Except they gave Net Police a 1 trash cost. Maddening. They must have really been concerned about its power…
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You’re right, you’re right… I’m just going to sit in the corner and rock back and forth now. So much NBN.
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Splash Shannon Claire in Weyland; use her to bottom deck Gov’t Takeover.
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Then the Runner plays Showing Off ftw.
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Blanking the corp ID screws CI. “How many cards in hand? 13? Plays current to blank ID. Have fun discarding to 5 at the end of your turn.”
Sleepers doesn’t help with this. CI now has to slot ELP in a deck that has negative free slots.
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I just realized the art on Quantum Predictive Model is Schrodinger’s cat. Awesome.
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BTW, I’m just bitter because the two “blank your ID” currents impact my preferred IDs disproportionately. Kit and CI hate those currents.
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Also, all those NBN agendas look kind of amazing. The 2/1 is obviously the most crazy, but… the tracer-boosting agenda is probably the best of the three booster agendas, even if it doesn’t give cash, because low trace strength is one of the many reasons tracers end up no good. Combined with the strength boost, it might actually see play in a hypothetical world where you play 3/1s (and, hey, with that new current it getting stolen matters a bit less). Speaking of that hypothetical world: QPM, holy shit. Gutenberg and Data Raven’s bestest buddy, and reason #3895 to run Film Critic and/or Imp.
Rebranding team could be neat in Spark, especially in combination with Ad Blitz. Suddenly, NBN recursion is through the roof. Actually, NEARPAD-esque decks might really like that combo, too, if they can swing it. Getting all your DRTs, Encryption Protocols, Hostile Infrastructures, etc. back/installed and rezzed in one fell swoop might be the help they need.
I get why Spark only cares about the first Advertisement each turn, but the amount of Ad support makes me wish there were benefits for running more of 'em. Or the influence to do so, really. Much as I like the Team, it’s… a 4/2 that you need to score before getting the benefits of. Ah well.
Reality ThreeDee looks pretty great. Especially when All Seeing I and Expose exist to make BP removal so easy.
Archangel would be decent as just a 4/6 with that trace6 sub – not amazing, but decent. As is? Wow, yeah, I like it. Also, it’s not unique. So unlike Wotan and all the other God Ice, you don’t hate seeing extras. (Actually, I like that. Combined with All Seeing I and it says, uh… interesting things about Victoria’s megalomania.)
News Hound seems particularly good in the Current ID iff that exists as-spoiled, but could function elsewhere, too. Kinda depends on strength, but a solid ETR after a mild trace like that is welcome.
I assume Resistor starts pretty weak, given the massive boost landing a Midseasons or something could have. But hey, Paper Wall that can be paid through but can suddenly get boosted up seems like it might be okay. Another ice in the “I wish Sub-Boost was worth running because I’d love to pop it on this sometimes” pile.
Special Offer is growing on me, a decent way to protect useful (but not vital) assets with one piece of ice. Ad Blitz also makes it more useful, since it can be recurred at negligible extra cost in a deck where you were running Blitz.
TL;DR seems like one of the better bits of positional ice, depending on its strength, but it’s still positional ice. I really, really like the flavor text on it.
Ad Blitz, as you can probably guess, is something I’m very excited for. It lets you dump a tremendous number of cards out at once, makes trashing Eve and Adonis more painful than not, makes playing them without Breaker Bay grid much easier, and lets you recur the ad Ice as well as Product Placement. If you’re Spark, it also dings the runner for 1 credit, but I dunno if Spark is the only deck that’d want this. Depending on influence, though, HB might really, really like it. Because the one thing we can all agree on is that HB has a hard time playing and recurring their Campaigns to support their fragile economy, right?
Media Blitz is in contention for “Best Current in the Game” right now, and given all the others that’ve come out, that’s saying something. How much play it sees might really depend on influence costs. Need that Gila Hands they stole? Want the Cleaners to set up for a kill? Desperately in need of cash to ice R&D after they topdecked into Government Takeover first turn when you had no punitives? Want to boost your trace ice some? Mandatory Upgrades decks just got some teeth? I really like that it promotes the static-ability agendas, too, because it’s another small thing that makes Astro less immediately the best. Though it still is.
Keegan Lane is hilarious, but another nail in the Criminal Coffin, because they just don’t have the recursion. I guess they can run tag avoidance more easily, but even so… he’s going to be a right embuggerance. Maybe Sacrificial Construct’s time really is nigh…
Rutherford Grid seems fun, particularly depending on its trash cost. Turns an Ichi 1.0 into a 2.0, more or less, and makes Manhunt significantly more effective. Also, Taurus and the like. Dunno how playable it is, but with Surveillance Sweep I could see picking it up in MN or something where you want lots of traces anyway. Helps Drac0 better than Sub-Boost would.
Global Food Initiative is in contention for best 5/3 in the game, so of course it costs an influence. Frustrating, because it actually combos rather nicely with Oz otherwise, but spending 6 influence on agendas seems like madness… and it can’t really combo with Punitives. Still, “2 for me, 2-3 for you” is usually okay.
Launch Campaign still looks awful, though I suppose in Spark and/or with Ad Blitz in non-HB decks it might be okay, since with Blitz it costs the same as normal rezzing. Still, though… it’s just so cheap to trash, and won’t pay out before they have a chance to trash it. I guess if you’re really all-in on the ads it could be bearable, but I think there are too many other good cards (like, hell, PAD Campaign even) to make it the right choice.
Assassin lives and dies by its strength. Those are a nice pair of subroutines, and following a TL;DR might even be a kill with Surveillance Sweep, but it all comes down to how easy it is to break. I’d hope that with 7 cost it’s 4-6, and with tracers that seems not unreasonable, but FFG prices both damage and trashing highly on Ice, so…
Wasteland is just reasonable Econ for Apex, though honestly? I dunno how much it needs. Guess it depends on what you decide to splash for, but nothing of its is super expensive. I guess that makes this more handy, then, actually.
Harbinger is great. Solid for Aesop’s in general, but more useful with all of Apex’s other abilities that want it trashing things. Anyone here know… is that Braille? Kinda annoying that it won’t stand up to read properly, but I guess that’d mark the card. Still, non-raised Braille kinda bugs me.
Hunting Grounds looks kind of amazing, and the ability to run multiples? Oof. Really depends on how many “when encountered” abilities are out there, but Data Raven, Pop-Up Window, and Tollbooth all see some play. Without seeing a few more, though, I dunno if we’ll see this outside of Apex, where the second ability lets it get more stuff to eat.
Endless Hunger remains pretty good, though program trashing seems like it might be more and more of an issue. Heartbeat prevents the damage stuff, for the most part… but I guess, again, that’s what influence is for.
Apocalypse is still kinda crazy, and I like the synergy with using Harbinger to break stuff to land the runs needed to trigger it. Once again, wondering about what I think to be Braille and what it says. Definitely the thing to worry about vs Apex, because even if it wipes its board, too… well, Endless Hunger costs nothing and will love all those installed-but-not-playable cards.
Prey seems pretty darn useful for getting rid of whatever problematic ice is left, but is expensive enough to be not too painful a concern, I think. Good to see there’s another outlet for all his facedowns, though, and that you can pick which ice, unlike the Cutlery.
Adam just seems… eh. Potential Human First connections are amusing, the Directives are a neat idea (though one I’d have liked more if they were all in the same card slot like Biotech had) but the benefits rarely outweigh the costs involved and just take up too much room, there’s just not enough else there to feel like he’s worth running. Brain Chip is a pretty cool console idea, but requires you to get in enough to get the MUs to build the rig you need later, and most big rigs want all their pieces ASAP. Dr. Lovegood is only useful with Directives, really, though I guess it could be emergency Wyldside turn-off or something. Still. Multithreader is the only really interest, and that mostly for other decks that’d have an easy time generating more MUs than they could ever need. Like Sunny.
Kinda raved about her already, but she’s my fave, still. Jak gives an effective extra click that other cards can make into even more bonus clicks, and is influenced/priced at a point where I could see other decks splashing for him (Criminal, mostly, for Connections/Desperado/Security Testing/John Masanori shenanigans until the Corp ices all servers).
Assuming all her breakers are the same strength, they’re… okay, I guess. Saved by being MU-free for her, good against lots of strength and/or subs, and her probable massive economy. The high install costs are the only real sadness, because otherwise I’d love that you can run 2-3 of each and protect yourself somewhat against program trashing with redundant breakers that aren’t costing you MUs.
Globalsec Security Clearance seems like it’s probably not worth it, but it’s an option click and I guess that’s what Pancakes is for, in theory. Not having to show the Corp what you see is the real benefit, there.
Security Chip makes all her breakers much more useful, even if just for big runs, since you only get three and they don’t come back easily. Maybe Trope would be something she’d want, I dunno. The face that it can just pump all her Cloud Breakers makes it kinda nice, though, and I can alllmost see other decks wanting it except none of them will likely care enough about link to make it matter. Since Sunny’ll likely have enough link to turn her breakers all into 7-9 strength morningstars (plus a 1c tax on the breaking), well, yeah. Shame it’s not for more than the one run, but hopefully that’s all she needs.
Security Nexus is the most expensive good console we’ve seen. Or the best expensive console, maybe. The up front cost is genuinely huge, and the basic benefits are, admittedly, pretty small, half of Toolbox without the recurring credits. But for her, especially, with other reasons to care about Link? As long as Surveillance Sweep isn’t in play to fuck you over this lets you have a shifting Femme, more or less, and means you can facecheck with a ridiculous degree of impunity. Makes big expensive ice even worse for the corp, though Sunny seems weaker against the cheap stuff already.
Employee Strike is worryinglly good, given how many corp decks depend upon their abilities in a way most competitive runner decks don’t. At the same time, the influence cost makes it less likely to be everywhere, it just means there’s a credible Runner Threatening Current, which makes playing currents as Corp more important, which makes playing currents as Runner more important, and either it’ll catch on and they’ll be a thing or it won’t and they’ll remain about where they are.
Technical Writer honestly looks pretty great. Any deck that installs a bunch of crap over and over again has reason to like it. It’s a delayed Sahasrara that doesn’t host things and risk it all crashing down around you! It procs on hardware installs! Kate, Hayley, and Noise are the three IDs that spring to mind as most wanting this, but I think there are many others that will, too. Geist likes the trash icon and installs lots of non-resources (though he installs lots of those, too). The Professor and Exile (Street Chess especially) both tend to install a bunch of things and/or re-iinstall those things. Honestly, almost any Shaper is likely to do enough installing to make TW worth consideration – it might take a while to be worth cashing in on, and it’s not amazing late, but it’s good enough to be considered roughly on par with Daily Casts, I think. A bit better early, doesn’t start paying out as quickly, can build up to more money pretty fast if you want it to (if you run clone chips, especially), etc. More benefit from running multiples than with Kati (though Kati’s still, y’know, Kati). Kinda surprised it’s not a Connection or a Job, to be honest. But great flavor aside from the subtype lack (either it’s you doing the work, or it’s one of the many technical writers that hate the people they work for, and both are hilarious), the art is this amazingly fancy thing for one of the more distressingly unrecognized jobs, and the flavor text itself is a delight.
Wow, that was long. Sorry for the wall of text, y’all.
TL;DR (is a great card, and) I’m really excited for D&D. NBN is going to take off again, and it certainly shows the best design sense of any deluxe box yet. Almost enough so that I hope they go back and touch up or redo or just add to the others with more big boxes in the future, because wow did they ever get a lot of stuff to work with.
EDIT: Aaand that took so long I missed stuff. Because I’m a completionist AND an asshole…
News Team seems like a great trap for NBN. Protects Archives, gives two tags, and just generally slows the runner down.
Shannon Claire is the more balanced Jackson Howard. She doesn’t hide as many agendas, but she can still hide some, and until she does you can also use her other ability to deal with R&D lock by drawing from the other direction. Or comboing two of her together to break R&D lock by finding a thing, putting it on the bottom, and then drawing it – though that takes some doing. Really excited to have her, in part because while she’s still pretty good she’s not as mandatory as Action Jackson, meaning non-NBN decks can maybe have those three influence back to play with.
3 Likes
Just an FYI, Team Covenant has pics on their Facebook page so you can see the strengths and influence of the cards.
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24/7 News Cycle to forfeit a scored Posted Bounty. Comboriffic like all Weyland, but forfeiting a Hostile to PB tag on demand regardless of credit disparities sounds delicious.
DaVinci might finally give Shapers some in-faction Archives pressure. hard to justify slotting it, though
What do people think of Wasteland? Seems really, really strong for a non-unique card that (I assume) triggers off of Trash abilities. Use a clone chip? Gain credits. Crescentus? Gain credits. Chop Bot (which you want for card draw anyways)? Gain credits. I just threw together an Apex list, and based on theorycraft alone Wasteland seems like a very strong economic backbone.
MAkes street cheers super strong
from the street
WOOOOOOOO!!!
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Swipe 
Sleepers absolutely helps.
Score Agenda, Current gone.
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With caduceus, gutenberg, and viper everywhere (and ichi) I see link being great for her beyond 2. You’re dodging gear checks just by having link, and also generating drip from it.
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Using 3 compromised employee in my reina headlock deck showed me that ‘link’ and real link can be amazing at blanking trace ice, no matter how much money the corp has…I totally agree.
If they had not changed the ruling on non specified state it would affect all assets.
Unfortunately this is the current ruling from the last FAQ:
Installed Cards
Unless otherwise noted, all card abilities that do not specify the
state of a card can only affect installed cards.
Actually it makes the agenda way worse imho. And maybe it should effect all cards, but the latest rule change messed things up…
Sorry, my wrongfully unstated implication: Clot is a thing. I’m not sure CI can pin a game-saving play on the runner not having Clot.
However, I think you’re right if you’re OK living a little on the edge, and are OK with a little more risk 