Well he’s kind of a place-holder I guess, so he’s whatever is situationally decent. But then that assumes you have all the options available in hand, which is actually quite unlikely.
I agree he’s definitely not a great card.
It was too subliminal! Apparently, more liminal-ness was required, in the form of saying “after they play Neural EMP #1, trash her to draw a card”.
Reading her initially I was too overfocused on her bad publicity giving effect, and not enough on the drawing. She is apparently also an anti-Jinteki card, because that is totally what we need!
She might turn out to be an anti Weyland card too in some cases, given that Weyland might have 2-3 bad pub to begin with. That would be enough to survive Scorch/Punitive shenanigans.
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Oh I wouldn’t be so snarky about this part, either - personally, I’m expecting Honor & Profit to do for Jinteki what Creation & Control did for Shapers: turn the faction from “slow, unreliable and gimmicky” to “deadly, fluid and unpredictable”. So far, all the signs point that way, hope I won’t be disappointed.
Poor GRNDL 
lol, since when do I have this Professor badge next to my name? That’s cute ^^
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isnt toshiyuki kasai some sort of netrunner’s monty hall problem implementation?
I’ve thought some more about Sakai, and he does have one benefit - you can create a Snare/Shock/Edge of World with advancement counters. That has the potential to make the second decision less than automatic (especially the EoW, although that would have to take place in a proper server, with actual ICE and stuff).
I’d never advance him above 2, though - 2 is just right for ToL, and plenty to sneak in a 3-pointer, have a Clone Retirement ready to go (like an insta-EMP), or score an Unorthodox Predictions with enough clicks left to push through, say, a Nisei.
Also, he allows you to install a Snare while keeping it in HQ. Whether all of that’s utility enough to warrant the inclusion, I’m not so certain. At least he trashes for 2.
Yes, great interpretation :). And if you’ve committed to the run, there is literally no reason not to access the swapped-in card except for some late-game/matchpoint edge cases—where it would have been more efficient for the corp to simply have played the trap in the first place anyways.
Let’s not forget, Hemorrhage has huge potential if Gremlins and especially Cockroach get reprinted.
Its not a Monty Hall 3-door problem, its actually just flipping a coin twice. (Winning a coinflip-mindgame twice).
There are reasons to not access.
If you were running the advanced card, because you could handle advanced traps like Junebug/Cerebral/Secretary, and the corp swaps, you must think about whether you could also handle it being an Edge of World or Snare.
Regardless, there are two parts:
-
Is this card that I placed an agenda or trap? If the runner decides to run and its a trap (or Toshi, that is something that is worthless to play and advance if its not run), then the corp has won MINDGAME #1.
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Once the corp reveals its Toshi and swaps, the runner must choose again: Access the new card or not. This is the same decision as before (but the possible traps are greater in variety, and the runner doesnt have to get through ice). If the runner jacks out to a palced agenda, or runs into a placed trap, the corp wins MINDGAME #2.
Successfully winning both mindgames leads to either hitting with your choice of trap OR getting an agenda in play with counters on it.
Failing EITHER mindgame results in wasted time and advancements.
A normal trap requires winning just 1 mindgame. A Toshi play requires 2. The compensation given is, imo, not worth the reduces chance of success.
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There is also the problem that Toshi is dead unless you actually have traps in hand to swap with. There will be many times where he will be a trap that you cannot even use yet because you have not drawn the actual traps.
Considering how few traps people run in their decks, any deck running Toshi is going to have to be playing less of something else (economy, ice, etc) to actually play Toshi and enough traps to make him not worthless.
If I’m committed to accessing something that might be an advanced Junebug or Cerebral Overwriter, I should think Snare! or Edge of World is usually par as far as negative consequences go :). Like I said, there are probably some edge cases here, but they’re comparatively minor—at least for now. Honor and Profit may well change all of this :).
I think we all agree that there are so many downsides to Toshiyuki that he’s just not worth a card slot, regardless of how we get there. Sorry, Mr. Sakai :(.
This right here is why I think its foolish not to access the new card. If I ran it, that means I am already prepared for a trap: The worst case scenario is that my fears are realized and i hit a trap I was prepared for. From the corp side, The only reason I would use this is to provide a placeholder to use Ambushes In HQ. (Thus essentially making a copy of the card, one protecting your hand and the other protecting the remote. The problem, like with any Ambush, is that the whole strategy falls apart with one Infiltration (I’m beginning to think that the Jinteki logo on the artwork is not just for flavor, but a huge hint to new players.) or by simply having the runner not run that server.
If only the core set contained a cheap to rez, expensive to trash asset to solve the whole infiltration problem…
oh wait.
p.s. to be less smartass now: the problem with traps has always been the deckspace requirements to make it actually work, not expose effects per se.
i dont see how toshi can make the cut when akitaro can be amazing and he is usually card 49 or 50 in my jinteki deck with midori on the outside looking in.
ive really been wanting to include midori with all these knights hopping around my servers but cant find the room.
You appear to all be forgetting that Sakai can swap anything in its place, not just a trap. If you feel that you’renot winning Mindgame #2, but you’re not extra confident, get a GRNDL Refinery, so it’s not that bad if it’s accessed.
Or you could get cute and get an expensive to trash asset/upgrade like a Pad Campaign or Marked Accounts, and have it sit with advancement counters at ToL fodder. The problem with ToL fodder is that usually when you use it it’s a signal for the runner to run and get rid of it at no cost, and they can always run it with proper protection at any time. Here you make them go through some ICE (presumably) to find something that they were not expecting and cannot affort to trash. It could also be nice with SanSan, but alas Sakai won’t let us install upgrades.
I probably will play him eventually, although not in 17-agenda Jinteki (my current Jinteki deck) because deck space is too tight and it’s not running enough ICE to protect remotes in a relevant way. I assume my strategy will be, in the following order:
- If the runner cannot steal/dies from Fetal AI, and I have that, well that’s an easy one
- If not, but I have ToL in hand, get the most devastating trap I can
- If I have no traps, but still ToL (or I expect to draw it soon), get the most expensive to trash asset
- Without ToL or a Lethal Fetal AI, I think it will depend a lot of the situation, and Sakai becomes significantly worse.
One more cons to Quest complited
Runner still spends 5 credits/1 click to steal agenda if there is rezzed strongbox/red herrings.
Well, sort of. The timing here gets a little tricky - I man, imagine you’re the Corp who has an agenda with a Strongbox installed. The runner just finished the third central run and still has a click remaining. Do you rez Strongbox? He might be going for Notoriety, he might have been doing the Holy Trinity for a different reason altogether.
If you do rez, at the very least you’re now 3 credits down without getting the benefit… and even if you’re right and he was about to do QC, worst case scenario for him is, he gets to trash it for 1.
Dunno, I’d just take my chances with him accessing the wrong face-down card in that situation.