There are three parts to any collectable card game: Getting the cards, constructing the deck, and playing the deck. They're all important. Here's what Sun Tzu would say about each one:

Card Collecting

Trading is an art. When I set out to build my First Amendment stack, I knew it would be difficult to get fourteen copies of Field Reporter for Ice and Data. I told people I needed one to complete my v1.0 collection. I told people that I needed a Field Reporter for a deal with a third party. I told people that I was writing a column on the web and Field Reporter for Ice and Data was my personal obsession.

I didn't tell them that I could make a really interesting, really effective deck with all those Field Reporters. That would have been using "the normal force to engage".

Some people might find that dishonest. I only volunteered the information if the other party asked, and since it is all part of the game of Netrunner, I view it as bluffing, not lying. In any case, I definitely used "the extraordinary to win" the trading game.

The best article ever on trading collectible cards was written by Zak Dolan, the first Magic World Champion. It appeared in issue number 6 of The Duelist. It covers everything anyone could ever want to know about getting good deals. Zak began his project with a single starter and ended up with a super-collection of over 100 rares, including a mega-power deck.

The same thing could be done in Netrunner.

Deck Building

Deck building is also an art, the most popular of the three catagories. Choosing a set of 45 from more than 250 cards is not an easy job.

The idea for First Amendment came from a post to the Netrunner mailing list by Stephanie Bura. I got no reports of anyone trying his recipe for close to a year, so I decided to try out the idea. Waiting for a year to try an old idea is an example of "using the extraordinary to win".

Stephanie's idea came before Proteus. My challenge was to tune the formula as much as possible, including an Proteus cards that would improve it. Disintegrator was a nice choice because it had a bad reputation and it worked perfectly with my plan. Including a False Echo made the stack much more powerful. Adding The Personal Touch is a natural choice for any stack that uses Bartmoss Memorial Icebreaker.

It turned out to be a big collection of mostly unpopular cards that work really well together. That's "using the extraordinary to win".

I've since wished I had included a Startup Immolator and Microtech Backup Drive to get rid of low-cost ICE.

Playing the Deck

There are just a few basic steps in playing the stack, but they are all extraordinary. It's less of an art than the other two catagories, but it is far from a science.

The first thing to do is install several Field Reporters. More is better, but don't wait until the Corp has almost won before moving to the second step.

The second step is running with Dropp, forcing the Corp to spend bits by rezzing ICE and gaining many bits with the installed Field Reporters.

The third step is to install Bartmoss Memorial Icebreaker, Joan of Arc, False Echo and Disintegrator, running and derezzing ICE until the Corp has no bits left.

All of the steps are good examples of "using the extraordinary to win". There is no other stack idea in Netrunner that works in a similar fashion. And it works!

Why Bother?

We play games for fun. Sun Tzu was probably not concerned with fun, but he was killing people, not shuffling cards.

Using the "normal force to engage" is fun, but we all like to win. There are many winning plans in Netrunner, but they may not be very entertaining.

That's why stacks like First Amendment are worth creating. They "use the extraordinary to win" while keeping the game fun.

-Neal
Neal's Last Words

P.S. Sun Tzu was Chinese and "Sensei" is a Japanese word.