Umm, ok… Writing this is response to a game I just had on OCTGN regarding this stupid effing card. First card where my initial reaction is to ban it ASAP.
(Play by Play)
-Dude had merlin on a remote and I had an overmind and enough counters to get through.
-Dude rezzes ITD and puts 3 counters on it.
-I run remote with 4 creds and stimhack (13).
-Dude informs me his once Strength 4 Merlin (with Galahad and Lancalot in hand for good measure of course) is now strength 8. **(3+2+1). **I did not understood that each counter essentially makes it compound in strength. This is bananas.
-I puke all over my computer screen, and have a flashback to @bblum’s post.
-Dude proceeds to put a bajillion counters on ITD.
-I concede with 57 Credits, complain to Dude about ITD.
-Dude flips over Guard to show me that even Femme isn’t an answer
This is the worst thing about the card, your best bet is to just sit there and occasionally run (on ETR ICE) to force at least one/two uses and otherwise click for credits (else you’ll be locked out pretty easily).
It results in about 20 turns where the runner clicks for credits, then the Corp clicks ITD twice and does something. This isn’t fun, and Netrunner isn’t fun when you’re sitting there with 57 credits not being able to do anything. Either I’m gravely missing something or I greatly feel like that card wasn’t playtested anywhere near as much as it should.
I’m really hoping I’m missing something and there’s a better way to deal with this card that isn’t simply splash for D4V1D in Criminal or hope they don’t use three ICE and pack Femme.
I haven’t played with this card. This thread does feel like previous threads about a similar time when Caprice was released.
That said, it requires the corp to have 2 multiple ICE remotes or be playing fast advance with a multiple ice remote and have an economy and have spare clicks to invest in the IT Department.
I’ll be surprised if ITD is a staple in a month’s time. It seems inferior to Corporate Troubleshooter to me.
Caprice only works on one server and therefore doesn’t lock you from the game, though. If they have one on a remote, they can’t also have one on HQ and R&D.
It’s hard to get going and you do need to abuse what would normally be scoring windows, but that’s not a massive ask - if you can score a 5/3 you can set up ITD with ease.
Even if this card wasn’t good - I still wouldn’t want it in the game because it’s not fun to play against if it gets on top of you, and I feel like if a new player’s first experiences with Netrunner consisted of an experienced player using this card, they wouldn’t want to play Netrunner again.
I’m a fan of Corporate Troubleshooter (I ran 3 in a Weyland deck a long time ago), but this card is a hell of a lot better, to the point where it can be your wincon. I didn’t think this card was much good until I played against it, but then I realised how bonkers it was.
It seems that Parasite seems more and more important. Not Shaper instant speed parasite but plain old facechecking and parasite. So, against HB RnD lock is now important from click 1. Get the IT and trash it or make the Corp to Rez some ice and then parasite them. There is a tournament winning list of a Gabe with 3 parasites. I would like to see such a match up.
So you’re basically saying that there’s now a 1-inf asset that completely screws a runner faction if you don’t tech against it with influence? Oh no, woe is you. Like that never happened to another Runner faction before… at least now it happened to the runner faction that actually deserves it.
I assume this is how it works, but there is some ambiguity. IT Department says “That ice has +1 strength until the end of the turn for each power counter (including the one spent) on IT Department.” If you spend more tokens, are we sure the initial boost persists at the same strength?
Never thought we’d need a ruling for this. But IT department indeed says “has” instead of “gains”. Which could make it less of an issue. Let’s hope for that ruling!
If you’re referring to Noise, Noise is an ID, not a faction, and something Jackson-esque needed to exist anyway. Even with Jackson in the game, Noise is not locked out of the game even if it makes him worse, Jackson just meant he couldn’t win the game purely through one lucky run (which is good for the game as a whole). Jackson doesn’t “completely screw” Noise, either, Noise is still a competitive ID and has done well recently.
Criminal/Shaper (I’m not sure which you’re referring to) aren’t some super broken faction. Criminal has a better matchup than Shaper thankfully as they can try and win before it’s set up. I don’t think either faction (or indeed, any runner ID) at the moment is overpowered though, and none deserve to be locked out against ITD.
I’m not sure D4V1D is even a good splash in Crim against ITD because you need two installed because of NEXT Bronze, and spending 8 influence makes the rest of your deck shit. You also don’t want cards in your deck that makes your NEH/RP matchup worse but yeah.
He said one influence asset, so I assumed Jackson.
If he meant Lotus Field, then yeah, I agree it shouldn’t exist. Anarchs basically can’t do code gates against Blue Sun until O&C comes out. I still think the comparison is completely misguided, though.
I wouldn’t say it was ubiquitous - but I mean I guess it made Peacock playable. I’m not sure Yog really needed hitting but that’s a debate for another time.
Every faction does have answers but Anarch’s is Force Of Nature, which is bad enough that you shouldn’t play it. Anarch does have Knight, but if your only answer is Knight then Blue Sun basically win if they splash Lotus Field. It basically kicked Anarch whilst it was down despite being almost certainly targeted at Criminal.
I played a few games with bblum’s list yesterday. only downside with ITD/his list is that you don’t get ITD online for awhile unless you’re playing v. Anarch. first you have to secure centrals, then set up economy. your campaigns almost always require ICE. then you can maybe set up ITD. takes quite a few turns, all the while the Runner can be pressuring you pretty hard, depending on what ICE you draw.
For the people who don’t see this card as a problem, A) have you played with or against it? B ) If so give a solution not comparisons. This is a different problem than any other we have seen.
D4avid is 4 influence, if it’s the best (only) solution for dealing with ITD, we have an issue.
I’m very reluctanct to write negatively about any card and I admittedly scoffed when I first saw this post.
I think we might have a real problem here. More than any other we have seen. I hope I’m wrong, but so far my experience tells me otherwise.
