Editing Android: Netrunner (section)

====Criminal====

Criminals want money. That's about it. Leave ideals to the other factions, 'cause Criminals are only in it for themselves. "Steal from the rich", that's their motto—and who gives a damn for the poor? Naturally, Criminals aren't exactly picky about how they make their money. Robbery, fraud, and organized crime are all just as nice as any 1337 hacking. Hell, they'll even work for the corps—for the right price. Of course, money never helped a corpse. Safety first, cash later; getting info before you run and laying low when it all goes wrong are both just as important.

It's fitting, then, that Criminals have the best economy of any runner faction. You're going to give the corps a run for their money—literally; a lot of your economy will come from making runs. You'll usually do this by playing events. [https://netrunnerdb.com/en/card/01018 Account Siphon] is a good example; it lets you gain up to ten credits while removing five of the Corp's ...as long as you successfully run on their HQ. Attacking HQ is a Criminal speciality, and they have tons of cards (like the aforementioned Account Siphon) that do crazy shit when you run HQ, plus [https://netrunnerdb.com/en/card/01028 Sneakdoor Beta] to [[Creed|turn an Archives run into an HQ run, making all that ICE on HQ worthless.]]

But even ICE can't stop a smooth Criminal. They're great at cracking Sentry ICE, with some of [https://netrunnerdb.com/en/card/02104 the] [https://netrunnerdb.com/en/card/06077 best] [https://netrunnerdb.com/en/card/01026 Killers] in the game. And anything they can't crack, they can avoid. Criminal cards focus on derezzing or otherwise bypassing ICE; if Anarchs [[Rage|straight-up destroy the corp's board,]] Criminals [[Troll|slyly fuck with it.]]

Other strengths include a variety of Connection resources, tutors for those Connections, and the ability to dodge tags and generally avoid meat damage. (Safety first, remember?)

But Criminals still have weaknesses. They're pretty bad at bringing cards back from the heap, and their non-Killer Icebreakers are expensive and inefficient to make up for their ICE evasion and good economy.

They also have the issue that their slice of ANR's "color pie" includes several mechanics that FFG's left underserved: Derezzing and Bypassing ice completely, which have seen some success, making ice more expensive to rez, and Exposing cards - looking at them without accessing or encountering them - which haven't. While these are interesting, historically in the game they haven't been used much, and focus on them has meant they've gotten fewer cards that support strategies people actually play. 

This has not stopped Criminal from being successful, however - the first World Championship was won by a Criminal deck, and more than half the runner field at that tournament had Criminals as their runner deck. Some reckon their sheer brokenness (see also: their signature card) in the early days of the game was responsible for most of the blue cards printed since being binder fodder.

Of the runner factions Criminal is far and away the easiest to identify a "signature" card for - Account Siphon is a hugely powerful card that exemplifies everything Criminals do best - robbing the corp blind and making a ton of money. As a run event that requires a successful HQ run, Siphon (there another "siphon" card, but Account Siphon is notorious enough to be known by the name) is very strongly Criminal, as represented by its hefty influence cost of 4. Since the core set Account Siphon is a card that has had to be played around, and all corps should be wary that the card exists. It is also one of the only cards to actively show that a corp's credit and a runner's credit do not represent the same amount of money - the corp's is much, much larger.

----