If nothing else, Primary Transmission Dish feels like an admission that Net Police was awful.
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My problem with Midway is that it is better in every faction but NBN. And that’s OK, if only it didn’t cost 4 influence. It’s not even a faction-defining card, yet it is valued so highly.
I love Primary Transmission, I think it’s only useful within faction but it allows other NBN IDs to use tracing ICE. I don’t think it has a place immediately but will grow as FFG implements NBN secondary strategy as a taxing strategy. It will also be much more powerful when we finally get a tracing form of economy. It’s a card that should have existed a long time ago.
“The only time Cyber Threat is good is when the Corp wants you to run into some ice you can’t break: punishing sentries, punishing codegates.”
To be fair, facechecking is more dangerous right now than it’s ever been. I often wish I had FAO as Noise to make ice available for Parasite, but the influence cost is too high. Cyber Threat may be an OK substitute.
Overall though, I agree - you’d almost always rather have FAO, and the only reason to play this is that you can’t afford the influence.
Midway Station was my favorite card from Upstalk since it was spoiled. Kinda sucks about the 4 influence, but it’s probably a good design call by FFG. Midway Station + Komainu would just be dumb. Or Pup!
Influence seems to be costed based on abilities that should not exist out-of-faction without a steep price to pay. The reason this costs 4 is precisely as @moistloaf says: it would be horrendous in the hands of Jinteki and Weyland who have a lot of multi-sub ICE. Additionally, taxation and credit denial are totally faction themes for NBN so I wouldn’t say this card was out of context at all.
My thematic interpretation of Midway Station Grid (not that it ain’t obvious):
The Runner is accessing MSG servers Upstalk, and must pay a toll of sorts. Perhaps MSG is such a Ritzy place that not only are the restaurants pricey, but even digital activity in/through it is more expensive, too. Maybe the Runner has to boost her connection to have enough signal to get through that Upstalk ICE.
It could also be interpreted as the additional taxation of the Runner’s rig when running Upstalk, due to the increased physical distance or security protocols, although that is covered by Lag Time.
All in all, a much stronger pack for the corp than the runner - I’m certainly agreed on that.
I’m yet to be convinced about Domestic Sleepers, what did @mediohxcore mean by “Domestic sleepers can be slotted as a 1 or 2-of in a standard HB fast advance deck, allowing you to cut Gila Hands Arcology and Director Haas’ Pet Project entirely”? Did you forget that Sleepers doesn’t count toward the agenda requirement and that you’d still need agendas for those slots? I don’t think anyone is running Gila Hands or DHPP because they inherrently prefer closing out the game with a single; they’re in there for their game text, which is something Domestic Sleepers lacks (effectively).
I can see it has merit in a deck that wants to score two 5/3s because they have more deck space to play with. I’m less convinced by the argument for three 3/2s because most of these decks can just score a fourth 3/2 with Biotic or SanSan - I’m not convinced Sleepers adds anything there.
Maybe there’s a case for decks packing Archer, but I maintain that if you hit with an Archer you probably win anyway - even if you have to sacrifice a 5/3 - because the tempo hit to the runner is immense. Maybe it makes a difference if it causes your game to go to time though.
In general it’s actually the least efficient agenda in the game - the only thing that rescues it is its safety value. That doesn’t appeal to my style though (especially as the Corp is strong at the moment) so I’ll pass on this unless/until I see something crazy good with it in a direction that hasn’t been considered yet.
1 Like
That lack of contribution towards Agenda minimum paints Domestic Sleepers as pretty bad to me, too.
I still feel like people need to stop looking at Sleepers like it’s an agenda. It’s not, really. It’s corp-side Notoriety. Easy to forfeit if you need to, easy to turn into that last point if not. Heck, score more’n one, and just slowly win the game. Sure it’s not doing a huge amount for you once scored… but giving yourself more chances of winning that don’t benefit the runner seems like a good thing, to me.
4 Likes
I think people actually have Cyber-Threat and Lamprey backwards. Cyber-Threat is typically a Noise card and Lamprey is pure cred denial out of siphon Whizzard or Reina.
Cyber-Threat is to enable Parasite play safely. If they rez it on your first click, then you can probably burn it down before the end of the turn.
Lamprey is fantastic in an Anatomy of Anarch style deck. If you are running Joshua B and/or Data Leak beside Lamprey it can put the corporation in a tough spot after you hit them with a Siphon/Vamp for pretty much all of their money. I think the whole goal is to force the corp to want to purge on pretty much just your Lamprey, or a Lamprey and a Parasite. I don’t think Lamprey works so well beside cards like Medium or Nerve Agent because of the purge trash on Lamp.
But if the corp is down to 0-1 credit, it can be tough for them to answer all of the threats you are throwing out there.
Anyway, great review. I love that someone else has taken up the mantle of card reviewer! Looking forward to seeing the rest of the cycle play out.
3 Likes
Really? I’m pretty sure that doesn’t work.
2 Likes
Good Review.
Agree. Criminals run 3x tutor, have Femme in faction, tricks to get around it or derez it, and are not a particularly rigid in such a way where finding a spot to put in an answer is problematic. It’s not really any different then “Oh, they have a Barrier so I need to find my Fracter.” It’s simply something you have to deal with, which is something that typically happens.
I wouldn’t say it’s Swordsman-level though. It’s reasonably costed and decently taxing for what it does, outside of it’s ideal situation. Swordsman was overcosted and underpowered when it didn’t kill an AI Icebreaker.
[quote=“Arkhon, post:47, topic:1632”]
In general it’s actually the least efficient agenda in the game - the only thing that rescues it is its safety value. That doesn’t appeal to my style though (especially as the Corp is strong at the moment)[/quote]
Actually, strength and conservatism tend to go hand-in-hand. It’s when you are behind that you need to gamble on big plays.
As far as Agenda’s go, it depends on how you want to look at it. Biotic Labor into ABT is 2 cards, 7 credits, and three clicks to score 2 agenda points. Domestic Sleepers is 1 card, 2 credits, and 5 clicks to score 1 agenda point. Half the cards, less than a third of the credits, and two thirds more clicks. Certainly less efficient, but not egregiously so in my opinion. Also consider that 3 of the clicks are somewhat irrelevant, since these recur each turn, and that you will win on that turn without passing the turn back to the runner (it’s really only relevant if the runner is going to win immediately after you score it). Additionally, the 2nd agenda point is often irrelevant.
The key factor to running DS is simply having a slightly aggressive draw scheme in your deck, focusing on things like Blue Level Clearance, Anonymous Tip, Jackson Howard, etc. etc. so that having to discarding a card now and then ends up being an acceptable inefficiency for the deck. Decks that don’t draw that much will end up having to click past it, which does make the 2nd or 3rd copy not so great (though I feel 1 copy should be standard unless your deck is just that tight).
[quote=“Myriad, post:50, topic:1632”]
I think people actually have Cyber-Threat and Lamprey backwards. Cyber-Threat is typically a Noise card and Lamprey is pure cred denial out of siphon Whizzard or Reina.[/quote]
I don’t see the point of Cyber-Threat for Noise. It’s not terrible I guess, but I don’t see any reason why he’d like it in particular. I mean everyone runs Parasite.
Lamprey is neat, but just losing 1 credit isn’t awe inspiring. If it gave you a credit or drained 2 credits or cost zero memory or was free, it would be much stronger. As it stands, since you likely will have to pay to get into HQ, Lamprey runs aren’t sustainable. It’s win-more (which is fine), I just don’t know if it’s win-more enough, because outside of winning more it’s not that great.
3 Likes
Played a bunch of games with and against Near-Earth Hub this evening, and I have to say it is pretty crazy that this ID exists. Bananaboats.
Lamprey suffers the opportunity cost. It’s really nice sometimes, I’ve had games with Lamprey+Security Testing+Desperado where I’ve parasited away their HQ Ice and gone on to gain 4c and cost them 2c, then chaining this to keep them too poor to rez the ice they drew to cover HQ or ever get out of the horrible cycle (to be fair, because I kept drawing into more Lampreys). But that’s pretty much the ideal scenario, and you’re not always going to be seeing it.
It’s not like you need to splash much more than 3x Midway and possibly 3x Jackson if you’re Jinteki.
Who needs Tollbooths when your Tsurugis cost 8 to break? Sure, there’s the Parasite problem (and to a lesser degree, the Faerie problem), but once you’re playing three Pups, three Tsurugis and three Komainus, you’re pretty damn close to achieving a critical mass of “must-parasite” stuff. Also, Interns.
edit: I haven’t actually played in a couple weeks now, so I can’t tell whether 2x Midway would be enough. If that’s the case, you can even pack Elis and whatnot, without any difficulties.
1 Like
I’m not sure I agree. If I offered you a deck comprised entirely of Domestic Sleepers (or functionally equivalent cards) plus core agendas it would be a pile of garbage because a deck needs ICE and economy to function, as well as means to slow down the runner. So clearly there must be a curve for deck efficacy as a function of number of copies of DS - so it boils down to whether or not the maximum for that curve is at zero or not. I’m not so much debating the usefulness of Domestic Sleepers, it’s more about the opportunity cost in playing them in preference to an economy card. I just think that deck space is too tight at the moment to willingly give up room that could be devoted to furthering how your deck plays.
Yes and no… true in terms of absolute facts, but those facts have a different interpretation in the context of different factions. HB has access to recursion and draw so the “combo” factor is almost irrelevant; similarly they have strong economy options so the inflated credit cost isn’t as much of a consideration either - I’ve never known HB FA to be short on cash. The other reason this argument doesn’t apply is a little bit more subtle. In your example you’re comparing to scoring an ABT and suggesting that makes it a two card combo if you use Biotic - yes it is, but any of the 3/2 agendas are functionally identical in that scenario (or even a 3/1 if we’re talking about game point) so you have probably 11 chances to have drawn it - just under a quarter of your draws will be an agenda. Compare that to your maybe two copies of Domestic Sleepers - which is the more likely to show up when you actually need it?
I just can’t see its value in the present environment. It doesn’t add enough value for my liking to justify its inclusion above cards that already exist, let alone some of the new Corp options we’re about to see. That’s not to say it doesn’t have potential though. Its value will change as the game develops - as the Corp gets more “forfeit” options, or “if you scored an agenda this turn” options; likewise if the runner ever gets something viable that forces the Corp to forfeit then this suddenly becomes a great blocking card (much like Clone Chip blocks Power Shutdown).
On the other side of the coin, if Criminals work out a way to properly exploit “The Source” and/or Incubator makes Chakana viable then all of a sudden Domestic Sleepers isn’t looking very good at all…
a) Technically (in EtF), Domestic Sleepers is a 1-credit gain 
b) What you’re neglecting to account for is the simple fact that packing DS could very well be furthering how your deck plays much more than an additional economic card would. Archer is the most extreme example, running just 2-pointers is another.
To use your own example for my nefarious purposes, if I offered you a deck with just economy and nothing to spend it on, it would be a pile of garbage just as much. There’s diminishing returns in the amount of econ as opposed to things you can spend it on, and there are certainly situations where two GLCs (or Subliminals, or what have you) are just straight up worse than 2 copies of a card that’s 0 points to them and 1 point to you.
edit:
You may or may have not just inspired me to draft a Domestic Sleepers/Archers/AggNeg insanity
- One turn: Fast Track + IA Sleepers
- Next turn: A Sleepers, score Sleepers, AggNeg for an Archer, install a face-down ICE somewhere
Mindgames!
2 Likes
What ppl dont realize with Domestic Sleepers is:
1- u need 7 points to win a match, im playing a deck with 3 DS and 2 fast tracks, DS is 99% my 7th point.
2- DS is the HB shi kyu for less credits : If you can play to have scored 1 DS in a game that means u only need to score 3 real agendas and the opp 4!
3- If you can pack DS it is like gaining the Harmony Medtech ability(with shi kyus) PLUS HAVING YOUR OWN ID!
4- It is amazing for FA because you only need 3 agendas to score as scoring DS with EtF cost only 1 freaking cred.
5- Having the ability to rez Archer if you need for relatively no cost is really good, running 2x Archer, if it trashes then the game is pratically mine with my FA.
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It’s good, because different people think various cards have different value. Now stop arguing and build some decks. 
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My testing suggests that the problem with the strategy to use DS as your seventh point is 1) you are already running all 2 pointers so you have tonnes of agendas and 2) using it to Archer is no longer using Archer for cheap, because you need that one pointer to win. It doesn’t make it a bad strategy, just that getting the most out of it isn’t as easy as you might think.
1 Like