Best flavor, round 3

  • Aesop’s Pawnshop
  • Clone Retirement

0 voters

  • Panic Button
  • Restoring Face

0 voters

Feels impossible to choose between Panic Button and Restoring Face…

2 Likes

Panic Button was one of the first cards that nailed Flavor meets Mechanic. At the time I was a newbie to card games; and didn’t know such awesome synergy could exist. The card is still crap, though.

I’m hoping for a Panic Button v. Clone Retirement Final :slight_smile:

2 Likes

Restoring Face is just the best though. Even knowing it was a terrible card, I’ve put it in decks just because I want my sys ops to sacrifice themselves for the good of the Corp.

With Aesop’s, the flavor can spill overboard a little. I love that he’s just a dude in a shop that will buy your shit, but he will literally buy whatever. Spare MU? 3 bucks. Fan Site website? 3 bucks. A literal artist colony? 3 bucks. Your good friend Beth Kilrain-Chang? 3 bucks. The concept of what you did last night? …3 bucks.

12 Likes

I like to think he goes home to his family excited when he bought something at or above face value, and then his wife is just super disappointed that he brought home another empty D4v1d or Lady. When will he learn?

6 Likes

I like to believe that Aesop is pretty lonely and stupidly wealthy.

He set up a Pawnshop and he is really bad at business, but he will buy anything if it means you will hang out for a bit and listen to him talk about his stupid arm.

5 Likes

The previous 3 excellent comments is why I voted for Aesop. There hasn’t been a card that has provided as much whimsical flovor discussion during a game than Aesop. So :cry: he lost the vote.

1 Like

I love Aesop’s too, but I can see why it lost the flavor war. Despite all the hilarious discussion his pawnshop can provide us with, ultimately it’s a bit of a flavor fail that this pawnshop over pays for damn near everything.

Flavor-wise, it may have made more sense if you could only sell him Hardware and Programs and even more so if he gave something like half the cost rounded up rather than a flat 3 credits for anything. Obviously, printed this way Aesop’s would never really have been that great, but then, are pawnshops really ever that great?

Just assume that when a Runner take a visit at Aesop, they not only come for seliing their runner stuff, but also their old comic books and Super NES games. Why does he buy people, and furthermore what he does with them after is still a mystery. But maybe Shapers have to have a dark secret…

Another explanation I’ve heard for Aesop buying literally anything (one that I prefer less than my own personal canon mentioned above) that I think is probably more likely the intent of the card:

Aesop, for his own personal reasons, has an interest in funding runners and bringing down corporations. He wants to fund you. Selling him something, anything, is just so he has something to put in his ledger so he isn’t as transparently just funneling you cash for your cybercrimes.

I can even imagine him rolling his eyes a bit when you tell him that today you are selling him “motivation”, but he’s still up for giving you the money, figuring he can spin that some way.

That said, I prefer to think he’s lonely and likes talking about his arm.

6 Likes

This take made me smile. Love it.

1 Like