Have you heard the rumors? A Rumor Mill thread

New Cards and Spoilers
21

Speaking in general matchup terms with Rumor Mill:

HB seems like they might have the best options for switching up their glacier play in the face of Rumor Mill, between Domestic Sleepers (already kinda on-the-bubble worthwhile when you can get to 6 points) and Aggressive Secretary (which is probably the only real bluffing trap that’s worth it for glacier, besides Reversed Accounts). Enhanced Login Protocol also isn’t the worst.

Jinteki has Cerebral Static, which might be more worth playing in the face of this. Sure, they can play Rumor Mill turn 1 and get in, but at least you can overwrite it right away. They’re getting a 2/0, but it kinda sucks hard, so I don’t think it will ever be worth the include. I’d like to see them get a trap that plays nicer in the glacier-style, rather than kill style. Edge of World is neat, but you have to play never-advance for it which is kinda a bummer. The brain damage doesn’t necessarily have a ton of impact, either.

Weyland might not really be hurt too bad by this. I can’t think of a particular unique asset/upgrade that they’re using that’s hit hard by this. Even if they do, Paywall Implementation is a pretty solid current to counter-act, and Hostile Takeover remains great.

NBN still has Breaking News/15 Minutes and several good currents. Targeted Marketing and Predictive Algorithm are solid anti-currents. News Now Hour is a pretty terrible answer to this unless other Runner factions start packing Currents (and I hope they get some more nice ones, so they do!). I guess it plays well against “Freedom Through Equality”… Reversed Accounts is also a decent counter-asset for glacier.

If Blackmail ends up being the real problem, there’s at least a few solutions to removing Bad Pub. Perhaps it will even make Illicit ICE more available if you’re going to need to be playing BP removal anyway… I’d like to see some more Corp cards that interact with BP if this is going to be the case.

So, it seems like there’s reasonable counter-play that exists. Aggressive Secretary is a card that I think might even be under-represented in today’s game. It’s effect is mitigated by all the recursion around, but at least it requires the runner to invest in re-installing their junk. But, I digress. Much like almost every hyped card that’s been revealed, I doubt it’s going to be quite the level of doom-and-gloom that the community predicts ahead of time.

Same Old Thing presents a truly troubling obstacle to playing around Rumor Mill, however, since even with all of these solutions they are rendered moot if they can’t give you at least a few turns of breathing room.

Edit addendum: I also want to add, I kind of like that this card makes hanging onto Jackson more risky. I’m a big fan of how the existence of PolOp has sort of organically affected the power curve of Jackson by forcing the Corp to use him more in a more disposable way. I’m hoping that Rumor Mill can push him a little bit more in that direction without completely breaking the card.

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22

Just as the runner can hold Rumor Mill and play it click 1, you could hold your own current to play click 1, then rez Lizzie (or Blacklist, or Student Loans, or whatever the anti-RM tech becomes) to clear the BP. Optimal? Hell no, but at least it’s a play.

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23

It seems like the best current counterplay is another current… I do hope that more worthwhile currents get printed for each faction to open up this space if power currents like Rumor Mill are going to exist.

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I’m not saying that there aren’t plays against BM with Weyland. I’ve never really had issues, what with EBC and Oversight. I’m just a bit salty, going from feeling good about BS glacier to this in just a couple weeks.

In response to the “this doesn’t really hit Weyland” above - the hitting of Ash hurts. A lot.

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25

The trouble is that Rumor Mill basically nullifies almost all defensive upgrades/assets (Caprice, Batty, Ash and Sandburg being the big ones) that glaciers currently use to actually score points. So the runner can play RM, get into the remote and steal, incidentally trashing any now-blanked defenses in there. Just to add insult to injury, Rumor Mill is still in play and the corp has to get rid of it or they can’t use Jackson or try for a score again.

Even if it only worked for 1 turn and wasn’t a current, it would be a strong effect.

It does seem like glacier decks will likely be pretty weak for a while after Rumor Mill comes out till they get some counterplay, i.e. more non-unique defensive upgrades or very taxing ice. On the upgrades front, Red Herrings is about the only decent one at the moment.

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26

The best counterplay is to play your own current.

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27

My guess is that the best counter will be having a deck that doesn’t have its central strategy for scoring reliant on cards RM blanks. I don’t think that a Corp can reliably win, without getting into silly mode, a current war against a runner with SoT and DV.

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28

Is there a glacier deck that doesn’t?

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29

Can I mention clone retirement as another option for Jinteki Glacier decks, not only does it trash the current, but it also kills the bad pub.

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30

So Biotic and SanSan then? That’ll make a nice change. :wink:

…

:cry:

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31

The new “one-of” restriction to Astroscript makes Old Hollywood Grid better! :stuck_out_tongue:

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32

Play HB, run 3x Biotic Labor, and prepare for midrange play with some FA and some remote play. Thats my plan.

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This is what I’ve been trying already, it’s a decent deck. Largely a foodcoats shell, but with +2 biotic, +1 cyberdex, and cutting one ice, one eve, one ash. You can also try burstier econ but I don’t see a need to yet.

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None that I’m aware of, which is why I bet that glacier is effectively dead at a competitive level until this cycle releases the (… ) not-unique glacier upgrade. You know, the one that Damon said is the truly absurd card that everyone will freak out about.

HE SAID HOPING IT WAS TRUE.

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How did I forget about Clone Retirement! That’s the perfect agenda for Jinteki glacier to counter RM. Definitely worth slotting if it gets popular.

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Currents have been largely ignored by the community so Damon is offering us the chance to include them in our decks…just in a sort of heavy handed " deal with this or lose, bro" manner which 2 packs into flashpoint seems to be a pillar upon which his card design philosophy is built.

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37

I feel like a lot of the discussion here is missing the point. Yeah, you can turn off RM with a 2 advancement agenda or a current of your own, once it’s in play. The point is, what do you do in a glacier deck so you can IA / IAA an agenda, without the runner slapping down or SOT’ing a Rumor Mill on his turn and stealing it. How do you keep the runner out?

Glacier has been relying on Ash and Caprice for ages, and it doesn’t seem likely that all the sub-par defensive upgrades that have fallen out of favor will make a successful return just because they’re immune to RM.

What seems most likely to work is using advanceable traps that can open a scoring window, but it’s definitely going to be a big hit in the reliability of glacier decks.

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here you go. try that. my current version after testing and discussion.

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The answer is actually quite easy: you stop playing glacier. Good riddance, I definitely won’t miss caprice reliant decks .

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40

i know people like to shit on this card, but for NBN decks that are worried about Rumor Mill, a one-of silver bullet of TNNH wouldn’t be a completely dumb idea.

well, you could score an agenda or playing your own current though, so that’s probably the better answer anyway.

i don’t know if i would really pay influence for it though (seriously, why is it 3?!), but it is less than Caprice for decks that maybe want to rely on Ash/Sandburg instead of Ash/Caprice

but anyway, if all your deck has is Jackson, i wouldn’t worry about it at all. the corp already has to play him a bit differently because of Councilman and Political Operative. maybe it’s even time to consider different tools to accelerate, deal with agenda flood, and/or Noise mill than Jackson.

and if your deck relied on Sandburg/Ash/Caprice, i honestly have no sympathy for you tbh.

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