I get it, that’s not my point. I just mean that there are other cards (Astroscript, Biotic Labor) that enable the archetype to a greater degree than the NEH ID itself. It’s a part of the puzzle, but not the most important part (in my opinion, obviously). That’s why I think it would be wrong to say NEH is a top four card in the game. But whatever, this sort of ranking isn’t useful, anyway.
And as far as I can recall, most TWiY Astrobiotics played Jackson, not Tip. I’m pretty sure that’s what El-ad had in his lists, too. I know some have played Tip in addition to Jackson, but I think it was relatively rare.
I’d say the main difference is that NBN was strong in previous IDs, but now NEH has made them almost obsolete. The card draw ability allows for consistency that is probably better than TWIY at a smaller deck size.
One of the main misconceptions in this game, in my opinion, is the value of card draw. Not all decks need Anonymous Tip levels of speed, but all decks want to draw more than the mandatory over the course of the game. Drawing cards as a result of doing something you want to do anyways is what makes NEH so much better than the other NBN ID’s. I truly believe that if the ability existed in another faction we would see similar levels of success (with the lowest benefit going to Weyland). It’s the consistency that is making the deck work, in combination with the higher than average influence. The other parts coming together and being all “in faction” is what makes it borderline broken.
One of my buddies (Co-host of Wait Wait, Ross Prather) joked that the NBN big-box should be crappy cards that you are forced to play with. Similar to agendas, you have to take however many “crap” points in any NBN deck.
NEH is a HARD 9, and maybe Blue Sun is too, but to me 10 is near perfection, as in this needs to be in every deck, and the only thing I feel that meets that requirement are the three I mentioned. Given the nature of the game I’m not sure if an ID could ever get a 10.
Is the only thing that can displace a 10 another 10? I ask because certain cards do in fact dissuade the golden standard, albeit in very small ways (e.g. Sweeps for Andy, Architect for Parasite). In other words, isn’t the printing of a 10 card a bad thing in terms of long-term build diversity? I guess in some respects it’s a moot point, since my play experience isn’t about what I think about Netrunner design, but how effectively I can extract the best scenarios from what I’ve been given.
I appreciate your interest in defining and utilizing ranking, and you’re right in that there should be standards set.
The review was made to encourage discussion about the cards and possible applications and less so to squabble about the numerical value that I assigned to the cards. Let’s try and bring that back into focus.
Edit: I truly mean no offense, and I appreciate what you’re bringing to the conversation.
Sorry to be picky but that makes it a 9 on your own standard. “Needs to be in EVERY deck” is a really really high bar. Especially since not playing Sure Gamble was a reasonable choice in anarch not so long ago. You’re basicly left with Hedge Fund and (to my mind) Astroscript (I can’t think of an NBN deck that is better without Astro - though I know some who choose not to play it).
To get back to the point…I think Blue Sun is comparable to NEH, RP and ETF in terms of ID power. But I would not say it is better than them. My reasons why are in the Keystone thread.
Ignoring an Architect could potentially set you facing 2 newly added NEXT pieces of ice that immediately increase value of the ones the corp already has installed/rezzed. And seeing how poor econ management the runner is confronting with lately, I would give it a 7-8 even without trying too hard to think on crazy interactions and shaenanigans.
I wouldn’t increase the ranking much, for what it’s worth (6-7) because I don’t think it changes the game. I will say that it is effective and interesting.
Architect undid every ounce of progress that had been made towards balancing Criminal with Shaper/Anarch. One card set us back a years time in Runner balance. I am stupefied by the lack of appreciation.
I really think Reuse is 6/10 at least, after more playtesting with it. It’s a solid economy card with a big reward for a drawback that’s not too difficult to mitigate.
A 1/10 card is something like Power Tap or Hard at Work, which you should never play any copies of ever.
Outside of CI, Reuse is a double Beanstalk or a double 0-cost Hedge Fund, which should catch your attention. The key insight is as @jerklin said, you’re not drawing cards just to discard them but rather discarding cards that you were going to discard anyway, or that you want less than having a fat stack of cash.
In combination with Jackson Howard, you can turn a weak but necessary turn of overdrawing and pitching agendas into overdrawing and also gaining $8. The fact that your hand is small now is irrelevant because you just pitched most/all of your agendas.
Similarly you can install your only agenda, then Reuse the rest of your hand to get the money to either win an Ash trace or just rez the remote ICE.
Everyone’s had a hand full of useless ICE going into the late game, SEA/Source/Punitive that your opponent has too much money to ever land, Adonis/Eve Campaigns that won’t pay off before the game ends, maybe some situational cards like Interns that aren’t good right now - pitch it all for profit. If you’re Blue Sun, pick up all your Datapikes first and then pitch them too.
You can get Siphoned to $0 and then instead of clicking for credits and getting Siphoned again, you can bounce back with a quick Reuse and then actually rez a 6-8 cost HQ ICE.
For Accelerated Diagnostics combo you can put combo pieces that you need in Archives like Interns or Shipments immediately into Archives without wasting time overdrawing.
It’s in no way going to break open the meta, but the utility is there.
I think I disagree strongly with this. Mimic is the breaker you need to be playing if architect is ruining your day and shaper at the least has as many ways if not more to get that breaker out as fast or faster than criminal. Mimic is in faction for anarch.
Anarch’s big worry is that mimic doesn’t interact well with archer & yog doesn’t interact with with lotus field. These two pieces of ice show up in blue sun far more. Anarch having to pay for architect breaks might be a bit strenous since it can’t take it off the field; but its other things that are hurting anarch’s game more.
I don’t think Architect will work in RP, it will mostly fire 0-1 times per game. Jinteki already has some sentries that you don’t want to facecheck (Komainu, Tsurugi). New bioroid from the last datapack (Markus 1.0) will be better.
I’m always surprised by things I wrote off, and as I mentioned in the article, “prove me wrong”. I love being surprised! Please crush my face with your reuse deck.