Don't overlook Gorman Drip v1

Program, Virus, Cost 1, 1 MU
Whenever the Corp spends a [Click] to draw 1 card or gain 1 [Credits] (not through a card ability), place 1 virus counter on Gorman Drip v1.
[Click], [Trash]: Gain 1 [Credits] for each virus counter on Gorman Drip v1.

So I was looking through the Opening Moves spoilers on cardgamedb, and realized I hadn’t given enough attention to this card. Thinking about it, it’s actually a very nifty card – it puts the corporation in a pretty bad lose-lose situation.

The runner pays 1 and an install. Over the course of several turns it will accrue credits. After a while, the corp has a tough decision to make – either play a Cyberdex Trial to deny the runner a bunch of credits, or possibly even waste an entire turn clearing virus counters.

Also, at only 1 Influence I could easily see this card in a whole variety of decks. Even if you never took credits from it, forcing the corp to clear virus counters after several turns is insane value. If they don’t play your game, you’ll eventually amass 15-20 credits for doing literally nothing.

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certainly better than pheremones for almost every purpose

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Yeah, this was one of the cards that my league-mates and I looked at at GenCon and said: “whoa” about.

I think it really depends on how the meta shapes up after OM, and the extent to which JH is as prevalent as some people expect. You could argue that a lot of post-OM corp decks will be quite aggressive, running more card based economy (transactions, ad campaigns), and relying on JH to let them draw more. Against that deck, Gorman may struggle to provide enough value to warrant inclusion.

The other problem is that datasucker is everywhere, and Gorman shines in a “This is my only virus” use case. In a deck where the corp wants to wipe virus counters anyway, Gorman just adds value to that play.

I think you realistically need to be able to get to at least 8 or 9 counters to make it worth a card slot. How often is that going to happen? Gila Hands (which is popping up everywhere) also significantly weakens this card…

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Yeah, I think this wouldn’t be a good fit for Noise or any fixed breaker rig. I think it’s pretty good in Shaper and pumpable rig Criminal.

I think you could easily get 8 or 9 counters fairly quickly (maybe 5-6 turns). I think you’re missing it’s bigger value, though – let’s say the corp is concerned about letting the runner accrue so much cash over the course of the game, and wipes once or twice. A card that lets you waste a corp’s entire turn 1 or 2 times during the game, or nets you a ton of credits seems pretty solid.

It’s definitely not meant for every deck, but if you’re not running Datasucker I think this card can do a lot of work. Unless you’re Weyland, are you realistically not clicking for credits at least once per turn on average? I know I am.

It’s no Account Siphon, but I get the feeling this is the kind of card that will be easily overlooked and I think deserves a second glance.

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In that regard, it’s a lot like darwin

But Darwin is terrible and costs a credit/turn investment :smile:

Actually now that I think about it, it’s not terrible in Noise, either. The longer you can draw a game out the better off you are.

Edit: Darwin also doesn’t have the other upside scenario of netting you a ton of credits.

Let’s suppose you’re right, and corps do click once a turn on average for a credit. Gorman in that case turns into an UC that costs MU, doesn’t pay out until you use a click at some future time, and which can be stopped by a virus wipe. It’s weak in the same circumstances that UC is - the later you get in the game, the more of a dead card it becomes.

I think it will see play in criminal decks which don’t run any other viruses, and have spare MU (in my experience, most criminal decks have spare MU, but few run no other viruses). That’s its niche. And even there it will be weak if post-OM corp decks aren’t clicking for creds or cards more than once a turn.

Alrighty, guess we’re just gonna agree to disagree.

Gorman Drip is both a probably good card overall (though it can turn bad at the times when the corp is performing the best), and also an extremely mean and jerky card. It sits there kicking the corp repeatedly while they are down.

A despise the design of this card. I think its bad game design. In fact, I think its the worst designed card in netrunner. It is anti-fun and its primary function is to cause one’s opponent pain.

Yeah, it’s actually really painful in an econ denial deck… not only are you sitting around clicking for credits all day, you’re making the runner rich.

I actually don’t think this card is great and will get worse as the game grows.
Already the Corp has alternatives for gaining money and Jackson Howard is in the same pack as this, which gives a viable alternative to card draw. As the corp gets more ways to grow its economy/hand this card loses value.

As the corp I don’t think I’m ever wiping viruses just to deny the runer $6 he’s waited half the game for.

I also agree with Alex’s assessment that it’s a very NPE card for the corp. It will suit some decks, but to be honest I think the best use for this is to play it for free every turn with Noise/Grimoire and take the $1. It’s a waste of MU in most other decks, you don’t want it sitting there.

I hope it ends up being bad, because I dont want this card to be played heavily and cause a miserable experience for corp players, who already get crushed by strong runners pretty hard already.

I agree that its a card that will get worse over time. It makes actually doing good things EVEN BETTER. Using Jackson Howard, burst economy, melange, Gila, Government Contracts, etc, all are very important. More economy and draw cards that are printed in the future will continue to make Gorman worse.

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Yeah, it’s “whoa” because it’s a nasty cheap virus that provides the runner with econ, not that they needed more econ. I’m going to be curious to see how big of an impact Jackson Howard actually has, given how good he is. He’s pretty much “kill on sight”, right?

Gorman Drip 2.0 allows you to remove virus counters to literally punch your opponent in the nuts on a 1 for 1 basis.

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Realistically, can any of you actually find deck space for this? How many credits is it actually netting you in an average game? (By which I mean a typical game at a competitive level, not an average game). So what are you cutting in favour of it? Presumably you’d replace economy cards for it, but given its pay-off is highly variable how do you value it?

Sure Gamble is always worth $4 (a gain of $3 on top of what you could have done with that click by default), whereas this has a variable value not only based on what the corp does but also when it turns up and when you decide to cash it in. You’ll almost never get full value out of it if you cash it in when you need it, so it will almost always fail to deliver its full potential.

Add on top of that it costs money to get it into play, takes up MU and is vulnerable to Destroyer ICE, I really don’t see it as a playable card unless/until some serious virus counter manipulation tech enters the game.

Even in a Noise deck I’d probably rather play viruses with an actual game effect. The cost and Grimoire make it slightly attractive, but honestly I think Noise can spend influence better elsewhere.

Do you gain board position as a result of this card? Does the corp ever change his play because you’ll gain a credit from it? Almost certainly not! Clicking for singles is the lowest action the corp can perform and, as such, he only does it when there is little alternative: he needs to draw into something fast, or he has no other source of income to kick-start his operational economy / rez a critical piece of ICE. So as @Alexfrog says the Gorman Drip is basically kicking a man when he’s down.

Well for starters, none of us have played with any of these cards so let’s take everything with a grain of salt. At least open your mind a bit to the possibility that this may be a valuable card. The point of this post was that I suspect a lot of players will overlook it.

I don’t know, but suppose you were Kate and you had it in your opening hand. Just imagine how many times a corp will either draw an additional card or click for a credit. They might easily have to click for 3 at the beginning of their turn.

If I were in the corp’s shoes, I’d be looking at that wondering at what point I’m going to need to waste an entire turn clearing counters. 8 credits? 12? Do I even care?

At the very least, you’re paying 1 (or 0, if you have a discount) to probably induce a wipe on the corp turn at some point during the game. Having a 1-turn advantage on your opponent isn’t insignificant.

I’m pretty excited to play Roja, and could see a card like this doing work in a taxing deck like that. Her natural ability sets the pace of the corp back significantly, and if you can combine it with ice destruction, vamp, crescentus/shutdown the corp will naturally have to spend many turns clicking for credits. I’m not sure if I’d be better off with something else, but I could maybe see running 2 copies.

All I’m saying is don’t write it off immediately, it’s something I think worth watching for.

When I analyse a card I think “is this card game-defining? Is it good enough to build a deck around?” Clearly the answer is “no” in this case - you can’t build a deck around a card that relies on the corp taking an action they may never take.

So this falls into a secondary category of useful support cards. Yes, you might be able to build around it to an extent by supplementing an existing deck archetype - but my question remains, what are you cutting from that deck to make room for this? Sure, it might fall into a new deck type (Reina perhaps, or one of the other as yet unseen new identities) but those decks will still need a basic backbone structure which includes a plan for economy and MU usage. Anarchs especially are very MU intensive, and Reina will be even more so with the Caissa programs.

I disagree that [quote=“szymkodf, post:17, topic:223”] At the very least, you’re paying… to probably induce a wipe on the corp turn at some point during the game.
[/quote]

I think the corp electing to wipe these virus counters would be highly situational and, if it comes at all, will probably be timed badly for the runner. The runner already wins the economy battle in Netrunner, so the corp will most likely let this slide. If I choose to purge it will be because the runner is low on finances and the credits on here would enable him to kickstart things and/or make a run next turn that I would prefer to deny. In which case this card has probably harmed you, relative to what you could have achieved with a safe Easy Mark. Against a dedicated virus deck I’m also getting the benefit of wiping your other viruses, and that is probably my main motivating factor.

Is it possible to get stats from OCTGN about how often corps click for single credits/cards? That would be useful in order to calculate the maximum potential of the Gorman Drip. You would need to look at post-C&C data because Gila Hands Arcology will have definitely changed things.To get full value out of this card you’d need to install it on turn 1 and not use it until your final turn of the game. That’s costing you a quarter of your initial MU and I dispute that even in that perfect situation you’d ever get as many as 12 counters on it - especially now that Jackson Howard exists. I could be wrong though.

Alright, well my only point was that this was a card with very little downside, and potentially very large upside. It also wasn’t getting any attention on bgg, here or any other live players I talk to.

I guess all we can do is wait to see how it feels to actually play it.

Absolutely, we’ve all been wrong about cards in the past. Maybe it will work better for criminal because of Siphon, Crescentus, FAO, Shutdown etc.

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