First Contact, First Evaluations

Been able to get a hold of/test with this pack a bit, so I figured I would share my thoughts, as numbers don’t convey details well, I will be going with a rating system of Staple, Playable, Unplayable, and Shoebox for card strength, with a descriptor of Niche, Build-a-round, In-faction and Universal for how broadly applicable they are. This will probably be clearer once you start reading the list

IQ
In-faction Staple
While everyone seems to be excited to put this into CI, I think that’ll cost you more money than it’s worth. What I do like it with, is corps that can empty out their hand very quickly, as if you can rez it for under 3 credits, this becomes a better version of quandry, which is already a solid card. It won’t get splashed much (maybe TWIY but who actually plays that anymore?), but it is a solid in faction ETR that rezzes for cheap and grows out of yog range quickly, which means it’ll see definite play.

Eliza’s Toybox
Niche "Playable"
Hard to get a read on this, as it’s clearly a powerful effect, but what makes me think it’ll see play is blue sun being released next pack. Outside of that, it’ll go into a deck that just loses if it isn’t able to draw/protect this early, which would put it solidly into unplayable for me. Combo or bust in my opinion

Kitsune
Build-a-round Unplayable
If you really want to pay a minimum of 6 to hit with a snare, this does it, usually. AI breakers are prevalent (more-so now due to their utility against NEH), so it isn’t guaranteed. Technically, this + snare + chum can kill, but a lot needs to go right for that to actually happen. Probably a new player trap.

Port Anson Grid
Niche Playable
Glacier decks are pretty good at forcing people to jack out, so forcing them to either hit the nasty ice or lose a program is probably worth a card slot. The other (janky) use I can see with this is in combination with howler, but that’s of dubious merit. It’ll make its way into a couple decks, but it’s not going to like the world on fire. RP and ETF are the most likely candidates, although it does play well with RSVP/Chum

The News Now Hour
Niche Shoebox
This will only see play is the runner receives some game-breakingly powerful current, or if nbn receives said gamebreaking current, and even then, kinda doubt it will see play. The art will look cool with dust on it though.

Manhunt
Build-a-round Unplayable
Very expensive for such a weak trace, and the 3 influence will mean nbn only (read: not enough deckslots). Will be kinda fun in a casual deck that annoys people with city surveillance/tgtbt.

Wendigo
Universally Unplayable
Really cool effect, but at best it ends the run, and at worst it does nothing. Least exciting of the morph ice.

Crisium Grid
Build-a-round Staple
This is the first card in a very long time that made me want to brew in Weyland, and the 1 influence means it won’t just be exclusive to the big W. Not only does it turn off all of the criminal tricks, and most multi-access cards (interface or bust), but it makes it very hard to get a successful run against tennin, or shut off a certain other card that loves no successful runs on HQ. Expect to see this

Chronos Project
Niche Playable
People seem too caught up on longevity (which is why levy AR access somehow seems more play than stimhack), this card can hurt, but it will very rarely be game ending, and it definitely won’t do it consistently. I can see a cambridge style PE deck running 2 of these, but I think that’ll be all the play it sees once the hype dies down.

Shattered Remains
Niche Unplayable
My rule of thumb for advanceable traps is this: it has to win you the game, or you’re wasting your time. This is a speed bump most of the time, as you can bank on a third desperado. People seem to think this hitting plascretes will bring back scorched weyland, but most decks have cut their plascrete because it’s just as easy to overpower them economically and never take a tag.

Lancealot
Build-a-round Playable
Program trashing is powerful, program trashing from non-sentry sources even moreso. I can see this in a deck with galahad, and a bunch of ETR sentries and codegates (no barriers), leave these in your hand, and then use galahad to snipe a breaker or two later in the game. terrible against most AI builds, but being able to put destroyer subs anywhere and everywhere is definitely powerful. Neutral influence always hurts though

A fairly good haul from the corps side, most of these will see some play. Personal favorites are Crisium Grid and Lancealot, although I believe IQ will see the most use

Runner

Quetzal
Build-a-round Playable
The wording on this card is actually deceptive, she ignores wraparounds and occasionally saves money on other Ice. Her biggest strength is definitely her ability to run mono-AI breakers without repercussion (knight the second wraparound if they try to get cheeky). The question is, what can you do with that advantage? Anarch needs a plan, Noise came with one built in, Reina is particularly good at vamping the corp and making use of that window, but the other anarch ids have the issue of opportunity cost when compared to other factions. Maybe the mono-AI advantage will allow her to do something no one else can later in the game, but I’m not seeing it now. Solid, standard, tier 2 anarch

Blackat
Niche (fringe)Playable
The ability to break eli for 1 stealth credit is keeping me interested, but it just seems marginal compared to corroder. If 3 sub barriers start to become common, it may see play, but anarch very rarely uses a traditional quite well, and 3 influence and a reliance on datasucker makes it hard to use out of faction (compared to morningstar especially)

Duggars
Build-a-round (fringe)Playable
Drawing 10 cards is a strong effect. You need to have recursion, and probably either a hand size boost or a click boost, but it’s still a very powerful effect in a faction that badly needs card draw. Time will tell if Inject makes this irrelevant, but right now it seems decent.

Box-E
Niche Unplayable
This is not a bad card, but as cybersolutions memchip proved, you don’t really want to pay 4 just for memory. 1 influence and the marginal benefit of handsize means it will have some merits, but it simply does not compare with the other available options in criminal, or even out of faction (grimoire, spinal modem, astrolabe)

The Supplier
Universal Playable
This guy slots right in to a lot of andi builds, but I also would not be surprised to see him out of faction. Saving 2 credits per resource and hardware is extremely strong, and makes daily casts one of the best cards in the game. He’s blank in very few runner decks, and a lot of fringe playable cards become extremely good with him on board (comp employee, crash space, hell, underworld contacts isn’t awful if it’s free).

Refractor
In-faction Playable
This is the first codegate breaker that I feel gives yog a run for its money. 1 install cost, 2 strength, breaks tollbooth for 4 and a recurring. This will almost never need more than one pump, and, unlike dagger, doesn’t need to pump until it hits the very large codegates (3 strength codegates are a myth). Influence cost of it + stealth credits make it too prohibitive to export, but shapers will use this well.

Order of Sol
Niche Unplayable
Nasir uses this well, but for everyone else, this just seems like a bad idea. It can give you two credits a turn if you have a workshop, which is actually pretty good, but the drawback is likely too problematic.

Hades Shard
Niche Playable
This goes in some noise builds, and maybe a keyhole deck, but the neutral influence and mandatory 1of will hurt it a lot.

Rachel Beckman
Build-a-round Unplayable (fringe playable if nbn dies down)
Neutral influence, inability to be tagged and 8 resources all hurt, but I’ll be damned if 5 clicks isn’t powerful. Might see play in an andy build (supplier discount + decoy). I think the costs might just be too high for this, but I really want to have it out.

If you agree/disagree, let me know (and provide reasons) in the comments

EDIT: minor grammar things, because I didn’t proofread, probably more in there somewhere

2 Likes

IQ:

Good card. Makes some old bad cards potentially playable (weyland research station, panic button). Install for zero (or close) then add cards fast via green, blue, jackson, etc. OAI becomes interesting…

Port Anson: It will get play in The Foundry.

The news Now: Solid in RP, and NEH ELP in RP is brutal.

Lancealot. Solid ice.

Quetzal.
The way I’m looking at this card is in combination with fast early aggression, primarily saving you the time load load breakers.

The implications for noise economy and draw with all the new cards isn’t clear. As simple a card as the supplier working on liberated accounts and daily casts, and cyberfieder, xanadu and ice carder.

This in conjunction with cache and duggers - well Anarch is new again.
That said - I don’t see the improvement benefing Q more than the established IDs.

Duggars: Niche - but strong in build around decks.

Hades Shard: Pretty much mandatory in noise.

Rachel Beckman. Too expensive, too frail.

Quetzal - She might be good in the account siphon + 6 AI breakers deck. However we are dealing with a non-noise anarch identity, and as such should almost always just play noise instead since noises identity is the second best in the game. She has a niche in the fringe playable deck that won a few regionals and will likely end up in the good vs NEH bad vs RP camp. However she does have acess to 3 parasites and 3 Deja Vu in faction, making her potentially reasonable against RP.

BlackKat : I think you underrate card personally, to start off with let’s look at every single currently played barrier that blackKat is better against
Eli 1.0
Wall of static
Hive
Now for ones they are even against
Wraparound
ICE wall
Himatsu Bako

Wall of thorns is tricky, BlackKat wins on the exchange if you have 1 stealth credit and with 2 stealth credits blackKat crushes wall of thorns, but is worse by 1 credit if you don’t have any stealth credits at all.
BlackKat is also good in conjunction with datasucker, since you can reduce the STR of the ICE without needing to spend as many credits as you do with corroder.
Guess what, that is every single currently played barrier, with the exception of the fringe played Hiemdall 2.0, where analysis is very stealth credit based, since BlackKat needs 3 stealth credits +2 regular ones to break Hiemdall at maximum efficency, and needs 2 more credits for the first missing stealth credit and 3 more credits for the second and third missing ones. In a stealth deck (or heck even in datasucker andromeda possibly) you are better off with BlackKat than corroder

you have to: have access to stealth credits (ghost runner, dagger and dyson gen, at the moment), run into large barriers repeatedly, and be able to afford the extra influence if you’re using it out of faction, and then it is better (kinda). If you are going to put that much support into a barrier breaker, why not just run morning star?

in general I don’t like 2 to pump breakers unless I have heavy datasucker support, and suckers already get strained with all the large codegates running around, so I don’t really see room for blackat

1 Like

I agree on IQ. I’ve been running it out of Cerebral Imaging and it’s insane if you get it in the first few turns. But, as you say, it rapidly becomes too expensive later in the game, when you’re paying 8-10 credits for something that will just get Femme’d. I’m not sure about Quandary, the card I’d compare it with would be NEXT Bronze - a cheap early game ETR that becomes more taxing later on. And a 5f5 is still pretty decent - look at Viktor 2.0.

I think Manhunt is niche playable. It needs to be out of Making News, but adding a 2-4 credit tax onto every successful run is pretty mean to my mind - especially with Information Overload out there. Problem is that it competes with Targeted Marketing and it doesn’t have a place in the best NBN deck. I think it’s ok and might even become good if Astrobiotics ever stops being a thing.

I don’t agree on Duggars. Having to install it, and then spend the whole next turn using it is painfully slow. Not to mention it’s two credits to play, which is only one less than Quality Time which is being dropped from Anarch decks for being too expensive. I think it’s build-around unplayable right now, but time will tell. I also think you’re being generous to Blackat - Anarch doesn’t have the set up for Stealth right now, and it’s more influence than Corroder, which is better in a very large proportion of circumstances. I’d park that in unplayable for now as well.

Order of Sol I think it is niche playable, entirely for Nasir, but I think you’ve pretty much said that in your review anyway. If nothing else, letting you get through Pop-up window is a pretty big plus for Nasir.

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This doesn’t exactly boost its playability outside Nasir, but he’s more likely to find himself in this range: if you play a Sure Gamble at 5 credits (or a Lucky Find at 3) with an Order of Sol out, you’ll actually end up at 10 credits. Paying 5 (or 3 for LF) takes you to 0, you immediately gain 1, then you gain the 9 from the event.

do people really consider UC awful? Some of my favorite decks are Burke’s Motivational Iain and Connections Reina. UC is reliable, easy to get on-line, and easy to keep. how is this card awful? it only costs 2 to install…

It costs 2 and a click to install, plus a click and X credits to buy whatever gives you the extra link. Since link cards are generally pretty weak and since underworld contacts is a blank card until you play the link card, you’re talking five or six turns before UC pays back the money you’ve invested in it (plus however many clicks you spent to draw into the UC and the Link card in the first place).

3 Likes

Honestly, the issue I have with Quetzal is that she can’t run mono-AI breakers, because Wraparound. Any smart corp’ll put two Wraparounds on the same server the second they get the chance. So she still ends up needing a Corroder, and her ability becomes a money-saver rather than a space-saver. At least, in my experience playing with/against her. Whizzard usually saves more money, too.

Going to fiddle with her more, though. The other disadvantage is that Anarch is currently terrible at running riglessly – because the cards that make such runs really hurt the corp are almost all programs, in-faction, meaning you need a killer (possibly with support) or an AI breaker out just to face-check threateningly.

The thing is though, is that without a fracter on the table, Wraparound is str 7.

Which means that David goes through it neatly.

I’ve been theory crafting a few deck models with her - nothing special atm - I don’t expect her to be great. Maybe as a fun B-deck to pack to Casual nights. She seems like she’d be amazing vs Haas Bioroid though, since E3s are basically mandatory for her.

I’m working on a Clonechip/Parasite/Darwin type of deck, with Surge to assist viruses/Darwin and D4v1d for the big nasties. (Originally I wanted Overmind, but too much of my MU space will be needed for the Anarch Virus Suite that I know and love)

This datapack seems to be all about Noise’s gradual re-ascension to god-tier - and boosts to Weyland’s incoming superstyle. I do really like what Chronos Project has to offer for Jinteki PE though. I will be loading up 2 of them in my Cambridge-style deck.

Elisa’s Toybox, I am more interested in for Blue Sun than in faction for Haas Bioroid.

I am interested in IQ for CI - possibly boosted by Toybox for when it gets too pricey. (I’m also interested in the upcoming Ashinabe (sp?), the Jinteki 4 str barrier, 9 cost, 3 inf, that has ETR subs equal to cards in hand for that style too)

Overall this is a solid datapack for several different factions, offering a little component in several different spots. I rate it 7.5/10.

Order of Sol is ridiculous for Nasir. I wasn’t even playing it optimally (I was only hitting zero on my turn), and the 1 credit per turn was still ridiculously valuable, whether I got an extra cred for pop-up window or just an extra cred to break a new piece of ICE. I realized later that I could have been using it on the corp’s turn as well. I can’t wait to start using it that way.

3 Likes

I’ve been working on a Howler + Big Bioroid + Port Anson Grid. It’s the same influence as Whirlpool, but better in every way.

It’s tough deciding between Oversight AI for the considerable savings or BER.

I understand all that, but I like what Toomin said about card evaluation. You can’t evaluate cards in a vacuum, which is largely what ANR community likes to do. There are plenty of decks that don’t mind investing the clicks and credits to get UC rolling, and once you have 3c dripping in every turn, you’re back in the black pretty quickly.

Correct me if I’m wrong - but does The Supplier not trigger Daily Casts / Underworld Contacts the turn it shoots it out?

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I am 99% sure it does. You can layer your “start of turn” effects as you see fit.

I think it mostly depends on how you maintain aggression while setting that up. Surprisingly criminal is the best because they an still be a pain in the ass without spending too much money. Having tricks up your sleeve to get in and keep agendas off the table early is the real key to any ‘slow’ or ‘long game’ deck.

Can you add links to stuff like this? Would be helpful :smile:

There are going to be a lot of people confused about this. Daily Casts / UC would NOT trigger the turn they’re installed from The Supplier, as they weren’t already in play at the time “When your turn begins” triggers occur.

It’s exactly analogous to this ruling from Lukas last year about Parasites on Personal Workshop:

3 Likes

Good to know. Also means it’s not as useful as we’d first hoped!

Imagine how sweet it would be if you could rez two adonis campaigns at once for $5.