Off Meta Month is turning out even bigger than expected, with TOs offering to run more events than we had time in the schedule for!
Off Meta Month is a month full of unique events organized by community TOs that are not your typical formats. All of the events will be run online via the Netrunner Event Hub Discord server.
Without further ado, here are the events we are going be holding in december:
Format: Vintage
Time: Asynchronous running through the month
Organizer: Ice Cream College
Vintage is a format utilizing the cardpool from the 2012 Core Set up to Data and Destiny. This allows for an interesting new look into a different metagame for unfamiliar people and a blast of nostalgia for people that were there already in the times. People can look up example decks from the 2015 Worlds Championship.
There will be no bans, Wireless Net Pavilion will be unique, up to 3× copies of AstroScript Pilot Program can be played, and the modern “NCIGS” rules will be used (Ie. If Street Peddler is hosting 3 events, you can trash it without installing anything. See here and here for details.).
Format: 3-point Eternal
Time: Asynchronous running through the month
Organizer: Manveruppd
We love Eternal, but, with so many powerful cards on offer, it can be hard to find slots for some old beloved staples. Limiting deckbuilding to only use 3 rather than 7 points from the Eternal Points List will hopefully open up deckbuilding and allow some less commonly-played cards to sneak back in. It may also lower the power level of the format just a smidge so that early mistakes are not quite as harshly punished, making it more welcoming for newer players.
3 points still allows you to take a full playset of one of the most powerful cards ever printed (except one, which will not be missed) or a combination of 1- or 2-point cards, preserving the main draw of the format.
On the advice of the Eternal Format Curation team lead Wowarlok, the following changes will be implemented to the points list (for this event only):
- Jackson Howard goes from 2 to 1 point.
- Spin Doctor goes from 1 to 0 points.
This is to ensure that Corps can always have access to a baseline recursion effect while still having the points to slot a win condition. Please note that the jinteki.net deckbuilder will not have these changes implemented, it is up to you to count your points accurately while referring to the latest Eternal Points List. Banned cards are still banned.
The tournament will be run asynchronously over 4 DSS rounds (one per week, though a few days’ grace will be granted for the last week to account for people’s holiday travel). You may use different decks between rounds if you wish.
Format: No Bans Standard
Time: 6 December 10am AEST
Organizer: Alex [HaverOfFun]
Standard freed from the Standard Ban List so that people can try out things that we didn’t have access to previously. If you are interested to see how AU Co. works with Nanisivik Grid and Tributary, or how much money a “reg” Criminal can make with a Rezeki and Daily Casts dripping simultaneously, this is definitely a format you should check out!
Format: Restart
Time: 6 December 18:30 UTC
Organizer: Lucy
Returnee from last year. In Restart you can build your own favourite combination of Null Signal Games sets to combine into the format of your dreams. For deckbuilding you get both System Gateway, Elevation, and your choice of a single NSG cycle and a single set outside of that cycle. After selecting you construct both your decks from the selection you have chosen.
Here is a primer written by Lucy
Notable changes from last year:
- There is a custom banlist
- You must use the same set choices for both your corp and runner lists
Format: Costume Party
Time: 7th December 10am PST
Organizer: Juniper
Costume Party is a custom format that has been played on Halloween by the Austin, Texas Netrunner community for six years straight.
The format is simple: Take any identity you want from all of Netrunner (minus a small banlist) and make a normal, standard deck with it… however, all identities must be color shifted to a new faction! Play Blue Sun out of Jinteki to derez Anenomes, play Andromeda out of Shaper to make sure you get your tools on turn one, play Gagarin out of NBN to make those Epiphany cards really miserable to trash, play Akiko Nisei out of Anarch for… some reason… the choice is yours! It’s got a long, fun history, and the commentary team will be giving out a special Best Costume prize to the smartest, most interesting, or strangest deck in the tournament.
Identity banlist is Leela and Liza on the runner side, Industrial Genomics, Potential Unleashed, Skorpios, MTI, and Reality+ on the corp side. Apart from your identity, your deck must use the standard cardpool, and keeps its original Link and Influence numbers; all that changes is its faction. A special exception is made for the minifactions; if you play Adam, Sunny or Apex you gain access to all cards from that minifaction, even rotated ones… but as you’ll also be changing your faction, you’ll have to pay to import them all. And yes, this means Adam must pay influence for his directives. For more information or rules questions, message me on discord @Junipertheory.
Hope to see you in costume on the 7th!
Format: Rebirth
Time: 13th December 6pm UTC
Organizer: Cablooshe
You get to experience some of the more “interesting” Identities from the history of the game that maybe didn’t get the love they deserved during their time.
Build a Standard deck with the following ID list:
- Harmony MedTech
- Jinteki Biotech
- Harpsichord Studios
- Harishchandra Ent.
- GRNDL
- Titan Transnational
- Seidr Laboratories
- The Foundry
- Silhouette
- Iain Stirling
- Khan
- The Professor
- Exile
- Nasir Meidan
- Edward Kim
- Omar Keung
- Quetzal
Format: Eternal
Time: 14th December 4pm UTC
Organizer: Wowarlok
Eternal is maybe the most popular format we see in the lineup. Defined by strong synergies and explosive strategies, Eternal allows players maybe the most freedom out of any format for building unique surprising builds that can blow the roof off the entire game.
Format: Okorina
Time: 20th December 4pm UTC
Organizer: Testrunning
“You aren’t the Only Kind Of Runner In New Angeles.” – Kati Jones
What if Ms. Jones was wrong? In the Only Kind Of Runner In New Angeles (OKORINA) format, we imagine what Netrunner would be like if you could take on a new Netrunner friend as your Identity.
Instead of choosing a normal Identity card, you get to pick from a curated list of unique connection Resources and Agendas and play that as your Identity. The full list is being updated but you can find the old options in GLC’s Okorina channel.
Format: Pawnshop
Time: 21st December 10:30am UTC
Organizer: Cobalt
Digging through the pawnshop’s shelves you can find any kind of funny relics or cool gadgets. The Pawnshop format has the same feeling.
The cardpool in pawnshop is limited to the bottom half of Trash or Busto results, meaning you have to dive into deckbuilding in a completely new way.
Format: Random Access Memories
Time: 21st December 5pm UTC
Organizer: Coldlava
A format where you really don’t know what you are going to get! Expect a unique selection of cards, because in RAM the cardpool is randomized right as the tournament starts.
After the cardpool is randomly generated, everybody gets two hours to build a deck and find the gas in the random pool. After this you can see all the wonderful deckbuilding ideas other people came up with in the tournament itself.
Format: Chimera
Time: 27th December 5pm UTC
Organizer: Man In the Moon
Another random cardpool format, but this time with your deck predetermined by a custom deckbuilding algorithm on https://playchimera.net/
This is also a rare treat of a format where you could end up playing cards from the terminal directive campaign box. You just cannot experience scoring a Evidence Collection 2 in any other format!
Format: Time Branch
Time: 28th December 10am UTC
Organizer: Aksu
What if a time traveller stepped on a branch sometime in the past and the butterfly effect somehow caused Elevation’s release to only rotate System Update 2021 and Red Sand Cycle?
Alongside the different cardpool, there will be a custom ban list rolling back some of the changes in the Elevation release ban list.
Format: Getting the Job Done
Time: 28th December 10pm UTC
Organizer: Bemi
“She gets the job done. And then some.” – Somebody when talking about one of the most meta defining cards in the history of the game.
Custom format where Rashida Jaheem is swapped with Humanoid Resources! It’s a great time to play if you are interested in custom formats but testing one might be hard!
