I’ve been running a taxing Jinteki deck for a long time now, and I’m starting to think we’ve been underestimating Ashigaru. I played it at as a 1-of at a recent tournament, and it really impressed me. In fact, I’m considering saving influence on tollbooth and switching them for ashigarus.
Consider the comparison. Tollbooth costs 7 to break with gordian blade, while ashigaru costs 7 to break with corroder (assuming a full hand). Ashigaru costs 1 more to rez, but it is immune to D4v1d, much more resistant to Femme. Tollbooth also gets a lot cheaper to break if your opponent is running refractor or cyber-cypher, both of which see play, while Ashigaru only folds to morning star, which is virtually unplayed.
Now, Tollbooth does have some advantages. Most notably, it taxes for 3 when facechecked. Also, Ashigaru requires you to keep a full hand to maintain its effectiveness. Finally, it’s strength of 4 makes it slightly more vulnerable to parasite, and atman at 4 might be trouble (although it will still cost 5, more than an atman at 5 costs to get through tollbooth). Despite these disadvantages, at a savings of 2 influence per copy, I think there’s a strong argument for using it over Tollbooth in faction. Might be worth a try in modern RP builds. We know tollbooth is a good card, and an influence free tollbooth feels like it has a place in some jinteki decks. What do people think? Anyone tested it more extensively?