Thanks to the release of 4 data packs, it is now possible to minimize the chances of drawing an agenda, whether as a corp or a runner player, to a base chance of 7 out of 49.

1. Max out your deck size to 49.
2. To meet the 20 or 21 agenda point requirement for decks of that size, get 6 cards worth 3 points each and 1 card worth 2 agenda points for a total of 20 points.

Any corp deck can do this, but NBN and Weyland have agendas that fit this purpose. List of 3-point agendas:

1. Neutral: Executive Retreat, Priority Requisition
2. NBN: Restructured Datapool
3. Weyland: Government Contracts

The question for this thread: Is it worth it?

It's a very general question that can only be answered in specifics: What faction is the deck? What build or strategy does it follow? How would its 3-point agendas fit in with it? Can they contribute to your deck's performance? If they don't, is their scarcity a good enough advantage to use this trick? And if you have to score them to win, how does their high advancement cost affect you?

I tried it once in my HB deck. If searching for 9 agenda cards in a 49 card deck is frustrating enough, 7 cards makes it much worse despite such a little change in numbers. The smaller number of agendas means more slots for economy or defensive cards and also gives you more time to set things up. However, what got me was how long and costly it was to score the 3-pointers; they're vulnerable once you actually draw them or are about to (top card of R&D). As HB doesn't have any 3-point agendas, I had to use the Neutral ones; while Priority Requisition fits well with the startegy of building ICE fortresses, I was wary of Executive Retreat's ability and didn't use it at all. As I prefer a deck that focuses on installing and scoring agendas ASAP, and because the safest place to keep agendas is one's score pile, I've since reverted to using 9 agenda cards mostly with just 2 agenda points each.

Jinteki, like HB, doesn't have any 3-point agendas and has to rely on ER and PR. However, it does gain more free slots for their traps and tricks and makes a runner more likely to walk into them.

I have very little experience with NBN but I reckon that NBN's ability to score agendas quickly puts it in a similar position to HB's click abilities. This arrangement of deck size and number of agendas would simply minimize the chance of runner snagging one of their before they can score it.

Lastly, Weyland must face some pros and cons in using this strategy, especially for Scorched Earth decks. While it keeps Weyland safer from losing agendas, the larger size of the deck also makes getting Scorched Earth and other necessary cards harder. My friend who plays Weyland prefers a smaller deck just because of that.

So, what do you think? Please discuss.

Somewhat counterintuitively, I try to run as many (small) agendas as possible in Jinteki (Personal Evolution) to maximize the chances of the runner taking net damage, possibly getting flatlined during a Maker's Eye or Medium dig.

I have done this with NBN. It wasn't great, it just makes you and the runner frustrated when agendas don't appear or all appear at once. I still try to keep it low, but astroscript is really good.