I’m trying to think of ways to contend with Faust that aren’t so targeted as to be useless elsewhere. I might not know enough about the situation to be a good judge, but from a skim through the “Community Temperature” thread and limited personal experience, it seems some of the problems that could be addressed by ICE are:
Runner economy is largely irrelevant
Lots of regular card draw with no drawback from Wyldcakes combo
The combined in-faction power of Faust, d4v1d, and Datasucker
It seems to be that the least targeted, most widely-applicable means of dealing with that might be to make economy important or address combo pieces (Swordsman already exists to trash AIs themselves). And Weyland already has precedent for charging the runner money, right? So what about something like this?:
Quarantine
Weyland ••○○○
9c - Ice - Barrier - Tracer
5 Str
As an additional cost to break a subroutine on Quarantine, the runner must pay 1c (1c for each card in the Runner's grip if a non-Fracter Program ability is used to break the subroutine).
└►Trace2: Trash one installed resource.
└►End the run.
"Cut them off. Block contacts, cancel memberships, deny access. Leave them nowhere to turn."
Bigger cost for big hands; can be brought in around Tollbooth range (a bit larger, maybe, but no forced payment) with hand management. Cost and strength are probably all off, but I think it’s interesting to keep it in d4 range. There are workarounds, though. It’s e3- and ABR-friendly to take some of the sting out of it. Quetzal wouldn’t mind seeing it too much, either. And you can always just deal with the trace to cut the cost with AI icebreaking.
Alternatively, maybe something more accessible that gives everyone (Weyland included) some tagging potential with a Komainu-like effect:
Profiler
Neutral ○○○○○
1c - Ice - Sentry
3 Str
When the Runner encounters Profiler, it gains "└►Give the Runner 1 tag unless the Runner pays 2c" for every two cards in the Runner's grip (round down).
Privacy isn't dead. It just carries a premium.
As usual, the tagging doesn’t come without giving the Runner an out, and it’s in easy range for most sentry breakers to justify a low rez cost (to make it accessible for even a poor Corp). I’d worry that, even at 1c/sub, a tag per card in grip would be a bit overkill, which is why I aimed for 1 sub per 2 cards. On the other hand, combined with a higher cost and lower strength, maybe that would be just the heavy tagging Weyland and NBN can use, at risk of being Parasited like Komainu.
I think ICE destruction (via Parasite and cutlery) is a bigger factor than the card draw in Anarch. Shapers have much better card draw, and free access to mass recursion.
I was playing a shaper Faust deck that could power mass draws (10+ cards in a turn) and ran 3 levy’s. It was great to break into servers through a lot of ICE, but it used a lot more cards breaking ICE than the anarchs did.
Removing ICE is a very powerful effect that Faust decks are depending on, because they are trying to break in using only 2-4 cards to feed Faust.
If it is too good I might add “You Lose game if you have Brain Damage greater than your maximum hand size, at the end of your turn.”
But then that makes it kinda like BP in original netrunner , a binary win/lose counter, so I don’t know how much fun that is. But the other hand the decks that can kill this runner are the same ones that could kill an other runner of brain damage so I’m not sure its the worst thing.
I also had the the ability “All Meat and Net Damage dealt to you is Brain Damage instead” pop into my head, but that might be too gimicky/ unfun.
How about a piece of ice that gains subs/str per card drawn this turn? Pure Wyldside hate with a splash of faust hate. Essentially invalidates Faust being able to draw up before a big run. Also taxes normal runners that are afraid of hitting traps.
Subs would be better, but if it turns out to be too powerful, then switching to str could give runners an out with D4:
[Insert Witty Name Here]
Weyland ••○○○
5c - Ice - Barrier
3 Str
When the runner encounters [Insert Witty Name Here], it gains one “└►End the run.” for each card the runner has drawn this turn.
└►End the run.
└►End the run.
“It’s not knowing what they know, it’s knowing who they know.”
This is comparable to Spiderweb. You get +1 STR for +1 rez cost and the ability to heavily tax big draw decks. With Wyldside out, it becomes a 3 STR 4 Sub ETR ice for 5 credits.
Alternative version:
[Insert Witty Name Here]
Weyland ••○○○
5c - Ice - Barrier
3 Str
When the runner encounters [Insert Witty Name Here], it gains one +1 Strength for each card the runner has drawn this turn.
└►End the run.
└►End the run.
“It’s not knowing what they know, it’s knowing who they know.”
This is a bit more comparable to Firewall. With Wyldside out, it becomes a slightly better Firewall (+1 sub).
I had considered net damage, but it didn’t feel right to me thematically. I suppose meat damage in an option if running into a wall in cyberspace causes enough shock to the body. But I kinda enjoy it as written since while this ID ability doesn’t actively help kill the runner, it could discard any number of troubling cards such as IHW or Plascrete.
Given the 40/15, I would imagine this as a competent rush ID if that style of play ever becomes viable again.
Buffer Overflow
Criminal 3 influence
Event - Run
4c
Make a run on HQ. If successful, instead of accessing cards the corp reveals all cards in HQ. You may force the corp to discard one of those cards. If you do, take two tags.
I think the intention is that Hydra just straight up can’t be broken by faust be cause every time faust breaks a sub another one comes in it’s place.
Thematicically it might make more sense to make it, “Whenever 1 or more subroutines are broken on piece of ice protecting this server (including Hydra) by an AI program, Hydra gains “-> End the Run” after all of its subroutines for the remainder of the run.”
Remote Code Execution
Anarch 2 influence
Event - Run
3c
Make a run on Archives. If successful, instead of accessing cards you may access 1 card installed in a server. If you do so, the corp may install up to 2 cards from HQ or Archives, paying all costs.
TUSKv7.4
Criminal 3 inf
Program
2c, 1MU
Install TUSKv7.4 on an outermost piece of ice. At the start of your turn, move TUSKv7.4 to the piece of ice directly after the current ice hosting TUSKv7.4, if able.
Click, Trash: Make a run, starting with the piece of ice hosting TUSKv7.4.
Dust Biter
Weyland 4 inf
ICE - Code Gate
3c
1 Strength
If the runner breaks all subroutines on Dust Biter in a single encounter, trash it and do 3 Meat Damage.
└►End the run.
Crimson 1.0
HB - 3 inf
ICE - Code Gate - Bioroid
3c
0 Strength
The Runner may spend Click to break any subroutine on Crimson 1.0.
If the Runner does not spend Click during an encounter with Crimson 1.0, gain Click on your next turn.
└►End the run.
Dream-Catcher
Jinteki - 3 inf
ICE - Sentry - Code Gate - Barrier - Trap
5c
3 Strength
When you rez Dream-Catcher, host an installed icebreaker on it. That icebreaker may not be used to break subroutines on pieces of ICE other than Dream-Catcher.
└►End the run.
└►End the run.
IP Re-Routing
Weyland 3 inf
Asset
4c Rez cost
3c Trash
Click: The runner has one less Click to spend on their next turn.
I think you need to fiddle with the words a bit to make the intention more clear. What does a “runner ability” entail? Like the ID ability? A paid ability? And what does keeping it from “resolving” mean? Does part of the ability go off? Is the cost still paid, but then nothing happens? etc