Who has tried this card out in Personal Evolution? I had never really liked Celebrity Gift because of the hidden information element (PE’s big threat being that every card is the exact one you don’t want to see, in the mind of the Runner anyway!), and swapped it out for Back Channels at one influence per copy. I love it! It means you can play PE with money. The real benefit is for recovering from low credits that can often dog a Jinteki game (getting stuck out of Snare! range for a couple of turns) through Mushin No Shin: three cards and three clicks for nine credits. With three copies of each in a deck, it’s not a bad idea to hold onto the combo in hand if you feel you might need it.
How has anyone found it? What does your PE economy look like nowadays if you include it?
It’s definitely strong in any deck running advancable traps. tried it so far in cybernetics and argus w/ ghost branch, feels very good to get some return on unsprung traps.
You don’t just have to mushin, either; this card allows you to keep advancing traps (especially scary for runners vs. ManUp or Govt. takeover, or just ronin in jinteki) to try to bait the runner in, and increasing your profit if they decide not to and you simply cash in with back channels. my record so far is 24 cr. off of a ghost branch in argus
great card, especially in red though. just not the transaction core weyland junkies wanted.
Oh I absolutely wasn’t suggesting that Mushin was the only use for it! It’s one of those good types of combo where each card is great on their own but together they give you an extra option. If you can keep your credits up, you play the usual shell game with the difference that you can take the cash at any point if the Runner refuses to play, and then go a bit faster with your newfound money. It’s just that for the cost of any asset, agenda or upgrade the Mushin No Shin, Back Channels play gives you the extra functionality if you are having a tough time getting siphoned in the face and all your traps disarmed, which is kind of the recurring nightmare for Personal Evolution decks (or mine at any rate!). It lets you recover your face from under the heel of the aggressive Runner in terms of credits, similar to how Jackson Howard gets you out of sticky situations cardwise. It’s that “back in the game!” effect from zero credits that I was really impressed with and was surprised that no-one seemed to have mentioned how awesome it is! Maybe just no-one plays PE anymore.
It turns Project Junebug into a hybrid of Oaktown Renovation and Shell Corporation that kills the Runner if they try and get rid of it.
Sealed Vault eat your heart out.
Ok so obviously they can vamp you down to 0 and then go and trash the Junebug, but that’s the outside possibility. And with Mushin, it becomes a kill the runner or gain 9 play that they have to seriously consider might be an agenda. I can’t wait for this card.
The problem I see in PE is that you want advanced cards left on the table because any of them could be Ronin - that’s how you restrict the runner’s options and build pressure during the game. If you start removing those potential threats from the table with Back Channels, it becomes significantly easier for them to run without worrying about being flatlined.
I absolutely agree. But your threat requires credits too! You don’t want to have to trash advanced cards, but you might need to sacrifice a little to gain a lot.
Say you have a double-advanced Ronin, a Mushin-ed Cerebral Overwriter and a double-advanced Fetal AI on the table. Lets say you have a Snare! and a The Future Perfect in hand too. The Runner is being cautious, not running advanced cards. But you had to rez your ICE to keep them out of your centrals last turn, and you only have one or two credits. What do you do? You can click for credits, and hope you don’t get Account Siphon-ed/Vamp-ed/need to rez more ICE. Or you could sell one of your remotes to Back Channels (which one probably depends on personal preference and/or the game state). If you are low on credits, you have no ambushes (bar Ghost Branch), you can’t use Snare!, you can’t play Psi games! It’s surely best to lose one threat to ensure the others stay active?
Of course Celebrity Gift can get you out of a hole from two credits (not from Vamp/Account Siphon), and you give up all your secrets. Is it better to do that or to lose one of your advanced cards?
Is Celebrity Gift that much better? I think it’s easy to say “just don’t get low on credits” but that’s the one thing that absolutely kills PE decks, and it’s not always possible to avoid! Or if not Celebrity Gift, what else?
It doesn’t draw or cycle cards for you! I was just referring to the fact that it seemed to really be able to pull you out of a hole in terms of a credit crisis, in a way I felt was similarly powerful to how Jackson gets you out of a hole in relation to agendas (and maybe even more important in PE). You give up a bit of tempo to stabilise your board position.
Honestly all my brain power atm is on this card’s use in Nbn. They have a few cards good at getting extra advancement tokens on cards, sure, but now they have a way to recoup traps they may have been bluffing as a large Beale. With people worried about landing Midseasons with Film Critic around Ghost Branch could be another method of heavy tagging they cannot get around. Worst case scenario you can Channels the failed trap for a massive econ boost which can either rez ice like Shoot the Moon or prepare for an unstoppable SEA trace.
Though with that maybe it is better to run the Ghost Branches and Plan Bs in Weyland where Scorch is in faction and you have sexy 5/3s.
