slots Corporate “Grant”
To fix currents, let each player have an active current (i.e. can only be destroyed by agendas being scored / stolen, or by replacing it yourself, not by the other player playing a current) and then rebalance them accordingly
This is how I originally read them, and how we originally started to play them. I think it makes much more sense, as the runner has their current event trying to beat the corps dirty operation they’re currently doing.
It also stops decks from having to just include random garbage like Interdiction when they don’t want to, so that can beat up on whatever Current they’re scared of, and actually focus on maybe playing the higher costed Currents which are totally unplayable. (Because if you spend 3, you need something better than forcing your opponent to click next turn to get rid of it.)
Maybe I’m totally wrong, but global effects that cancel all in play grate on me a lot.
I think Scarcity is presently oppressive because there isn’t an economy suite currently available that does not use resources, but if there were a viable all-event/program economy, then it would be much less damaging. I think the problem with Scarcity is a runner card pool that has become over-focused on resources, not Scarcity itself.
Scarcity really only frustrates me because it’s constant. If it were only the first resource installed each turn, it wouldn’t feel nearly as terrible because you could spend one turn clicking for credits/drawing and the next turn dropping 3 or 4 resources so that you only pay the tax once.
It seems so much worse as it is because there’s no meaningful counter play to it, besides the obvious counters to currents in general (stealing an agenda or playing your own). I can’t even recall how many games I’ve lost playing Geist or Hayley that were more or less decided by turn 1 Scarcity, which is especially indicative of its poor design.
See the grand final of Worlds '17 for more proof.