Hi all, this is the first Runner deck I've modified from the starter ones. It works alright, but I'm pretty sure it can be improved, so any suggestions are welcome. It's your standard 'Virus stuff into Archives, hit Archives' strategy with a sub theme of going for R&D with Medium.

Key questions:

Is my economy alright? I always seem to not have quite enough cash.

Tied in to the previous question, what's the best way of using Djinn? I rarely have the cash to use it and install what I've tutored on the same turn, which just seems slow.

Heyo! I can help out a bit with runners in general as well as Noise specifically (Noise is one of my main runners). I tend to play variations of the Noise Workshop deck, but have started branching out to other builds as well.

Disclaimer I run a lot of Noise Workshop and as I know the most about it, the post will probably be biased that direction, though I will try to keep it objective.

First things first, you are using 3 of your 15 influence. Bump that up to 15 / 15 (I guess 14/15 is okay).

Noise wins (usually) by milling the opponent of many cards and then gearing up for a super run on archives, but has a few issues:

1. The problem tends to be that Noise wants to get through his deck as fast as possible to install as many cards as possible.
2. However he also needs a lot of money to play all of those viruses.
3. Another problem, he needs the clicks to make money, install, and draw cards very quickly.
4. Finally all of those viruses take up MU and you want to keep them efficient.

As such anything that can get you any of the above three for a very low click investment is extremely helpful.

So lets pick one and explore. How about number 1?

Getting through your deck quickly and efficiently

Okay, so there are a few ways to blow through your deck as fast as you can. For in-faction cards you have Wyldeside, Joshua B., and Djinn.

Djinn honestly doesn't speed up your card drawing, but it does get you those viruses quickly in addition it essentially gives you 2 free MU which is very, very nice. With Djinn you kill several birds with one stone (2-3 copies is preferred).

Joshua B, gives you an extra click to work with which is great! But the tag really hurts as you really don't have the money or the clicks to shake tags....and a lot of what makes you money and more efficient is tied up in resources. The counter to this is that New Angeles City Hall can help (though it still costs money).

Wyldeside is great efficiency. The problem is that it is mandatory so you will always be operating on 3 clicks. If you can't get the cards out of your hand fast enough (lack of clicks / lack of money) you will end up discarding cards you may want to keep. The potentially scary thing is that you also can't trash it to 'turn it off' unless you import Aesop's Pawnshop from Shapers.

Test Run and Special Order are the other tutors.....but really aren't worth the influence as you can just use Djinn instead of Special Order for viruses (you really don't need icebreakers as much as other runners). And Test Run only puts things into play temporarily which means any virus counters you earn are junked at the end of the turn. It could be nice for icebreakers, but if you're hurting for a breaker, something's gone horribly wrong already. I'd say pass on these two, it's your call.

Quality Time and Diesel are next. Quality Time is low influence but expensive to play and may end up filling up your hand too much. Diesel is cheap, but costs a lot of influence. All in all, I'm not a fan of either (I love Wyldeside), but you can make the call yourself.

Making Money (also making cards cheaper)

This is harder. Armitage is a no-brainer for its low initial cost. Liberated Accounts pays off well after a while, but needs a high up-front investment. Both are extremely nice, but cost precious clicks to burn through.

Anything with link really isn't worth it as Noise really doesn't have the time or money to spend on building up link. Underworld Contacts is probably out (maybe select decks work).

Sure Gamble is a great card of course. Easy Mark....ehhhh....maybe? It's a nice short-term boost, but it is competing for influence (though it is only 1 influence). I'm not sold on Easy Mark yet.

Bank Job? At two influence and being forced to run with no access? Eh, maybe not the best, but the influence is probably better spent elsewhere.

Kati Jones? At one click a turn, she's pretty decent for when you need a burst of cash later down the line. Definitely not a bad choice.

WARNING! Beware tags when running a lot of resources, you probably won't have much (any) in the way of link to beat traces either. Try to float cash when possible; 7-8 credits is nice.

Aesop's Pawnshop. Expensive influence, but it costs 0 clicks to use and you can sell off viruses you aren't using (more of a money break-even than actually making money) which can then be recylced with Data Retrieval Run and Deja Vu. Is great for using Imp as well for when the counters run out. Also can turn off wyldeside if it gets out of hand.

Personal Workshop. Expensive influence. Insanely good card. Don't have the money to instal viruses? Just host them on the workshop to install later. The other bonus is now you can install cards anytime you are allowed to use paid abilities....yes...the includes during run. This also makes stimhack stupidly powerful. For Noise this is hands down one of the best cards you can possibly use. Watch out for tags, though. If the opponent tags you, just use the paid abilities time slot to install cards before the opponent can trash the workshops (and trashing all the hosted cards at the same time).

Making Viruses Efficient

Grimoire by far is probably the most useful in-faction card you can use. If at all possible, you should probably have 3 copies of it in the deck. You can get by with 2 as well. If you only have the 1, you should probably buy a second core set or find completion sets online so that you have 3 copies of every card.

Surge can be good, but usually hinges on successful runs. If you have Grimoire, Surge suddenly becomes much easier to use.

Deja Vu. Best recylcing service ever! Great for Imp, parasite, or any other virus you've been forced to trash (or uninstalled / sold with Aesops).

Data Retrieval Run. Can be useful to get viruses out of the heap for cheap instal....but all opponents will be icing up archives against you so this can be very hard to pull off.

Djinn. Already stated above but it's worth mentioning. 2 free memory for viruses and you can tutor for ones you need. Mi

All that said looking at your deck, there are a few tweaks I'd make. I think you are running entirely too many icebreakers. Wyrm is absolute garbage so I would strip him out immediately. Mimic is definitely useful as is corroder (though personally I try to stick to crypsis). Yog is almost too good not to take.

Between Darwin and Crypsis, I'm not sure. Personally I prefer Crypsis as I'm not too screwed if the corp purges viruses. Darwin would probably work best if you kept at most 2 tokens on him. If you go to three, the corp will definitely purge. I'd probably limit yourself to maybe 7 or so icebreaker cards.

Viruses are your big friend. My Noise decks tend to run 12-16 virus cards. Djinn is an amazing card to have around to host viruses. Imp is also great. I actually prefer Imp to Demo Run (personally, I've never really pulled off a huge demo run dig in HQ or RnD).

Cyberfeeder is definitely useful in reducing costs, but it takes several turns to recoup the investment. Sadly I've stopped using it as Personal Workshop makes it a bit obsolete.

Do you really need infiltration? I find that I almost never need (or want) it. Keep it around if you want it.

Icecarver is definitely useful, never used it much myself, though. Just a personal choice.

Not got time for an in-depth post, but first off, thanks for the reply!

Secondly, my main opponent plays Jinteki, so those Infiltrations are staying. I've been doing some reading, and I'm thinking of putting Aesop's Pawnshop, Wyldside and Test Run in. I like the idea of test Running a Virus to mill them, then playing that virus again next turn, especially if that virus is Imp.

With that in mind, could you suggest a tweaked decklist? I'm ambivalent to keeping the Easy Marks in if we need the influence.

Dragonlover

@nungunz

I just wanted to say this is probably the best piece of advice I've seen online about building a specific kind of deck. Thanks a ton.

Thanks! Sadly this post is waaaay outdated. In my opinion, Noise Workshop is pretty much a dead strategy so all of the above advice, while good at the time of the post, is pretty much obsolete now.

Noise Workshop is not dead.