It feels a bit like the early days with IT Dept, where a card seemed over powered.
At least Batty is just one server at a time. Drive By… Vamp… how else do you beat it?
Batty can be everywhere though. Right? He’s unique, but that just means you can’t pre-rez him everywhere to prevent drive by.
I want to know why people think it’s a problem. Literally the only Ice that seems really problematic is Next Gold. That requires 10 creds to give a true psi game. I wonder how problematic Batty will be in practice.
I like Batty. I think he makes the world a more dangerous place for runners. You can’t be sloppy any more. I think he’s good for the game. Get him in R&D!
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Totally agree. And I’m having a blast with Nisei Division again. Mamba / Batty is the main idea and a straight up ETR second, and I really don’t think it’s OP, but it is a heck of a lot of fun.
Fun is GOOD for the game heh.
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Our local Nisei Division player has been using him to an absolutely crippling effect. Going to be a real pain to work around it… Rezzes it along with Ichi 1.0, so if I lose this Psi game I lose my entire rig if I don’t have clicks left… Maybe it’s time to start playing Hayley with Sacrificial Constructs 
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Aww YISS. He’s also got sick artwork. Love the Batty Boy.
1 Like
I think he’s good. Along with Blacklist and the new HB hand size identity, I think they’ve turned on some more areas of the game.
Runners can’t simply ignore program trashing or small hand sizes as a minor inconvenience anymore. These are areas which have gone from “Annoying if it happens” to “Potentially game-ending if it happens”. You don’t have to plan for them in your deck, but you accept that you will probably lose the game if you get hit.
Public Sympathy, Origami, Sacrificial Construct all exist. If you choose not to play them, it’s now a more relevant decision, similar to choosing not to play Plascrete Carapace/I’ve Had Worse.
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The only thing I dislike with Batty is really that it’s yet another brick in the RP super remote. I mean, no, you probably weren’t getting into the Caprice+Ash+Eli remote either, but once the Ash becomes a Batty, suddenly you need to win a psi game in order to get a shot at winning a psi game in order to get to win. It just feels incredibly frustrating.
That said, I’m looking forward to seeing people blow things up with him. Not sure if it’s going to be too devastating, but one-shot strong effects appeal to the Timmy in me, who is still upset WotW didn’t really pan out.
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He only resolves 1 subroutine so you don’t lose your entire rig.
If I lose the Psi game he trashes my Killer, now I can no longer break Ichi and I will also have to suffer the subroutines. If I don’t have a way to get a killer out or protect losing my killer the first time, I lose 3 programs if I have no clicks left. Yikes.
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Yikes indeed! 
For even more fun times, consider Gyri Labyrinth. Without a decoder installed you can shrink hand size to one, which is pretty trivial to flatline.
Trashing is probably a more robust strategy, but you can do some pretty scary things by resolving subroutines which are normally trivially broken.
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Jesus, in Cybernetics Division that puts you at 0 cards in hand on your turn. Any damage kills you if it doesn’t get prevented. Neural EMP woop woop.
1 Like
Biotech flip also works.
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Data Hound my long lost friend, say it’s true!
Oh, wait, you said scary.
+Katana, as good as snare! in most cases. That ice everyone forgot… Install 2 Batty’s in the same server and its death.
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If you’ve got the economy and Psi godliness.
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And don’t trigger IHW.
8 creds? Easy. IHW certainly more of a problem. But you’re all jinteki anyways, might as well run snoop. 
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The good thing about the rez-ICE-and-rez-and-fire-Batty combo is that you usually know how much it will cost the Runner to break the subroutine when they encounter it. If credits are tight, for instance, you might bid two on the Psi game knowing that if the Runner matches you and avoids the Psi game they can’t afford to break the subroutine on encounter!
6 Likes
Wait wait wait, doesn’t the runner have priority to break the subroutines before Batty fires? If I approach a piece of ice, the corp rezzes ichi and batty, there’s a paid ability window there; it’s my turn so I use my icebreakers before my opponent uses Batty. Right?
They can still Batty me after I break Ichi, which sucks, but not before, which is far worse.