Don't overlook Gorman Drip v1

I’m really appreciating how difficult it is to judge cards without testing. The cards that are obviously good, like Jackson Howard (in Opening Moves) or Sahasrara (in CnC) are easy to point out when the new cards are spoiled. But cards like Professional Contacts are deceptive because we judge them on the basis of other cards (in this case, Magnum Opus), and on the basis of that discern their weakness, when in fact the card is so insanely good (absolutely bonkers in Criminal with Hostage and also strong in Shapers obviously). We really need to feel cards out a little bit in some testing to see how they actually work (which may not be necessary for the ones that are obviously good, but which is important for finding those hidden gems).

(@szymkodf actually had kept telling me to try Professional Contacts when it was first spoiled and before anyone deemed it good, but I wouldn’t listen to him. haha)

In Noise, Gorman Grip is a cheap 1 cost virus for only 1 influence, which is always welcome, with a bonus ability that makes the corp sad.

But it seems the real question is whether Gorman Drip will reach the strength of a card to include for the cards own effects in criminal who already has so many super strong cards to choose from.

Of course, I don’t like the fact that Gorman Drip takes up MU but it does seem like pretty effective punishment against corps that tend to click a lot for credits/cards (but even if they click only once per turn, occasionally twice, it can add up quickly). Especially if this is your only virus and the corp doesn’t have other reasons to clear virus counters.

But yeah, I can see this making corps really sad and amassing large amounts of credits very quickly. Also, these are credits that you don’t even have to pay for beyond the low costs to play and use the card. Dropping this early game would be really frustrating for the corp, and even if they clear virus counters, the card is still there (ready to gain more virus counters), and they just wasted their whole turn. I can actually see significant potential for this card.

Gorman Drip is a cheap reserve for a ton of credits that takes minimal effort, so I actually think it is a pretty decent card. Now only testing can tell me if it is strong enough to replace other cards in the already powerful line-up of criminal cards to include.

I played against an Andromeda earlier today that had an opening hand of 3x Gorman Drip and Crypsis.

In the matches I had played (I was Jinteki), the ones in which I had scored Gila Hands it was not a factor. However, for the matches I couldn’t score it, it was painful.

You know what would be useful? A Gorman Drip for Corps. A 0 cost, 3 trash upgrade that nets a credit for each action a runner devotes to drawing a card or clicking for money, or hell, using a resource to obtain money, etc.
No doubt Lukas would deem it overpowered, since apparently he hates the prospect of a corp having enough money.

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Yeah, I was watching some games played by Sly and Running_Bear and it seemed very bimodal – some games they were literally clicking for three for multiple turns in a row because of econ/ice denial (femming Tollbooths, Siphons, etc). In other games it would’ve done absolutely nothing because of a protected Jackson/Melange, Jackson drawing into Hedge Funds and whatnot.

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I have played a few games with the card now and actually found it to be quite powerful. It is obviously less consistent than kati jones, but provides a significant economy boost if you can keep howard off the table.

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I don’t like the fact that it uses up a mem unit. Criminal denial decks are likely the ones to be able to get the most value out of Gorman V1, and they’re also the ones that are typically strapped for memory.

not sure what you mean by that, I think Criminals use the least MU of all runners

I’m just thinking of what a typical criminal deck would have. Either of the crim consoles will give +1 memory, leaving you at 5. If you consider that you may have your breaker suite, including possibly crypsis and femme or faerie. As soon as you want to add something special like sneakdoor or datasuckers, gorman is probably going to be the first card that you look at to consider cutting from your deck (or at least replacing him with something else like katie)

You can always eat the Drip for credits and install over him.

Dudes, I just played against some Gorman Drip criminal decks and holy cow!!!

This card is just sooooooooooooooooooooo good…

Makes me so sad as corp that my measly clicking for creds/cards results in a runner benefit…

This card is actually so good, and it stings the corp for doing the bare minimum that he needs to do so often that I feel like it should be banned for making the game dumb.

Makes a losing corp lose harder, with no chance of a comeback

Corps already have such bad economy compared to runners and now, wtf, as I struggle to stay alive by clicking for credits the runner gets rich without having to do anything??

Clicking for creds/cards always felt like a safe last resort during your turn. But now, holy guacamole, not even that is safe anymore…

This is exactly the problem with it and why @Alexfrog said it was bad design. It punishes a struggling corp but does nothing against a corp that has its act together with good economy cards and a draw engine beyond single clicks.

Also, I have to ask, was the card good on its own merit or was your deck not as hot as it could have been? Were you playing an experimental corp deck, or getting unlucky with your draws? If your corp is tuned then you shouldn’t be clicking anywhere near enough to make this card viable as a cash source. (I’m talking averages here - i.e. the drip shows up after a few turns on average and the corp is clicking an amount that would be considered average for a deck that doesn’t need to click often).

I’m in agreement that the Criminal is most MU-strapped. It is entirely possible to be the smallest consumer of MU but still have issues getting enough of it. Shaper and Anarch have MU in abundance with their various consoles, Omni-drives, Djinn etc. whereas the “standard” criminal package is probably using 5 on FSBs and Datasuckers, before we even throw in the options of Sneakdoor and Crypsis. Where does the MU for Gorman come from?

You’ll need 4 counters on it before it’s even the equivalent of Easy Mark, 5 in order for it to be better (in $ value at least, not considering the MU issue). I’m not convinced the drip gets that many credits consistently enough.

Actually you’d need 5 counters on it for it to equal easy mark, maybe 6 depending on how much you value your clicks. Gorman V1 takes a click to install and a click to wipe off the table. If you value a click as exactly 1 credit, then 5 counters would be the break even point with easy mark.

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As Noise, I have to say Gorman Drip v1 is really nice; they build up until the corp clears counters, then you pawn them for 3. Failing that; you cash them in for 10c or so.

On the other hand, Jackson Howard is absolutely wrecking my face, so… :).

Gorman just makes it even more important to play Jackson, Gila Hands, Celebrity Gift, Melange, etc.

I was testing an updated HB deck, and I guess with asset economy like Adonis, the rest of your clicks get reduced to using them for credits/draws. Of course, I’d try to install in order to get EtF money, and I even got to use my 1-of Cyberdex trial to clear about 12 virus counters from it, but it felt like it was up to 10ish virus counters multiple times throughout the game (which is just such a nice bonus economy for them not doing anything). I also didn’t draw any of my J. Hows.