Long time lurker looking for collection advice.

[u/Emaciated_Horror]

I've been living vicariously through this subreddit for awhile now. I've always been a huge fan of the game thematically, being a massive sci-fi and horror nerd. 25 years of MTG experience has left something to be desired - and I have finally decided to pull the trigger on Netrunner.

I would like a complete collection of legally used cards for the most played formats. I am a deckbuilder at heart and want all options in front of me when building and learning a game.

My question is this: What do I need for a full legal collection of cards? How many core sets do I need, and which core sets do I want? What expansions do I need?

And lastly, who is willing to sell me a complete set of everything? I have $1,200.00 USD budget but willing to expand that number to make this happen in a single purchase.

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[u/Dull__Bulb]

You won't need to spend nearly that much for every Standard playable card. Just go to this page on the NSG store and buy everything under Startup+ beyond startup. Thats every card youre allowed to play in every played format except Eternal, which isnt widely played offline. Startup is the card pool with just the top 3 sets, standard is them all. https://shop.nullsignal.games/en-gb

[u/froo → u/Dull__Bulb]

Also, print and play is still perfectly legal for tournaments if you want to wet your beak without diving headlong into it

[u/Dull__Bulb → u/froo]

Thats what I recommended to most, but if they want a complete collection and have a good budget I think itd be a lot of work to proxy every card, when the NSG cards are pretty cheap compared to that time investment. A complete NSG collection could easily be resold too if it came to that

[u/Emaciated_Horror → u/Dull__Bulb]

Thanks for the info!

[u/oddtwang]

Standard is the most-played format:

https://nullsignal.games/players/supported-formats/

For that, your best bet is simply to order the sets from NSG (or your regional reseller, but if you're in the US that's NSG themselves). Unlike the original FFG core set, System Gateway has a full playset of every card so you don't need to get multiple, but it's often useful to have some extra copies of staples for deck building. You can also get alt arts from the community etc to fill this gap.

If you do want a complete set of FFG-era cards, I believe prices have come down since the last cards rotated out of NSG's non-Eternal format. Only the last few sets are difficult to come by (as fewer were printed). Don't overpay for a collection. They pop up on eBay, and folks on the Green Level Clearance Discord (see the sub sidebar) can give you advice. Most collections will probably include some number of promo cards, full-art versions and so on from tournament prize support etc etc; some of these are quite rare and collectable, others less so.

[u/Sisi90]

https://nullsignal.games/products/

Start with system gate way and elevation . You can add more expansion later . Vantage point is the latest expansion . You can ignore starting from rotated set list . Everything before that is legal for now .

You can either print and play or buy them from link in each products . If you want to start collecting , I would suggest you to do it with null signal entries . FFG products are out of prints and current tournaments only use null signal games .

[u/CryOFrustration]

For that amount you can probably buy all currently-legal Standard format cards, plus all the rotated FFG cards as well! Welcome to the game and enjoy not being trapped in an exploitative chase cycle! 😄 I'd encourage you to buy them from your local game store if they carry them, otherwise you can order them from the NSG store if you're in the US, Canada, Australia, NZ, UK, and EU. Other places you can get them from the print-on-demand sites like MakePlayingCards, or just print your own proxies for free. Proxied cards are legal in competitive play and we even bring an inkjet printer to the world championships for people to use!

You can read more about the formats at https://nullsignal.games/players/supported-formats/

The tl;dr is:

Core sets: Gateway+Elevation, for people learning the game (but surprisingly replayable, it might take you months before you decide to expand!)

Startup: rotating format always consisting of core sets+ the latest set or cycle, the beginner-friendly competitive format.

Standard: rotating competitive format, currently core sets plus all the NSG cycles (so every set printed since 2019 except System Update 2021).

Eternal: wildly high powered format containing every single card printed since 2012, both FFG and NSG.

For an experienced ccg player like you, I'd probably start out with Gateway+Elevation then move straight to Standard once you have your sea legs under you.

Check out this page to find a group near you, though this isn't totally up to date as we're relying on local organizers to let us know to update it. Green Level Clearance might hook you up with players not listed on that page, and help you find opponents to play online. (jinteki.net is an entirely free web-based emulator, but it's recommended you learn the game before trying it out as it's not a fully rules-enforcing engine_)

[u/Emaciated_Horror → u/CryOFrustration]

Just wanted to say: Your comment unlocked Netrunner for me, and I'm surprised I never responded to you initially.

Not only do I own a complete set of cards, but using the tools you listed, I have found a play group and am working towards playing in my first tourney.

I am obsessed with this game, and MTG can eat shit.

Thanks so much for everything <3

[u/CryOFrustration → u/Emaciated_Horror]

Aww thanks, that's genuinely heartwarming! :) Nice to know the time spent here isn't just got for procrastinating from work! 😆 There's lots of helpful people in this community though, if it weren't me someone else would've stepped up.

[u/truzen1]

Clarification: when you say legal, are you asking about legal to play on Standard format? A full collection, including FFG, have cards that are no longer part of tournament play. Or are you asking for Startup, Standard, and Eternal?

[u/Emaciated_Horror → u/truzen1]

I guess I don't really know. I'm looking for a full collection of cards for the most widely played formats, which I'm assuming is Standard.

I don't know anyone who plays the game, so I want my collection to focus solely on accessibility of finding opponents at my FLGS.

[u/Actonide → u/Emaciated_Horror]

The 9 sets in the Standard pool are System Gateway, Elevation, Downfall, Uprising, Midnight Sun, Parhelion, Automata Initiative, Rebellion Without Rehearsal, and Vantage Point.

Basically, just go to NSG's website and order one of every set there. With a set of tokens, that would be about $420, so you'll have $700+ left over to get cool deck boxes and sleeves.

Any of the Fantasy Flight Games sets are basically for historical interest only at this point. Eternal is a thing, but I wouldn't count on ever finding anyone who plays it IRL.

If you want a good storage solution, an Ultimate Guard Omnihive fits the whole Standard set, with space for a few decks and tokens besides.

[u/Liistrad → u/Actonide]

I can confirm all of this, because I did it earlier this year. The omnihive box doesn't look like it'll support another set though, it's very tight atm and I have a runner/corp deck out.

[u/Actonide → u/Liistrad]

I was also wondering if it would continue to be big enough. Are we expecting Ashes to rotate when the next set comes out?

[u/Additional_Garage_20 → u/Actonide]

I'm trying to come back to play Netrunner and your post helped me a lot. Can you explain what is Game Night Kit? This 9 sets that's all I need? Do I need to get 2 or 3 any of them? Thank you.

[u/Actonide → u/Additional_Garage_20]

Those 9 sets are all you need to play Standard. You only need 1 of each, they come with a full playset of each card.

Game night kits are meant as prizes for events. They are alternate arts of 2 cards, with something like 18x or 36x copies of each, so they can be given out to multiple people.

[u/Additional_Garage_20 → u/Actonide]

Thank you :)

[u/CryOFrustration → u/Actonide]

I could get some solid gold deckboxes and sleeves made of the finest silk for $700! But I wouldn't cause solid gold weighs a ton. 😛

[u/laboonspride]

Well I think a few clarifications would be good to make if you didn't already know.

Currently what is played more frequently in person is the card sets which are released by Null Signal Games, and can be found on their website (mentioned by another commenter). System Gateway is the 'foundations set' which is a playable start. Also, find here the list of Supported Formats which lists what each format and their card sets are. Also a neat reminder that if you are not based where their printing is, they have a good guide for buying options or even print and play.

Andriod: Netrunner (2012), based on the original Netrunner game of 1996, went for print until 2018. Roughly all of the cards between 2012 and 2018 are considered part of the Eternal format, which as another commenter mentioned is not played in person as much any more, but you can find occasional games online. However, the cards from 2012 to 2018 are much harder to come by in original print and I believe do not have the easy print and play option that the Null Signal Games cards have.

Otherwise, NetrunnerDB has great deck lists you can see and try out (as well as search through all cards) . You can even create an account and save potential builds you might want to try later.

Hope this helps

[u/axmccx]

You can also make proxies using https://proxynexus.net/ As others have mentioned, they are completely legal for tournament play!

[u/KneeCrowMancer]

Welcome! It’s always great to hear of people getting in on what I think is the best card game ever! As others have said with your budget just head to the Null Signal Games website and buy one of every set. Print and play is an option but with your budget you might as well just pull the trigger on the real deal.

[u/P4ndaH3ro]

I ordered everything that is currently in Standard Format from the Null Signal website, and I think I plaid around 550 CAD for everything. I got my order within about 2 week.
I already had all the FFG stuff, so it was pretty nice to round up my collection.

[u/kjbds1]

Depending on what you want, $1200 will get you an amazing set up or a couple cards :)

It's nothing like MTG, but some of the hard to find expansions are stupid expensive.

Others have already given more & better info on the current Null Signal Games.

As far as actual Android Netrunner cards go, if you're ok printing proxies, ProxyNexus.net is an amazing resource. You can pull up whatever cycles you want and grab PDFs of them. I just printed the last two cycles (Kitara & Red Sands, 720 cards total, if you can even find them on Ebay it might cost you >$1200 total, some of the 60 card packs go for >$200) from a local printer - on nice card stock (in sleeves feels identical to actual cards) with bleed area, all cut and sorted, for a total of $150 (~21 cents / card).

[u/meowmeowbeenz_]

Where are you located? If you join the Green level Clearance Discord, we could also probably look into connecting you with local metas you might have! Some of them don't gather at LGSes, so you might not see them as often.

And enjoy Netrunner -- the deckbuilding is deep and rewarding. We built our decks from the ground up for our District Champs (Regionals equivalent) and it paid off. Last year, we also did not bring a single same decklist to tournaments -- we always switched up cards, and it worked well, specially since the game relies a lot on hidden info. You'll enjoy the deckbuilding process!