is there for you with open arms!

The main thing to remember with Envelope is that it isn’t a backwards Kakugo, it’s a cheaper Wall of Thorns. It’s not for slowly taxing cards over the course of a game, it’s for preventing the Runner from easily accruing counters on The Turning Wheel and punishing facechecking. A lot of decks will prefer Kakugo,  but Envelope has its place.

Whispers Nalubaale NBN

NBN

Standard Procedure is an economy card that reveals the opponent’s hand. It has the problem of being unreliable, but with sensible play you can usually make an educated guess. If in doubt, Resource and Event are more common than Hardware or Program. It’s fairly likely to hit at least two cards, giving the same value as a Hedge Fund, and can often go higher. If looking for more economy in NBN it’s a good call in my opinion. Additionally it has great combos with other methods of hand reveal, such as Salem’s Hospitality or Chronos Protocol, and was put to brutally good use in this Skorpios deck at the World Championships.

I like a good trap card and the other new NBN card, Intake, is one. Paying 4 to beat the Trace, assuming the Corp doesn’t boost, is a significant cost, as is having to reinstall a key Program or Resource. Whilst it folds to Runners with high link, or cheapskate Runners that don’t have any expensive targets installed, it’s otherwise a fun choice that can help create scoring windows, especially if you use it to move a charged Aumakua or The Turning Wheel to hand.

Whispers Nalubaale Weyland

Weyland

Last pack we discussed how Endless EULA was a great card to tax even the hyper-efficient Paperclip. Well Masvingo can potentially have even more subroutines than Endless EULA, if the Corp invests in it. Compared to ICE released in the early days of Netrunner, which also gained subroutines based on the number of advancements (such as Woodcutter and Tyrant), Masvingo adds an advancement when it’s rezzed, so it will at the very least be comparable to Wall of Static while saving the Corp from having to advance it manually. Where it gets silly is with cards like Priority Construction, Anson Rose, and Dedication Ceremony, or this cycle’s Oduduwa and SSO Industries, which can make Masvingo prohibitively expensive to break. It also fits well into Builder of Nations decks; the addition of the advancement when the card is rezzed can cause the Runner to take a meat damage they weren’t expecting. Interestingly, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Masvingo and Laamb are in the same pack, as Laamb breaks it for a flat 5 credits regardless of the number of subroutines.

Weyland’s other card is the upgrade Overseer Matrix, which protects other cards in its server from being trashed by giving the Runner a tag. This goes best in Argus decks, that usually have Prisecs, or occasionally K. P. Lynn, in their scoring server to deter the Runner from stealing Agendas, for threat of getting tagged and killed. However, if the Runner gets in and does trash everything, you’re left a bit toothless. Overseer Matrix makes this strategy more difficult for the Runner, as it increases the challenge of both trashing everything and remaining untagged. Disgustingly Overseer Matrix isn’t unique, letting you stack multiples in the same server. However, whether these kind of Argus decks have room for this kind of card, I’m not sure.


Our copy of Netrunner: Whispers in Nalubaale was provided for review by Asmodee UK. You can get hold of a copy from your local hobby store.

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