Originally published at: DJ Hedgehog Reviews All That Remains - StimHack
Discuss the latest StimHack article here.
Utopia Shard is a great Legwork support. Legwork -> trash 2, access 3 -> run on archives, access 2. It can also work as Legwork moved in time. Install it when itās easy to get in HQ and use it when thereās 4 ICE. Also good anti-NEH card (Fast Track, trashing Biotics/Architects). I would give it 8-9/10.
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it can also be (sorta) scorch defense!
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Pretty good job.
Bi-frost array is pretty strong in Foundry, where it can score off ABT and PriReq.
Gemini is better than Sagitarious. Its 3 str ice that isnāt in the 3/4 sweet spot for atman. Has a cheap rez cost. Parasite resistant. Falls to D4v1d, but your install cost is cheap.
Merlin is tailor perfect for Foundry, and probably deserves a mention.
Executive Boot Camp is top 2-3 cards in this release. Lovely lovely lovely.
I like Utopia Shard, but I think a 5 is a touch high.
Cybermicro driveā¦ Worse than cyberfeeder. Worse than voice pad. Arguable whether its better than omni drive. 1.
Cerberus 5. Value is primarily that its no influence, and that shaper has other tools allowing it to be useful (scavenge, test run etc), not intrinsic value of the card itself.
Hereās why I love doing reviews:
[quote=āJander, post:2, topic:2434, full:trueā]
Utopia Shard is a great Legwork supportā¦ I would give it 8-9/10.[/quote]
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@Jander You have to keep in mind that Legwork costs 2 influence for everyone but criminal, and this costs 1 influence on top. Beside that, itās an un-tutorable 1-of.
Can you think of any other good uses for it?
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Iād say youāre overrating the shaper dog, Hostile Infrastructure, Ekomind, and underrating the criminal Dog, Utopia Shard, and Daily Business Show. Leela is almost certainly the second best Crim ID, and certainly better than Andy in some metaās.
No ratings FUBARād like Architect though.
And on Utopia Shard - Having it in play makes Fast Track a very risky play, it gives any faction, Legwork or not, a good hail mary turn against FA. It is scorch protection, in the sense that as long as you have it in play, no one if going to try to scorch you out without getting you to use it on something else first. It also helps stop flatlines vs Jinteki if you use it after the first Neural EMP, and it will combo well with lots of the Anarch cards in O&C. Every time you get it in play, you will find a strong use for it.
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Wow, thanks for the props. 
Explain to me, slowly, how Leela is āalmost certainly the second best Crim IDā. Iām not too smart you see, so Iām having a hard time understanding.
I must say that I as well (as Mr. Hedgehog) dislike the Criminal Dog. Youāre mostly using it for one thing (Lotus Field on the remote). Then itās 3 install cost is rather off-putting for that sole purpose, especially when youāve probably got Passport or Yog already on board.
I wouldnāt say itās the worst dog (Cuj.0 takes the cake for me) but Iām just not all too impressed with it. Of course, I like my Andy wielding a swordā¦
I think the issue is probably understanding your scales DJ.
Give us some ideas of where your card values fit.
Where does Toll booth sit. Jackson. Scorched. Magnum Opus. Astro Script. San San ā¦
10,10,10,9,10,10
EDIT 
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LOLā¦ that wasnāt helpful at all =P
OKā¦ how about some established 4ās, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9ās. I think I got a handle on 10.
This was a response I made to Spags, when he thought the overall ratings were low.
I really liked this pack, but I donāt think there are any standouts.
The problem is probably the rating system not being defined. I kind of
like it that way: keeps people arguing.
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Iām not reading this unless thereās another ācurtain labia wallā level joke in here
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Excuse me, it was āBeef Curtain Wallā. And thereās not, mostly because people complained. I can see their side of it for sure, but fuck them anyways.
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Leela shitstomps Jinteki PE without having a single card in her deck designed to deal with it. Thatās crazy good for a criminal ID already. On top of that, NEH is forced to put the handbrakes on and play slower against her, for fear of some huge indexing/Siphon/legwork blowout turn, again, without a single card even being played. These are the two matchups that normally spread decks too thin, they have to choose being good against one or the other, Leela gets both with just her ID ability, and gets to build her deck to be good against glacier decks, which no other crim gets the chance to do presently. She also has some other fringe benefits, like having a 100% win rate vs Tennin, again without playing a single card, because she hits Trick of light so hard by bouncing advanced ice. The only thing left for her is to figure out how to get a better game vs. RP, which is the final frontier for every runner right now. Go pick up a list in the Leela thread, there are a couple good ones, and play some games. Youāll get it.
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In other runners you can treat it as a little Legwork, that lets you see (and trash! thatās a random 2 cards HQ Imp or Wanton Destruction) 2 cards for the cost of 7/HQ access and Archives access. I think itās pretty flexible. Also being able to mess with corpās gameplan outside of Anarch is nice.
You donāt run Yog in addition to the dog. Thatās crazy. Passport and Dog together cover every code gate situation you could encounter, and together cost less to install than Yog. Just use it for everything on a remote, there arent any decks around now that can actually make you run a remote a ton of times per game. You also run a couple of dogs in case you need the second one sometimes, reducing your dependency on special order. Weāve been running 1 Passport and 2-3 Rex and loving it.
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I can totally see the PE matchup- thatās kind of obvious (no offense intended). Why wouldnāt NEH just double ICE centrals and then score out 7? Iain is great against NEH unless you know what heās going to do. Same thing works here. Even if she bounces an unrezzed ICE, she would need an AI to ensure she can get through all that remain (TITULAR LINE, MFERS). Criminals can already get through servers with AI, and they donāt have to wait for the corp to score to do it.
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I agree that Leela rocks against PE. And is reasonably good against neh and RP.
I still have a hard time figuring out where to rate her. To me sheās second or third best. Andy is clearly better, and gabe is probably arguable either way.
Andy wins 54 % of the games - to me thats a rating of 6-7. Best in criminal class, but not so outstanding as an id compared with NEH two cycles ago (or genomics soon).
Call Andy a 7, Gabe a 5.5, Leela a 6.
Bifrost will get played.
Hostile will get played - and is a standout card.
Gemini will get played
DBS will get played, and will standout in nice decks. Cuz youāre not only not getting those agendas in hand, youāre burying them at the bottom of the stack until you choose to shuffle.
Hugely useful against noise, for example.
Merin will get played in niche
Shell will get played in Jintecki
Exectuive Boot Camp - standout card and will get played
Ekomind - will get played in weird and interesting niche decks with Maxx, duggars etc. A
Leela will get played
Utopia. I get that Utopia is scorch defense. I get it works with legwork, and against FA. But its still a 1 of answer to NEH - where they are probably getting there Fast track before youāre getting your Utopia. So it will see play for awhile and then ā¦ niche.
Cerberus will get played.