For the runner, the deck building goal is more about building 'engines' than combos. An engine is a bunch of working parts that, when added together, becomes more than the sum of its parts.

Broken down to its simplest parts, there are only a few different effects among Runner cards.

Cards that inhibit the corp
Cards that convert clicks into money
Cards that convert clicks into more cards
Cards that convert clicks into specific cards
Cards that convert clicks/money into agendas
You need cards that get you agendas (dig cards like Medium and Indexing, icebreakers like Mimic and Femme), but those cards are worthless without money (Sure Gamble) or a way to get them out of your deck (Special Order). There are golden numbers for these cards, though.

You want about 9 economy cards, 6 cards that draw or find you cards, two of each type of breaker, plus some backups or early game breakers (Crypsis, Knight, Faerie). You also want 6-9 multi-access cards, and then you finish off with whatever your deck need. Do you have expensive programs? More economy. Fearing Scorched Earth or Junebugs? Plascrete Carapace and Deus Ex. Early game focus? Add some run events like Account Siphon and Inside Job.

The best Runner decks use cards that are good by themselves, but manages to make them work better by including other cards that are also good by themselves. A good example of this is the Professional Contacts + Event Economy decks.

Pro Contacts lets you gain a credit and draw a card with one click. This means that you can root through your deck while not letting your economy suffer. Now, you can bolster this by running events that you'll want to cast as soon you draw them, like Hedge Fund, Dirty Laundry, Daily Casts, and Lucky Find. All of those cards are good by themselves, without PC, and PC is a good card by itself. Another example is Clone Chip + Self Modifying Code; Clone Chip lets you save a program if it ends up getting destroyed, and SMC lets you trash it to find a breaker. Combine them together, and you can dig for cards multiple times.


Runner Deck Essentials:

Runner decks are a lot more varied in execution than Corp decks, even though every Runner is trying to do the exact same thing - access cards. This is going to be more of a broad strokes and strategy list rather than a list of explanations.
Netrunner theorists talk about the game being made up of three stages, based on how freely the runner can access cards. The first stage (Early Game) is characterized by both players scrambling to either set up servers or knock them down. Something as simple as an Ice Wall can effectively allow the corp to score 5 point agendas while the runner tears through his deck for a Fracter. The second stage (Mid Game) is when the runner can access certain servers very cheaply (via a partially built rig or ice destruction), or has access to every server under certain circumstances (through AI breakers or event cards). The third stage (Late Game) is when the runner has a completed rig and can break into any server so long as he has the credits.

To summarize:
Early Game - The runner cannot break into any servers, as determined by ice
Mid Game - The runner can only break into certain servers, as determined by breakers
Late Game - The runner can break into every server, as determined by credits

Realizing this, each Corp deck tries to extend the early game with credit or program denial, control the mid game by keeping the runner out of key servers, or shore up the late game with extremely taxing ice. In contrast, each Runner deck tries to master the early game with cards that bypass ice temporarily, jump into the mid game by getting the right breakers, or set up for the late game by putting together a complete rig before the Corp can rez their big ice.

How runners do this is through three basic methods.

Denial - Whether you destroy the Corp's ice (Parasite), trash their economy cards (Imp), derez ice (Emergency Shutdown), increase rez costs (Rook, The Source, Donut), remove credits (Vamp, Account Siphon, Blackguard), or force the corp to turn out more ice (Inside Job, Knight), you're denying the corp valuable credits and clicks. This kind of deck is about making the corp play your game instead of their own by making them continually put out fires.

Big Rig - Whether you set up an economy engine (Magnum Opus, Calling in Favors), cheat programs out (Test Run + Scavenge/Eureka!), or have some way to bypass ice types (Darwin, Paintbrush), your end goal is to be able to get into any server you want, when you want. This kind of deck, simply put, is about beating the Corp at its own game and creating board position where you really can't lose.

Lockdown - Whether you're locking down R&D (Medium, R&D Interface) or HQ (Legwork, Sneakdoor Beta), you focus your entire deck on making sure you can hit it hard and often. These decks normally include focused breakers (Alias, Knight), run-based economy (John Masanori, Security Testing, Desperado, Datasucker), and often like to look at what's coming down the road (Indexing, Woman in the Red Dress). This kind of deck is about ignoring what the Corp is doing and playing your own game; you don't care if the Corp has six points of agendas in his hand and remote you can't get through, you're going to hit that R&D so hard that he's never going to see that seventh point.

Now that you understand how and why the popular decks are built like they are, we can go into specific decks.

"The Deck" (Andromeda) - This is a denial/early game deck that uses Andy's extra cards to establish a dominant early board position, and then keep the Corp behind all game. Countless variations of this deck exist, but they all have a core of Account Siphon, Special Order, Inside Job, and Emergency Shutdown, as well as Same Old Thing to reuse them as needed. Most take Desperado and Datasucker to make runs as profitable as possible, and some multi-access tools like R&D Interface, Legwork, Keyhole, or Indexing.

Ser Gabe (Gabriel) - One of the strongest lockdown/mid game decks out there, abusing Knight for cheap and early HQ accesses. Ser Gabe relies on cards like John Masanori, Pheromones, Security Testing, Desperado, and efficient breakers to make his runs as cheap as possible, profitable even. Many use Bug or Woman in the Red Dress to screen draws, Imp to trash dangerous cards, Parasite to remove taxing ice, and Sneakdoor for when the Corp puts too much ice on HQ. Some variants run a connection based economy and Calling in Favors.

Data Leak (Whizzard, Reina) - A denial-lockdown/mid game deck that's started to pop up now that slower Corp decks are becoming popular, and Scorched Earth is less prevalent. The deck plays John Masanori, Account Siphon, Vamp and Joshua B. in order to give itself tags, and then uses Data-Leak Reversal in order to (hopefully) dump loads of agendas into archives, where they can all be swept up in a single turn. What makes this deck notable is that it can bankrupt the Corp through a combination of Account Siphon and Vamp, and then has to decide if it wants to trash the DLR (which can be recurred with Deja Vu), or try to rez ice to protect from Rook, Parasite, and Medium.

Noiseshop (Noise) - Similar to the previous deck, denial-lockdown/mid game deck tries to force the corp to trash cards from R&D into archives. What makes this different is that it eschews DLR for a large suite of viruses, and uses Parasite as its main icebreaker. By dumping all of his influence for Personal Workshop and Quality Time, this allows Noise to dump loads of viruses on PW and cheat them out with Stimhack. It also allows him to play Parasite in the middle of a run, and then use Wyrm or Datasuckers to trash the ice instantly.

Stealing Ain't Hard AKA Little Girls with Big Toys (Chaos Theory) - Probably the most reliable big rig/late game deck a runner can make. This deck runs a core of Test Run, Scavenge, Modded, and Magnum Opus that allows it to get the biggest, most efficient breakers in the game and then run multiple times a turn. These decks normally run Morning Star, Torch, Femme Fatale, and Garrote, often backed up with Dinosaurus to make up for their low strength and free up memory. The rest of the deck is filled with multi-access cards like R&D Influence and Indexing. Leftover influence is often spent on Account Siphon to help the deck get through the early game.

Parasite Recursion, AKA Katman (Kate) - This is a denial-big rig/mid game deck that imports Parasite and Datasucker, and uses Shaper's myriad of program recursion and instant-install tools to thin out all the high strength ice. Everything that's left over gets crushed by Atman (supported by Datasuckers) and Escher in case the Corp manages to drop some really nasty ice. This deck tends to abuse Self-Modifying Code and/or Personal Workshop in order to deal with unrezzed ice, and relies on Maker's Eye, Indexing, and R&D Interface to close out games.

Yog.0saurus - (Kit) A very strange big rig/early-late game deck that tries to invalidate a large portion of the Corp's ice to the point of making it not worth rezzing. Once you get out the titular Dinosuarus and stick a Yog.0 in it, you're making every code gate under strength 5 worthless, and you have plenty of influence for Parasites and Datasuckers any ice that's left. This deck was considered painfully tier 2 until the release of Paintbrush, and was extremely weak to program destruction until Sharpshooter came about. A solid tier 1 list for this deck hasn't made headlines yet, but it's getting more relevant with strong code gates coming out of Honor and Profit.



For the corp, you need to figure out how you're going to keep your agendas safe. Always Advance puts down agendas and assets behind dangerous, taxing ice and tries to bait the runner into take damage, losing clicks, programs, or simply just wasting credits. Never advance uses 3/2 and 3/1 agendas and non-advancing assets behind cheap End-The-Run ice to force the runner to get breakers out quickly. Fast Advance uses cards like San-San City Grid, Biotic Labor, Psychographics, Mandatory Upgrades, Haas Arcology AI, Astro-Script Pilot Program, and Director Haas to score agendas the turn you play them (thus, the runner never has a chance to run them). Big Ice decks make huge servers with 4+ pieces of ice to make a single run cost 10+ credits to pass, and scores agendas whenever the runner is too poor to run it. There's also damage decks coming out of Jinteki, using Junebug, Snare, Neural Emp, Fetal AI, and Ronin to flatline the runner; Weyland and NBN do something similar by trying to tag the runner and then dropping two Scorched Earth in order to flatline them instantly.

Corps are a bit harder to define, because there's so many different cards that are competing for the same role. The most important parts of a corp deck are the Ice and the Agendas.

I like to divide ice into three categories: ETR, Tax, and Trap. ETR ice is anything that costs 3 or less credits and Ends The Run. ETR ice is great because it keeps the runner out until he A) runs the ice to see what it is, B) draws the right breaker, C) gets enough credits to play and break the ice, and D) actually runs the ice again. ETR ice is best for decks that want to score things fast, or want time to build up for the mid-game; ETR ice is useless once those breakers come out, though. Trap ice is anything that is 5 or less credits, and really punishes the runner for hitting it without a breaker; anything that deals damage, tags, kills programs, or causes the runner to lose money or clicks. Trap ice either catches the runner off-guard and puts him behind (trashing their only barrier breaker, making them discard a lot of cards), or causes them to not run out of fear. Traps are more damaging than ETR, but the determined runner can normally still get through them without a breaker, which means he's still able to score. Finally, Tax ice is anything that normally costs 4 or more credits to get through. Tax ice severely impedes the runner's ability to make runs, and allows the corp to score agendas while the runner is busy trying to make credits.

Choosing good ice is tricky, and will make or break your deck more than anything else. Every deck wants a few ETR ice, but only an early game corp deck wants a lot of them. If you're aiming for the mid game, you want Tax ice in order to keep runs to a minimum. However, Tax is expensive and isn't any better than ETR until the corp actually has breakers out; Hadrian's Wall isn't any better than Paper Wall until the runner brings out that breaker. Trap ice is rather worthless unless you can force to runner to hit them; otherwise runners will wait until they have breakers and once that happens, Trap ice is simply bad Tax ice.
Once you've figured out what strategy you're going for (Fast Advance, Damage, etc.), and you've figured out how you're going to slow the runner down and/or keep your agendas safe, you need an economy. The corp has two options, Event based or Asset based. Events give you money RIGHT NOW, but it doesn't give a whole lot. Assets normally give you a lot of money, but over time. They also need to be protected, or they'll get trashed (though this does sap credits from the runner). Whether you take Assets or Events depends on if you're a late game or early game deck, but which specific cards you take mostly depend on your individual deck and strategy.

Last is any card that increase the efficiency or potency of the deck. Jackson Howard lets you burn through your deck faster to get your combo cards, or lets you get your agendas faster for an early game deck, and also lets you recover from a hand full of agendas. Interns lets you get back any trashed ice or assets, and Archived Memories allows you to get events like Biotic Labor or Celebrity Gifts back. Offensive cards like Power Shutdown can set the runner back if you're able to snipe an early breaker or economy card. Things like Red Herrings or Ash 2X3ZB9CY can also keep the runner out for a turn.

Essentially, you pick a strategy, then get agendas that fit that strategy. You then pick ice that slow the runner down or keep the runner out, take assets and events to accelerate your game state or keep the runner's back, and finally make sure your economy can support all the cards you want to play.


Corp Deck Essentials:
Rush - Cheap ice and 3/2 agendas with Operation based economy. The strategy is to get as many agendas as early as possible by forcing the runner to spend their early game on finding breakers.

Fast Advance - Use cards like Biotic Labor, Astroscript, and SanSan City Grid in order to score agendas the turn your play them. The strategy is to save money by not having a remote server, and to force the runner to attack centrals for random steals.

Glacial - Use big ice that's expensive to break, while using asset economy in order to pay for it. The strategy is to force the runner to run your remote servers as much as possible, hoping to bankrupt them.

Flatline - Use Scorched Earth, Snare, Junebug, Punitive Counterstrike, House of Knives, and other cards in hopes to kill the runner. The strategy is to make the runner too scared to run, allowing the corp to save money by not rezzing ice.

Notable Corp Lists:

Supermodernism (Building a Better World) - Combination Rush and Flatline deck that uses SEA Source, Scorched Earth, Snare, Archer, and Hostile Takeover. Punish runner for running, while rushing out agendas if he doesn't. The deck also makes use of program destruction via Power Shutdown and Grim. See also the GRNDL variant, 'House of Cards'.

Red Coats (Establishing the Future) - Fairly standard Glacial deck, uses a mix of asset and event economy to make sure it always has enough money to rez ice, and more importantly, score agendas. What makes the HB version of this deck notable is the fact the Ash is in faction, allowing them to have the influence free to take amazing tax ice like Tollbooth and Caduceus.

Astrobiotics (The World is Yours*) - This is a rush and fast advance deck that abuses the 40 card deck limit and cheap cards to make the deck extremely reliable. Its goal is to rush out an Astroscript behind Wraparound, Quandry, and Draco, and then use it and Biotic Labor to score agendas from hand.

Untrashable (Replicating Perfection) - This deck abuses Sundew and Interns, as well as playing a shellgame behind the tax wall of Replication Perfection. Net damage is used as a tax in this deck as opposed to a win condition, though Ronin and punish a runner who sits on too few cards.

Doran's Blades (Cerebral Imaging) - This is a straight-up combo deck, using the cards Accelerated Diagnostics, Power Shutdown, and Jackson Howard. Essentially you play Power Shutdown to put your entire deck in the archives, use Jackson to get three cards out, and then play AD to play them. Using Biotic Labor and Reclamation order, you can repeat this combo over and over to gain enough clicks to score seven agenda points in a single turn. The CI identity is used so that you can have a ridiculously large hand, allowing you to keep all the combo pieces in there without having to discard agendas.