Flashpoint Cycle!

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.

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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.

Also interesting that you can drop a Dedication Ceremony on Anson.

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my bet is that you can reinstall it face down or install a new card facedown (probably from grip, but stack is another slight possibility)

my less likely guess is that it lets you draw a card

Anyone have any idea if Anson works with space ice to reduce the cost?

it does not. you’ve already paid the cost to trigger Anson’s ability

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Damn, that would have made it really good. Ah well.

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.

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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.

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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.

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This is a perfect summary of the problem with most of the support cards for advanceable ice.

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Also I guess it’s worth noting that you can move counters off Anson onto non-advancement ICE if you need to, like to set up BoN’s ability in case you want it to fire on a decent piece of ICE instead of a advancement one.

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Man, it’s sad that finding a way to advance an Enigma is almost always a better strategy than including actual advanceable ICE in a deck.

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I don’t think the problem is that adv ICE is getting poor support cards. The problem is that almost all adv ICE sucks. If Mausolus is part of a set, then I’ll be much more optimistic for cards like Anson, Dedication Ceremony and BoN. But as is, adv ICE support is about as useful as a poopy flavored lollipop.

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So here is where I think that Rose might be interesting: morph cards. Being able to, on Rez, turn lychan from sentry to code gate seems somewhat powerful.

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I think that the space ice would have received a big boost if Anson worked with it - not T1, but it would have made Anson a serious kill on sight issue. In one turn Asteroid becomes Firewall(1.2), Nebula becomes +1 credit Grim w/ no BP, Wormhole becomes a real thing, and Orion… well, it’s still expensive. But it would have been an in-faction Adonis for space ice decks.

Instead, it isn’t. The decent advancement ice doesn’t really benefit enough from it (just strength), and the bad is still bad. Only ON REZ… God damn it FFG. I guess when it drops I’ll try some dedication ceremony / back channels nonsense, but it seems like a lot of combo and cards at the right time, i.e. a sadness maker. Oh, and with no Rumor Mill or PolyOp.

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I count 3c. This barrier is perfect to prevent Syphon or Eater Keyhole stuff. You’re looking at it like a Data Raven I think.

Also, ice it in BoN.
If the runner comes, rez @ full Anson, enjoy the meat and the trash cost and then Commercialization.

Anson makes any unrezed outermost ice triggering BoN. In BoN, he should be a day 0 trash. Nice 4c/click trade for 0-1c/click, thank you Anson.

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