Anson is the Mumbad Construction Co. for the cycle - a Weyland card that ostensibly helps an underpowered Weyland mechanic, but isn’t particularly synergistic with many of the cards using that mechanic.
At least with MCC, where the advancement tokens don’t trigger the agenda’s card text, there are some obvious overpowered combos that would have necessitated changes. Would “At the start of your turn or when you rez a piece of ice…” really have been so overpowered? Not letting this work with space ice, or ice after it has been rezzed, makes it utterly mediocre. Bah.
The trash cost is good until you consider the fact that most Weyland decks, especially Rush, rely on Hostile Takeover for money and turning on Archer, and you’re likely to get 1-2 bad pub in any given game. But yes, I probably undervalued the rez/trash ratio.
Here’s the rub though: 1 to rez and the click to install means that the first use of Anson is no more efficient than simply advancing the card. The only benefit is ancillary in that you can set up an AOWR ICE on first rez. He then needs to remain on the table for a turn without trashing to net you a click and a cred. In BoN, after two turns, you now have advancements on all the ice that really matter (HQ, RnD). In non-BoN, you’ve just made your ICE a couple credits more expensive to break in most cases. Patch does the same effect in one turn, one click and zero credits. Shipment From Kaguya does the same for two different pieces of ICE. Anson is needing to Stay on the board longer than two turns to be more efficient that these cards. (And he us much less flexible.) I’m betting than he will likely be trashed much sooner than that, especially in BoN.
Advancing is slow and sucks, but dedicating card slots to a card that barely pays out over a few turns and will likely be trashed quickly, especially in BoN, is just bad. Also he is Unique, so you can’t spam him and stack the effects. If the ICE is already rezzed, Dedication Ceremony does 3 turns worth of Anson work in a single click and the runner can’t trash it.
I’m not sure BoN has the slots for him and he’s likely too slow for the Rush archetype that BoN really shines in. Also as I mentioned, Rumor Mill blanks him.
Really the only use I see for Anson is, as someone on the Netrunner subreddit pointed out, you can utilize him with Trick of Light to decent effect. Let him build up counters and taunt the runner to waste clicks and creds to trash him. If they don’t, fast advance out an Atlas. Even then I’m not sure he’s more efficient than the other tools we already have for advancing ICE.
I dunno, I could be wrong. I think he’ll probably show up in Gagarin Asset spam and that’s about it.
Edit: just realized he doesn’t work with Rezzed ICE. He’s so much worse than I thought.
Also, I noticed the first line of Reaver is “The first time each turn you trash an installed card” any ideas for what it could do/what you want it to do?
Yeah, it’s baffling. And by baffling, I mean totally expected. Weyland problems.
It’ll be great though when the pack is released and Weyland gets the USMC Mech Battalion asset. “If the runner ends a turn with a tag, everything the runner knows and loves dies.” End the game. Not kidding. You’re dead.
Ah, you guys are looking at this all wrong. It’s simply insane to be able to unleash a Swarm with a load of tokens at instant speed, or a Tyrant that actually does something, or an ice wall that is just too much of a pain to break. Or killing the runner instantly with Woodcutter cause he never thought you’d play the card. Or Mausolus that can hit the runner fully from no advancements. He’s an upgrade, so it’s still doing work in a rush deck where Shipment From Kaguya will not. Trick of light is totally valid in Titan, he’ll be really hard to trash in Gagarin, and blue sun can use him for every ice I just listed. The hammer swung well, swings but once. The problem with advancing ice is that you’re telling the runner not to run there until later. With Anson, you don’t know which ice is bad touch and which one is Ice Wall. The runner shouldn’t be face checking everything with reckless abandon once Mausolus comes out anyway, so I feel he’ll last a lot longer than you guys think.
Also, yes, Weyland needs a mech. The runner has one, the Corp needs a bigger one. One. That. The. Runner. Could. STEAL.
Actually, he’s an asset an upgrade would be a lot better, but as is, he needs defending. Maybe I’m being too harsh, maybe he just needs a prisec or two in the server with him or something. All the things you mentioned sound super awesome…on paper. We’ll just have to see how it all pans out once we can put it to practice. I just don’t see how any Runner in a post Temujin/Rumor Mill meta is going to just let him build tokens without finding a way to deal with him. He’s going to be like Weyland Sandburg. You have to build around him and protect him.
Anson Rose strikes me as a reasonable but not incredibly good way to advance ice in BoN decks that are not all in on rush. I am still of the opinion that Mausolus is part of a cycle to replace the soon to be cycling AOAR ice. Add to that advanceable ice, BoN, and the rush play-style are all at odds with each other, then it leads me to the suspicion that it was designed to be a mid-range deck where the lower deck size adds to the consistency.
That said right now, very few people will bother to trash Rose, even undefended. It is the same as trash as PAD campaign, and provides a similar tempo hit. It is also an interesting target for Back Channels.
@cmcadvanced he is not a sysop, but is an Executive so still can be grabbed by the search firm.
Back Channels is the best idea with this card, as it works even if the rumors about him are true. I wonder if I even really looked at the card. Executive, paaaaah.
Its actually too bad that the card is not itself advance-able. If it was it would have additional synergy with Hollywood Renovation. Right now it looks to be another piece of another Wayland tier 2 gimmick deck. But it is rather better than most of the other cards that have previously been added to support the gimmick. Works with ICE on any server unlike Satellite Grid, isn’t click intensive like BWBI, and does not require already spent resources like Constellation Protocol.
Also at 1 inf, could see fringe play in Tennin decks assuming they still run Tyrant.
Side note if rumors is in play the card would not gain additional advancements.
Has nothing to do with AI. your barrier is ineffective at preventing early game pressure if they have a link. they’ll pay 2 to save the click on removing tag but a little more money and a siphon/legwork/makers eye/etc. they’ll be right back.
If they don’t have a link then it’s a very solid piece of ICE.
This to me is the most compelling use of Anson. Coupled with Back Channels Anson becomes both effective economy AND a loaded host for advancement tokens.
Assuming that Mau is part of a pair or trio of ice, he will probably be decent to good depending on the quality of the other ice. Although an icewall at strength 5 for two credits is pretty good, as is a shadow at strength 5. Heck, even fire wall at strength 9 is pretty good.
Tyrant even seems not like hot garbage if you can get it to start with four subroutines.
I think this guy is part of the key to getting Dedication Ceremony off the ground.
he is 2 credits per turn if left untouched. seems solid given the rez to trash ratio.
install, dedicate, install mauselous/woodcutter/tyrant in front of it.
I think he is only good if you are using a lot of advancable ICE. He is going to sit in a valuable remote protected by ICE, which the runner will only go after if you are using him to advance ICE on other servers (e.g. HQ, where agendas will pile up as long as you have an asset in your scoring remote).
He can only move advancements after rez, so he is a non-bo with space ICE, which has us looking at putting a lot of lackluster ICE in our deck for him to work with. If your best piece of advancable ICE is protecting your thing that makes advancable ICE worth playing, then does your other ICE benefit from advancements?
If you have all advancable ICE, is that ICE any good without Anson, or are you running a bunch of bad ICE hoping you’ll get Anson online before the runner finds him and trashes him?
I think he can be good if there is enough advancable ICE worth playing. I think the advance only when rezzed ICE is still a trap.
an upgrade would be a lot better, but as is, he needs defending. Maybe I’m being too harsh, maybe he just needs a prisec or two in the server with him or something. All the things you mentioned sound super awesome…on paper. We’ll just have to see how it all pans out once we can put it to practice. I just don’t see how any Runner in a post Temujin/Rumor Mill meta is going to just let him build tokens without finding a way to deal with him. He’s going to be like Weyland Sandburg. You have to build around him and protect him.