A New Android: Netrunner Draft Format Is Now Available

“The closer I got to the source code, the more everything changed.”
    –Nasir Meidan

It’s time to take your runs into Overdrive. Overdrive Draft Starters, Corp Draft Packs, and Runner Draft Packs for Android: Netrunner Draft Play are now available via FFG’s in-house manufacturing!

Overdrive is the second pool of cards for Android: Netrunner Draft Play, consisting of 194 randomized cards collated from across the whole network of Android: Netrunner products. These include the game’s Core Set, its first two deluxe expansions, and its first three cycles of Data Packs, including no fewer than forty-three cards drawn from the Lunar Cycle, which you’ll be able to add to your rig or HQ before they’re even released in Data Packs!

In addition to providing fans some sneak peeks at upcoming cards from the Lunar Cycle, Overdrive introduces new draft play challenges for both Corps and Runners. Players who have already enjoyed draft play with Cyber War will recognize some fundamental shifts in how they’ll want to compile their server defenses, economic drivers, and icebreaker suites.

More Than One Way to Run a Server

In Overdrive, many of the draft strategies that worked in Cyber War get turned on their heads. The steady economies that were funded by PAD Campaigns and Armitage Codebusting are defunded, and players will have to find ways to build upon the temporary economic boosts provided by Hedge Funds and Sure Gambles.

However, even as Corps and Runners look for new ways to fund their efforts, they have other choices to consider. In Cyber War, many of the decisions that players face during their drafts are whether it’s better to select a key piece of ice or icebreaker, or whether they should use their draft pick to support their economic development. In Overdrive, players face entirely new layers of choices.

• Runners must also consider what type of rigs they want to build; will they build slowly toward consistent and effective rigs, or will they aim for quick successes with powerful, one-shot breakers?
• Corps, meanwhile, have fewer options for fast-advance strategies and must explore their options for building and defending their servers. The Overdrive card pool features a different set of agendas than those found in Cyber War, and it strongly encourages Corps to focus on bluffing and defense.
• Both Runners and Corps can explore the new “game within the game” created by current cards like Enhanced Login Protocol and Scrubbed. Will you fight currents with currents, or will you craft your strategy to exploit the investments your opponents make in these cards in order to gain their semi-permanent advantages?

These changes mean that the Overdrive draft pool presents Android: Netrunner players with more than a new set of cards than those they found in Cyber War, it presents an entirely new set of challenges, tactics, and strategies.

For more about how Overdrive Draft Starters and Draft Packs allow players to participate in an alternative and exciting draft play format for Android: Netrunner, visit our Android: Netrunner Draft Play description page.

What Do I Need to Play?

Each player participating in an Overdrive draft will need to bring three items: a sixteen-card Draft starter and two forty-card Draft Packs, one each for Corp and Runner. Alternatively, groups with even numbers may split so that half the players draft only Corp cards while the other half drafts only Runner cards. In such drafts, each player only needs the Overdrive Draft Starter and a single Draft Booster.

Draft Starters:

The Overdrive Draft Starter is a fixed collection of rules and thirteen utilitarian cards that include a draft-only Corporate identity, The Shadow, and a draft-only Runner identity, The Masque.

These “Draft format only” identities are not legal in standard play.

These cards are all clearly distinguished from both the larger Android: Netrunner card pool and the cards in the Overdrive Draft Packs, allowing you to collect them after your games and prepare for your next draft. Because these Draft Starters are reusable, you only need one, no matter how many Overdrive drafts you play!

All draft cards are clearly identified by a new icon, and starter pack cards are further distinguished from draft cards by color.

Draft Packs:

Randomized Overdrive Draft Packs for Corp and Runner are compiled according to a custom algorithm from a card pool of 194 cards called Overdrive.

To learn more about how Overdrive Draft Packs are created, visit the Android: Netrunner Draft Play description page.

All cards found in Overdrive draft products, except for those marked “draft format only,” are legal in standard tournament play as soon as they are tournament legal and released within the standard LCG format. However, because of variations in production color and card-stock resulting from our in-house manufacturing, players using draft cards in tournaments must sleeve their cards with opaque or art sleeves.

Push Your Processor into Overdrive

How quickly can you process the myriad challenges of Android: Netrunner Draft Play? Compile your cards, advance your agendas, and launch your runs in the exciting Overdrive draft format for Android: Netrunner The Card Game!

Pick up your Overdrive Draft Starter, Corp Draft Pack, and Runner Draft Pack today!

Note: Android: Netrunner draft products do not serve as a replacement for the standard Android: Netrunner LCG® model. Instead, Android: Netrunner draft products allow players to enjoy the game through an additional format of play. Orders for products printed via FFG’s in-house manufacturing may take 10 – 14 days to ship.

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