Initial Format Testing
by saff
Format Pre-History
Astro has been an occasional side project format for the past few years with a small crew of players exploring what is possible with singleton deckbuilding restrictions. The format began with a points list like Eternal, inspired by the similar Magic format, Canadian Highlander, but it was quickly found to be unsuitable for the format.
Due to Netrunner’s increased access to card draw and much more limited removal of game pieces, even a single copy of certain cards could not be adequately balanced with the rest of the card pool with just a points list. After several months of testing, we present the first public testing ban list which attempts to outline the shape of what we want it to grow into. However, frequent updates are expected in the early period as the positions of decks settles into a proper meta.
Ban Reasoning
Extreme Consistency
One of the unique appeals of singleton formats is seeing a wider pool of cards that explores beyond the top tier of power, with slightly more variance in how each game plays out. With that in mind, the two IDs Ob Superheavy Logistics: Extract. Export. Excel. and Kabonesa Wu: Netspace Thrillseeker have been removed. Both IDs have unparalleled ability to remove variance from the game and see exactly the right card for every situation.
While World Tree displays many of the same qualities, we have not chosen to ban it yet until we have more data about how reliably it can installed and how readily corps can present obstacles to triggering it.
Uninteractive Combo
Removing combo from the format is not a goal for the ban list, however combos that present limited-to-no means of interacting are not desired. This matches Eternal’s banlist philosophy, and so we have maintained some of the same bans for combos that are not impacted significantly by singleton rules. This includes Accelerated Diagnostics which has multiple game-winning combos including End of the Line with no tag setup and Mutually Assured Destruction+BOOM!, as well as the Devas which power an infinite-credit combo.
Economic Imbalance
Three outlier cards were removed to bring Runner (particularly Crim) econ in line with the format’s power level. These outlier cards were not easy to balance around as draw order variance meant there were huge discrepencies in runner economy from game to game, so Bloo Moose, Desperado, and Temüjin Contract are banned.
Strategic Diversity
In an effort to maintain viability of a variety of decks, three cards which too effectively squash certain strategies have been removed. Aaron Marrón is extremely good against many tag-based strategies while still being a valuable draw source in other matchups. Film Critic negates defensive agendas, which are already weakened by reduced access in singleton. Şifr both allows runners to ignore ice strength and repeatedly enables ice destruction.
Paperclip was removed to open up space for other fracters, as it is extremely efficient at breaking, recursive, and able to be installed clicklessly. When Paperclip was in Standard, having an obvious “best-in-class” fracter reduced play rates of other options and warped the playability of many barriers. Testing so far has shown that there is a wide range of viable options for fracters with various tradeoffs in its absense. Bukhgalter and Yog.0 have similar concerns about reducing strategic diversity but are left for now until it is shown that they are choking out options, whether for breakers or ice.
Rebirth is a unique ban that seeks to open up the Runner identity space, as Andromeda: Dispossessed Ristie and MaxX: Maximum Punk Rock were pushing out most other options in their factions.
While they are not banned yet, we are watching Endurance and Tributary to make sure that ice remains relevant and run-based economy remains useful.
1-Inf Wonders
A handful of cards have unusually low influence requirements for the outsized impact they have on the game. Engram Flush and Slot Machine are both extremely taxing for their rez cost and were being played in far too many Corp decks, so were removed to adjust the overall taxing power of midrange ice and encourage other ice choices.
The Runner econ options of Rezeki and PAD Tap have similar issues but have not proven to be detrimental to the format yet.
Locked Game State
Friends in High Places, Museum of History, and Whampoa Reclamation were all removed for the same reason: slowing the game down and creating monotonous games where the same card is used many times. While most recursion is allowed, these cards were repeat offenders with low cost of inclusion that could easily drag out games in unhealthy ways.
Currents
The best counterplay to one player playing a Current is for the other player to play a Current. This encouragement for every deck to slot some number of Currents just to counter others mixed with the extremely high power of certain Currents justifies their removal. The format was tested with the presence of Currents in early iterations but we found that they did not produce enough interesting gameplay to offset their problems.
Nova/Ampère
These bans are a planted flag that says that this format is not solely about random chaos or making simple best-of-the-best goodstuff lists. Maintaining factional identity, being able to make educated reads on what opponents are playing, and making shrewd influence decisions are important aspects of the kind of gameplay we want to encourage.
Mti Mwekundu: Life Improved
Mti is an incredibly powerful ID which discourages running and has unfair interactions with defensive upgrades. As Jinteki has many other good glacier options, it felt safe to remove Mti and force Corps to rely on healthier options.
Orgcrime
The two “Orgcrime” cards, Hired Help and Watch the World Burn have been excluded from all other competitive Netrunner play due to lack of testing, lack of availability, and overall power level, so we are following suit and not including them in the format.
tags: bans